ED NOTE: Boxscore of the game.
ED NOTE: Win 9 of the 20 Game Win Streak.
The A's are on one of those rolls, again, where the media and fans alike start nit-picking. After Corey Lidle's performance on Wednesday people were up in arms that Mulder gave up three runs. Three. Mark Mulder faced 26 batters. 18 were retired on ground balls, 3 on popups and two on strike outs. The outfielders did nothing in the field except maybe turn and jog a bit when Ellis Burks hit a two run homer in the 7th and Karim Garcia homered in the 8th. The A's outfielder didn't record a single out. Dominatingly boring.
The A's scored a variety of ways; RBI singles, stepping on the catcher's hand, RBI ground out, RBI double and back to back bases loaded walks. It was a model of a team being on a stretch where than can do no wrong and the opposition falls all over itself to hurt their own cause.
David Justice's run in the second is a good example. Justice came to the plate on Terrence Long's single. Elnar Diaz took the throw from Karim Garcia and whipped around in an attempt to tag Justice with his throwing hand. Justice, in attempting to step on the plate, stepped on Diaz's hand and blasted the back of Diaz's arm. As Justice tried to get back to actually step on the plate, pitcher Jason Phillips who had been backing up on the play tried to tag Justice with his pitching hand and glove and almost got stepped on, too.
There's big leathery thing on the catcher's left hand and a pitcher should avoid doing anything with the hand that earns him paychecks.
Diaz's first mistake was attempting to field the throw in front of homeplate with his back to third plate. Diaz should have had his back to first base and faced the oncoming runner.
Instead Diaz might have a broken hand and Phillips should be sighing with relief that he wasn't as stupid as a hot plater. What's a hot plater? When you go to a restaurant and get served a plate and the server takes extra precautions to tell you the plate is hot and you burn yourself touching it right away, anyway. That's a hot plater. A moron would simply be be someone who watches you burn yourself and then burns themselves trying to see how hot it really is.
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