Glass Half Full for the A’s

The A’s are a sub .500 team and are 7 games out of first place… a whole week behind with only 25 games to play. And they aren’t exactly playing barn burning baseball, going 5-7 in their last 12 games.

Their disabled list is filled with people who you might have heard of (Eric Chavez, Ben Sheets, Justin Duchscherer) and when Daric Barton and Kevin Kouzmanoff are your top offensive threats after Labor Day, it is time to play out the string and hope to finish above .500.

So why am I still keeping track of them for the post season?

Because the wheels are falling off the Rangers bandwagon in a hurry. I wrote in June that I wasn’t buying the Rangers until I saw how they were after Labor Day. Well guess what? They have a 7 game lead after Labor Day and I’m STILL not buying them.

They’ve been playing losing ball for a while now and are a combined 14-19 since August 1. And only 1 win this month.

Throw in the fact that Cliff Lee hasn’t been himself and needs to skip starts and have a cortisone shot. Throw in their MVP candidate, Josh Hamilton, who is out indefinitely.

Oh yeah, they are also going to play a tough Blue Jays team then an obsessed Yankees team this week.

Could the Rangers go on a prolonged Padres-esque losing streak?
Sure! Why not?

Could the A’s feast on the Mariners and a waving the white flag Red Sox team?
It’s possible.

Let’s just say the A’s and Rangers move a little closer to each other in the standings… let’s say the A’s could cut the lead to 3 or 4 by the time September 23rd comes along.

Then Texas comes into Oakland for a 4 game series…

It’s possible. Anything is possible when you take a team’s Cy Young Candidate and MVP Candidate out of the equation.

So keep playing hard A’s… despite being a losing team with a huge deficit to make up, you are still in it.

Did we all just miss the best game of the year?

Tonight I made dinner for my kids, took them to the local ice cream store and had them run around outside.

Later my wife and I watched American Idol and I saw the highlights of the Celtics game.

And after everyone went to bed, I checked the other scores, including the Oakland/Texas showdown.

Wow.

I mean WOW. I mean I can’t wait to see the highlights on MLB.com.
There’s no way the A’s could have a win that tops Dallas Braden’s perfect game… or could they?

Just reading the box score was enough.

Eric Patterson hit a triple to give the A’s the lead in the 7th.

Josh Hamilton hit a 2 run homer to give the Rangers the lead in the 8th.

The top of the 9th had an error, a runner thrown out on the base paths and the A’s somehow pulling ahead 5-4.

In the bottom of the 9th one out from losing the game, Elvis Andrus singled home the tying run.

Daric Barton homered in the 11th to give the A’s the lead.

One out from losing again, the Rangers tie the game in the bottom of the 11th on a Julio Borbon single.

In the bottom of the 12th, a relay by Oakland to the plate gunned down the potential winning run.

And in the 13th, it was Barton again this time with an RBI single with 2 outs and 2 strikes that went under the glove of Ian Kinsler.

Once again the Rangers were an out away from losing but had the winning run at the plate in the form of Julio Borbon. But Tyson Ross in his third inning of work got him to pop out to end the game.

The A’s won and are now tied for first place with the Rangers.

I am guessing the crowd wasn’t that big tonight.
I am betting the TV viewing audience wasn’t that great.

Hell, I didn’t even watch it… but it read like a classic.

I hate to say it as a Sox fan, but if that were Red Sox/Yankees, there would be documentaries and books made about the game.

Instead it will probably be buried on SportsCenter.

But I doubt there will be another back and forth game with a share of first place on the line like this one!