A long night's journey into day

TOR 2, OAK 5

To recap:

"We're looking for somebody to give us consistent starts, deep in games and give us a chance to win," Macha said. "The objective is to get at least six innings out of your starter."

-SF Chronicle, earlier today

So Macha's mind trick worked. Not only did Blanton go deep, he got his first major league win. Huston Street got his second big league save.

I'll be honest with you that early in the game I was scared that the A's couldn't come back trailing by two. Good to be proven wrong and good to see momentum on the A's side for a change.

Bats came alive too, with home runs by Chavez and Byrnes. When I saw the lineup today and saw Byrnes in CF I had an "oh crap" thought, as did the rest of A's fandom but his arm didn't suck that bad and was credited with an outfield assist that was a key out. There's still discussion on whether or not the Blue Jays disrespected his crappy throwing arm because I heard it wasn't hit that deep. I listened to the game on radio and I really can't be the judge of that.

Kotsay sat out today with a "stiffness in the back." Kotsay had back problems in SD, let's hope it just stiffness and nothing more.

All right Oakland, let's win this series.