MESA, Ariz. — Santiago Casilla has only been in A’s camp for a week and he’s already conquered a gargantuan personal dragon.
Jake Lamb. Fire-breathing, home run-hitting, Casilla-crushing Jake Lamb. The mere mention of Lamb’s name brought a wide smile and a laugh from the veteran reliever Friday after he not only retired the Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman, but started a 1-6-3 double play on a meek comebacker.
If Casilla needed any kind of inspirational flint to light his 2017 season lighter, there couldn’t have been a better one. OK, a scoreless inning capped by a strikeout in his second Oakland outing helped, too.