(So What if Was Against Teams Under .500)
The A's road trip came to an end with a facefull of grass courtesy of Eric Byrnes.
The A's winning streak didn't end, though, as the A's gave the Kansas City Royals the back of their hand on their way to a 7-1 win.
Barry Zito was perfect through the 5th inning and was just beginning to snap Lord Charles into action. He had gotten several check swings and called check swings on his changeup. He ran his fastball in on the hands of right handers. His curveball wasn't backbiting, but it was effective early in the game.
The first hit Barry gave up was a changeup he left up to Neifi Perez.
Zito's changeup might be his most effective pitch, but he also gets into trouble with it. When you see Barry giving up hits it's usually off of the changeup and not the curveball. Only one person has hit Zito's curveball for a homerun and that was John Flaherty of Tampa Bay last year.
The A's collected 11 hits and added to their streak of seven consecutive games with 10+ hits.
The A's got a six run lead in the six largely off of going the other way with pitches. With the exception of Tejada's single most of the balls were not scorched or even hit that hard.
Miggi slammed his 28th homerun of the year in the 7th and seemingly gave the A's exclamation point they needed. Eric Byrnes provided the final out with a headfirst dive to grab a sinking liner by Joe Randa.
The Royals got a run in the 7th when Raul Ibanez led off with a double and went to third on Joe Randa?s single. Kip Pellow grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to scoring Ibanez from third.
Chad Bradford came on in the 8th with the Frisbee fixed. Jeff Tam needed only 9 pitches to close the game with a scoreless 9th.
The Streak
The A's current winning streak has been off the backs of a few teams that are, oh, not so good. But, it's not like they were beating up on the Devil Rays or Milwaukee for two weeks. The A's beat the teams they are supposed to beat. Meanwhile the Angels and Mariners are losing games to teams they are supposed to beat.
Heading into tonight the Mariners are in danger of being swept by the Twins. In August the M's have; won 4 of 7 from Cleveland, split 2 of 4 with Detroit, lost 2 of 3 from the New York Payrolls, won 2 of 3 from Boston, lost 2 of 3 from Chicago and took 2 of 3 from those Canadian Bird People.
The Angels in August have; won 3 of 7 from the Payrolls, won a single game with Detroit, dropped 2 of 3 from Chicago, grabbed 2 of 3 from Toronto, swept the Tigers in a three game set, picked up 2 of 3 from Cleveland, split a four game series with Boston and are in danger of losing the series with Tampa Bay going into tonight's game.
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