Gaudin has right stuff against lefties

OAKLAND -- Even as Chad Gaudin was whipping through the first half last season with surprising success, there was one nagging issue.

He struggled against lefties.

Gaudin now seems to not only have recovered his first half form from a year ago, but he's figured out how to pitch to lefties.

Gaudin pitched one of his best games in an A's uniform on Wednesday night, winning 3-0 against a Twins lineup loaded with seven hitters swinging from the left side.

"That's one thing we really focused on," manager Bob Geren said. "That was the one thing last year he really needed to improve on, and now he's been coming inside with his fastball and breaking ball more. He's using both sides of the plate, which he didn't do last year."

Gaudin got all the offensive support he needed from Mike Sweeney, who scored two runs and drove in two, including his first homer in an A's uniform.

Gaudin didn't need much, though, because he dominated a Twins lineup that seemed stacked against him. He needed only 84 pitches to get through seven innings. He did not walk a batter.

Gaudin gave up three hits in 19 at-bats against lefties and switch-hitters on Wednesday night. So far this season lefties have hit .208 against Gaudin.

"You have to work both sides of the plate to keep the hitters honest," Gaudin said. "I've been working on it. All the greats do it, so I'm going to continue to work on it to perfect it."

It's quite a change from last season, when lefties hit .282 against Gaudin, compared with .250 for righties. He also walked lefties at about twice the rate he walked righties. This season he has walked just two of the 50 lefties he's faced.

"It's great," Gaudin said. "Coming off (two surgeries) in the offseason, I'm really happy, but I'm not complacent. I don't want to settle. You can always get better."

Gaudin gave up a single to Denard Span leading off the game, but then he got a double play ball. Joe Mauer reached on an error, and then Gaudin retired the next 11 hitters before giving up another hit.

Gaudin prevented the Twins from even getting two runners on base until the seventh, when he had to work out of his only jam. After Delmon Young and Jason Kubel hit back-to-back two-out singles, Gaudin faced Craig Monroe as the potential go-ahead run. Monroe, who had three hits the night before, popped up on a 3-2 slider.

Relievers Alan Embree and Huston Street worked the final two innings to preserve the A's first shutout of the season.

The offensive star was Sweeney, who had been out of the lineup the previous five games because of a sore knee.

Sweeney drew a second-inning walk and then he motored to third on Jack Cust's single and scored on Brown's sacrifice fly. In the third, Sweeney followed Daric Barton's two-out walk and Mark Ellis' single with a run-scoring single.

In the eighth, he gave the A's an insurance run by yanking a homer against Matt Guerrier.

"You watch on SportsCenter and see guys have eight or nine homers and you barely have eight or nine hits," Sweeney said. "Golly, I have a long way to go. It felt great to get the monkey off my back and fill a column . . .

"Now I have to fill the stolen-base column and the triples column. They might not come, but it's OK to set goals."

You can reach Staff Writer Jeff Fletcher at 521-5489 or jeff.fletcher@pressdemocrat.com.