A's Give Cahill 5 Year Deal

"Billy Beane continued an Oakland tradition today, locking up yet another promising young starter. The A's GM agreed to sign Trevor Cahill through his arbitration years and then some with a five-year deal that the team confirmed this afternoon. The contract, which is worth $30.5MM in guaranteed money, according to ESPN.com's Buster Olney, buys out Cahill's last pre-arbitration season, his three arbitration years and at least one free agent year (Twitter link). The A's have two options worth $13MM and $13.5MM for 2016 and 2017, according to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (MLBTradeRumors)."

Love the deal, but you always have to wonder how long the A's will stick with him. It seems like once a pitcher really gets tot he top of his game the A's ship him out. A lot of times it works (Zito), but at some point I would really like to see the A's go for it instead of doing the whole "money ball" thing. They have developed some of the best pitchers in baseball over the years, but yet we have not seen them go all the way.

Also, I think they should lock down Gio Gonzalez long term. That guy has showed that he is the real deal over the last year and it's time he got reward. He might even be the best pitcher on that staff, and has been quoted as saying he has his "fingers crossed" on a deal.

A's 3 Red Sox 8

The Red Sox finally put some runs up on the board, and the even better news is that they were able to do it throughout the game last night. Josh Beckett was his solid self going 7 innings letting up 3 runs on 8 hits with 10 Ks. The key to the game was Boston finally getting after a starting pitcher (Cahill), who they lit up for 6 runs over his 5 innings.

Pedroia started it off with a first innings solo HR (his 5th on the year). Every Red Sox hitter had a hit in this game, which I can't even remember the last time that happened. So far the Adam LaRoche experiment is going very well as he went 2-4 with a run and RBI. Jacoby Ellsbury had three hits for the Red Sox, who entered with just 25 runs and a .215 batting average in their nine games since the break.

The bad news is that the Yankees won again last night so Boston is 2 1/2 games back in the AL East, but the Sox are also 2 1/2 games up on Texas for the Wild Card. Hopefully this game will get the offense going heading into the final months of the season.

A's 4 Red Sox 5

Who leads the AL in wins? Oh, that would be Mr. Tim Wakefield.

The All-Star pitcher let up a lot of hits, but found his way through 6 innings letting up 3 runs with 8 Ks. Wake collected his 11th win of the season, as the Sox took their 2nd straight game against the A's.

This was no easy game. Cahill was unreal through the first 5 innings, but in the 6th the Sox offense finally got it going when Drew hit a solo HR followed by a 3 run blast by Ortiz. Boston went into the 9th inning with a 2 run lead, but like so many times this season Papelbon made it interesting. I know you can't shit on a guy who just got his 22nd save, but he doesn't look like himself, and last night he almost blew it. After letting up a run there were 2 men on with Cust at the plate. The good news was that Cust just can't hit Papelbon, so that quickly ended all the drama.

Ortiz had 4 RBIs in the game, and has really turned around his season. It is really just in time with the Sox offense not doing so well. Youk is in a terrible slump, Bay is still struggling, and Lowell is on the DL. Once again it is Big Papi's offense.

The Yankees won again last night, so Boston is still just 1 game up on them for 1st place in the AL East.