Shout out to Chris Lamb, Pitcher for our Oakland Athletics, former Albany Little Leaguer, and now promoted from Short Season up to Low A Ball to join the Burlington Bee's! Watch for his Low A Debut on Sunday. - Zonis
It was 2-2 going to the bottom of the 7th and darn it, the top of the order was up. The top of the order that, for much of the season, had "speed that can't steal 1B" and languished with low OBPs. The worm is turning.
Coco, who served as a thorn somewhere between the navel and the knee all series, led off with a triple off of Aaron Cook, forcing the Red Sox to bring in the infield in as LHP Trevor Miller came in to try to strand Crisp. Weeks bounced a single into LF and the A's had a 3-2 that would soon become a 3-2 win.
Oakland started the scoring in the 2nd with yet another Brandon Moss HR, his 10th in 24 games and like the 9 which preceded it, it was no cheapie, sent sailing over the CF wall. The Red Sox tied it in the 4th against A.J. Griffin on David Ortiz' 400th career HR, then took their only lead 2-1 in the 6th when Ortiz drew a two-out walk, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia bounced a ground ball into the shift chased by Jemile Weeks to his right and Cliff Pennington to his left (far to the right of 2B). In the confusion, Weeks had the ball glance off his glove for what was ruled an E-4 (personally I think it's a hit), and Adrian Gonzalez singled up the middle to drive home Ortiz.
Trailing? Need to tie it? This is a job for Team Brandon! Moss, who had already HRed and singled, hit a high pop up into the high sky and as 3Bman Mauro Gomez and SS Mike Aviles tried to distinguish the ball from the sun, both failed and Moss had a gift double. Fellow Brandon, this one known as Inge, doubled to right-center to tie it, setting the stage for the "top o' the order to ye!" sweeptastic bottom of the 7th.
A.J. Griffin was excellent for the 3rd consecutive start, tossing 6 IP of 3 hit ball and allowing 2 runs, 1 ER, with 2 BBs and 3 Ks. His curve and changeup kept the Red Sox hitters off-balance and his fastball consistently produced jammed contact. The guy does know what he's doing. Grant Balfour was excellent for 1.2 IP, Jerry Blevins struck out Ortiz on three pitches to end the 8th, and Ryan Cook pitched a 1-2-3 9th on just 7 pitches (5 strikes) for his 8th save, and the A's are now 5-1 on the season against Boston.
Suddenly, the A's are just one game shy of the .500 mark with the Mariners coming to town for a 3-game series that will get us to the All-Star break. Win that series and the A's are a .500 team at the break. But it's not just that the A's could get to the breakeven mark this weekend. Has being a fan of a .500 team ever been this fun?
