Game #54: A's 7, Royals 0

May 31, 2006 | A's vs. Kansas City

A historic game! Jason Kendall hits his first home run since July 27, 2004. They should’ve stopped the game for a nine-minute ceremony. I can’t wait to get home and watch the highlights (because, as usual, this game was not on TV).

• Joe Blanton’s first complete game. Joe Blanton’s first shutout. Joe Blanton’s first complete game shutout. It is this kind of feat that endears me to a pitcher and makes me swear loyalty.

• Tanner Boyle IM's me, "[D]o you let him go for the complete game at 102 pitches?" which sparked a brief discussion of pitch counts and pitcher abuse points. I figured it would be best for Macha to leave Blanton in. Our bullpen is fried and we might need them tomorrow or Friday (Kirk Saarloos vs. Johan Santana). All in all Blanton had 12 groundballs and 10 fly balls. He couldn’t have lasted as long as he did without those.

Pitcher	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	PC-ST	ERA
J Blanton (W, 5-5)	9.0	5	0	0	2	5	0	118-78	5.21

• I was relieved to see Chavy in the line-up. His hand is bruised, but will heal. Ellis, unfortunately, broke his thumb and will be out for six weeks. Scutaro has a job and Antonio Perez had better raise his game to be a good back-up.

• None of the injuries lately have involved Crosby. Has he been bouncing his karma off of himself? “Bobby Crosby, accident-free for 50 days.” Kidding aside, I’m glad he’s starting to get hot. I only wish I could see it with my own eyes.

• Al had an elegantly written comment about Frank Thomas in yesterday’s post. The Big Hurt can still hurt. Two-run homer today.

• And even with the score at 7-0, I felt like we could use another insurance run. Just a twinge. Force of habit.

(Game experience: MLB Gameday and instant message updates from Tanner Boyle.)

A's record: 24-29 | streak: W-1 | well-A-meter: 3