Getting Out of Oakland with a Three Game Lead
The month-o'-baseball begins. My Boston Red Sox were in Oakland for a 2-game series with the Athletics. With the Yankees and Rangers having all but locked up their divisions, the Sox and A's are the leading contenders for the dubious honor of being the wild card teams in the playoffs. (Am I implying that I perhaps don't care for the wild card? You're correct!) The Blue Jays are not entirely out of it, but they're so streaky that they haven't been able to keep up the pressure.
The only nice thing about the wild card race (a.k.a., the race for second place) - other than the possibility of the Sox going to the playoffs, much as I'd like them to do it as division winners - is that neither the Sox nor the A's were expected to contend this year. The Sox lost their slugging first baseman Mo Vaughn in a controversial free agent move (controversial that the Sox let him go, and that the Angels signed him for so much money), and the A's have been rebuilding for years and didn't look so strong with a team of relative kids. The A's have been a big surprise; the Sox, well, the Sox faithful I think knew that the team wasn't terrific, but didn't have any competition likely to blow them out of contention. Which is just what's happened.
Last night, I got together with Ceej, Subrata, and Rob and his wife to see the first game of the set. As we did last time we went to the Coliseum, we drove across the Dumbarton Bridge to Fremont (actually Union City this time) and took BART up, Rob and his wife planning to meet the rest of us at the stadium.
Problem is, when we were trying to figure out when to meet, Rob thought the game started at 7:35, I went out to USA Toady's [sic] Web Site and confirmed the time - and it was wrong! The game started at 7:05! So we missed most of the first inning, when the Red Sox scored five runs! Aack! I'll never trust USA Toady again for game times. Screw them. ESPN seems to be accurate as far as I can tell. However, I feel dumb that I didn't check the tickets themselves. D'oh!
We did have great seats: Row 19, right behind the Sox dugout. And, in fact, I did find a pair of binoculars earlier in the day, which further enhanced the viewing. (I bought them at a telescope store, by the way. My thanks to those of you who suggested Target as well; they had a decent selection. I paid a little more, but I got just what I wanted at the other store.) I also discovered the chicken strips at the Coliseum, which are pretty tasty - partly making up for their godawful garlic fries.
The game, I must admit, was not all that good. Tim Wakefield was pitching for the Sox, and he ran hot and cold. His knuckler sometimes was dead-on, making many A's hitters look completely foolish. You could see them start their swing, turning on their power stroke, and then the bottom would fall out of the ball, they'd try to adjust, and just look completely ridiculous on the follow-through. Unfortunately, much of the time the knuckler was off, leading to many balls and therefore to many walks. It was tense at times. The A's scratched out three runs (as Subrata - or was it Rob? - put it, the game we saw was won by the A's 3-0), but the Sox did finally prevail, 5-3.
And Ceej was happy because we got to see Rod Beck pitch.
The kicker to the game came in the ninth inning, with Derek Lowe trying to close it out for the Sox, one man out, and Lowe having walked the previous batter on four pitches. Suddenly, a few sections downfield from us, a streaker runs onto the field, wearing nothing but a Red Sox cap. Some have charitably said that he 'eluded' the security guards, but it seemed like it took them a good 20 seconds to even get going after him, as he turned cartwheels on the infield. Finally, security arrives, one of the players tackled the guy - hard - and he was taken away, presumably to spend a couple of nights in jail before being fined. I hope so, anyway.
It was pretty amusing - CJ was laughing pretty hard, and later remarked on how buff the guy was - and whether he was a nutty Sox fan or a nutty A's fan trying to make Sox fans look bad, Lowe regained his composure and got the next two batters on three pitches.
This was also not a particularly good game: Pat Rapp didn't have his best stuff, and two Oakland runs scored early. The Sox eventually scored two of their own, but the A's came right back, aided by Sox center fielder Darren Lewis' second boneheaded throw of the day - this one sailing right into the A's dugout - and the A's ended up winning 6-2.
CJ and I play the "what did we see in this game that we'd never seen before?" game. The boneheaded throws were probably it, although we also saw a double steal, which I'd never seen before.
I was rather disappointed in the Sox lineup. To be fair, Nomar Garciaparra missed the second game due to a bruised ankle, but hardly any hitters on the Sox seemed to be ones to strike fear into opposing pitchers. A few guys - like Brian Daubach - are in slumps, but the Sox seem to lack that Bagwell/Bonds class hitter to really make the other side sweat. They're a good team, but not a powerhouse team. I don't expect them to do well in the playoffs.
At any rate, the games were a little disappointing, but the split of the series means the Sox left Oakland with a 3-game lead with about 19 to play, which I think makes their chances pretty bright.
There were an impressive number of Sox fans at these two games. The A's fans are a little lame, not really cheering on their team as much as they might. It's a little sad; the Sox fans in the first game managed to nearly out-cheer the home crowd, especially in our section. CJ says that the Yankees fans in the Yanks/A's game she saw a while back were very organized and pretty much embarrassed the A's fans.
I've been trying to think if I've seen a great ballgame this year. I don't remember one, although there have been several good ones. I guess the Giants/Cardinals game was probably the best, although we didn't quite stay for the whole thing; it had a dramatic finish, at least! But then, baseball is to a great extent about sticking with it through the whole season, and just enjoying the experience of following a team and going to the ballpark. And every so often you'll be rewarded with that stellar game.
We've got three more games this month; maybe one of them will be it.
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