The A's are currently commemorating the 10th Anniversary of their 20 game win streak. I was in attendance for four or five of those games in the days before I could easily watch The Tribe on the internet.

My wife, who had proclaimed previously she didn't care that much for baseball, was with me on the Sunday afternoon the A's rallied late to keep the streak going in the high teens. She was screaming and high fiving strangers as the rally was happening and yelled to me, "you're right.....baseball IS a great game!"

I told her "yep, it usually is."


Back to real time....

The A's get their first batter on in the 8th and we go to our apparently large pen.

The first runner on is that seemingly ageless and versatile Chris Carter guy.

Josh "don't call me Bo" Donaldson rips a Pestano hanger for an RBI single, and the lead.

Things not looking so good for our guys in the wigwam as the A's have bases loaded and no outs.


Apparently carrying 13 pitchers on the active roster does not help much in tie games, or in games where your offense gets the staff a 4-0 early lead.

Choo with a helluva throw to the plate, but run number six scores.

It would have taken a superb play by Marson, but Ray Fosse points out he could have used his left foot to block the plate better.

Fosse is technically right, but he's touting what would have been an amazingly superb play by any catcher. Marson was in fine position, but did not block the back side where the hand swipe safely got the plate.

We have three outs to get two runs.

I wonder if any of our 13 pitchers on the active roster can swing an effective RH bat?

Ray Fosse points out the obvious in that we have not scored since Duncan's grand slam five innings ago.

And Duncan K's to start the 9th.

Kotchman off the bench to hit for Lillibridge. Personally, I would have given one of those 13 pitchers a chance to swing the bat.


......I'm sure they could have second pitch popped up to 3rd, as Kotchman did.

Sheesh....

Why am I watching this?

Well, ex-A, and my man Hannahan, steps in to pinch hit......

Well, I tried to bring home a win for us in Oakland but was not successful.

I guess I actually had to be there in the stands, as I was in April when we won the series.

And I guess, there is no virtual in baseball.....

I totally expect the Twins & Royals to pass us. Cellar dwellars, that's us.

Suck for Luck! oh, er, sorry.

How bad do we have to be, to get the number one pick in the draft.

eocmcdoc wrote:How bad do we have to be, to get the number one pick in the draft.

How bad does our front office have to be to just about completely miss on first round draft picks for years?

I still chuckle about that streak Mark Shapiro had when he collected guys that had been first round draft picks for other teams, and missed again with most of them.

Here's hoping that Cleveland's Corey Kluber doesn't get clobbered...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slCNTz72o4s

Hillbilly's old friend Bart has two hit us through our five. If he picks up the win tonight, and it seems he has a good chance, he'll be in double digit wins.

Bart has now two hit us through six innings and with 74 pitches he still should have gas in the tank to go further.

Joez guy Yoenis Cespedes had an earlier 2 run home run, his 16th of the season, to keep his batting average at .305.

Frank Herrmann on for The Tribe in the bottom of the 6th as Kluber takes a seat after 95 pitches and four hits with three walks and two K's.

Bart K's Kipnis, as he dug deep to get through the inning as he topped 100 pitches.

Former Indian Bart will go to the showers with a six to one lead, and after surrendering 5 hits to us through 8 innings. It looked to me like he really wanted this one.

Of course the A's are in a playoff race.

We're down 8-3 in our 9th.

Choo and Santana have accounted for our runs with two Oakland night home runs, and home runs in the Oakland night are not easy to get.

Brantley is on with a one out single.

We're just a five run home run away from a tie, if we can only get more base runners.

Muchos mas.

Whoa, another late night Oakland stadium home run for a Tribester!


8-5!

Lillibridge hit it. Hopefully it is not as meaningless as he has seemingly been to this point.

Unfortunately, my true thought is that the Oakland pitchers have just been throwing strikes to get the game over, and our guys have vowed to grip it and rip it for the stats.

We get a one out single.

Tying run is on deck. Go ahead run is in the hole.