Rich Harden, who blanked the Blue Jays over seven innings on Friday, is 4-2 in nine starts this season with a 3.91 earned-run average and 60 strikeouts in 53 innings pitched. (Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)For the second time in three weeks, Oakland Athletics pitcher Rich Harden appeared headed for a new baseball address, only to have a potential trade scuttled.
According to ESPN.com, the A's pulled the right-hander back from waivers after the Cleveland Indians claimed the 29-year-old Victoria native but couldn't work out a deal.
Harden, fresh off a 2-0 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday in which he tossed seven runless innings and matched a career high with 11 strikeouts, can no longer be claimed by another team before baseball's Aug. 31 trade deadline.
In the final hours before the non-waiver trade deadline on July 31, a trade that would have sent Harden to Boston fell through after fell apart after the Red Sox reviewed the oft-injured hurler's recent medical information.
Harden is 4-2 in nine starts this season with a 3.91 earned-run average and 60 strikeouts in 53 innings pitched since coming off the 60-day disabled list on July 1.
Harden has been eager to prove himself again after so many injury-shortened seasons, including missing the first three months of this year with an injury behind his pitching shoulder.
On Friday, he didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning and looked much like the pitcher he was in 2008 during his first stint with the A's. He went a combined 10-2 that year with a 2.07 ERA in 25 starts between Oakland and the Chicago Cubs.
He dazzled with a nasty fastball-changeup combination and won consecutive decisions for the first time this season, and both came against the Blue Jays. He pitched seven strong innings at Toronto on Aug. 9.
Harden received a one-year, $1.5 million US contract in December to rejoin Oakland, the team that drafted him in the 17th round in 2000. Harden went 5-5 with a 5.58 ERA in 20 appearances and 18 starts for the Texas Rangers last season, when he struggled with injuries and control.
Cleveland, which entered play Monday just 4 ½ games behind first-place Detroit in the American League Central Division, probably will continue its search for a veteran starter.
Former Colorado Rockies ace Ubaldo Jimenez, whom the Indians acquired before the July 31 deadline, hasn't panned out so far. He sports a 1-1 record in four starts and saw his earned-run average balloon to 7.29 with Cleveland after allowing eight earned runs over 3 1/3 innings to Detroit on Sunday.
With files from The Associated Press
