Rich Harden did this morning what Huston Street couldn’t seem to do the preceding day - pitch. Harden pitched six solid innings and only saw 24 batters in that time, and struck out nine in Oakland’s 5-1 victory this morning in Japan. In fact, the only Red Sox run was a solo home-run by Manny Ramirez in the sixth inning, and the team was unable to gain momentum from it. The Athletics continued to change the lineup by relieving the pitcher once an inning, putting Santiago Casilla, Keith Foulke, and Alan Embree in. The three collectively gave up a total of two hits.
On the flip side, Oakland presented a strong offense as well. The team had a total of nine hits, including a three-shot homerun by Emil Brown.
This game shows a lot about the resilience of the team. Their ability to bounce back from the previous night’s tough loss shows that the A’s can come together when they need to. This I’m sure we’ll see this mindset next Tuesday when the team faces Boston again, this time to a hometown crowd, at McAfee Coliseum.
