Tim Hudson pitched one of the best games I’ve ever seen tonight against the Red Sox: a complete game, two hit, one walk shutout, 93 pitches, 28 batters, and only three balls hit out of the infield. Both singles were scratch infield hits, with the runners being immediately wiped out by double plays. A few more like this, and Hudson wins the Cy Young.
The win moved the A’s into a tie with Boston for the Wild Card, but with the addition of Jose Guillen to their lineup, they’re shooting for a division title. Guillen, if you haven’t seen him, has the most amazing arm in all of baseball. In his first game with the As, he threw a strike from semi-deep in right field that caught his catcher off guard three steps in front of the plate. If he’d been in position, a runner scoring from second on a deep single would have been out.
They’re a lot scrappier than the Giants, generally more fun to watch. Barry Bonds is starting to annoy me with his lack of hustle. Standing at the plate to see where his mighty blasts go is fine when they’re in the water, but I’ve seen him lose extra bases that way on Texas Leaguers, one of which cost his team the game when he couldn’t score on the single behind him.
The Giants pitching rotation is also giving me headaches; Reuter’s been hurt, Schmidt missed a game, Foppert’s inconsistent, this new guy Dustin Hermanson hasn’t got anything, and I can see no reason why Jim Brower isn’t a starter. The bright spots are rookie Jerome Williams with the puka shells, Kevin Correia, the new rookie that just came up from Fresno and pitched like he’s been in the bigs all his life, and Sidney Ponson, the vet from the Orioles.
That’s seven starters when Reuter gets better, so good-bye to Hermanson and Foppert and back to the bullpen for Brower. Now if they could just get a closer with an intimidating fastball, there might be hope for them in the post-season. The infield is obscenely strong, and everybody on the team hits.