A's Ride First Inning to Victory, Cahill Continues to Dazzle

You think you have good pitching, Tampa Bay? With another incredible start by the A's starting pitching staff in tonight's game, the A's take the American League lead in ERA (and are just a point behind Tampa Bay in WHIP) and have racked up seventeen straight starts of six innings or more with three earned runs or fewer allowed. That's insane.

Of course, I won't tell you their record through this streak; it will make you sad.

The A's needed exactly one inning to win the game tonight; dropping a five-spot on the Tribe in the very first inning. Coco Crisp grounded out to start the game, right before the offense exploded. Barton walked to put the first man on base, Kurt Suzuki was "hit" by a pitch on an 0-2 count (the way he's been "hitting", don't expect him to argue!), Barton scored on a Cust single for the first run, Ellis walked to load the bases, and Davis singled Suzuki in for the second run. Enter Kevin Kouzmanoff. Nearly missing a grand slam, he cleared the bases with a double (Rajai nearly ran over Ellis in the process of scoring), and just like that, the A's held a 5-0 lead.

It would be more than enough for Trevor Cahill, who has had a phenomenal August. Although he gave up seven hits in his seven innings, they were all singles, and the defense helped by turning three DP's behind him. He allowed only a single run in the seven innings and easily recorded his 14th win of the season. The A's would tack on another run on a Gross sac fly in the sixth, and the bullpen combo of Breslow and Rodriguez (who both struck out the side in their respective innings) made sure the lead would hold up.

All in all, a very solid win, all the way around. Mazzaro will go for the series sweep tomorrow night; we do it again!