Sweep! It’s not just three wins in a row, it’s what the O.co staff is going to do to the concourse for only the third time this season. If the team can do it again, ownership has promised to increase the mop budget at the trade deadline.
(via oaklandathletics)
Brandon Moss went deep with two out and one on in the bottom of the 19th. A’S WIN! BLEVINS WINS! ALL OF THOSE FANS WHO TOOK BART ARE STRANDED FOR FOUR MORE HOURS!
Two minutes later, Moss had already been pied (after an initial self-pieing) and soaked with a cooler full of ice water. Even after six and a half hours of baseball, the A’s still have the energy for pranks.
18 runs. 31 hits. 3 errors. 597 pitches. Albert Pujols hit two home runs. Josh Hamilton made nine outs. Brett Anderson threw 5 1/3 innings in relief. Jerome Williams threw 6. Moss struck out four times but homered twice. Mark Trumbo hit a ball 475 feet.
Chris Young singled, tripled, and grounded into two double plays, despite missing the first eight and last four innings of the game. His tenth-inning triple was probably a home run, but the baseball gods destroyed all definitive replay angles, because they demanded nine additional innings. Yoenis Cespedes hit one off the wall to tie the game in the ninth, and was held to a single because he stood and watched it. Josh Donaldson barehanded a grounder and one-hopped it to first in the 19th for an out and Ray Fosse almost started weeping, it was so beautiful.
Next game starts in just over seventeen hours. Get some sleep, fellas.
THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING.
Jerry Blevins took the bullet for Brett Anderson, and in the bottom of the 18th inning, he’s having his first major-league at-bat. The crowd is alternating between chanting “JER-RY BLE-VINS” and a wild, Springer Show “JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!”
Sadly, there is no sleep in Oakland - mighty Blevins has struck out.
It’s 1:20, and this game shows no signs of wrapping up any time soon.
The A’s had to put Seth Smith in at left field after fifteen innings, so they lost their DH. Which meant Brett Anderson - tonight’s original starter who was scratched, only to enter the game in the top of the 13th anyway - stood on deck, nervously swinging a bat, with an ill-fitting batting helmet hanging over, shading his eyes. When Derek Norris grounded out, Anderson looked relieved. But then, his relief turned to horror as he realized that he still had to hit in the 18th. Anderson looked despondent, wandering towards the dugout, not sure if he had to fetch his glove himself, or if someone would bring it, or if he should just wear the batting helmet on the mound, or if the game would ever, ever end.
And, as I write this, Anderson has left the game with an injury, though we all know he just didn’t want to hit.
Worth every penny.
(Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
The Oakland A’s used to have Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire celebrating home runs with a forearm bash. Now they have David DeJesus and Cliff Pennington awkwardly bumping fists at home plate.
(Photo by Abelimages/Getty Images)
