With Mike Sweeney and, especially, Frank Thomas out of the Oakland lineup for more than a month, the A's offense doesn't have a ton of power, especially from the right-hand side.
Over the last 20 games, the A's have gone homerless 14 times, and the team total of 58 homers is tied for second fewest in the league. They're not hitting much, period: Oakland's .248 average is also second lowest in the league. Sweeney was among Oakland's top hitters for average, at .292, when he went on the disabled list on May 29. Thomas, of course, is one of the top right-handed sluggers of his generation, and even when he isn't on a roll, he's still a threat as far as opposing pitchers are concerned.
Oakland had hoped to get both players back after the All-Star break, but it appears as if the end of July might be more realistic, especially for Thomas, who must wait another week to get possible clearance for baseball activity. Thomas has a 30 percent tear of his right quadriceps, while Sweeney had arthroscopic surgery on both knees.
Neither will be running particularly well when they come back. Thomas said he assumes he'll be station-to-station, but the A's don't have much problem with that -- that's how Thomas was in 2006, when he hit 39 homers and drove in 114 runs for Oakland.
ANGELS 5, A'S 3: Alan Embree had held Garret Anderson to a .167 average in his career, but on Tuesday, Anderson came up with two outs in the eighth and the game tied and belted a two-run homer to right field. Embree said he was trying to throw down and away and went down and in instead, and Anderson pulled his hands around to get it. Rich Harden went five innings and allowed two runs and he said afterward that he'd had a dead-arm type feeling, never feeling quite comfortable with his arm slot. His velocity was down 4-5 mph much of the game.
