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 The 11th might have earned him a start in the game.
Kazmir capped a brilliant personal first half with one of his best
efforts of the season, striking out nine and shutting out the San
Francisco Giants on three hits in seven innings in the Oakland
Athletics' 6-1 victory over their cross-bay rivals Thursday
afternoon.
The win allowed the A's, leaders of the American League West, to
split two games in San Francisco after they swept two in Oakland to
begin the four-game sequence Monday and Tuesday.
"It's everything I've heard about," Kazmir said of the A's-Giants
rivalry, in which he was participating for the first time this week.
"Every game had kinda a playoff atmosphere."
Kazmir (11-3) improved to 5-0 with a 0.93 ERA in seven daytime
starts this season. The third-time All-Star allowed one or fewer
earned runs for the fourth time in his last six starts and the 11th
time in 19 starts this season.
Will one of the league's highest win totals and lowest ERA's (2.38)
be good enough to earn him the starting nod Tuesday from Boston Red
Sox manager John Farrell? A's manager Bob Melvin said he's happy not
to have to decide between the likes of Kazmir, Seattle's Felix
Hernandez, whom the A's will face Friday night, and Detroit's Max
Scherzer.
"He's been as consistent as anybody in the league," Melvin said. "It
seems like (Kazmir's starts) are all the same. He gives up zero, one
or two runs and always keeps us in the game."
Pitching for the first time in his career against the Giants, Kazmir
took a no-hitter into the fifth inning before left fielder Michael
Morse led off with a single. He walked one and extended his streak
of scoreless innings to 13.
As usual, the A's backed Kazmir with a powerful offensive assault,
bombing Giants right-hander Tim Hudson (7-6) for six runs and nine
hits in 5 1/3 innings. Kazmir began the day having received the
second-most run support (6.1 per game) in the American League.
First baseman Stephen Vogt drove in three runs with two singles, and
third baseman Josh Donaldson belted a two-run homer for the A's,
whose 58-34 record matches the best 92-game mark in Oakland history.
For Donaldson, the homer can hours after he was told he was being
added to Monday's Home Run Derby ahead of the All-Star Game, joining
teammate Yoenis Cespedes.
"It's definitely pretty cool," Donaldson said of the Derby
invitation. "It's going to be one of those things for me like icing
on the cake. I'm going to go out there and put on a show."
The A's led just 1-0 with two outs and nobody on in the top of fifth
inning before unleashing a seven-batter bombardment against Hudson
that bridged the fifth and sixth innings.
First, catcher John Jaso belted a two-out triple and then scored on
an RBI single by Vogt.
After Cespedes struck out to end the fifth, the first four A's
batters in the sixth rocked Hudson for extra-base hits to break the
game open and send the veteran to the showers saddled with his
fourth consecutive loss.
Right fielder Brandon Moss got the flurry in motion with a double,
after which Donaldson reached the first row of the right field
pavilion with his 20th homer of the season.
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Up 4-0, the A's weren't done. Successive doubles by shortstop Jed
Lowrie and second baseman Alberto Callaspo put runners on second and
third, from where they both scored on Vogt's two-out, two-run single
that spelled the end for Hudson.
"They're good," Hudson said of the A's. "At the same time, I feel
like we're just as good as they are. They've caught us as bad as we
can be. Hopefully sometime this year we'll face them again and we'll
do a lot better."
The former A's All-Star, who has never beaten his old mates in two
career starts, struck out four and walked three (two intentionally)
in the fifth outing of six innings or fewer in his last seven
starts. Hudson began the season going at least six innings in 10
consecutive starts, not counting a suspended game in Colorado on May
22.
Jaso, Moss and Donaldson joined Vogt with two hits apiece for the
A's, who outhit the Giants 10-6.
Center fielder Gregor Blanco's fifth-inning double was the only
extra-base hit for the Giants. San Francisco right fielder Hunter
Pence had two singles in his 34th multi-hit game of the season,
which is tops in the National League.
San Francisco avoided a shutout by collecting three hits in the
eighth inning against A's right-handed reliever Dan Otero. Third
baseman Pablo Sandoval hit an RBI single.
"It was a tough series," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "We played
a good club, a great staff. The guy we faced today, he's had a heck
of a half. A lot of clubs haven't done a lot with him."
NOTES: The game was delayed about 10 minutes between the third and
fourth innings so that umpire crew chief Angel Hernandez could
replace Adrian Johnson behind the plate. Johnson had to leave the
game after getting hit in the mask with a foul tip. ... The game
ended on a rare walk-off call reversal at first base, with the A's
successfully challenging a safe call on Giants CF Gregor Blanco. ...
Giants RHP Tim Lincecum's game-worn cap from his second career
no-hitter on June 25 against the San Diego Padres, as well as an
official scorecard from the game, were donated to the Baseball Hall
of Fame in a pregame ceremony. ... A's manager Bob Melvin had a
brief chat with San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh before the
game. "I told him to talk to anybody he wants, but stay away from
(pitcher Jeff) Samardzija," Melvin said, referring to his recently
acquired right-hander, a former star wide receiver at Notre Dame.
... The Giants activated 2B Ehire Adrianza from the disabled list to
complete a transaction they initiated Wednesday night by optioning
OF Juan Perez to Triple-A Fresno.
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