[Mick]

Watching the A's vs. Giants, through the first five innings. Murphy has hit two home runs, Flores hit another. But the story of the game is Jordan Hicks. I realize that he's a reliever, and a project, and a lot of people have pooh-poohed the Hicks-as-starter experiment. But MAN, that guy can pitch. In five innings, Hicks has 10 strikeouts, nine of them swinging, and the hardest hit ball that the A's had in five innings was a comebacker to the mound (by JD Davis, no less).

Giants won, they are 16-11-2, good for 2nd place among the 15 Cactus League teams. They're 8-2 in the last 10.

[Mick]

Watching the A's vs. Giants, through the first five innings. Murphy has hit two home runs, Flores hit another. But the story of the game is Jordan Hicks. I realize that he's a reliever, and a project, and a lot of people have pooh-poohed the Hicks-as-starter experiment. But MAN, that guy can pitch. In five innings, Hicks has 10 strikeouts, nine of them swinging, and the hardest hit ball that the A's had in five innings was a comebacker to the mound (by JD Davis, no less).

Giants won, they are 16-11-2, good for 2nd place among the 15 Cactus League teams. They're 8-2 in the last 10.