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Well, let's see what we can take away from tonight's game. Bartolo Colon is scary good this year, Yoenis Cespedes just loves playing in the field and should never DH again, the A's like hitting four homeruns in games that Iwakuma starts, and we all hope that John Jaso's injury is minor.
Once again, the A's hit four home runs in a game that Iwakuma started, but this time, they were all off him. Iwakuma has the second-best ERA in the league, and the A's beat him up like they owned him for the second time in five games. Bartolo Colon got the win tonight, upping his total to 11 wins at Safeco Field, most of any pitcher. Colon threw 97 pitches in his 8 innings; only 31 were balls. Colon's only mistake tonight was a 1-0 pitch to Nick Franklin in the third inning, which accounted for all of Seattle's runs.
Meanwhile, the A's saw Seattle's single homerun and raised them four of their own, crushing the ball out of Safeco from the beginning to the end of the game; including one from Cespedes that opened the night, and one from Cespedes that closed the night. When the homerun derby had ended, the A's found themselves on the winning end of the night, as they parlayed their four homeruns into six runs, while Seattle had to settle for three.
On a night when every single A's hitter struck out at least once, the A's still managed to have all kinds of success in their feast or famine kind of way. The A's jumped on the board early, as Cespedes, playing the field tonight, blasted a homerun to score himself and Seth Smith, who had singled earlier in the inning, to give the A's an early 2-0 lead in the very first inning. Franklin's homerun gave Seattle the brief 3-2 lead in the third, but Jed Lowrie's homerun tied up the game the very next inning. Coco Crisp's homerun in the sixth untied the game, and gave the A's a lead they would never relinquish.
In the tight one-run game, Seattle made two baserunning errors, and ran themselves into two very important outs, one in the sixth, and one in the seventh. That was more than enough for Colon, who finished strong after eight innings. Cespedes helped build a real lead for Grant Balfour as Lowrie opened the ninth with a single and Cespedes absolutely murdered a Tom Wilhelmsen pitch to give the A's the three-run lead.
Balfour needed no other help, as he notched his 36th consecutive save in short order.
This was a huge win for the A's to get the weekend started on the right note, and keep pace with Texas, who won earlier. The A's look to build on their power surge, and will do it again tomorrow. Same time, same place, same host as Straily will take on Harang. I'll see you back here!
