A’s Notes: Bailey, Cahill, Crisp & More!

The A’s might have a relatively harmless offense on paper, but that does not mean they’re absolutely horrendous. In Saturday’s game against the first-place Rangers, the A’s rather punchless offense got to former A’s-ace, Rich Harden, and beat the Rangers, 6-2. The A’s are hoping for another win against Texas, as the team tries to pull within 7.5 games of the Rangers. The A’s are also hoping to get closer Andrew Bailey back soon, as he should start to throw today. Getting Bailey back, who has been dealing with a strained rib-cage, would be helpful, but the bullpen has done a fine job filling in for Bailey.

The A’s hand the ball to Trevor Cahill (11-4, 2.72 ERA), who has had great success against the Rangers (2-0, 0.96 ERA in 2010). Cahill, who is slowly becoming the A’s ace, has enjoyed plenty of success overall this season. He was named to his first All-Star game, as a result of his solid season. A’s catcher Kurt Suzuki has done a fine job as well in handling the young staff, and Cahill has done a nice job in communicating with Suzuki. Cahill hopes to continue his success against the Rangers, who have hit just .175 as team against the A’s young righty.

If OF Coco Crisp had been healthy since day one, where would the A’s be right now? They’d certainly be a little closer than they are now to Texas, right? Crisp missed a majority of the first-half due to various stints on the DL, but for right now he finally seems healthy. On the season, Crisp is hitting .250/.321/.436 with 4 home runs and 21 RBIs. Yesterday, Crisp homered, hit two sacrifice flies and scored twice. The A’s can only hope that Crisp stays healthy for the remainder of the second-half.

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