...I can do better...The "rivalry" between Nick Swisher and Frank Thomas, matching each other's HRs and RBIs, reminds me of the Big 3 playing "top this" in back-to-back-to-back starts. Good stuff.
At times it wasn't pretty, with Dan Haren throwing some too good to home plate and others not good enough to first base, the old "two-base passed ball," and failed chances, in the 8th and 9th, to give Huston Street more of a working margin in his return to the mound. But in the end, Nick Swisher's 4/4 night with a 4-run HR helped to make it a very good night indeed.
When Street issued the one-out walk, a reminder that he was nearly three weeks removed from his last big league appearance, I thought, "Shouldn't the A's have had Street set-up and Duke close tonight? Just so there would be backup in case Huston was too rusty?" But Street was fine--he was only back because he was fine--and once again, I was confronted with the fact that the A's really do know what's best more often than we do.
As for Dan Johnson, small sample sizes can quickly turn 4/8 into 4/13, but more importantly he just didn't look very good at the plate tonight. I would love to have last year's June-August Dan Johnson back, but he'll need to have a longer stretch of solid games before he proves he has come back as more than Mike Rouse. But on the subject of Dan Johnson and longer stretches: nice defense, DJ!
Oh, and don't run on Delmon Young.
And I really like Frank Thomas. A lot.
