The universe righted itself a bit Tuesday night. Good pitching + Just enough hitting = Extra-inning victory.

I don’t get too excited about teams “bouncing back” from tough losses. You have a bad day at work, you shouldn’t bring it to the office the next day. They have a bad day on the field, same thing. Learn from it and come back ready to go.

The good stuff:

*Seeing Anthony Swarzak adjust after three shaky innings and throwing four excellent ones. That was the adjustment he didn’t make during his fourth-inning knockout the last time he poitched in Oakland. It was all about using his curveball, as LaVelle pointed out in his postgame blog post.

*Watching Michael “Cristian Guzman” Cuddyer put aside four crummy at-bats to smash the game-winning triple to right-center in the 10th off A’s closer Andrew Bailey. Cristian Guzman? That was Cuddyer’s sixth triple of the season, putting him one behind the league leaders and a career single-season best. Not exactly a place you’d expect to find him.

*Joe Mauer batting second and getting two hits. Let’s stop the silliness and settle on Mauer in the two spot — at least until the arrival of Mark Grudzielanek.

*Joe Crede getting two hits against a lefty. Crede had been flailing against lefties all season and is still looking for his first homer against a lefty since 2006. But both hits were solid. Stay healthy, OK?

*Joe Nathan having another good-luck-hitting-this outing in what is becoming the best among his excellent seasons.

*Matt Guerrier having another quietly reliable outing  and putting the disaster of 2008, powered by overuse, further in the rear-view mirror. Give some credit to Gardy and Andy for their discipline in using him even though he’s tied for the AL lead (with Craig Breslow) in appearances.

*Is Colorado must be trying to play itself into a position to trade closer Huston Street? How else do you explain the decision to bring ex-Twin Boom Boom Pow into the eighth inning of a tie game last night? Juan Rincon gave up the eighth-inning, game-losing home run that let the Diamondbacks beat the Rockies. Don’t hold your breath, though. The Rockies are still leading the NL Wild-Card Race by a half-game.

Day game today. No TV. If GameDay is a bit too obvious at your desk, you can follow the play-by-play here. No fancy graphics. Just the facts.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 at 8:58 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.