A's 6, Diamondbacks 1
The A's continue to get solid efforts from their starting pitchers; Vin Mazzaro being the latest as Oakland defeated Arizona, 6-1.
The young right-hander gave up four hits and a walk, but not a single runner crossed the plate against him. The nine outs posted by Mazzaro came in a variety of ways: four by ground, two by air, one on strikes, and two caught stealing.
Bob Geren's starters have now allowed just ten earned runs in 38 innings this Spring.
The A's pushed a run across in the bottom of the first off of ex-Athletic Dan Haren, thanks to a pair of walks and a two-out knock by Mark Ellis.
Rajai Davis displayed excellent glove work in the fourth to rob Chad Tracy of extra bases (PxP extraordinaire Higher Pie with the radio call), and the much-maligned Bobby Crosby followed suit, nearly turning a 5-4-3 DP after a walk to Justin Upton. Having relied a little too heavily on his defense, Gio Gonzalez struck out Chris Snyder to end the inning, and then came back to "K" the side in his subsequent trip to the mound.
Oakland scored in the fifth on another two-out hit, this time by Jason Giambi, whose single plated Travis Buck. Were it not for a double-play ball off the bat of Rajai Davis, the inning could have been much more productive for the A's, who had to settle for just the one run on four hits.
The Home Nine needed a little less effort to make it 3-0 in the sixth. Landon Powell led off the frame with a single, and was promptly pulled for pinch-runner Corey Wimberly, who advanced to second on a walk to Joe Dillon. The runners moved up 90 feet on a balk, and Wimberly touched home on a well-placed groundout by Cliff Pennington.
Sean Doolittle's two-run blast after the stretch stretched Oakland's lead to 5-0. Joe Dillon later followed with his team's third two-out RBI single of the day, scoring Chris Denorfia with the A's final run.
The shutout stayed intact in the eighth when Josh Outman induced a 6-3 double-play to escape a bases-loaded jam.
Jerry Blevins gave up Arizona's lone run in the ninth before closing things out for the A's, whose five pitchers combined to shut down the Diamondbacks.
