Game 113 – One Year Wonder

It is too bad the Jays offence didn’t score earlier allowing Richmond to get credit for the win. He had another decent outing, although it would be nice to see him be able to get through 6 innings. Once again he gave up 3 runs coming on 7 hits and 1 walk.

Nice to see the Jays grab another late comeback win and doing so in walk-off style. They struggled again w/a lefty pitcher as Smith held them to 2 runs in 6 innings on 4 hits. That is the 3rd start this season for Smith against the Jays and all 3 he has gone at least 6 innings giving up no more than 3 runs (actually no more than 2 earned runs). Over the 3 starts Smith has gone 18.2 IP giving up 12 hits and 8 BB’s for 5 runs (4 earned).

Luckily for the Jays Street blew another save. I think he may be close to losing the closer role in OAK, especially if Ziegler keeps pitching so well. Ziegler certainly has gone an impressive streak to start his career however I don’t see him being that good of a long term reliever. I think a lot of his success has to do w/his windup and once players get used to seeing him they will have a lot more success against him. It has happened all too often where a pitcher who throws sidearm or has some other funky delivery will have great success when they first reach the majors but it only lasts for one year. Heck, that even happens to a lot of relievers who throw conventionally over the top. Relievers seem to be the hardest to predict as to what they will do from one year to the next. Dare I say that Jesse Carlson may very well fall into that category. I sure hope he proves me wrong but anytime a guy has bounced around that many organizations you have to wonder.

I would have much rather seen Gaston put on the Hit and Run w/McDonald up at the plate in the 5th than the bunt. My reason being the Jays are down by 2 runs at that point and I’d rather not give up an out in hopes of getting 1 run. Plus I trust McDonald to be able to put the ball in play so why not try to start a big inning. Unfortunately, the hit and run doesn’t seem to be in Gaston’s playbook as I’m not sure he has utilized it once.

I would have PH for Mench in the 7th, and since he was left in I would have PH for him in the 9th also. Mench hasn’t hit much at all this year, but his strength is against LH’s, he should not be getting any important AB’s vs RH’s. In the case of the 7th, I doubt the A’s would counter w/a lefty should the Jays have say PH Wilkerson since there were several righties due up afterwards. In the 9th, I would have used Zaun since Wilkerson was already in the game and Zaun was going to have to come in to catch anyways should the game go extras. However, I guess it paid off not pinch hitting either time as Mench ended up getting the walk-off hit.

I don’t know what Scutaro was thinking stopping in the 8th inning on the ground ball by Stairs to first. If Barton throws to 2nd then obviously you want to get to 2nd as quick as possible to at least try to break up the DP. Even if Barton steps on first base first taking off the force play at 2nd, the best chance Scutaro has of being safe is to go hard for 2nd right away. That way Barton has to tag first and make an accurate throw to 2nd, which is easier said than done w/a runner in the baseline, and the A’s have to get the tag on him. As much as you can hope a team will botch a rundown, it happens very rarely at the major league level. You should only be getting into a rundown when you are out by a large margin or if you need to buy time so the runners behind you can advance an extra base.

It was a very good day for Carlos Gonzalez as he had 4 hits and scored 2 runs.

Overbay is struggling right now as he is 0 for his last 11 and 1 for his last 16.

On with the stats:
Adv+: Gonzalez
P-Adv+: League (1)
NAdv: Ellis
P-NAdv: League (1)
WG: Cust
ME(r): Scutaro 2 (4)