When you're going good, the infield dribblers, the heavy air knocking down deep drives, they all conspire to protect you just enough. When Brad Halsey can parlay a really shaky outing into 5 scoreless innings against the league's leading offense, and when Steve Karsay can fire 2 shutout frames with the game on the line, you know you're going good. It was exciting, it was agonizing, at times it felt undeserved, but in the end it was perfect.
Except Crosby's final at-bat should have been a bunt single. The parallels between this game and the 2003 ALDS were uncanny. You had second and third and one out, with Melhuse failing to get the run home against Derek Lowe, followed by the obligatory walk (with Chavy standing in for Chris Singleton) and then...Bobby Crosby proving, definitively, that he is better than Terrance Long (who knew?). You had the A's closer, having been near perfect lately, one strike away from closing out the inning before that &*$%ing lefty ruined the plan. You had Brad Halsey proving that Steve Sparks was a poor man's Brad Halsey. And in the 17th inning, the A's finally got a measure of revenge on Derek Lowe and the many demons of 2003.
It's waaaay past my bedtime. See you tomorrow for another 17.
