Blind mice.
Little pigs.
Musketeers.
Stooges.
Outs.
Strikes.
Runs against the A's.
Home runs for the A's.

Well, it was certainly fun to see back-to-back-to-back home runs by Eric Chavez, Frank Thomas, and Milton Bradley on consecutive pitches. It was also nice to see the bullpen handed a lead, and to have them finish off the victory.

Wins are always welcome, but this is not the M.O. the A's want to see too often. This was exactly the same sort of game they played in the first two games in Minnesota: the starting pitcher coughs up a costly three-run homer, and the A's have to scratch and claw their way back into the game.

It's a good sign that each time, the A's offense did rebound to make a game of it, and that this time, the A's managed to overcome the deficit and win the game, but you can't expect that too often. If the A's plan to compete for a title, they need to stop letting these small rallies turn into big innings. They've allowed at least one 3-run inning in six consecutive games now. They're lucky that they managed to go 2-4 in that span.

I have tickets for tomorrow's game, my first of the year, so let's hope that (a) it stays dry, and (b) Dan Haren can put an end to this big inning nonsense.

Update: Just thought I'd throw out this chart, to show how ridiculously one-sided the big homer problem has been so far this year.
 

Home run type	Hit by A's	Allowed by A's
Solo	14	4
2-run	3	2
3-run	0	5
Grand slam	0	1
Total HRs	17	12
Total Runs on HRs	20	27
Runs/HR	1.18	2.25

The A's have hit five more homers than their opponents, but scored seven fewer runs on those homers. The Runs/HR has to start to even out, right? You'd think...