Athletics: 5 Twins: 1
It’s no secret, Tom Milone has struggled on the road. Recently, he’s also struggled at home, but not today. In his previous three games at the coliseum he had allowed 23 hits and 15 earned runs (2 home runs) over 17 innings. Today over 8 innings, he only allowed 2 hits, 1 run, walked 1 and struck out 5.
Milone’s only shaky inning was in the second, when he allowed a lead off single to Ryan Doumit and then a double to Matt Carson. He then got Trevor Plouffe to to line out to Yoenis Cespedes, but the Twins scored on an RBI ground out by Drew Butera. The inning ended with a ground out by Pedro Florimon.
Milone needed to be sharp today, because the defense was not. The A’s committed four errors total in today’s game, one each by Stephen Drew, Josh Donaldson, Coco Crisp and Josh Reddick.
The A’s offense was better than the defense, scoring five runs on eight hits and five walks, although they were only 4-12 with runners in scoring position today.
Lines of the Day:
- Tom Milone: 8 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 SO. Milone was back to being his old self at home today. It’s nice to see, especially considering that we lost Bartolo Colon earlier in the day.
- Coco Crisp: 3 AB, 3 H, 3 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SB. Not only did Coco record three hits and a walk, he also hit his eighth home run of the season in the seventh. Since returning from the All-Star break Crisp has a .295/.356/.549 slash line with a .905 OPS.
A’s Extras:
- Josh Donaldson recorded two more hits today, going 2-4 with one run.
- Cliff Pennington made his 2012 debut at second base today, he went 1-4 and was one of the few players to not commit an error today.
- Stephen Drew still has not recorded his first hit as an Athletic, but he did take 2 walks in today’s game.
- Ryan Cook pitched the ninth and allowed a single and no walks.
- Tyson Ross will be called up tomorrow to start in place of Bartolo Colon. He started in 12 games for the A’s earlier this season, going 2-8 with a 6.35 ERA, a .344 BABIP and a 5.12 FIP. Over 13 starts for the Rivercats he has a 5-2 record with a 2.74 ERA and 3.48 FIP.
