The Mariners lost a good one. The M's lost 4-3 at the expense of the Oakland Athletics.
On the night after the Mariners lost in 15 innings, they needed a solid start from Jarrod Washburn. The bullpen was so tired, that Jamie Burke had to pitch an inning last night. Washburn knew this going in. He made sure he got it done. Washburn went 8 innings, and threw 102 pitches. He gave up 4 earned on 7 hits, no walks and 5 Ks. Sure, it's not perfect, but it usually should be good enough to win a game.
On the other hand, Dana Eveland was good enough to get the win. He could not quite make it a quality start however, only making it through 5 and 1/3 before being replaced by Ziegler. Ziegler extended his scoreless inning streak to 18, going 2 innings while only giving up 1 hit.
Face it people, the A's are a good team. Beane's team (there it is, my token Billy Beane reference in an A's column) has been built to win in the long run, but are also getting it done in the short term. The sad thing? Despite their 48-41 record, they only had 11,000 people at the McAfee Colisuem today. Only a 33% capacity. This is a true shame. The people in Oakland should know that these Oakland As will always be competitive in the Moneyball era. Maybe more people in the Bay Area should read the book by Micheal Lewis, and appreciate the wonder of the Billy Beane era.
