3 Days, 3 Games, Only 1 Win

Last year, you may have heard, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series. Somehow, I managed to not go to a single Red Sox game all year. The Giants series sold out before I could get tickets. The Sox were in Oakland when I was in Boston. And their other series when I was in Boston was during Worldcon. So I was out of luck. Go figure.

I decided to make up for it by going to all three Red Sox games in Oakland this week. So earlier this year I bought 4 tickets to each game. All upper-deck seats, but the upper deck ain't so bad. And, this was the week!

Monday night I went with Subrata and with CJ and David. The pitching match-up was Bronson Arroyo - who's having a surprisingly good year so far - vs. Kirk Saarloos, the pitcher the A's acquired from the Astros and who has managed to hang on to the fifth starter slot despite a variety of challenges. He's not a great pitcher, and he seems to get really rattled with men on base, so I had high hopes of a Sox victory.

Especially since the A's have been awful, just awful, this year. Their hitters have been terrible, with star Eric Chavez in a huge slump, last year's rookie of the year, Bobby Crosby, has been out since the first week with an injury. And trade acquisition catcher Jason Kendall has been terrible. The A's have especially been suffering from not enough power in the line-up. A bunch of light-hitting on-base machines just isn't going to win as many games without a few productive sluggers. Their pitching has been quite good, but with some sore spots, such as losing starter Rich Harden and set-up guy Kiko Calero to injury. Finally, the A's came into the series on an eight-game losing streak. So things looked good for the Beantown faithful.

Unfortunately, Saarloos had one of those "pitching into and out of jams" sorts of evenings, and the Sox simply didn't punish him like they should have, as he allowed only 2 runs on 7 hits and a walk in 6 innings. Arroyo, meanwhile, gave up 4 runs in the fifth. The Sox put together a couple more runs against Keiichi Yabu, but then Sox LOOGY (Lefty One Out Guy) gave up two hits to two left-handed batters which proved to be the game-losers, as rookie Matt Watson collected his first Major League hit - a double - to win the game, 6-4.

We had a good time, and had a decent view, although it was cold and windy in the upper deck. Probably we could have moved down a bit, but we never did. I had a good time hanging with CJ and David, whom I haven't seen since last year. Lots of good, geeky nattering.

It turns out Debbi was able to get her company's season seats for Tuesday's game, so I sold my purchased tickets to my friend Syd. Well, it turns out he wasn't able to go since his wife gave birth a little earlier than expected, that very morning! He's now the father of a little girl. Congratulations, Syd!

Debbi of course came to Tuesday's game. The seats are really good. I also invited my friends Rob and Karen. Rob I only see about once a year, while Karen will be returning to Portland this summer, I suspect. Debbi and Karen get along really well, too.

Tonight's match-up looked to be the best pitcher's duel of the three games: Sox righty Matt Clement (pictured right; see, told you our seats were good) vs. A's lefty Barry Zito. Zito is shaping up to have a weird career. He's an extreme flyball pitcher who gets victimized by the home run. But he can also strike a lot of guys out. Then again, he can also walk a lot of guys. The Red Sox are not a great match for Zito, as he walked seven batters in 5-plus innings, giving up 3 runs on only 3 hits. A's manager Ken Macha has had a bad tendency to try to push Zito one inning too long, and the A's have gotten burned by it nearly every time. Will he ever learn? (I have Zito on my fantasy team, and I've followed him since his rookie year, so I have a soft spot for the Bay Area's most eligible bachelor.)

Clement pitched pretty well until the 5th, when he seemed to wear down, and ended up giving up 5 runs in 6 innings. Not a good start. But then Macha brought in reliever Juan Cruz, whom I've nicknamed "The Walkinator". Cruz pitched 2 innings, loaded the bases in the 8th with a hit-by-pitch and two walks, and then Huston Street gave up a single which right fielder Eric Byrnes misplayed, clearing the bases. This was the margin the Sox needed, as the Sox won 7-5. Boy, it was an ugly game, though.

We got to see Sox closer Keith Foulke pitch the 9th. Foulke has many years of greatness in his past, but this year his strikeouts are way down, his walks are way up, his home runs allowed are way up, and he's giving up more than a hit per inning for the first time since 1997. In short, he's been unbelievably bad. I suspect he's hiding an injury, but there's no way to be sure. He threw a 1-hit 9th tonight, striking out 2, so it's entirely possible that he's just had a rough stretch of 20 or so innings and that there's nothing basically wrong. I hope not.

Wednesday's game was a day game, and I took the day off to attend. Subrata came again, and Rob brought his 4-year-old son Henry to the game. Our seats were up in the upper deck behind home plate, which turned out to be the perfect place from which Rob could point out everything on the field to Henry. I guess Henry has only been to games at Pacific Bell Park, taking in the Giants from a corporate luxury box, and Rob says sitting in the upper deck amidst screaming Oakland fans was not quite what he was expecting.

Henry turns out to be quite a little baseball fan, as he didn't get bored, and kept his eye on the game most of the time. I guess he likes to play, too. Rob says his favorite position is "hitter". I responded, "So I guess his favorite Sox player is Manny Ramirez." "In fact, it is," said Rob.

The game was a laffer, and not in a good way. The Sox activated aged left-hander David Wells from the disabled list, and he opposed soft-throwing semi-prospect Seth Etherton (who I keep thinking of as "Eth Setherton"). Wells has evolved into an extreme control pitcher, but that trick only works if the hitters aren't seeing pitch after pitch in their sweet zones. Wells got only 4 outs, but gave up 9 hits and 7 runs. If there's a bright spot, he didn't walk anyone. Of course, he didn't strike out anyone either, which is part of the problem. I'm not optimistic that the Wells investment was a good one, small though it was.

I don't think Etherton topped 90 on the radar gun all day, and was often below 80. But he threw strike after strike, induced lazy fly ball after lazy fly ball, and only gave up 4 runs because Tim Harikkala allowed two inherited runners to score. Meanwhile, we got a good look at the back end of the Sox bullpen (Jeremi Gonzalez, John Halama and Mike Myers). The A's collected 19 hits and despite a little Sox scoring later on, the A's won running way, 13-6.

It was a good three days for Eric Chavez, who went 5-for-14 on the series with two home runs.

Sadly, the Sox took only one of the three games in the series, and the A's look like they're starting to bounce back. (They're not really as bad as they've looked, though they might not make the playoffs this year.)

But I had a good time at the park. Got a little tired of driving to Oakland, but that's the way it goes. Many people have picked the Sox to win it all again this year. I'm skeptical, but I'll root for 'em, of course!