Softball baseball. Beer league is what they used to call it. The A's went from station-to-station constantly back in the early 2000's. Don't look now, but they're resurrecting that team. The team has 73 home runs now on the season, good for fourth in the American League.
But the big blast wasn't just the Kotsay, Thomas or even Chavez's blast, it was a hard single by Dan Johnson after the A's did something they hardly ever did...steal a base. Bobby Crosby stole second after he reached base on an error by Aaron Boone. DJ then got in a hole in the count and still pulled it out.
Barry Zito wound up pulling out a win when he probably shouldn't have, but it's good to see the offense win a game for a pitcher for once. It happens so rarely with this team. And even though many probably wanted Zito out of the game in the sixth, he wound up stealing a win.
The funny thing was that I've seen the A's struggle so much in Cleveland, I kind of expected the A's to drop this one once the Indians came back and took the 6-4 lead. It's nice to win one you don't expect because even though the A's had the red-hot Zito on the mound, the Indians had A's killer Jake Westbrook taking the hill.
A couple of funny things I noticed on the A's telecast tonight...first, did anyone notice the stickers on players' backs in the dugout? Kielty and Haren both had them on their backs. I'm not sure who the guilty party is, but you can tell this team is loose. Another indication was Kotsay's impromptu shuffle in front of the camera after his out in the ninth. He and Scoot were having quite the chuckle out of it.
So on a day when the A's looked to the future with the draft, they glanced back to the past with Frank Thomas tying Jose Canseco on the all-time home run list (presumably all chemical-free though, so a much bigger accomplishment) and a game of yard ball.
