It's all Mac tonight, baby. Ronnie Mac acted like a third place hitter tonight, driving in two runs tonight. Granted Loretta helped him with his matador impression, but still, Kielty has been one of the best A's offensively for a month now. The decision on the starting outfield suddenly becomes a lot more interesting tomorrow. But I'll get to that in a second.
The truth is that the A's needed to get this win after the team went deep into the pen. The odds were stacked against the team given that Oakland had dropped 15 of 20 to the Red Sox and this is only their 4th win in the last 15 games in Boston. Flores was pretty much the only Athletic left. But the pen came through, holding the mighty Red Sox scoreless for nearly six innings (minus the nerve-jangling Saarloos run to Varitek). That is NOT a small feat. There's a reason Beane built the team from the back end.
Either you saw Moneyball in action tonight with both starting pitchers gone after five or the ump had a strange strike zone. I wouldn't know because the game wasn't televised in Sac. Maybe one of you can let me know.
But surviving the first game in Boston is key because most A's fans would've chalked this one up as a loss before it ever started. The A's need to try and keep their head above water for the next few weeks as the schedule can make the green and gold its bitch.
Ken Macha didn't do himself any favors tonight as he chose not to bunt with Antonio Perez, who subsequently struck out and Jason Kendall hit into a nearly back-breaking double play. At the same time, Bobby Kielty had a key steal that essentially led to the game-winning run.
But that's tonight. Tomorrow the ch-ch-ch-changes are here. Our Hatteberg Jr., DJ is going back down to Sacramento as Milton Bradley is coming off the DL tomorrow. Jason Windsor only pitched three innings tonight for Sacramento. So there's a chance that Windsor might be taking Los Kirk's spot in the rotation. Joe Kennedy is starting a rehab stint and Jay Witasick threw a perfect inning with two strikeouts in Stockton. The team is getting very close to being 100 percent healthy for the first time since the team moved to Oakland. The one hiccup, well more like heaving convulsion, is Rich Harden who is now seeking a second opinion from Dr. Death aka Dr. Lewis Yocum.
Still, the one thing to remember is that the A's won this game, yes. But they also won the first game of the last four-game series that Loaiza started. We all know what happened after that.
