125 batting average against. His nasty arsenal of pitches ... over 20 innings in an A's uniform without allowing an earned run, which has led to manager Mark Kotsay turning to Sterner more often ...

In his 25 career starts before Tuesday, he had allowed zero earned runs eight times, one earned run seven times, two earned runs six times, three earned runs twice and four earned runs once.

Ober lowered his earned-run average to 12.15 from 27.00 after his first start, which came amid a stomach illness which Ober said caused him to lose eight pounds last week. “Been feeling good ...