Live Blogging: Tigers @ A’s Game 13

9:58PM PDT: Game over. Tigers win 3-0. Credit needs to go to Phil Coke he pitched a heck of a game. Do it again tomorrow.

9:57PM PDT: CoJax strikes out. Valverde does his stupid jig again.

9:55PM PDT: Victor Martinez will be talking an octave higher tomorrow…

9:54PM PDT: Barton strikes out. Valverde does a stupid dance. I hate these pitchers like this who do this show up the opposition crap (yes we mean you Carlos Perez).

9:49PM PDT: A’s need to get three (or more) runs off of big man Jose Valverde. A little tougher prospect than Chris Sale.

9:44PM PDT: A’s bats do nothing. Onto the ninth.

9:36PM PDT: David DeJesus is in pinch-hitting for Andy LaRoche to face Joaquin Benoit. So that is good news, means nothing is wrong with DeJesus, just getting a night off.

9:30PM PDT: Walk number four of the inning, number eleven on the game. Geren is putting Bobby Cramer in: i.e. this game is over.

9:26PM PDT: Santiago flies out to left. Josh Willingham throws the ball to third. Problem was nobody was at third. Ball rolls into the dugout scoring two runs. Willingham just handled that throw ridiculously. He caught it, then spun around and threw. It didn’t seem necessary for him to throw it like that. If he took a better route to the ball he should’ve been able to make a straight throw. Tigers 3, A’s 0.

9:25PM PDT: So Blevins is 2-0 on Santiago, Ron Romanick comes out to talk to him, and the cameras cut to show that Bobby Cramer is warming in the bullpen. To me Cramer is a pitcher you put in in a blowout, which makes me think Geren and company don’t feel too confident about Blevins’ ability to get out of this mess he’s put himself into in part.

9:23PM PDT: Blevins walks Brandon Inge. The tenth A’s walk. The bases are loaded – no one is out – every base runner got there care of the free pass. Pathetic.

9:19PM PDT: Another walk issued to Brennan Boesch and Bob Geren makes the move to the pen. Seemingly go-to-guy these days Jerry Blevins is due in.

9:16PM PDT: Now Ross walks Peralta! Ugh! Peralta’s walks coming into today: 3. Peralta’s walks today: 3.

9:12PM PDT: Another quick 1-2-3 inning for Phil Coke making his third major league start tonight. Of course Coke is no rookie, he has been converted from being a reliever though he started in the minor leagues with the Yankees.

9:04PM PDT: So V-Mart grounds out, crisis averted. Still trail, but we’ve trailed late in games before and the deficit is just one.

9:02PM PDT: Wow. A’s caught a break. Victor Martinez missed a three run home run by feet as it was just foul down the right field line. Expected runs off the bat there was three. Yikes.

8:59PM PDT: Miguel Cabrera is being intentionally walked. Not sure how I feel about the move. He is a very dangerous hitter, but Victor Martinez isn’t exactly chopped liver. The expected runs in this situation increase from .297 to .403 assuming all players are equal.

8:58PM PDT: Ryan Raburn doubled off the wall in right center – side note: very nice play by Conor Jackson to bare hand the high carom of the wall – the Tigers now lead 1-0 as Ramon Santiago crosses the plate.

8:53PM PDT: I get that the Tigers are trying to push across just one run, but it is the seventh inning. Come on now. Austin Jackson hit .293/.345/.400 last year with a .396 BABIP (though due to his speed his BABIP is staggeringly high in general) this kid can hit, and likely should have been the American League Rookie of the Year last year, yet you sacrifice him to just move a guy up. Stupid move. But, I’ll take it! Not my club doing it!

8:51PM PDT: So Tyson Ross is now in the game. Final line for Gio Gonzalez was mixed, the good was two hits allowed, with six strikeouts in his six innings of work, the bad really was only the six walks.

8:42PM PDT: Nobody is really making Phil Coke work tonight. Daric Barton has two walks, thats the brunt of Coke’s workload. Everyone else has just gotten out relatively early in the count.

8:38PM PDT: Second wild pitch of the night, so Boesch and Peralta move up a base. What is amazing is the stat flashed up by the CSNCalifornia crew is that all six of Gio’s walks tonight have come with two out. But Inge pops up, so eight runners stranded for the Tigers means zero runs scored. He has danced out of some danger tonight, boy.

8:35PM PDT: He is nowhere near the plate four pitch walk of Brennan Boesch (career BB%: 7.8). Tyson Ross is throwing in the bullpen, can’t imagine Gio is going to go too much Longer being at 99 pitches now.

8:33PM PDT: Another walk of Peralta. Argh. Very frustrating and puts Gio at 95 pitches.

8:19PM PDT: Gio strikes out Ryan Raburn for his sixth K of the night. Odd start for him, as he is able to get guys fishing, but at the same time just very inconsistent with finding the zone. Comparing him to Phil Coke who has largely been around the plate and far more efficient with his pitches, its amazing the two have the same results thus far (the game being tied at zero) but the Tigers have left six on, while the A’s have left on only three.

8:16PM PDT: Walks Casper Wells, career BB%: 5.7. 40 strikes, 36 balls. His count is high also because he is striking guys out, four walks, five strikeouts talks a lot of pitches.

7:58PM PDT: Now he walks Jhonny Peralta, career BB%: 8.6. He is at 29 strikes, 28 balls. Not so hot. Looks like the pen will need to come in because even if Gio gets thru this all without runs scoring his pitch count is going to be high I’d have to think.

7:55PM PDT: Interesting hearing Gio Gonzalez talking about Dallas Braden‘s role in keeping pitchers focused and on task. I like Braden a lot, I think as Gio explained his role goes beyond him being a very solid fourth starter option. It’d be nice to have Braden signed Long-term, I think he is a worthwhile veteran presence on this club (funny how veteran means something different in Oakland).

7:49PM PDT: Back to the arm shaving question from a few days ago! Oh geez!

7:34PM PDT: Inning is through, the pitch count is high, the ball ratio isn’t really improving either as he has thrown 34 pitches with 18 of them balls. He’s danced out of danger thus far but the real problem is he isn’t going to be good for much if he keeps tossing this many pitches all over the place.

7:31PM PDT: Another walk by Gio this time the free pass goes to Brandon Inge. I’ve never been a fan of Inge. Having lived in Detroit from 2000 through 2008 I saw a lot of this guy. Walking isn’t something you expect out of him (8.0%) whereas striking out is (25.5%) so it is pretty obvious why I wouldn’t be a fan of Mr. .307 career OBP.

7:18PM PDT: Coco Crisp‘s new hair… wow. Is that gonna slow him down on the basepaths?

7:15PM PDT: Gio’s control – which is oftentimes less than pinpoint – is a bit troublesome so far, he walked Miguel Cabrera, and had a 15 pitch – 9 ball inning. Let’s hope he settles down a bit.

7:04PM PDT: Gio Gonzalez and his 0.69 ERA take the hill tonight for the Tigers looking to move to 3-0 on the year. He is facing Phil Coke who has yet to win in his three appearances (one start) this season. David DeJesus is out of the lineup with Conor Jackson in right field. Not sure why this is the case at this time, haven’t heard of anything being up with DeJesus. The other lineup note is that Andy LaRoche is starting at third tonight. The A’s will wear the new gold jerseys tonight against the 5-7 Detroiters as Gio always like those alternates to the home whites.