|
The Oakland Telegraph
11 July 2030
Dundee's devilish display extends A's winning run to eleven
By A. Swinning-Again, same old same old correspondent
Oakland starter Brad Dundee's first career shutout yesterday was a thing of beauty. He allowed no walks and just two hits, taking just 88 pitches to retire all 27 Cleveland batters, as he led the A's to a narrow 1-0 win. Oakland's only run came on centre fielder Juan Torres's two-out double in the 5th inning, but with Dundee in such peerless form, that was all the offense the team needed. It is Oakland's eleventh straight victory in what is turning into a superb title defense by Paulie Beane's boys. With their American League West rivals all hitting shaky patches, that run has catapulted the A's into a commanding 14 game lead over their closest challengers, and the term "challengers" is frankly putting it generously, Texas. There may be nearly half the season still to go, but it will take a fantastic effort from one of the other four teams to prevent the A's winning a fourth division pennant in five years.
The news got better for Oakland fans, and worse for supporters of competitive balance in sport, as it also emerged yesterday that all-star outfielder Dennis Hawkins has signed a new 3-year, $15.5m per annum contract to stay with the club. The team's current winning streak is all the more impressive, since Hawkins, who has a .343 OBP and .797 OPS so far this year, has spent that time on the disabled list.
The Hawkins deal seemingly makes certain that superstar pitcher Lucio Vargas will not be affordable to Oakland next year. But will Beane trade Vargas in the next couple of weeks, or keep him for the season to support their bid to retain the World Series? Making the latter look more likely than a couple of months ago is that Vargas has been in simply stunning form. With his 9-2 record and stingy 2.09 ERA, he is having a Cy Young year and is surely about to earn his ninth all-star call-up. Beane's tactic of flipping veterans on expiring contracts for promising, younger, minimum salary players is fair enough; when that player is a future Hall of Famer who is leading the league in pitching, it may not be quite such a clever idea.
|