After a shaky start, Armando Galarraga settled in for 6.1 innings of solid baseball
Against all odds, Armando Galarraga and Trevor Cahill locked up in a pitchers duel on Saturday night. The 2 struggling starters pitched to a 2-2 stalemate into the 7th inning. With 1 out in the bottom of the 9th and Adam Kennedy on 2nd, Kurt Suzuki hit a sinking liner to left that Ryan Raburn couldn’t reach to give Oakland the walk-off win, 3-2. Zach Miner takes the loss in relief for the Tigers.
Galarraga came into the game with a +5 ERA and struggled his way through the first 2 innings tonight. He was able to gather himself on this occasion and really quiet down the A’s from the 3rd through the 7th with a little help from Ryan Perry who closed out the last 2 hitters in the 7th via the strikeout. Armando gave up 2 runs through 6.1 innings with 7 hits, 2 walks, and 3 K’s.
Cahill was up to the task as well with his near 5 ERA on the season. He allowed a run in the 1st but pitched out of trouble and then only allowed an RBI single to Miguel Cabrera in the 6th the rest of the way. In all, he went 7 innings giving up 5 hits, 3 walks, and he struck out 4.
Ryan Perry came back out for the 8th and found himself in a bases loaded, 1-out jam. He got Daric Barton to pop out to 3rd and Cliff Pennington to ground out to 1st to get out of trouble in a big spot.
Craig Breslow and Andrew Bailey locked down the 8th and 9th for the A’s in relatively easy fashion. Bailey looks like a stud. He throws hard and has a no nonsense approach on the mound. He’ll be closing for Oakland soon. The work of Breslow and Bailey set Suzuki up for the walk-off hit.
This loss hurts more than some of the others as both the White Sox and the Twins won today. The Sox climb back to within 2.5 games of Detroit in the Central. Rick Porcello is Detroit’s last hope for their first road series win since early June, a full 10 series’ ago. He goes at it with Brett Tomko tomorrow at 4:05 eastern.
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