This is one of those occasions where I sure wish I had been wrong, but it appears that Chad Gaudin has headed down the path I predicted for him. His control continued to fall apart as he allowed five walks and struck out just two Twins. Not coincidentally, he only threw 52 of his 97 pitches for strikes before being pulled between the 4th and 5th innings. He saw his ERA rise from 2.88 to 3.18, and we're probably not done seeing that line trend upwards.

On an opposite trajectory of success, Shannon Stewart gathered another two hits to raise his batting average on the season to .311, and extended his hitting streak to 15 games in a row ( ). This is not one shy of his career high, as the game story would have you believe, though. He's twice had streaks of 16 games, but in August of 1999 Stewart hit safely in 26 consecutive games while playing for the Toronto Blue Jays.

Oakland now stands at 0-1 in the second half, making an annual post-All-Star surge just a little bit more of a challenge.