All the action tonight happened in bunches. In the top of the 2nd, the Jays used five hits, including a Lyle Overbay HR, to put up a 3-spot on Trevor Cahill. That made 22 HRs off the sinkerballer who looks more and more each day like he could have used a chance to be AAAhill for a while.
The interesting thing about the post-Holliday A's is that when they get down, I actually feel hope that they can come back. Which is remarkable considering that their second best HR threat right now is arguably Tommy Everidge, who has nary a career HR. Indeed, the A's roared back immediately tonight, ending a 19 inning scoreless streak by Brett Cecil with 4 runs, capped by Adam Kennedy's bases clearing double.
But not content to give up just one 3-spot tonight, Cahill did it again in the 4th, serving up HR #23 -- a three-run bomb to Aaron Hill that gave the Jays a 6-4 lead. And so the score stood until the bottom of the 9th...
With one out, Cust singled off closer Scott Downs' glove and Downs hurt himself chasing after the ball. However, Downs tried to stay in and served up a double to Everidge, putting the tying runs in scoring position with Crosby, Ellis, and Pennington the next three scheduled hitters. Righty Jason Frasor took over for the Jays, and Bob Geren countered by first pinch-hitting with Nomar Garciaparra. Interesting. Nomar bounced out, both runners advancing, 6-5, tying run at 3B with two out. Geren then went to left-handed hitting Ryan Sweeney. I'm assuming that had Pennington come up, he would have hit for himself; either that or we might have seen the debut of Landon Powell, or Jack Cust, or perhaps Rickey Henderson, at SS.
Anyway, it didn't matter because Ryan Sweeney had one of the most pathetic at-bats in the history of major league baseball. After taking a strike on the inside corner, Sweeney got a very hittable pitch over the plate. He took that one too. Then Frasor threw another strike and Sweeney took that one too, but luckily for him it was called a ball. Then Frasor threw another very hittable strike and Sweeney took that one too. Tying run at 3B and Sweeney was what, intent on driving home the run with a walk on ball one or ball two? Possibly the worst "deer in the headlights" at bat of the season, and that's saying something on a team that puts Jack Cust out there on a daily basis.
I think the order of ceilings for MAC goes Anderson, Cahill, Mazzaro, but I continue to believe that the order in which they will turn the corner and become good major league pitchers goes Anderson, Mazzaro, Cahill. Trevor is every bit a "work in progress," and I'm not sure the current direction is "forward." He has a lot of work to do -- which is why it's great to be 21.
