The A's blew up last night and we don't see it as much as a losing a game as a failure to bend history to their collective will.
Why'd they lose?
Glad you asked:
- Well, How about two days off in three days? We're talking streaks, here. A routine is a necessity. Why do you think the A's fumbled away an 11 run lead to Kansas City on Wednesday? Sitting around waiting makes for anxiety.
- Leaving the bases loaded in the 1st is not a good way to start a game.
- Missing a 3 run Jimmy Jack by less than a foot doesn't help. Funny, everyone else writes about how Chavez struck out in the 3rd inning at-bat, not that he nearly put the A's up 3-1. Chavez turned on four pitches in his first two at-bats. From all perspectives it looks like impatience. Not the A's strong suit.
- Impatience.
- Swinging early in the count.
- Trying to beat the ball into the seats before it was even pitched.
- Too much sitting around for a group of guys who basically sit around most of the time (think about it, sitting around is a big part of baseball).
- Don't forget not picking up fly balls in the outfield. Now maybe Twins fans know what I'm talking about when T Long takes the field.
- Corey Lidle battled, but I defy you to find a pitcher who can string a half dozen quality starts (not so much the inadequate Quality Start stat as the concept of a quality start) together anywhere in baseball. Six is about the limit. At some point each month you're going to be off your game. To give up only a handful of runs instead of a dozen is an accomplishment in itself.
- The team winning streak was as much an effort on the whole as it was a path forged following the beacon, Corey Lidle. Lidle was butchered last year and again this year. For whatever reason he is the victim of luck, chance and bad timing. The A's always seem to pick his starts to forget to take a bat to the plate with them. Last year, I think it was June, Corey finally got some run support in a game after getting less than two runs per game in his first six or seven. Then, the A's stake him to an eight spot against Texas and then he unravels and ends up being yanked when the game turns into a slugfest.
- The play in the 7th is synonymous with the end of the streak. Jacques Jones hit a turf ball to Tejada who had to sling the ball to Hatteberg on the run. From all accounts, Jones was out. A.J. Pierzynski was on second and running with two outs. He never stopped. The hesitation of 'knowing' Jones was out, the problems Hatteberg had transferring the ball from glove to throwing hand, coupled with an 85 foot throw that bounced in front of the plate signified a scratched run for the Twins.
- Most of the reports we've gone though today are all about the end of the streak. Most of them read as if they were written days ago and just sort of collected dust until the end became factual reality.
- For those who think the A's were cocky and somehow thumbing their noses at the rest of the sport, grow up. They were humble and respectful, if not unknowing, of the causes of the streak.
- If you somehow fancy a 6-0 win means something more than it does and somehow the Twins beating the A's is a significant achievement in the course of mankind, think again. It was a single game. A single game in a season 162 scheduled games. Yah, the A's slapped history around for almost four weeks. I'm not talking about baseball history. I'm talking about History, history. The Napoleon versus Wellington type history. The British Army versus those damn American rebels history. Genghis Kahn versus, ugh, whatever actually killed him type history.
- Eventually everyone gets gotten.
- I don't see the team you root for spinning off 20 wins in a row.
The streak was more than just about the A's. It was a context of pulling into great parking spaces, finding extra cash in side pocket the coat in the closet and almost tripping, stumbling, but realizing nobody around you saw. Try having all the tumblers in your life fall into place for a month. If you ever have that happen, then you can badmouth the streak. Otherwise realize the streak ended and it could have been one of the other MLB franchises that the A's played yesterday, but it was the Twins.
Twins fans, be happy you got to be involved in the streak and be part of history when it ended.
Don't forget the A's are on a collision course with St. Paul/Minneapolis in October.
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