Game #147: A's 7, White Sox 4
September 16, 2006 | A's vs. Chicago White Sox
A COME-FROM-BEHIND WIN AGAINST THE WHITE SOX! Thanks to Frank Thomas for his homerun in the 6th and the walk in the 7th that tied the game.
As is common with the Big Hurt's big plays, the A's come alive and usually go on to win the game.This game started out badly. I worried for a while. And I was mostly worrying about Barry Zito, who was having a baaaad day. I stopped counting Zito's walks after he reached four. At one point, Zito even inspects the three baseballs with Kendall and the umpire.
But today was Zito's lucky day. He's still the pitcher of record during the satisfying bottom of the 7th when Thomas ties the game with his bases-loaded walk and when Chavy gives the A's the lead with a consecutive bases-loaded walk.
• Today was Frank Thomas mask giveaway day. Many people at the Coliseum wore, displayed, or waved their mask. It made for some amusing shots on TV.
• When Jermaine Dye hit his two-run home run in the 3rd, I simmered. I liked him when he was with the A's, but did that time have to be the DL years of his career?
• Kennedy, Duchscherer, and Street come out of the bullpen and blank the White Sox.
(Game experience: Fox Sports Network Bay Area)
A's record: 85-62 | streak: W-3 | magic number: 9 if the Angels lose, 10 if they win | well-A-meter: 5.00
posted by blank book at 4:04 PM
2 Comments:
The magic number is down to single digits. It's safe for even the most cautious A's fan to look forward to an on field celebration in the near future. It's more fun to clinch the division at home, so hopefully it will occur next weekend against Los Angeles of Anahiem.
The other way the professionals look at pennant races at this time of year is to observe the distance between teams in the Loss column. The theory is that the trailing team can do nothing positive to close the gap in the loss column. Only failures by the leading team can cause the leader to come back to the trailer.
In this case, the A's have a 7-game lead in the Loss column. What I find interesting about that is this: If the A's mirror the Angels' results in every game when they are not playing each other, the Angels could sweep all 6 games from the A's and still fall one game short.
I find the possibility of an Angels' sweep highly remote, but even a sweep wouldn't do them much good at this point.
One note of difference with the good general: while it sweet for the fans to clinch at home -- and the players always give lip service to how they want to do it at home for the fans -- it's really sweeter to stick it to your bitter rivals by clinching on their turf. Ah-haa-haa-ha-ha. [evil grin]
Post a Comment
<< Home