Sail of the Century: Royals' Errors, Cust's 100th Jack Help A's Dispatch KC, 3-1

The Royals' idea of playing this game with gloves made entirely of scrumptious cake seems to have backfired badly.

Yell if you like a hundred.

In a game that featured the 100th career home run from Jack Cust and the 100th walk for MLB-leading Daric Barton, the Athletics prevailed over the sloppy KC Royals at beautiful Niagara Falls Kauffman Stadium, 3-1.  Career minor leaguer (last seen in the Mexican League!) Bobby Cramer, proving the old axiom that life begins at 30, got his first major league win, with help from a slew of relievers including Brad Ziegler, Jerry Blevins, Michael Wuertz, Craig Breslow and the save from Andrew Bailey as Bob Geren attempted to retain the "100" theme by using that many pitchers to nail this one down.

Waterfall... nothing can harm me at all.

The action started immediately in this rare afternoon series opener at the K, with ex-Royal Coco Crisp leading off the game with a bouncer that resulted in KC starter Luke Hochevar missing first as he attempted to cover.  Coco would score without a hit on a botched double play ball (pronounced "Kaya-Hoo-Ay") and the A's took an early 1-0 lead.  They replicated that feat in the second, as newcomer Akinori Iwamura walked and ended up coming across when KC CF Jarrod Dyson dropped a routine fly ball for the Royals' second error in as many innings.  After 2 the A's had a 2-0 lead without the benefit of a hit.

Bobby was Mad Money this afternoon in his first ML game.

Outside of a solo HR in the 4th from Mike Aviles, Cramer was solid and gave way to Ziggy and then Blevins in the 6th.... Bobby C ended up going 5.1 IP to get his first big league win.  Then in the 6th, Jack Cust stepped up and hit his 100th career HR off the aristocratically-named Bryan Bullington, just inside the LF foul pole to cap the scoring... 3 single innings from Wuertz, Brez and Bailey (Andrew had some adventures but notched his 24th save) later and this one was in the books in the W column for the Oakland Nine.

The A's jumped a game over the familiar break-even mark and hope that this number is at last in the rear-view mirror for 2010.

The win places the A's an even 8 back of the idle Rangers, and they'll attempt to gain more ground tomorrow evening at 5 PM Pacific as Gio Gonzalez, who has been masterful of late, opposes 2009 Cy Young winner Zack Greinke.  Please join the esteemed dream machine DanBot 3000 tomorrow at that time for game threads of magical fervor =)