Closer Controversy Averted

The A's pick up their first win of the year, taking out Jon Lester and the Sox behind a resurgent Rich Harden. The 5-1 win was powered by the dubious 4-5 hitters of Emil Brown and Mike Sweeney (it worked so well for the Royals, right), who went 3 for 8 with Brown providing a three-run bomb in the third.

Notable as well was the high leverage bully work of reclamation project Keith Foulke, who I'm convinced Billy Beane will deal for a profit in June. Foulke shook off a one-out error by Bobby Crosby and his own wild pitch in the eighth to retire Ortiz and ManRam in the top of the 8th, with the A's up 3 and really not looking forward to the second straight day of Huston Street working on his gag reflex. A scratch run in the 8th following a Kurt Suzuki double (and with that double, he's already exceeded Jason Kendall's 2007 contribution) gave the Green and Gold a 4-run lead, so Alan Embree was able to come in for the non-save.

Note: I'm really not all that concerned about Street, who has always been streaky but valuable, and a blown 1-run save in a de facto Red Sox home game is not exactly a termination offense. But with Foulke looking good and Embree having done the job last year, he might be movable anyway, especially with his health issues and Billy Beane's longstanding distaste for overvalued closers.

The big story, of course, was Harden, who sent six innings, struck out nine, and didn't get hurt. 3 hits, 3 walks, 1 earned run off a ManRam homer, and the sound you just heard was tens of thousands of roto players moving him up on their draft rankings.

Anyway, since A's wins and being .500 probably won't happen very much this year, let's give Harden and the rest their due...