HOUSTON -- In simplifying his game, A's right-hander Kendall Graveman has revived it.
Graveman, winner of a 3-2 contest over the Astros on Saturday afternoon, was struggling to give the A's innings, and results, in the early going this season. Carrying a 5.36 ERA after nine starts, he began to ask himself, "What am I not doing? These guys that are the best in the game, what are they doing?"
"They're not missing the mitt by much," Graveman recalled telling himself, "and that's what I focused on."
On Saturday, he hardly missed, pitching into the ninth inning for the first time in his career and allowing two runs on just five hits with three strikeouts and no walks in a tidy 93-pitch display.