Dallas Braden might have surpassed the brilliance of his perfect game tonight. Braden put together a 4-hit shutout as the Oakland A’s put together a 5-0 victory over the Texas Rangers.
Braden gave up no walks and I would argue this was a more impressive performance than his perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays. A perfect game is nothing to sneeze at, and the Rays are a very solid lineup. However, throwing a shutout down in Arlington against the lineup is pretty impressive.
The Rangers boast the likes of Josh Hamilton, Vladimir Guerrero, Michael Young, and Elvis Andrus among others. For Braden to hold them to 4 hits and no runs is a big deal.
The A’s offense jumped on Rich Harden and rode Kurt Suzuki’s 4-hit game and Daric Barton’s 2 hit, 4 run, 2 RBI performance to victory. The victory gets the A’s back to 8.5 games out and tomorrow they’ll look to go for the rare road series victory at Texas.