"Rich Harden was still in warm-up mode when Friday night's game began, or so it seemed when he made an error on Yunel Escobar's comebacker and then walked the next two batters to load the bases.

A bad situation to be in right out of the gates, but Harden briskly got out of it, no problem, by striking out the side on nine pitches. From there, he baffled the Toronto hitters the rest of the evening in Oakland's 2-0 victory at the Coliseum. Harden worked seven innings and matched his career high with 11 strikeouts.

"It was kind of an ugly start," Harden said. "I started feeling better with guys on base. Awful start."

And then? "Everything kind of clicked. ... It could have gone the other way. It could have been pretty bad."

The Blue Jays didn't record their first hit off Harden until, with one out in the fifth, J.P. Arencibia hit a soft single to left field; Josh Willingham said he didn't feel he would have gotten it with a dive, so he played it safely.

The only problem with all the Ks was that Harden's pitch count shot up. He had 83 after five innings and finished with 115 in seven innings, including 75 strikes. He ended five innings with swinging strikeouts, and Blue Jays second baseman Aaron Hill said of Harden's split-finger fastball, "It's the best out there.""