I ought to sue somebody. I put a cheap-brand sunscreen on before I went to the A’s game yesterday, and I might as well have worn magnifying glasses for all the protection it gave me. When I got home, my arms and neck were as red as strawberries. Ticks me off; I did the right thing, and I still got badly burned.

What ticks me off more than the actual pain of sunburn is that I have tickets for Rich Harden’s return from the DL today. I know that I should stay out of the sun today to give my skin a chance to heal, but doggone it, I paid good money for good seats for this game, and I want to use them. Maybe I’ll put on a long sleeve turtleneck, and sweat it out. I can’t decide.

Harden’s return this afternoon helped them win a 2-1 game yesterday. Dan Haren pitched well, but threw too many pitches. It was obvious in the third inning that he would only get through six innings at most, and I was dreading the fact that the A’s would have to go to that weak bullpen for at least an inning. In the fourth inning, I said, “I bet the A’s lose this game in the seventh.”

The seventh inning was indeed trouble, as the Twins scored a run to tie the game 1-1. Randy Keisler failed to retire the one batter he faced, and Kiko Calero gave up a couple of hits. But then Brad Halsey, who had been in the rotation during this stretch of injuries, came out of the pen and got the A’s out of the jam with only one run scoring.

That’s the importance of having depth in your pen. If one guy is having a bad day, you can try someone else. If you only have one guy you trust, you’re stuck with him, whether he’s having a good day or not. That’s where Harden’s return helped the A’s win the game. When Calero wasn’t sharp, Ken Macha had Halsey to try, and it worked.

At least, it worked in the seventh. In the eighth, after the A’s scored a run to take the lead, Halsey allowed the first two batters to reach, and Macha called on Huston Street to get a six-out save. It was Street’s best performance of the year. His fastball was jumping; the Twins were lucky if they even fouled it off. He walked Tony Batista to lead off the ninth (Street threw him nothing but sliders, for some reason), but otherwise the Twins could do nothing with him. It was the first time that the 2006 Huston Street looked like the 2005 Huston Street. Nice to see.