Excuse me for a moment:
WE SWEPT THE NEW YORK YANKEES IN NEW YORK!!!!!!!!
What a rollercoaster!! Dan Johnson doing his best impression of Jason Giambi with the two homeruns, with the bonus feature of the PICKIN' MACHINE, Swisher with an inside-the-park homerun, and subsequently robbed of another, Jason Kendall with a sac fly, two Yankees pitch outs, and a really awesome story courtesy of the YES network about the process of draining the bruise on Chacon's leg. And in a day that was minus Frank Thomas and Jason Giambi (nice how things evened out), the battle was fierce and hard fought, but when all was said and done, the A's limp home from New York, having swept the Bronx Bombers! Today's game was simply icing on an already delicious cake. Props to Zito, who was gutsy and gritty, not great, but good enough, and pitched better than usual in this ballpark. It doesn't get much better than this.
And I'm going to go ahead and re-number our streak, and call out the Sac Bee. We are nine and two since the Kendall homerun, since we won that game too. There. And 8-2 in June. I love June.
However, the questions still remain. Why was Frank Thomas running the bases late in the game yesterday? Is he going to be okay? It simply killed me not to see him in the game today. Why was Payton, who is obviously stronger on the defensive side, DH-ing when Milton Bradley is trying to work on his offensive game, and trying not to get hurt? Why was Melhuse on the bench? I understand him not catching today, taking into account Kendall's considerable success against Chacon, but there are other holes in the lineup that need to be filled, which, ironically, were created due to other managing `decisions'. And, not to be mean, but why is Scutaro still playing? There are no better options? And the fan side of me liked the Street call, but the practical side of me took a deep breath when I started counting Street's workload lately. We absolutely cannot afford another injury.
However, to be fair, the running game was huge for the A's this weekend, and not only created some much-needed offense, but rattled the Yankees pitchers enough to the point of pitching out. I'd like to see more of it.
Oh, and I'd also like to point out the idiocy of the crowd today in New York--which is touted across the country as being made up of `smart', `intelligent' baseball fans--cheering Jeter after his first hit in several days, and booing A-rod immediately afterwards. I wonder if the fans have ever thought about where their beloved Yankees would be without Derek Jeter. Well, they'd be in the plus column in defense, for sure, and although they would most likely have to sacrifice some offense, they'd find a way to make up for it.
However, without Alex Rodriguez, they wouldn't have had a chance in hell at making the playoffs the last two years. And they boo him. UnBELIEVable. It's so unbelievable that I wonder if they would like someone to take that no-clutch problem player off their hands. They can pay his salary, and send him our way. We'd be unbeatable. You do wonder though, how long he can go before this kind of treatment truly starts affecting his game.
Moving back to kittens and puppies and rainbows, if you still need more reason to love the A's clubhouse chemistry, and their support of each other, contrast that with Damon's quote splashed all over the papers this morning in New York, "WE STINK". Well, that's constructive. Way to throw your team under the bus, Mr. `Four-Base Error'. Errr...'inside the park homerun'. My bad.
FANTASTIC, PERFECT weekend for our boys. Special shoutout to Eric Chavez for having a Thomas-esque at-bat against Farnsworth in the seventh. Even with the `K' (swinging!), it was still quite an effort. And welcome back, Dan Johnson and Huston Street!!!
Off-day tomorrow. Let's hope it heals Thomas and Crosby. Savor this sweep. It doesn't happen very often. See you back at home on Tuesday night.
