Let's make this quick. :)

1)Erasmo's pitchcount and dogged composure. As Doc says in his recap, it’s not always gonna be pretty from Erasmo.  He’s a young pitcher, and facing 3 HOFers in a row in the LAAA lineup isn’t exactly like mowing down the Astros. But E-Ram faced that Cerberus down and wrestled him over a cliff. And he did it despite 3 broken bat singles against him, a HR that he gave up on a good pitch, a called strike 3 that didn’t go his way, a fielding error... it was not smooth out there.  Not everything went according to plan.  But Erasmo threw 7 innings on 93 pitches despite an inning of struggles, and the miracle changeup bailed him out of tough at-bat after tough at-bat.  It's easy to look good when you have your A-Game and the opponents don't bring anything. Erasmo still looked good even struggling.  I like that.

I wondered if Buck was gonna be bad for him – Erasmo predicates everything he does off that changeup and if a catcher wants him to go with 70% fastballs it’s gonna be rough.  But Buck did a good job.  45% fastballs, 30% changeups, 25% sliders. Can’t complain about that at all – or about the results.  And he saved the pen for future duty as well.  The guy gets quick innings and stays in games a long time. One reason I’d rather have him starting after Paxton instead of before is to have the pen-saving properties of his starts available.  Felix doesn’t use the pen much, and Erasmo doesn’t either. But we’ll focus on that another day.  For today, victory was most definitely ours, and it started with the little guy keeping his composure and throwing  that changeup no matter how many great hitters he was staring down.

2) Miller is a unicorn. As Doc was saying in his recap, I’ve been mentioning for a while that lefty power from the SS position is rare as hen’s teeth. Just for example: 57 shortstops have had multi-homer games in the last decade (2004-current). Hanley Ramirez leads the pack with 13 such games, then JJ Hardy with 10, Tulo and Jimmy Rollins with 8… Miller already has 4 in basically half a season (78 games). Tulo has played in 872 games to get that figure, Rollins in 1954 (!!) because Rollins has 8 for HIS career not just the timeframe, and Rollins is the ALL-TIME leader in HR-by-SS in National League history with 200. Miller is halfway to him in multi-homer games.

But it gets better – Miller is now the ALL-TIME leader in multi-homer games for lefty shortstops.  They’ve been playing the game for over a century, and it took Miller exactly half a season to set the record. Only 21 lefties in history even have ONE multi-homer game, and just 7 have multiple games.

If Miller is gonna bring the power as a lefty SS, he’ll be an unprecedented player. Number of lefty SS to ever hit even 15 HR and 5 triples in a season: FOUR. Dick McAuliffe, Stephen Drew, Arky Vaughn and Solly Hemus.  The only one to do it in the last 50 years is Drew.  Miller’s gonna be #2. Vaughn is a HOFer, McAuliffe was a 37 WAR player, Hemus was “only” a 25 WAR one, and Drew is the worst of the bunch. Miller is flying pretty high with his potential company from that side of the plate. Enjoy it.

3) Ackley's swagger.  The beard is good for Dustin.  It helps him hide his movie-star-level pretty face and approach the game like an Oakland player instead of a model.  For whatever reason, it took a long time for the game to slow down for Dustin.  It does happen sometimes, but not usually to the best players. Dustin was the college player of the decade, and could hit .400 just falling out of bed.  He’s obviously always been able to see pitches well, but he had a long transition to wood and professional pitching.  He seems there at the moment, utilizing his game to demolish breaking pitches and square up fastballs.  He didn’t miss a HR by much with that double off the top of the wall, but what I like most now is his confidence out there.  His swagger that says he belongs.  And it showed up on his walk, actually.

Dustin has been getting gypped on the outer part of the zone for 2 years now.  And he would defer to the refs, wouldn’t say a word.  He would wait to be allowed to take first base.  Dustin is seeing the ball well enough now that when he received ball 4 he threw his bat and was on his way to first even while they were appealing his check-swing to the 3rd base ump.  Dustin didn’t even pause. “I know it was a ball, and I’m taking my base.”  It wasn't an act either - he legitimately knew it was outside and wasn't gonna wait for anybody else's confirmation. When he stole second the first time, only to have it come back because the batter swung and tapped the ball foul, he had that determined look on his face, and took off again on the next pitch.  It was a close play, but Dustin got in there. “And I’m taking THIS base too.”  If Dustin is done being deferential and is going to impose his will on the game (bringing the hardest-guy-to-get-out schtick from college to the pros at long last) no one will be happier than me. Well, maybe Jack…

4) Sleeping giant syndrome. It’s only two games, but if I wanted to see at-bats from hitters that were going to encourage me that our talent was likely to start performing in every game instead of once a week, these are the kinds of games I’d be hoping for.  We have always had a ton of talent, but it was long-delayed in putting runs on the board.  Seager is going to be under-rated even while putting up Longoria-like numbers. Ackley is more talented than Seager, with far lesser results so far – if his performance matches his talent this year we’re going to scare some people.  Smoak is the definition of slumbering talent.  Zunino was the best college hitter his year of the draft and it wasn’t particularly close, in addition to playing catcher; he’s waiting in the wings to turn from a good-glove performer to an All-Star. And Miller… well what else can be said about Miller right now? Add a HOF-level talent at 2B, and some defenders who run like the wind in Almonte and Saunders (who can also contribute at the plate) and we have an embarrassment of riches even before we get to LoMo and Hart splitting the DH position between em. If half our talented players step up to being the 110-120 OPS+ types they're capable of, we’re pretty golden. If they all do it, we’re gonna run away with this thing.

Only two games, but they’re two very pretty games with approaches to at-bats and situations just how you’d like to see em.  Lloyd seems to have everybody pointed the right way and rarin’ for a fight.  We’ll see if they can keep the attitude when the hits stop falling as often, but so far it’s all roses for the Ms.