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The A's won the series but lost the final game today 2-0 in twelve pretty dull innings. The Mariners mounted scoring threats in the 1st, the 9th and the 11th without producing any runs. The A's never launched any sort of scoring threat at all. In the top of the 12th Zunino drew a walk, and then Dee Gordan, who obviously had ducked into the clubhouse between innings and taken a mouthful of steroids, came out and smacked his second home run of the year for all the scoring which was to take place.
Gordan, who has 12 home runs in 819 career games played, last homered on April 1st during the Mariners third game of the season.
So the A's are back to a 2.5 game lead over the Mariners, and will be either 1 or 2 games behind Houston who plays the Rockies tonight.
Last edited by Grandstander; 08-15-2018 at 06:07 PM..
The A's moved to within a game of Houston by beating them last night 4-3 in 10 innings, with Matt Olsen providing a walk off home run. There would not have been a 10th inning had the A's not tied the game in the ninth on a controversial play at the plate. Ramon Laureano was first called out by the umpire. The A's challenged the call. While waiting, endless replays were shown and none of the three angles available showed anything revealing. The angles which showed the tag were also ones where our view of Laureano's foot was obstructed. On the one angle where the foot and plate are visible, you can't see the tag being applied. I saw nothing which would justify overturning the call, neither did the A's announcers who were as surprised as I when NY overturned it. Perhaps they have more angles available to them than we get at home.
The A's won the first game of the year against the Astros, lost the next 8, but now have won 3 of the last 4. A victory today moves Oakland into a tie for first in the division.
I have quite a few friends and relatives in Houston and they predictably were up in arms over that call. I should note not nearly as many of them were all that up in arms when the Astros were getting swept at home by the pathetic Rangers and then the Mariners (more understandable, still can't happen) to even put the division in question at all.
Oakland is a great story. I'd love to see them somehow pull this off in the West.
Oakland now shares first place in the AL West. Trevor Cahill pitched 7 innings of one hit shutout ball and the A's bats came alive as four A's players had two doubles apiece. The final was 7-1. Houston managed just three baserunners.
Since June 15th when they were two games under .500, the A's have gone 40-13, .755 ball.
The A's have used the same path employed by Seattle earlier in the season when the Mariners had caught the Astros. The A's are now 26-10 in one run games. The Astros have been cursed by the baseball gods and have gone 16-22 in such games. However, the Oakland over achievement amounts to just four extra wins, so they haven't been doing it just on luck. The Astros are a full eleven games under their expected wins.
Houston is just getting Correa and Springer back after stints on the DL, and Altuve should be back soon after last playing on July 25th.
The A's moved to within a game of Houston by beating them last night 4-3 in 10 innings, with Matt Olsen providing a walk off home run. There would not have been a 10th inning had the A's not tied the game in the ninth on a controversial play at the plate. Ramon Laureano was first called out by the umpire. The A's challenged the call. While waiting, endless replays were shown and none of the three angles available showed anything revealing. The angles which showed the tag were also ones where our view of Laureano's foot was obstructed. On the one angle where the foot and plate are visible, you can't see the tag being applied. I saw nothing which would justify overturning the call, neither did the A's announcers who were as surprised as I when NY overturned it. Perhaps they have more angles available to them than we get at home.
The A's won the first game of the year against the Astros, lost the next 8, but now have won 3 of the last 4. A victory today moves Oakland into a tie for first in the division.
I was working and was finishing up cleaning the store last night so haven't watched it/listen to it last night so I can't comment. But I think it's fitting as the A's got jipped by an instant replay call in NY earlier this year IIRC where the runner was called safe, Yankees challenged, and you didn't see enough on the replay to overturn it clearly but New York did. Of course, unlike Friday, the A's still had a chance to win that game and didn't, that play coming in the 9th would've given the Astros the win if not there than 1 out later. Of course the Astros still had a chance in the 10th, but that was pretty much the game. When you are going good you get the breaks I guess.
I was working and was finishing up cleaning the store last night so haven't watched it/listen to it last night so I can't comment. But I think it's fitting as the A's got jipped by an instant replay call in NY earlier this year IIRC where the runner was called safe, Yankees challenged, and you didn't see enough on the replay to overturn it clearly but New York did. Of course, unlike Friday, the A's still had a chance to win that game and didn't, that play coming in the 9th would've given the Astros the win if not there than 1 out later. Of course the Astros still had a chance in the 10th, but that was pretty much the game. When you are going good you get the breaks I guess.
On yesterday's telecast, Ray Fosse said that the umpires in New York do have angles available to them that others do not have. So, while what we saw was inconclusive, NY would have seen a look which did establish things conclusively.
They should do a documentary...a day with the NY uber umps. We get to see them at work, checking all the play's for that day's slate of games.
The good news is that the A's could take sole possession of first place in the AL West today with a win over Houston. The bad news is that they will have to beat Justin Verlander to do it. The other good news is that at least the A's have their best starter, Sean Manaea, going for them.
Verlander was not at the top of his game, 5 and a third innings, 7 hits, a walk and four runs (including three homers), but thanks to the Astros bats, it didn't matter and Verlander recorded his 200th career win as Houston took the final game of the series, 9-4.
Oakland falls back a game behind the Astros. The Mariners were drubbed 12-1 by the Dodgers, so they remain 3.5 games behind the A's for a wild card spot. Tampa Bay is 11 games back.
Three of the five AL post season spots are as good as wrapped up. Houston, Oakland and Seattle are the only teams in the running for the other two slots. It is quite probable that from here to the end of the regular season, games involving one or more of those three teams will be the only meaningful ones.
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