Like I said, starting pitching will keep you in a lot of games. As long as the A's keep getting great efforts from their starting pitchers they will stay in the race. And while two front-end pitchers, Haren and Gaudin, have turned it up a notch to surpass even our wildest dreams, two back-end pitchers, DiNardo and Kennedy, have also been better than anyone could have dared to hope. Tonight, Kennedy not only put up good numbers--again--but he actually looked outstanding, commanding his fastball, curve, and changeup to set-up hitters and put them away.
And let's hear it for June's Jack Cust: Santiago Casilla. His emergence-for-now as a quality major league reliever with dominant stuff, has been promised for four years and two names, and could not have come at a better time. Neither could a calm Bobby Crosby staying back and keeping the swing short and quick to provide insurance runs that would prove to be the difference in the game.
For some reason, I've had a feeling for a while that the A's would take three out of four from the Red Sox in this series and now that's the worst they can do. The A's are 5-1 in June and they have proven to themselves--as well as to the competition--that they can take any 25 warm bodies and figure out how to win. Who cares if the back up closer to the back up closer is too tired to pitch? We'll just turn 8 double-plays in 13 innings and Casilla in the win column.
