What It Means:

It was lovely work by Iwakuma, who struck out three and walked two. The strikeout total is modest enough, but the A's simply couldn't square up the veteran right-hander. He did not allow an extra-base hit on the evening. The only run to score against him came in the sixth, when Jed Lowrie burned him for an RBI single. Otherwise, Iwakuma cruised.

Through six starts (38 innings), he holds a 4.24 SIERA, 17.5 strikeout percentage and 6.9 walk percentage -- all of which are career-worst numbers. In the last three seasons, Iwakuma never finished with an SIERA higher than 3.36. He will hit the road for an outing against the Houston Astros next time out.