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Baby-Faced Brett Shuts Out Sox on Two Hits

On the night he came home, the Boston Red Sox wish he hadn't.

Of course, they probably wish the kid on the mound had stayed back in Oakland, too.

Nomar Garciaparra's homecoming proved successful as he started a four-run fourth with an RBI-single, and Brett Anderson spun the A's first complete-game since last July 8 in the A's 6-0 win over the Red Sox.

No one had gone the distance without allowing a run against the Red Sox on their home turf this season, and no Athletic had turned the trick since Bobby Witt on July 3, 1994.

That all changed tonight as Anderson breezed through the Bostonians, owners of the best record in the American League.  He retired the side in order in every inning but two, and in those frames that the Red Sox dared to put runners on base, the left-hander left them stranded. With two men on and one out in the second, he got Rocco Baldelli to ground out into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.  In the seventh, following new "A" Scott Hairston's error, he induced fly ball outs off the bats of Jason Varitek and Baldelli to keep the Sox silent in the run column.

Star-divide

Meanwhile the A's were rather loud with the bats, punching out 15 hits, a day after collecting eleven in Cleveland.  Adam Kennedy and Mark Ellis led the knock-parade with three hits apiece.  Ten of the A's hits came off of starting pitcher John Smoltz, who took the loss.

It was an inauspicious start for the A's who had three hitters reach base in the first, but none of them found their way back home.  Which brings us to Nomar, who received a standing ovation from the Fenway Faithful before his first at-bat in Boston since the '04 season. His single in the fourth scored Jason Giambi following the latter's lead-off double.  Two outs later, Ellis doubled home Kurt Suzuki (who had reached base on a bunt single Nomar) and Garciaparra, and the Unicorn scooted to the plate on Kennedy's base hit.

The A's leadoff hitter stroked another RBI-single in the sixth to plate Hairston, who barely had enough time to meet his new teammates when he was put into the game to pinch-run for Jack Cust.

Orlando Cabrera finished off the scoring with a ninth-inning homerun, just as he did in yesterday's ball game.

Anderson took over from there, retiring the last six batters he faced, two on strikeouts, as he did Gio Gonzalez one better with a career-high nine strikeouts on the night.

A near-perfect evening for the A's, and it could not have happened in a better place.

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Comments

GREAT FUCKING GAME! (end of subject)
Didn't you quit the A's for the rest of the season yesterday?

Don’t worry — I do that a lot myself!

no I wasn't on yesterday. maybe the day before lol.
COMPLETE F-ING GAME!

Congrats Brett!

This was the first LHP shutout at Fenway since Scott Karl did it in 1986

I mention that mostly to have an excuse for mentioning Scott Karl.

1996
I can't be bothered with silly details.

The important thing is: SCOTT KARL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alright SCOTTTYY!!!!!
That's the spirit

I’ll bet you anything he was “Snotty of the day” that day.

[Quickly checks Scott Garrelts' and Scott Fletcher's 1996 game logs]
{Quickly throws up in mouth a little}
and the first rookie shutout in Fenway since 1988.

Abbott, me thinks?

Congrat's Brett on the best pitched game I have seen this year by any one

not named Lincecum.

or Greinke
I have not seen Greinke pitch this year

but I saw him twice last year

most entertaining pitcher to watch this year, imo
watching Joba 'second coming' Chamberlain getting blown up is quite entertaining too

Sigh, I think the A’s have sucked the joy out of me.

I can now only take pleasure in others’ misery.

Or any A's opponent
Even during a miserable season like this one,

sometimes you get a night like tonight. Thanks, Brett.

Actually I think watching our young starters this season has been quite enjoyable

overall.

Sure there have been some rough patches, but the talent level is encouraging.

I take it the only reason Hairston didn't start is because

Geren wanted to start Nomar in his first trip back to BOS?

What a manager!

he only arrived 40m before the game was due to start
and it showed in the defense.

I blame that error in the outfield on the fact that Hairston never got to practice on the field and hadn’t worked with Sweeney before even in practice.

I agree -- he gets a mulligan on that one
Question for Leopold Bloom:

Where is the Buck Mulligan?

Stately, plump
I really did used to have a friend who called me kinch.
That's not what I blame it on...

I blame it on the boogie
I blame it on Rio!
Ronzalez?
Announcers were sayin' he's never played at Fenway before (being a former NL-er)
He showed up late
I have never seen an ovation like nomar got
I wish I had seen it.
For those who missed it

You can catch part of the ovation in the ESPN video recap

Thanks!
go to youtube and search for nomar standing ovation...can't provide a link but the video is there...

everytime you think its gonna stop, it regains momentum

my friend was at the game

he said it was one of the greatest baseball moments hes ever witnessed

I wish that our fans would be more vocal when our players return.

Or when a player like Rickey Henderson makes a return trip to Oakland to be honored like last week.. I am always surprised that there isn’t more cheering.

Outstanding game in a season full of heartache.

We’ve had a lot of conversation about what keeps us A’s fans when the going has been rough. THIS is the reason I’m an A’s faithful. Every now and then we have a game that allows us to be happy and proud to claim the Green and Gold. I can appreciate talent no matter which team holds it – but it is oh so much fun when the talent is showcased in an A’s uni!!

Just looked it up: Bobby Witt's shut-out at Fenway

was his 3rd consecutive shut-out that season.

Imagine if that guy had been able to throw strikes. After the 3rd shutout, his season ERA was 4.69.

An OU Sooner, too!
Yikes.
The first game was a 14 K, 0B 1-hitter against the Royals

Greg Gagne pushed a bunt single with 1 out in the 6th and the A’s up 3-0. Bet that went over really well with LaRussa.

Apparently Gagne should have been called out at first, too.
And crowned "the real Gags" on the spot.
I remember that game.
I was there

I didn’t realize the stupid umpire cost Witt the perfect game until afterward. Let’s say it was a really, really bad call and leave it at that.

I saw a near-perfecto

This one was against the A’s, but Ken Phelps homered with two outs in the 9th. I had mixed emotions about that.

I was at that game

It was fun.

I remember that game.

When it gets that close… it’s heartbreak for the pitcher. The A’s still lost, so the HR was not necessary. :)

I went to the back to back attempted perfect games by Zito/Harden against the Rangers

I think it was back in 2005. Zito took the perfect game into the 8th and ended up with a shutout on I think 2 hits. Harden took the perfect game into the 8th the next day and gave up a solo HR to Soriano. I think he ended the game as a 1-hitter.

Man, it was awesome to see those games.

Oh yes

I was at that game and right in line with first base. The runner should have been called out too. The crowd went nuts. Booing for a couple minutes after the inning was over. Great game though. One of the best I have seen. Gagne was not well liked in oakland after that hahaha

Fun Fact of the Day

Hairston has already touched home more times for your 2009 Oakland A’s than Eric Chavez.

He's also made as many errors as Kurt Suzuki!
what a productive debut
I Love Happy Hairston!
Guyer Ferrin!
Maybe the PTBNL?
I thought it was Harry Chiti (Kansas City A's)

but it wasn’t…. a player was traded for a PTBNL, and then returned to the original club to complete the trade!

The host of Diners, Drive ins and Dives? heehee

that was Chic
sox postgame show

just showed clips of Anderson K’ing multiple sox with “the kid is hot tonight” playing in the background. gotta give them credit, that’s pretty classy.

Smoltz is just now “tipping my cap” to Anderson. I thought it was just the A’s who tip their caps.

I liked how nomar reacted in the post game interview, giving credit to anderson. He seemed like he had more character than any player I have seen interviewed this year.
He may be washed up,

and he may be fidgety. But Nomar is a classy guy.

yeah it's nice to see
That was almost a Monty Python routine.

“Please excuse my wife. She may be dull, homely, full of spite, useless, bitter, extremely irritating and well past her prime, but on the other hand… … … no, sorry, can’t think of anything.”

That's how I feel about the song "My Funny Valentine"

It amazes me that people find it romantic. To me, it’s horribly insulting. Basically, “You’re ugly, fat, and stupid, so consider yourself lucky that I still love you.”

That's a whole genre of songs there!

e.g. Love the One You’re With

See also the you’re-ok-but-I-like-my-freedom-too-much genre, e.g. Free Bird

True, but some are in earnest,

some are humorous, some are subtle and tragic. Valentine is just nasty. (IMO, of course.)

Yeah but it's still great....

…when Chet Baker sings it!

Somebody Else's Funny Valentine

The lyric was written by Lorenz Hart who was a gay, bald, cigar-smoking midget. So I prefer to think of it as him waking up with a dim, lumpy rent boy and feeling tender about it instead of cynical.

Whose funny valentine?
I knew Hart was gay and troubled.

I didn’t know he was a midget.

He wasn't...

He was short, but so what. His main problem was that he was gay in an era when that was really problematic, and he had a terrible drinking problem, which is why Richard Rodgers was no longer able to work with him. After Rodgers moved on to Hammerstein and wrote “Oklahoma!” he reunited with Hart to work on a revival of “Connecticut Yankee.” Shortly after that show opened, Hart died of pneumonia at the age of 48.

Aww
“Brett was awesome,” said an emotional Garciaparra, who went 2-for-4 with an RBI single in his first game at Fenway Park as a visiting player. "It was funny. I was doing postgame interviews on the field, and I told them, ‘You want to postgame me? Did you not see our pitcher tonight?’

“I can’t wait to take him out to dinner and say, ‘Thank you for making this night that I was able to experience that much better, being able to walk off with a victory because of your experience.’ "

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/06/SPO618JUOM.DTL

Nomar is a class act.
buck be gone
Is that a statement of fact or a prediction?
....or perhaps an imperative?
...or a AAAA Player Repellant product?

You know, I still like Ryan Sweeney.

Me, too.....granted I would not call myself knowledgable about baseball strategy, etc.

Just an average garden variety fan. I don’t understand what it is ppl don’t like about Ryan. I see him as another young player that needs seasoning.

They just want him to hit for power.

Or have even a decent OBP
What is considered a decent OBP?
Brett Anderson = 100 pimp

That is all.

Unlike me

Because I meant to write 100 PERCENT pimp.

First one boosts his trade value more.
you must be a noob

Don’t you know about the ‘edit post’ feature?

I is using it all th time

very handy.

100 PROOF Pimp

Top 3 Gamescore in the AL this season.

you still the pimp daddy

daddy

Baseball Tonight on Anderson

More than I expected, but less than he warranted.

They said he was “filthy” and showed some strikeouts. Forgot to mention the complete-game shut-out.

win some lose some
Unholy Heifer

Phillies beat the Reds 22-1

It was still close in the middle of the 1st, though
And we stuck around until the end of the game

The Reds got runners at 2nd and 3rd with no outs – I was afraid the Phillies weren’t up to the task.

The Phillies (22) scored more runs in that game than the A’s (21) have scored all month.

Oh, ha.

Didn’t Mulder like give up 11 in one inning when with the Cards?

Just wanted throw out

that tonight, in fantasy baseball, I benched Brett Anderson in favor of Johnny Cueto.

someone

post the lookout landing pic please

That's pretty dramatic, though -- worth noting

Cueto gave up 9 ER in 0.2 IP while Anderson tossed a 2-hit shutout.

Haha - Just got back to my hotel from tonight's Phillies - Reds game

nice

did you make it thru the entire game?

Absolutely

Only quitters leave during a game.

Kind of gruesome

But my Dad always tells me that if he dies during a game to wait until it’s over before alerting anyone.

That’s interesting.

And yet,

how else would you want to die?

exactly

  I agree with the premise that if would be ideal if you’re active enough to know that a game is on, and not totally inert hooked up to a bunch of machinery.

that is hilarious

he sounds like a gem

No one rubs himself about your fantasy team
The Top 2 Phrases To Begin A Boring Conversation...

“I had this dream last night…” and “I hate/love so-and-so, he’s on my fantasy team…”

wow...

that’s a swing of monumental proportions…

I usually favor the LL picture, but in this case

I have to say, that’s pretty epic.

I care

that sucks, EPIC FANTASY FAIL!

I had Utley, Victorino, and Rollins playing today FTW!

Best performance by an A's lefty in Fenway since (oh God, I can't believe I'm thinking this)

Ted Lilly.

Ted “All-Star” Lilly?

My man crush on Lilly

still very much alive.

was lilly hated on AN?

i remember being very disappointed when he left. i thought he pitched pretty well for us?

No, I don't think anyone hated Lilly

but none of us have particularly good memories of the game I was referring to.

sweet to see an A's pitcher pitch a complete shutout

but to have it happen in Fenway to the Sux – priceless

I watched through the fourth inning...

then left to take my son to karate. At least I got to see the ovation and more importantly, us scoring all the runs we would need.

On the other hand, I did text a friend of mine who’s a from Boston and a big fan of the Sawx while watching my kid spar. That was really fun.

MASTERFUL GAME, GUYS.

WISH I COULDA BEEN HERE FOR THE GAME THREAD.

MUST HAVE BEEN MARVELOUS.

And credit due to iglew who posted the fireworks. Thanks bro.

We've got your back, Cap'n.
I missed the game

But all I can say is FUCK YEAH NEO.

There is no spoon

or runs, for that matter.

FUCK YEAH!

LET’S DO IT AGAIN TOMORROW!

Or whatever. A win would make me happy.

While we're wishing,

A sweep would cause orgasms all over AN

I love the lineup

Its so nice not to see Crosby and Hannahan in there. I think those two are competing for the two lowest batting averages in the American League

don't forget giambi
Giambi has the lowest BA among those with enough PA to qualify.

Neither Crosby nor Hannahan qualify. Hannahan is just below Giambi, at .193. Crosby is just above, at .204.

"It was a complete game in this ballpark against that team," Oakland manager Bob Geren said.

Thanks for that stunning recap, Bob.

Haha, seriously?

I’d say that is almost QOTM, manager edition worthy.

Brilliant words from Bob the man himself.

A+

This looks like the team

We all expected and hoped for going into the season. Great game. Maybe the start of another trip into….Mazzaro World?

Andersonville!
that's a grey area
Eveland City :(
Nice win, bitches!
Finally!

Pitching and run support in the same game, on the same team!
Yay, now I remember what that’s like :)

Yes!

What a fun game to watch!

Awesome Geren-ness

About Buck:

Buck, 25, once was projected as an everyday player, but his value nosedived with injuries and ineffectiveness. Asked which has been more costly to Buck’s development, manager Bob Geren said, “It’s a hard game to play, period. When you’re in and out of the lineup, it’s even harder, due to one factor or another.”

I wonder what one of those factors is Bob? Could it be you inexplicably benching him ALL THE TIME?

Bob should have a talk with that guy who writes the lineup...

This seems important!

I just imagined

Geren having a conversation with Geren. My head almost exploded.

LOL
“When you’re in and out of the lineup, it’s even harder, due to one factor or another."

You could always, you know, leave him in the fucking lineup?

Almost Yogi-ism

Except Yogi Berra is, you know, funny!

He'll be like "Oh, oops"
Bob Geren: "Umm, umm, umm umm umm whaaaa?"
Watched the replays on Nomar's hit

Does anyone else think that Youkilis “slipped” in getting to the ball? It looked like he tripped on air, IMO. I just have to wonder if the thought was “well, it’s the A’s… we can spot them one for Nomar, right?”

Yeah, that looked half-assed.

Even for a Red Sock.

Chavez did the same thing for Miggy

but there was no question about it at the time. I thought Fosse was going to drop his mic and leave the booth.

"even for a red sock"

the red sox are a great team, unfortunately. I don’t like using the word “hate”, but I FUCKING HATE THE RED SOX more every season.

It may have looked that way, but I think what happened was that

Youkilis was going to dive for it and then realized it wasn’t gettable so he gave up on diving.

+1

He’s a gold glove 1B man after all. Definitely not as deft at diving to his left.

We have left Mazzaroworld

and entered harristown

No! I want Mazarro World as well.

It can be Mazarro World AND Harristown. BOTH!

Maybe I'm slightly messed up in the head BUT

For those of you running Google chrome (and if you use windows, how could you not?), and have five (or more) tabs open, what does the title of the thread look like to you upon taking a cursory glance?

Oh, and, and as I missed the contest, how was the slider looking for Anderson tonight? What was his “outpitch”? Was he able to constantly hit 95 and 96 as he was (supposedly) in his last start?

his slider was wicked tonite

fastball was hitting 96 and 97 consistently

i would his fastball/curve

where his out pitches about equally

Chrome is quick but not powerful,

Please to enlighten us with your observation.

Games like this are so cheering.

Even when you know that the A’s are going nowhere this season …it feels good to see the team stick it to Boston.

Next up, I want to see Papelboner blow a save.

Since K-Fraud is out of the AL, he’s my new favorite target.

you need Buck for that! what a win that was a while back
Buck .... ;-(

We have Unicorn though. Unicorn and comeback wins are our friend.

SportsCenter

gave about four times as much coverage to Jeter wrongly being called out on a steal attempt than they did to the fact that a visiting rookie pitched a two-hitter at Fenway. They even had John Kruk ranting about Jeter. Umps make bad calls?!? And managers sometimes get ejected for arguing them?!? Who knew!

I know, I know… I shouldn’t be surprised, and I’m not really. I just felt like ranting.

Kruk was positively rabid.

He said Jeter showed remarkable restraint in not getting himself ejected.

The only highlight of Brett Anderson was the final out.

Brett was good today...

it bodes well for the future. Add Doolittle and Carter and Weeks to this pitching next year, who knows… we may be pretty good.

It's not just the A's.

The reason Pedroia was a late scratch from the lineup: His wife is due to have a baby.

cut it out with your facts and practical reasonings
Great game!

And hey, mobile commenting is now enabled! Assuming this works…

Yes it does work!

Now if only I could stream on AtBat AND post to AN on the move.

I’m really going to need that 2000 mAh battery…lol

God I hope it works.
oh lord

Any shred of productivity I had left is now going to disappear.

So, hopefully their next trick is to actually let you REMOVE blogs from your "my blogs" page.
That ovation for Nomar was nice

just got it on youtube from mlbdailydish. He seemed to have a hard time holding back his emotions

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