Athletics 4, Mariners 1: As you would expect, the A’s and M’s were all about the home runs today. All the game’s runs were scored on bombs, in fact, though they gave us their de riguer 0-0 tie through six innings.
Three of the four dingers came in the seventh, with Justin Smoak going deep in the top of the seventh for Seattle and then Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Reddick going back-to-back in the bottom of the inning. Cespedes’ was a two-run shot, coming on the second straight hanging breaking ball Shawn Kelley put up in his eyes. I’m still a provisional Cespediphile, but I won’t go full-bore into things until I see him go deep off something other than slow hanging junk.
As for the pitching, Bartolo Colon gets the win, making like it was ten years ago or something. He went eight innings, striking out six and allowing only three hits. Jason Vargas was good too, going six and a third. His one run allowed was an inherited runner Kelley allowed in on the Cespedes blast.
And thus endeth the Japan opener. Now back to your regularly scheduled spring training, at least for one more week.
