Gio Gonzalez is Incredible, A's Shutout Marlins 1-0

Tonight's game came down to one guy, and one guy only. The amazing, incredible Gio Gonzalez.

Emilio Bonifacio led off the game with a single. And that was it. Gio flew through the next 27 batters without allowing a hit, making it a virtual lock that he'll be Oakland's lone All Star representative next month. In eight innings of work, he struck out 9 and walked 3.

The 7th inning, in particular, was the most "Gio" inning ever thrown. Long known for his no-hit stuff and his shaky control, Gio led off the inning by walking Omar Infante on four pitches. He then proceeded to end the inning by racking up three straight swinging strikeouts on nine pitches. For the final strikeout, Gio threw Mike Stanton three curveballs in the dirt. Stanton swung at every single one of them.

And yet, in typical A's fashion, the offense was nearly shutout by opposing pitcher Javier Vazquez. The A's scored on a sacrifice fly in the 2nd inning, and after that, Vazquez matched Gio in every scoreless frame. The only time the Marlins threatened was in the bottom of the 9th, when a throwing error by Scott Sizemore allowed the tying run to reach 2B with no outs. But nothing could spoil Gio's pitching performance, as Andrew Bailey came along to shut down the game in true Gio fashion. You guessed it. Three straight swinging strikeouts.