Yes, Jermaine Dye is hurt again. I don't know how he does it. This time he separated his shoulder trying to knock the ball loose in a collision at the plate. He was 2-2 at that point, raising his batting average all the way up to .160, so he was having a great day (by his standards). Terrence Long came in and, of course, promptly went 0-2.

Miguel Tejada put up another 0-5. Ramon Hernandez celebrated his all-star choice with a 3-4. He's having a nice year, better than he's had in quite a few years, reversing a lot of negative trends he'd been experiencing. Surpringly, he has a 100-OPS right-left split, but it's in the "wrong" direction. He's also hit 100-OPS points better at home, despite Oakland playing neutral at best, and often playing as a pitcher's park. He's had a terrible 93-at-bat season during the day (581 OPS), but has hit over 300 points better at night. It's a good thing most of the A's games are at night, then, I guess. I wonder if that has anything to do with being a catcher, and having day games following night games where he's worn out. Generally, that's a time when the manager will take the chance to drop the backup catcher in for a game, but with the way Ramon has been hitting, Ken Macha seems to be very reluctant to take Ramon out.

Tim Hudson, though, got another no-decision. According to the recap, that's his tenth of the season, and the A's are 9-1 in those games. He walked four in 6 2/3 today, driving his pitch count up so he couldn't get past the seventh, but he managed to keep the runners from scoring, and that's what counts. He's pitched very well this year, as usual, as he's third in the AL in ERA and fourth in WHIP, in the top five in RSAA, and seventh in baseball in SNWAR. If the establishment could get past this wins thing, he'd be on the All-Star team with Barry Zito and Mark Mulder. By SNWAR, Zito and Mulder have actually been better pitchers, while by RSAA, Hudson has been better. VORP ranks them the same way that SNWAR does. Regardless, they're all top-ten, and they all deserve to go to Chicago. Tweet