(Editor’s note: I’m going to try something a little different this morning: Live blogging!  Tune-in for updates throughout the game.)

Good morning and thank you for tuning in on this be-U-tiful overcast morning for game 2 of the ALDS series between the Oakland A’s and the Minnesota Twinkies.

I’m your host Ken Crawford here on thecrawfordfamily.net’s presentation of early morning bulldozer baseball.  Bulldozer baseball: all the harsh commentary you should hear but never do.

A reminder that this presentation is brought to you by Yahoo! Sports:

Yahoo! Sports, no flash, just right on time.

And MLB.com:

MLB.com, all the flashly content that keeps us from giving you real information.

And finally HP:

HP, why buy anything that we can’t plausibly deny?

The first inning is straight ahead!

First Inning: 

• It’s great to see that the A’s have come out today ready to swing.  Hopefully they’ll remember that “struck out looking” is not the way we want to go down this season.
• The twins get two hits off of Loaiza early, but fail to score.  I think that Loaiza is one of those pitchers who take a while to find their groove.  The Twinkies will be kicking themselves if they don’t score off their early opportunities.

Second Inning:

• I completely missed the second inning… this second inning blackout is brought to you by HP: we actually want you to work for a living.

Third Inning:

• The thing I love most about the bottom of the A’s order (besides Scutaro in a clutch situation) is how they make the pitcher work for their outs.  Sure they may not have the highest batting order, but they make the pitcher throw at least 5 or 6 pitches.
• YES!  Ellis singles to lead off the 3rd.  If Kendall can avoid his patented “did you even try” double play ball, we might be in business.
• Well, Kendall at least tried hard enough to beat out the double play.  Fielder’s choice. Now it’s Kendall on first with 1 out.
• Maybe I shouldn’t complain about Kendall too much.  Now it’s Kotsay who grounds into the double play… ugh.
• The Twinkies went three and out.  Loaiza’s in his grove now.

Fourth Inning:

• Man, Thomas nearly did it again.  Ground rule double!  Let’s see if we can bring him home from 2nd with 1 out.
• Well, we couldn’t bring him home, but at least we’re lining out, not popping out.
• Loaiza’s has retired 8 in a row now.  SWEET!
• So much for that, two singles in a row.  Got to give credit to Morneau.  He battled to get that first single, 8+ pitches.  Sometimes those long at bats really wear out a pitcher.  Let’s hope Kendall can manage Loaiza enough to get him out of this 2 out jam.
• YES!  End of the inning: White grounded out.

Fifth Inning:

• YES!!! Swisher doubles to lead off the fifth and my main man, Mr. Clutch himself, Scutaro is up.  Bring’em home scoot!
• YES!!! Scutaro doubles, Swisher scores… rolling rolling rolling, keep those doggies rollin’.
• OK, Ellis sacrificed Scoot to third… Kendall, I’m counting on you man.  You can’t sink us with a double play.  NO PRESSURE… Just bring scoot home!
• YESSSSS!!!!! Kendal singles, Scutaro scores. 2 to 0 A’s!
• Onto the bottom of the inning, Loaiza seems to have his groove back with two easy groundouts.
• Loaiza has had the benefit of giving up all his hits with 2 outs.  That takes a lot of pressure off because he knows he only has to get one out to get out of the jam.  Another men on 1st and 2nd 2-out jam stalled!

Sixth Inning

• Of course, just to spite me, Payton singles with two outs.  Hopefully Swisher can make something of it.
• OK, everyone DON’T PANIC.  We gave up a big home run yesterday and still won.  A’s lead is now only 2-1.
• Scratch that… PANIC!  PANIC! PANIC!  Two home runs in a row… NOOOO!
• Phew!  Macha actually got up off his butt and did something about it.  Our best reliever Calero is in there now.
• ALRIGHT.  Calero gets the job done!  Onto the 7th.

We interrupt this broadcast for this important announcement:

LUNCHTIME!!!

Ahhhhh… what a good lunch.  Just as I was leaving I saw the 2-run in the park homerun by Kotsay (there’s one I’ve got to see the highlights of) so I had the knowledge that all the A’s have to do was hold on for 3 innings.  I haven’t even looked yet but let me guess: Kennedy pitched in the 7th, Duchscherer in the 8th and Street in the 9th, now let me check… oh wow, Duchscherer pitched both the 7th and 8th.  An actual bold move by Macha.

Well, in any case, there’s nothing like coming back from lunch to see a 5-2 victory.  Nice to see that the A’s kept the heat on by scoring in the top of the 9th (always a good way to take what little life remains of the opposition).  Onto Oakland!  Go A’s!

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this.  I’m interested to hear feedback: did anyone see it live? (I doubt it)  Is it enjoyable after the fact?  Let me know.

OK, maybe I shouldn’t be complaining about the early start time.  Apparently it was just enough to throw off the usually unstoppable at home (hasn’t lost since 8/1/2005) Johan Santana.

Way to go A’s!

…on being the STUPIDEST organization in professional sports.  A 10:00 AM Pacific WEEKDAY playoff game!?!  And it’s not even two east coast teams (for a 1 PM local start time), it’s a midwest team vs. a west coast team.  And they wonder why their TV viewership of the early rounds of the playoffs is so low.

Boy, I was looking over the matchups for later this week and was suprised just how many good matchups there are in the Pac-10.  Of course Cal vs. Oregon is top billing in my mind, but the rest are all intriguing:

• Washington at USC: Is UDub for real?  Is USC vulnerable?  If nothing else this means there will only be 2 undefeated in conference Pac-10 teams at the end of the weekend (along with the victor of Cal vs. Oregon).
• Arizona at UCLA:  Just how much does UCLA suck?
• WaZoo at OSU: Another battle to get out of the cellar.
• Stanford at Notre Dame:  OK, all but one game is intriguing.  Although historically Stanford has played ND tougher than expected.

Tune in late this week for my predictions.

The Bears are up to 16th in the AP poll (17th in the coaches).  I’ve noticed that there seems to be a delay factor with Pac-10 teams (outside of USC).  While we didn’t move much after that ASU win, a week later while continuing to win and the bears make a significant jump.  Yes, it helps that 3 teams not far ahead of us lost, but we still leapfrogged the idle Florida State.

Oregon is up to 11, setting up a much more lofty showdown between us next Saturday at 5:00 PM.  I hope you guys have your tickets because from what I understand it’s expected to sellout.