Twenty and Counting

Tonight saw an impromptu trip to the Oakland Coliseum to see the Athletics host the Kansas City Royals. Why? Well, as of this morning the A's had won 19 consecutive games, and tied the American League record for such a streak. Tonight, with a win, they'd break that record, and move closer to the all-time record of 26 games (owned by the New York Giants). A friend of Syd's bought tickets, and the three of us and two others headed to the stadium.

It was a very strange game.

The A's kicked things off with six runs in the first inning off starter Paul Byrd, and then five more in the next two off Darrell May. They were hitting doubles, triples and homers, and the Royals were committing all sorts of miscues in the outfield. It was just about as bad a set of innings (on the Royals' part) as I've ever seen played.

Then the A's pitchers started to melt down. Tim Hudson gave up 5 runs in the fourth inning, and then Chad Bradford couldn't find the strike zone in the eighth. The A's missed a double play, and fouled up an out at the plate. After a Mike Sweeney home run, the score stood at 11-10.

Manager Art Howe brought in closer Billy Koch to pitch the ninth, and before you knew it he gave up a run, and the game was tied. At this point I turned to my companions and said, "I'm going to the bathroom." I got back in time to see the latest baserunner get picked off second to end the top of the ninth.

Jermaine Dye led off the bottom of the ninth with a hard fly ball to right field, caught about 30 feet in front of the wall. But then pinch-hitter Scott Hatteberg came up, and not only did he set a career high in home runs, he drove a majestic blow to right field and into the bleachers.

The A's won their 20th straight game, 12-11. There was wild cheering in the stands (the A's set a regular season attendance record of over 55,000; only a postseason game last year was larger) and jubilation on the field (except for the dejected Royals).

Syd pointed out that when the A's left on their road trip two weeks ago with a 5-game winning streak, he hadn't thought much of it. They swept their trip, and then came back to win 5 more on this home stand to make history.

Syd also claims that there have been only four games in baseball history in which a team has come back from an 11-run (or greater) deficit, and he's seen two of them. Wow.

It was an historic night. The last time a team won 19 games in a row was 1947 (and the last time someone won 20 was in 1935), so it's possible we may not see this again in my lifetime. It was tremendous to be able to see it in person. (We even had good seats in the second deck!) And no matter what else happens this season, all these A's players will be able to remember that they were part of an historic feat this season. That's worth a lot, I think, though it'd be nice to see them go on to win the World Series (since the Red Sox seem to be slipping out of contention).

The A's are off to Minnesota next, and it's hard to believe that they'll win 7 more games. But then, it was hard to believe they'd win the first 20.

But streaks and records aren't about reason, they're just about fun. Can they do it? Who knows. The fun is thinking that they might.