If we would have looked at the statistics Tim Hudson had against Cleveland we may not have watched last night's game. Here's Huddy's career line:
115 starts 59 Wins 26 Losses 3.52 ERA
Now here's Huddy's line against Cleveland before last night;
5 starts 0 Wins 2 Losses 10.08 ERA
It gets worse, Huddy's career line against Jim Thome after last night;
13 at bats 7 hits 4 HR 8 RBI 3 walks 1 k .625 OBP 1.538 SLG 2.163 OBPS .538 AVG
{Shudder} Yeesh...
But, Huddy grinded it out and coughed up all of one run (a Jim Thome solo shot in 4th) in 8 1/3 innings. Huddy gave up 6 hits but got 6 strike outs. He had 15 ground outs and 4 fly outs. Huddy also got a double play when he needed it. With Karim Garcia on third and Travis Fryman on first Huddy induced a 5-4-3 GIDP to end the second.
The A's were the A's, seemingly wasting chances all over the joint and still putting up an 8-spot to spite themselves. They left 14 runners on base, 8 with less than 2 outs. Miguel Tejada went 2 for 5 with an RBI but left 5 runners on. Miggi grounded into a double play to end the 3rd, stuck out with the bases loaded to end the 4th, hit into a fielder's choice to end the 6th and got an infield single in the 9th to salvage his .300 batting average.
Ghostly Calisthenics
The 7-8 hitters for Oakland went a combined 0 for 7 but each Mark Ellis and T Long picked up walks. Ellis popped up and flied out twice and Long looked confused at the plate flying out to left and lining out to third with a fly ball to right center sandwiched in between.
Eric Chavez had a laser 2 run homer in the first, looked lost at the plate his next three at bats and then crushed a Mark Wohlers fast ball for a three run Jimmy Jack in the 9th.
There was a very nice round of boos when Art Howe came to get Huddy in the 9th. It is not very often that a visiting crowd will boo the opposing manager when he takes out a starter two outs from a complete game. Cleveland has gone though hell the last two years and if they need a cornerstone to rebuild they have one in their fans. We just hope management doesn't try to rebuild off the fans' wallets.
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