A’s get First Win of 2009

Written by: David Feldman on 8th April 2009

A's get First Win of 2009 | read this item

That was more like what the A’s had in mind when they put their offense together for the 2009 season. With contributions coming from up and down the line-up, the Oaklanders tallied their first win of the new season, 6-3 over the Angels.

The A’s offense, minus Matt Holliday who was out sick, banged out 16 hits (12 singles and 4 doubles) in a workman like effort against 4 Angels pitchers. Clutch contributions from Jack Cust ( 3-4, 2 RBI), Jason Giambi (3-5, rbi double) and Ryan Sweeney (3-5, double, 2 runs) led the comeback from a 2-0 deficit.

21-year old Trevor Cahill made his Major League Debut becoming the 7th youngest pitcher to start a game for Oakland. Cahill struggled at times with control (5 walks, 1 intentional) but showed a keen capability to limit the damage and work out of jams.

Cahill stranded the bases loaded in the first, getting Juan Rivera to fly out to end the threat. (Quick side note: Vladimir Guerrero can not run anymore. Twice, he failed to score from first on a double with two outs. Vlad has DH’d the first two games of this series, and while still recovering from offseason knee surgery, it could be that the end of Guerrero’s outfield career is near.)

Cahill stranded two more runners in both the 3rd and the 4th and was able to come up with big pitches when needed. There were times when his highly aclaimed sinker was as good as advertised but there were also times when he left his pitches up in the strike zone. Overall, a good first outing (5 IP, 5 H, 3 Runs, 2 ER, 5 BB, 1 K – 103 Pitches) and something to build on. And if wasn’t for a Jack Cust error on a pop to right, he might have come away with a win.

The A’s bullpen did a nice job closing this one out. Michael Wuertz threw his second shutout inning in as many nights, striking out 2 and Santiago Casilla made his season debut by throwing 2 scorelesss innings only allowing a walk. Brad Ziegler recorded his first save of the season allowing a run and exposing a flaw in his game. Ziegler faced 5 batters, the 2 lefties both singled, while the 3 righties went hitless with two K’s. Last season lefthanders hit .280 off the righthanded sidewinder while righties struggled to hit .198. Don’t be surprised to see opposing managers start to stack lefthanders vs Ziegler. This is what could be Ziegler’s demise as a closer. In the 9th inning while trailing, managers will feel free to pinch-hit even for their better right-handed hitters, something they wouldn’t do in earlier innings. It will interesting to watch as the season goes on how this plays out. So far Ziegler is 12 for 14 in save opportunities in his early career.

Other tidbits from the A’s victory:

Bob Geren played the infield in in the first inning with Figgins on third and one out. That shows the confidence Geren has in Cahill’s sinker and his ability to get ground balls. Cahill did get a ground ball off the bat of Bobby Abreu but the grounder was hit slowly enough to 2nd that Mark Ellis had no play at the plate on the speedy Figgins.

Kurt Suzuki had an interesting trip around the bases in the 4th inning. With Cust at 3rd and Suzuki at 1st, Travis Buck hit a one-hopper at Angels 1st baseman Kendry Morales. The ball went under Morales’ glove but struck Suzuki on the back foot. The ball popped right back to a shocked Morales who’s only play was to step on the bag at 1st to retire Buck and allow Cust to score from 3rd and Suzuki to reach 2nd. Suzuki was not called out for being hit by a batted ball in accordance with rule 5.09 (f): “If a fair ball goes through or by a fielder and touches a runner in back of him the ball is in play.” Suzuki’s adventure continued on Mark Ellis’ single to center. The 3rd year catcher raced for home, trying to beat 8-time gold glove winning outfielder Torii Hunter’s throw to the plate. Suzuki slid but seemed to catch his cleats in the dirt and ended up face first over the plate, just getting his hand in before the tag by catcher Jeff Mathis. So what started out as a feet first slide ended up as a head first dive.

The A’s and Angels play the third game of their four game series on Wednesday night. Left-hander Dana Eveland takes the hill for the Athletics and he will be opposed by right-hander Nick Adenhart.

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Topics: Brad Ziegler, Kurt Suzuki, Trevor Cahill

Bee Hylinski says:

April 8, 2009 at 5:31 pm

Hi, David,

Your dad, Marvin, sent me the link to your blog which I really enjoyed reading. Great writing style and you pack a lot in a sentence. I have been an A’s fan since I was a child living in Kansas City when the Philadelphia A’s moved there, which makes me a lot older than I would like to be. The whole city went nuts for baseball, as it was the first major league level team of any sport to locate there. Actually, Lou boudreau, the GM and field manager rented our house the summer before so they could get everything set up for the move. We always escaped the KC heat and humidity to Connecticut where we had lived previously.

I have my own A’s blog on MLBlogs.com. Check it out. The link is above. Let me know what you think. I have had houseguests for the last 5 days, so there are no recent posts. I will probably put one up this afternoon or tomorrow.

I’ll visit your blog often. Would love it if you could post a comment on mine. I’m trying to build an online presence (“platform”) so that I can demonstrate a following when I query agents or publishers about my novel.

Go A’s!!!

Bee Hylinski
Author: “Contract Year,” a baseball novel coming soon