by Clive Dahlton
Oak, CA -- A day shy of publicy humiliating his team, specifically the bullpen, Graham found himself in the situation he, knowingly or not, needed to be in, a close game where the bullpen could redeem themselves by locking it down for an inning or two.
The bullpen faltered, again, and Graham was seen in the dugout grabbing a bat from Carlos Pena and mercilessly beating the gatorade bucket and storming into the clubhouse, amidst a chorus of boos from the A's faithful. "I have no fucking bullpen," Graham stressed repeatedly during his post game interview. I have absolutely ZERO trust in our bullpen, nada, zero, fucking NO trust in them."
Lidle gave the A's a solid start, pitching six strong, giving up six hits, and letting two runs cross the plate. The Athletic's came back with a strong sixth inning to take Lidle off the hook for a loss, scratching across two runs to tie the game. In the eighth inning, Mecir and Bradford were a welcome sight to Angel's batters, who teed off on every middle of the plate fastball thrown. "The velocity was down, the command was off, no one has a fucking role in this bullpen. I swear to fucking god, I'll fuckin' start designating people."
Graham's frustrations are warranted however, watching his bullpen blow countless leads and let teams back into games. Now Graham has an off day to think about it, a day which will more than likely include a lineup change, shuffeling around the bullpen, and thinking about the next series, a date with the defending American League Champion, New York Yankees. Ticket's are already sold out for the game, Giambi's return to Oakland. Fan's have waited all offseason to boo Giambi in his return, however with the Athletic's pitching woos, Giambi might have the last laugh.
Graham didn't lash out in a profanity laced tirade in the manner he did yesterday after the pitching faltered, however, let his anger be known by telling the entire team "I'm fucking dissapointed in you, all of you. You've made this team the laughing stock of the league, making every sports center not top 10 list, and you have no one to blame but yourselves. THROW FUCKING STRIKES. If we get beat, we get beat, but for the love of god if you walk two batters to start an inning, nothing good can come of it."
Scott Hatterberg blamed the 4.30 am drills across the field, claiming it "wore us out." Graham relentlessly fired back, "Grow up, their are 14 year old kids out there running 4 miles a day and still have enough energy to fuck their flat chested girlfriends, a guy getting paid millions of dollars to swing a wooden bat five times a day can't complain about being tired. Plus, he plays fucking first base, all you have to do is stand there, and you can't even do that right."
Graham re-iterated strongly that the Yankee's series is a pivotal point of the early season. "Look, if we are going to play October baseball, chances are, we're going to be facing this team, in addition to alot of other good teams. I dont hate my team, I just know we are way better than this, I know we have a great team. The media can percieve me however they want to, I cant get caught up in it. Anger is the only thing that sticks sometimes, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but we need to have a wake up call. This upcoming series is a pivotal point early on in the season, you want to prove your not a joke? Beat this fucking team. Obliterate them, it's going to be nationally televised, its time to sink or swim."
BOXSCORE: 2002 Anaheim Angels At 2002 Oakland Athletics 4/21/2002
Angels AB R H RBI AVG Athletics AB R H RBI AVG
D.Eckstein SS 5 0 1 0 .329 D.Justice RF 4 1 0 0 .239
D.Erstad CF 5 0 0 0 .300 M.Ellis 2B 4 1 1 0 .300
T.Salmon RF 3 2 2 0 .307 E.Chavez 3B 3 0 0 0 .224
G.Anderson LF 5 2 2 1 .286 M.Tejada SS 4 0 1 2 .408
T.Glaus 3B 2 1 0 0 .237 J.Giambi DH 0 0 0 0 .343
B.Fullmer DH 5 1 3 3 .314 S.Hatteberg 1B 4 0 0 0 .217
S.Spiezio 1B 5 0 1 1 .232 T.Long CF 3 1 0 0 .227
B.Molina C 4 0 2 1 .297 R.Hernandez C 3 0 0 0 .140
A.Kennedy 2B 4 0 0 0 .278 A-O.Saenz PH 1 0 1 1 .172
M.Colangelo LF 3 0 0 0 .200
B-C.Pena PH 1 0 0 0 .175
-- -- -- --- -- -- -- ---
Totals 38 6 11 6 Totals 30 3 3 3
A-Pinch Hit For Hernandez In 9th Inning
B-Pinch Hit For Colangelo In 9th Inning
Angels.......... 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 3 1 - 6 11 2
Athletics....... 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 - 3 3 1
Angels (10-8) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA SCORESHEET
A.Sele 5 1/3 1 2 1 4 2 0 80 4.11 A1 C4
A.Levine WIN(1-2) 2 1/3 1 0 0 2 1 0 41 4.35 C5 D5
T.Percival SAVE(3rd) 1 1/3 1 1 1 1 2 0 26 2.25 D6
Totals 9 3 3 2 7 5 0
Athletics (10-9) IP H R ER BB SO HR PC ERA SCORESHEET
C.Lidle 6 6 2 2 2 2 0 99 5.16 A1 C8
J.Mecir LOSS(0-2) 1 1 1 1 0 2 0 17 2.38 C9 D3
C.Bradford 0 1/3 3 2 2 1 0 0 24 4.00 D4 D8
M.Holtz 1 2/3 1 1 1 2 0 0 38 12.00 D9
Totals 9 11 6 6 5 4 0
ATTENDANCE- 31,955 DATE- Sunday, April 21st 2002 TIME- Night WEATHER- Bad
UMPIRES- Greg Gibson, Chuck Meriwether, Tim Timmons, Tim Tschida
T- 3:31
LEFT ON BASE- Angels:10 Athletics: 8
DOUBLE PLAYS- Angels: 0 Athletics: 0
ERRORS- T.Glaus, A.Kennedy, C.Lidle
DOUBLES- T.Salmon(5th), G.Anderson(7th), S.Spiezio(3rd), B.Molina(7th)
SACRIFICE HITS- M.Ellis
WALKS- T.Salmon-2, T.Glaus-3, D.Justice, E.Chavez, J.Giambi-4, T.Long
STRIKE OUTS- D.Eckstein, T.Glaus, S.Spiezio, A.Kennedy, M.Ellis, S.Hatteberg-2,
T.Long, C.Pena
WILD PITCHES- T.Percival-2
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