The Cards Shuffle YOU

Break out the gin, Athletics Nation. Oakland folded early in this game, showing little heart on the diamond as they allowed a strong St. Louis club to score runs in spades. Not a lot went right for the A's in today's 7-1 loss, and it felt like they were drawing dead by about the 6th inning.

The afternoon started out promising, as a full house packed the Coliseum for Coco Lean Bobbletorso Day. A pair of aces took the mound, with Jarrod Parker facing Adam Wainwright, and it looked like we would be treated to a classic pitcher's duel. Both starters were dealing through the first three innings.

Oakland's visions of victory were flushed down the toilet in the 4th inning, however, when Parker went down with a hamstring injury. With two outs, he threw a pitch to Allen Craig and crumpled straight to the IC card, clutching his right leg. He raised back up to his feet, but Oakland made the smart decision by calling Parker's bluff and going all-in with their bullpen for the rest of the game. That's just the luck of the draw, folks; better to be cautious in June than to gamble with Parker's long-term health.

Jesse Chavez entered the game hoping to provide a bridge from Parker to the set-up relievers, but he was unable to hold 'em. Chavez flopped today, and the pitcher's duel quickly turned into a river of runs for St. Louis. The Cardinals put a deuce on the board in the 5th thanks to some small-ball, and Oakland's long-man was sent to the showers after putting the first two batters on in the 6th. He was a bit wild overall, and he looked like a fish next to a St. Louis lineup full of sharks.

With Chavez unsuited to retire hitters today, Bob Melvin turned to clubhouse joker Jerry Blevins to mop things up. Unfortunately, Blevins pitched like he was blind, and Matt Holliday greeted him with an RBI single to center. On the very next pitch, rookie Matt Adams smoked a three-run jack to right which landed somewhere between Omaha and Texas. Adams made quite a splash today; he would later double down by adding a second homer in the 8th inning.

It was not a good bet that Oakland would fight their way back into this game, especially against a stud pitcher like Wainwright. They did manage to spoil the shutout in the 8th on back-to-back hits by Joshes Donaldson and Reddick, but they couldn't come up with anything to trump the Cardinals' starter. They also drew a pair of free passes late in the game, which is quite an accomplishment against the pitcher who has been the king of avoiding walks this year. In the end, though, they just couldn't see Wainwright's pitches well enough, and the chips didn't fall their way.

When your top starter leaves early with an injury in a game against a Cy Young frontrunner and the second-best team in baseball, you just have to accept that the deck was stacked against you today and that you can't win 'em all. Pour yourself some rummy, throw on your favorite Queen album to celebrate Pride weekend, and check back tomorrow for the rubber game. Six runs won it last night, and seven were enough today; let's hope that the A's can come up with a crazy eight tomorrow to clinch this series.

In the commonwealth, in order to get a license to fight, one needs a social security number. It’s a law that the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission was unaware of when the UFC first came to the state. It’s also a rule that none of America’s other 49 states share.

The problem with that regulation is that only American citizens are routinely issued social security numbers. For this show, nearly half of the fighters hail from foreign countries, including participants in the main event, Brazilian Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, and the co-main event, Alistair Overeem of the Netherlands.

Fighters, however, may apply for social security numbers if they have valid visas, and the UFC’s immigration department has been working overtime to make sure the fight card stands.

This isn’t the first time that White and the UFC had to jump through hoops to put on a show. When he took over the company in 2001, the UFC was not allowed on pay-per-view and was in danger of being banned by all 50 states. Today, New York is the only state that doesn’t sanction MMA events.

The Boston card is of particular importance to the UFC and its new broadcast partner, as it is to be the launching pad for Fox Sports 1 — the new Fox network aiming to rival ESPN.

Though the plans for Boston created some uncertain moments, White said the UFC won’t think twice about coming back to the city.

“No. We ended up getting everything straightened out. The fights will happen. The card will be great. It’s going to be good,” White said. “There’s always something. It literally never ends. There’s always something, something that pops up or whatever. We’re pretty used to dealing with this stuff.”

The third weekend in August will be a big one for the Hub, the UFC and Fox. On Friday, Aug. 16, the Patriots will play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a preseason game on Fox. The next afternoon, the Red Sox are scheduled to take on the New York Yankees on Fox while the UFC launches Fox Sports 1 later that night.



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