The Twins almost huffed and puffed and blew the A's house down. Thankfully, Street's house is made of brick as opposed to Yabu's House of Straw.
This was not how Ken Macha wanted it to go. The A's were cruising to a 7-1 victory and then Yabu promptly gave up three hits which led to three runs and Street barely closed the door.
Nick Swisher has come to life lately and his three-run home run in the second inning got the A's out to a fast start. Swisher reached base all four times he went to bat today, including three walks. This is the Swisher that Billy Beane fell in love with. Hopefully he's here to stay for the rest of the season.
Mark Ellis continued to be the team's sparkplug, falling a double short of the cycle. Barry Zito also pitched extremely well, only allowing two hits and two walks over 6 1/3 innings.
But the big news of the night unquestionably was Bobby Crosby's return to the lineup. And he later left the lineup on a hustle play down to first base when he jumped to the bag to try and beat out an infield squibber. I'm hoping that Crosby was taken out for precautionary reasons because it would be a shame for him to work so hard to get back and reinjure it in the first game.
Tomorrow the A's face a rookie pitcher in Francisco Liriano, which always makes me nervous because the A's are at their best when they know how to approach a pitcher. The other thing that makes me worry is Liriano has 11 strikeouts and one walk in his seven innings in the bigs. We all know how the A's offense thrives with the more walk-prone pitchers.
Hopefully the A's will be able to stand strong once more. One and a half games back of the Angels now. Get to within a game before the Big Series, guys.
