Brett Tomko: A Thorn In The Yankees' Side

Oakland A's starting pitcher Brett Tomko came back and proved to be a thorn in the New York Yankees' side. At the beginning of the season, Tomko pitched for the Yankees, making  15 appearances before being sent to the minors.

He did struggle a bit out of the pen for the Yankees, and when he complained about the way he was used, the Yankees released him. The A's then signed him and sent him down to Sacramento.

Tomko pitched in just three games for Sacramento before being called up to start against the Yankees tonight, and he proved to be a handful for the Yankees' hitters.

He wasn't dominating in a sense that he was making the Yankees look foolish. He gave up five up hits in five innings.  He also walked one and struck out one.

There really was only one inning that Tomko was in trouble, and that was the top of the third. Tomko gave up back to back hits to Ramiro Pena and Derek Jeter. Johnny Damon flew out to right field, which got Pena to third on the sacrifice fly.

Mark Teixeira was pitched around, loading the bases with just one out. Alex Rodriguez was in an amazing position to open the game up for the Yankees, but Tomko came up with the perfect pitch.

Rodriguez was looking for a fastball, but Tomko threw him an offspeed pitch that had Rodriguez fooled. All Rodriguez could do was hit a come-backer to Tomko, who fielded the ball and threw to Kurt Suzuki, who threw to Bobby Crosby at first base for the one-two-three double-play. It ended the inning and the threat by the Yankees.

The only other inning for the Yankees that gave them a chance of scoring was in the top of the eighth. Brad Ziegler came on in relief of Craig Breslow who went two innings.

Ziegler gave up an infield single to Jeter. Damon then lined out, and Teixeira flew out to deep center field. Rodriguez then walked, which put runners on first and second with two outs and Jorge Posada—who has come up with big hits against the A's—struck out looking on a perfect fastball on the inside corner by Ziegler.

Offensively, the A's weren't much better than the Yankees. In fact, the only reason why the A's won the game is because the A's came through when their lone scoring opportunity came, and that was in the bottom of the fourth.

The inning started off well for AJ Burnett, who got Adam Kennedy to ground out weakly to Robinson Cano. Rajai Davis came up and hit a slicing double to right field that was almost caught by the diving Nick Swisher, but with Melky Cabrera backing up on the play Davis was held to a double.

During Suzuki's at-bat, Davis was able to steal third with no throw from Posada. The infield had to come in for the Yankees and, because Burnett hung a curveball to Suzuki, he was able to hit a run-scoring single to score Davis and put the A's up 1-0. 

Scott Hairston came up and hit a single that put runners on first and second for the A's. Ryan Sweeney hit a ground ball to Teixeira, but because it was hit slowly towards the line Teixira's only play was to first base.

The A's had runners on second and third, and coming to the plate was the AL Player of the Week, Mark Ellis. The A's were able to pick up a run on a balk because as Burnett was getting ready to pitch he just stopped his motion and didn't even throw the ball.

This allowed Suzuki to score, giving the A's a 2-0 lead. Ellis then hit a run-scoring double to right center field, giving the A's the 3-0 lead and all the scoring the they needed for the win.

Andrew Bailey was impressive. He pitched a perfect ninth for his 18th save of the season.