The A's snapped a four-game streak with a 11-2 victory in the opening game of a three-game set against the Orioles on Friday night at Camden Yards.
Dallas Braden threw five strong innings and allowed only four hits and one earned run before leaving with an undisclosed injury.
The A's scored the decisive runs in just about the least exciting way possible: an RBI groundout by Patterson and a run-scoring sac fly by Swooney in the fifth, followed by a walk from Hannahan with the bases loaded in the sixth for the go-ahead run to make it 3-2.
(Don't teams know by now that the book on Hannahan is to throw fastballs any variety of pitch for strikes?)
After Braden's early exit, Blevins, Devine, Foulke and Ziegler followed with stellar relief to close out the win.
The O's relievers turned a close game into a laugher with their 8th inning performance. Three Baltimore "relievers" walked seven A's, scoring four runs for Oakland. Hannahan recorded his second RBI walk of the night, which has to tie some sort of record.
But the nail in the coffin was Rajai Davis grand slam, which happened in patented Rajai Davis fashion - the paint-scraper just over the wall.
In case you missed it, Justin Duchscherer has been shut down for the rest of the season with a reaggravation of his surgically repaired hip. Josh Outman is scheduled to start the second game of the doubleheader in his place, according to Yahoo! I'm not sure how stretched out Outman is, but with Jeff Gray recalled from AAA earlier today, the A's have 15 pitchers on the active roster and could literally throw a reliever-by-committee in game 2 if need be. Kirk Saarloos only threw 21 pitches in the Meyer Massacre last night, so he should be good for a few innings too I'd imagine.
When Duchscherer is placed on the 60-day DL, Jeff Baisley is very likely to come up and play some 3b for the A's during the last few weeks of the season. The team could also clear a spot by DFAing one of their pending FAs like Emil Brown, but since it hasn't happened already, it seems like they'll be here for the duration.
