Quick note on Trevor Cahill from last night. The homer he allowed was his 21st of the season. Last year Greg Smith gave up the most of any Oakland pitcher, also 21. Brett Anderson is not quite right behind him with 13. Only Jeremy Guthrie (23) and Joe Saunders (22) have allowed more in the American League this year. For someone like Cahill, whose bread and butter is going to involve keeping the ball down, it's a little troubling to see him giving up so many longballs. At least he's got a lot of time to grow as a pitcher.
Before tonight's game the Red Sox are retiring their seventh number, Jim Rice's 14. After that, Vin Mazzaro will face Clay Buchholz in the second of this four-game series. Mazzaro has really come back down to earth since those great first few starts, his last two particularly bad. This will be the third start of the season for Buchholz.
Daric Barton heads to the DL while Tommy Everidge joins the big club and goes right into the starting lineup, something he must be very excited about. In the A's system he's always hit for good power with a solid batting average, though he's had some ups and downs with his BB/K ratio. However, since coming to Sacramento he has absolutely mashed everything he's seen to the tune of a .382 AVG, .432 OBP, .636 SLG and a 1.068 OPS. These far surpass his career Minors marks of a .280 AVG, .354 OBP, .469 SLG and .823 OPS.
I wouldn't say he was ever seen as a legit prospect in the A's system but he's more than earned the chance to don an A's jersey even if it's only for a couple weeks. He's also a local guy, born in Glen Ellen near Santa Rosa, going to high school in Sonoma and attending Sonoma State. You can bet he'll have a large group of fans come Friday night in Oakland. Personally, I love stories like this and I'm hoping he has a good stint up here. One thing's for sure: the A's aren't bringing him up to make the splits Barton's become semi-famous for.
In other news, Michael Wuertz's name is coming up all over the place in rumors connected to at least three teams (Angels, Braves, Twins). It may be to the A's benefit to hold on to him given his contract status and effectiveness but if the interest contending teams have leads to a bidding war the A's would be silly not to make a deal because they're sure to get some solid value for him. Nothing against Wuertz, but solid setup men aren't that hard to find or develop.
Here's hoping tonight's game goes better for the green and gold than the last one.