It was dog night at the Coliseum and the Athletics once again dogged the M's. The A's will not let the Mariners beat them. The teams have four games left between each other this year, one at the Coliseum and three up in Seattle. It's an unbelievable statistical run, and it makes the Mariners 10-27 against the AL West this year.
Regardless, it now stands at 14 wins in a row after losing the opening against the M's this year. The A's end the night 5.5 up on Anaheim, 6.5 up on Texas and 11 on Seattle now.
Offensively, the team is waking up a bit. Mark Kotsay kept his hitting streak going in his first full-game back, Swisher tied his career-high in RBIs tonight and Marco Scutaro broke his career-high in RBIs for a night. Granted most of this came against a starting pitcher with one of the highest ERAs in the American League, but it's nice to get a big win and get a chance to rest the bullpen by putting out guys like Witasick and Sauerbeck to eat up a few innings. It's nice to have Swisher starting to look more April and May than June and July right now. That would be absolutely enormous for the A's down the stretch. And the A's could be running into a problem because Bobby Crosby could be returning very soon...do you keep Scutaro in the lineup or do you go back to Crosby who has struggled almost all year?
Ken Macha seems to be waffling if you read into this quote at all:
I'm inclined to stick with the hot bat until Scutaro cools down. A little competition is never a bad thing and could actually push Crosby to have better ABs to prove he should never sit.
The other big story from the night was that Kirk Saarloos had an excellent start considering the fact that he's used so inconsistently. It isn't that surprising though because Los Kirk had a great start against the M's earlier this year. In those two starts against Seattle, he has pitched 12 2/3 innings and given up four runs, three earned. I guess pitching against an aggressive-swinging team helps guys like Kirk who rely on guys who will go out of the zone to chase his sinker.
The A's now look to make it 15 in a row tomorrow with Danny Haren who is 2-0 in August with a 1.93 ERA. Will the A's match their record against a team? Or will Haren throw the Mariners a bone?
