The opener of the 2011 Bay Bridge Series between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s came just as advertised, a straight up pitcher’s duel between veteran Ryan Vogelsong and the dominant Trevor Cahill. These evenly matched squads took their fight into extra innings where Aubrey Huff hit a walk off single to solidify the 2-1 win for the Giants at AT&T Park.
Vogelsong continued his streak as the Giants good luck charm, giving them six innings pitched, allowing four hits, one unearned run, two walks, and five strikeouts. He also extended his scoreless innings streak to 18. Javy Lopez (W 2-0) was slated with the win with his perfect tenth inning of work, but Vogelsong made it the five wins in his five starts for the G-Men this season.
On the other side of the bill was Trevor Cahill, who was just as effective as Vogelsong if not more. He also went for six innings, allowing only one hit, one earned run, two walks, and six strikeouts. Cahill would have stayed in longer except A’s Skipper Bob Geren decided to bring in a pinch hitter in the seventh, but wound up stranding Mark Ellis at third. Brian Fuentes (L 1-5) was tabbed for his fifth loss of the season for his work in the tenth.
Aside from Huff’s game winner, both teams plated their runs off of situational hitting. Freddy Sanchez grounded out in the first, scoring Andres Torres. Trevor Cahill grounded into a bases loaded double play in the fifth, scoring Mark Ellis. Needless to say, the lagging offenses in the Bay were on full display this evening.
Ellis made A’s history tonight after getting his 1,000th hit of his career, only the 12th player in A’s history to accomplish that feat. Ellis also was the only player to have more than one hit for the game for either team finishing 2-3 with a double and a walk.
Full box score can be found here.
The Bay Bridge Series continues tomorrow afternoon as the A’s Brett Anderson (2-3 3.30 ERA) is set to square off with Giants ace Tim Lincecum (3-4 2.36 ERA). First pitch is set for 4:10 PT tomorrow with coverage on the Fox network, KNBR 680 AM, and Sports Radio 95.7 FM.
For mor discussion and analysis of everything A’s and Giants, head over to Athletics Nation and/or McCovey Chronicles to get in on the action.