By Morris Phillips

Friday night’s catalyst and Saturday night’s hero took a seat on Sunday, giving him extra time to wipe the whipped cream off his face and neck, then find the offending culprit last seen wearing a green A’s jersey with number 16 on the back.

In his place the sullen, bearded one took the field for the A’s on Sunday with an agenda of his own.

Derek Norris—half of Oakland’s suddenly potent platoon at catcher—squeezed a whole weekend of intentions into just two at-bats leading the A’s past the Nationals, 9-1. Norris hit a pair of three-run homers off Gio Gonzalez, the guy he was traded for—ending his four plus seasons in the minor league system of the Nats, the team that drafted him in 2007.

Surely a prideful moment for a guy who never got a major league shot until he was traded to Oakland. Right, Derek?

“Most definitely. And against the guy I was traded for,” Norris said.

“It’s not that they didn’t want you, but it’s always nice to stick it to them.”

Norris homered in each of the first two innings, both coming on 3-0 counts. It was the biggest game of the Kansas native’s big league career and he joined Jose Abreu of the White Sox and the Twins’ Chris Colabello as the only American Leaguers to have six RBI in a game this season. After a lot of fits, starts, dings and nicks endemic to being a big league catcher who needs to have an offensive presence as well, Norris is catching on in his third year in Oakland. The career .247 hitter is currently at .385 with four homers in 19 starts.

For Gonzalez, Norris was a major slice of a bad, first return to Oakland after the December 2011 trade.   Gonzalez couldn’t find his spots, fell behind in counts, allowed six consecutive A’s batters to reach base in the first and was seen on television yelling at a teammate after the disastrous start to the game. The likely offender, shortstop Ian Desmond saw two A’s reach base in the first inning on ground balls hit his way.

Manager Matt Williams allowed Gonzalez to battle for another two plus innings after the A’s struck for seven runs in the first two innings. But when Norris walked and Brandon Moss singled in the fifth, Gonzalez was done, seeing his ERA jump a full run to 3.97 in the process.

“He fell behind a lot today and had to throw the ball over the plate,” Williams said of Gonzalez.

“Just couldn’t find the strike zone,” the lefty said. “Mistake pitches, left them up in the zone and good hitters made contact.”

Lost in the Billy Beane shuffle was A’s starter Scott Kazmir who threw seven shutout innings, allowing just four singles while striking out four. Kazmir was a machine, retiring all three batters he faced in five of the first six innings.  

“Location-wise, everything was right there,” Kazmir said. “I was able to attack the strike zone in on righties a lot and I think that helped me.”

Kazmir–like Norris, Moss, Sonny Gray and John Jaso, the star of the series’ first two games–is a breakout star in 2014, and just like three of the other four guys, excluding Gray, this after some serious hard times along the way. The lefty is 5-1 with a 2.28 ERA after an arduous journey over the last five seasons.

In 2010, Kazmir pitched for the Angels and lost 15 games. In July of that year, he came to the O.co Coliseum and allowed—catch your breath—13 earned runs in a 15-1 loss. Things didn’t get better in 2011 and the Angels released him. He logged just 1 2/3 innings at the big league level in 2011 and 2012 as he pitched for various independent clubs in an attempt to regain the snap on his pitches. In 2013, good things happened to Kazmir in Cleveland where he resurrected his career with 10 wins and finishing fourth in AL Comeback Player of the Year voting.

This season, Kazmir—armed with a $24 million deal—is as good an early Cy Young candidate as anyone and has a great shot to surpass his career-best 13 wins in 2007 as a Tampa Bay Devil Ray. And on Sunday, he was fortunate to catch the Nats minus Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman and Adam LaRoche—all out recuperating from injuries.

The A’s improved to 10-9 at home, increased their lead in the AL West to three games over the Angels, and swept an opponent for a major-league best fourth time in 2014.

On Monday, the A’s see the White Sox for the first time this season with Jesse Chavez facing Chicago’s John Danks at 7:05pm.