Bartolo Colon Throws Seattle for a Curve as Oakland A's Spoil M's Home Opener

With a few more starts like this, Bartolo Colon may establish himself as one of the free-agent steals of 2012.

Colon went seven shutout innings, only allowing three hits and a walk while striking out five, and the Oakland A's cruised to a 4-0 win over the Seattle Mariners.

After being rocked for seven runs in 4 1/3 innings in his last start against Seattle, Colon adjusted by throwing many more curveballs and keeping Seattle's lineup off balance. Ryan Cook and Grant Balfour completed the shutout with two innings of scoreless relief.

The A's got on the board in the third inning when after a leadoff single by Daric Barton, he was moved over to second on a Josh Donaldson ground out. Cliff Pennington then broke out of his early season slump with a double to dead center, easily scoring Barton.

Jemile Weeks followed with a walk and Coco Crisp singled in Pennington to make it 2-0. The scoring would remain that way until a Kurt Suzuki sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth made it 3-0. Weeks then closed out the scoring with a solo home run to left in the ninth.

Good: Bartolo Colon. More like great. Great start in Japan, not so good start in Oakland, and a great start in Seattle. Keep this guy away from the Coliseum!

Bad: Yoenis Cespedes. The 0-for-4 against Felix Hernandez is understandable. However, he did go 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position. I don't expect he will have many of these types of games.

Ugly: None. Nothing to complain about after a shutout victory.

Saturday's matchup will be Tommy Milone, fresh off his impressive A's debut, against Seattle's Hector Noesi with the first pitch at 6:10 p.m.