Talk about the absent minded professor. I just grabbed Poochini, headed out towards one of his favorite walkies' sites, got a couple blocks and thought..."Wait, the post-game story!" turned around and drove home. So while Poochini waits in the car, anxious, perplexed, and a perhaps bit flustered--not unlike the New York Yankees--here's a post-game wrap, brought to you by Dementia Services of the East Bay, providing comfort to AN writers for 70 years. For more information, phone (510) 845-3-something-or-other.
The A's are getting some breaks: corner pitches, balls just fair or foul, showing that it really does even out over a long season. The A's are catching a team with many of its key players out hurt or playing hurt, and that never hurts. The A's are living on the edge, loading up the bases and making one good pitch and then trying it again with just as much success.
But the A's are also playing very well. It seems that every June, the A's rediscover the concept that you can steal a base in the right situation, bunt now and then, and still hit homeruns, run up pitch counts, and put up crooked numbers. This versatility is so vital to a team's offensive attack, and it's not that the A's can't do it, it's that for stretches the A's don't do it. And then they do and go 7-2, scoring enough runs to win behind a variety of pitching performances.
Kudos to Eric Chavez for his true leadership in playing through pain to give the A's a respectable lineup, and kudos to Kirk Saarloos for throwing an unkirkly number of pitches and giving the A's 6 solid innings when they really needed it.
No Street tomorrow, but with Zito starting and Calero rested, the A's have a good shot. Heck, a better shot than they had Friday or Saturday and look how those games turned out. I do like June.
