Pitcher’s duel blown by Tigers’ Joe Nathan
By Matt Fisher
For a hardcore baseball fan, one of the best kinds of games involves a tremendous pitchers’ duel.
When that duel involves two first-place teams and is played in a speedy two-and-a-half hours, it makes the game that much more entertaining. For a hardcore baseball fan, the match-up by the Bay at O.Co Coliseum was what you love to see. Anibal Sanchez of the Tigers and Scott Kazmir of the Athletics were absolutely on-point on Wednesday night.
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The lone run surrendered by either starter was a home run by Detroit’s Torii Hunter off of Kazmir in the fourth inning. Aside from that, the two teams combined for nine hits total on the day. Kazmir looked to be in line to be the hard-luck loser, and hard-luck would have been a tremendous understatement.
Kazmir was very close to being the losing pitcher while still throwing a complete game. Over nine-innings of excellent pitching, Kazmir scattered 6 hits, allowing just the Hunter home run, and striking out eight Tigers. If not for Josh Donaldson, Kazmir would have been the first pitcher this year to suffer a CGL. When Coco Crisp doubled, however, in the bottom of the ninth of a 1-0 Tigers led game, Detroit manager Brad Ausmus decided to go to his closer, veteran Joe Nathan. His starter, Anibal Sanchez, had thrown 111 pitches over 8.1 innings.
Nathan, the 39-year old who holds the best save percentage in all of Major League Baseball, entered to shut the door. Nathan had already blown four saves this season, his most since 2008 with the Twins. The first batter he faced, John Jaso, rifled a shot to third baseman Nick Castellanos who was only able to deflect it. Jaso and Crisp were on the corners as Donaldson stepped to the plate.
The Athletics’ third baseman found out the day prior that he was in the lead of all American League third basemen in the All-Star voting and decided to show people why.
The win allowed for the Athletics to increase their lead in the AL West over the Angels to 2.5 games as LA lost to Seattle. They are still five games over the Rangers, who blanked the Twins 1-0.