Everyone homered constantly, especially Ellis, as the A's hammered Arizona early and often. Final Score: A's 15, Diamondbacks 1.
Though she got the opponent wrong, my cat tried to foreshadow tonight's outcome by bringing in a dead Blue Jay in the middle of tonight's game. I suppose asking her to find a diamondback would have been a bit much. Anyhoo...
The A's cranked out 15 runs and six HRs (Ellis twice, Chavez, Suzuki, Crosby, and Raj Davis), but what was probably most gratifying was how solid the hitters' approaches were the entire evening. Obviously they A's did not get Webb at his finest, but even after Webb left Oakland kept piling on runs with great at bat after great at bat. Walks, hits, HRs, shots the other way, you name it the A's produced it again and again and again.
Meanwhile, Justin Duchscherer continues to be remarkable, giving up 2 ER or fewer for the 10th time in 11 starts, and completing 8 innings after it looked - for a scary, scary moment - as if he might only last one inning when he tweaked something in his side swinging at a second inning pitch from Webb. Duchscherer has a chance to make the All-Star team this year as a starter, after making it previously as a reliever. He deserves it.
If the A's are going to stay in the race to the bitter end, they will need to be a very good road team, because Oakland plays just 20 home games in all of August and September combined. Oakland started the season by playing the World Champions even halfway around the globe, and this road trip - now 4-0 with a win against Webb - is going a long way to validating the team's ability to somehow get it done against anyone, anywhere.
