Game #64: A's 6, Yankees 5

June 11, 2006 | A's @ New York (A)

SWEEP!!!
What a great result. Three games in Yankee Stadium, three wins for the good guys. This was a great win for a number of reasons: Zito did not have his great stuff, Dan Johson hit two homers, Swisher's inside the park home run and we sweep the Yankees. The sweep leaves us one and a half games behind the Rangers and they still have one more game to play against the Red Sox tonight.

Barry Zito...
I had concerns about Zito being tired coming in today and he threw what was ultimately a bizarre outing. 30 pitches and two runs in the first. Innings 2-4 he throws a total of 25 pitches. Then 23 pitches in the fifth giving up 3 more runs.

I give Zito credit, he made it through 7 innings, 105 pitches, surrendered 7 walks but he delivered us to our red hot bullpen and got the win. With a day off tomorrow, it will be interesting to see if they keep Zito on five days rest this week or give him an extra day off.

Nick Swisher...
Hits a fly ball to left center in the bottom of the third, Melky Cabrera and Johnny Damon collide as they each try to make the catch. The ball rolls to the ground and Swisher circles the bases safely. TV had and excellent replay of Swisher gamely running out what seemed a routine flyball, realizing the ball hit the ground and picking up steam, then to his surprise seeing Wash wave him home before sliding in safely thanks to a high bounce on the throw home. Great stuff.

Dan Johnson...
Two home runs today raises his slugging average for the month to 958 and hitting 434. I declare DJ officially hot.

Right now we have DJ and Frank Thomas hot with Swisher and Chavez cooling off. It would be nice to pick up a third musketeer to go with DJ and Thomas. Swisher hit the ball well today but it would be nice to see Bradley or perhaps Crosby shows us a burst of offense.

Coming up...
The A's are on a roll. Winning 5 of 6 on the road trip against the two best offenses in baseball. Monday is an off day and then three games versus the Mariners.

Seattle has also won 8 of their last 10, beating the Angels, Royals and Twins. These are three of the four worst teams in the league. Interesting to consider the Angels as one of the worst teams in the league.

Get ready though because after the Seattle series we go into five interleague series: Los Angeles Dodgers, @ Colorado, @ San Francisco, @ San Diego and Arizona. The NL West features four teams at or above 500 and the Rockies not too far below. It will be July before we see another American League team.

(Game experience: Fox Sports Bay Area)

A's record: 32-31 | streak: W-4