Griffin Rolls Through Bombers

In this middle of this game, I wrote "Cespedes has put the A's up, Seth Smith has given them some breathing room with it 4-0! Up to A.J. to hold off the Bronx bats...". Well the A's did just that. Yoenis Cespedes wasted no time in getting Oakland on the board, with a home run that scored Jemile Weeks to give the A's a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Then in the third inning with the bases loaded, Seth Smith singled to score two and give the A's all four runs they'd have in this one.

At that point it was up to the young Griffin to keep the Yankees in check and he did until the sixth when he allowed three singles (only interrupted by a Curtis Granderson strikeout) to Derek Jeter, A-Rod and Cano. With the bases loaded, Mark Teixeira flew out to get Jeter home. Then, Nick Swisher singled to score A-Rod before Griffin K'd Ibanez to end the inning. Final line for Griffin a very commendable: six innings, two earned runs, on seven hits, no walks with four strikeouts. Sean Doolittle and then Grant Balfour came in for an inning apiece to earn their third and twelfth holds respectively before Ryan Cook came in to collect an imperfect save (thanks to a Nick Swisher home run to cut the Yankee deficit to one).

The long and short of it is that the A's held their own with a team they far too often flop against (including a sweep in Oakland earlier this year). The A's improved to 48-44, their Pythagorean is 48-44 meaning that they haven't exactly been playing over their heads either. A good one to enjoy for A's fans. Let's make it two!

LETS GO OAKLAND!