Down the Stretch - AL Style

[HahnSolo]

And of course, with 2 out and nobody on, Oliver gives up a ground rule double to ichiro and a run-scoring hit to Swisher.

4-2 Yanks, top 9.

[Frayed Knot]

That ground-rule double by Ichiro traveled about 150 ft

The pain in the Toronto half of the 8th is that they hit several just-missed liners: one foul by about a foot with two on and one a bases-loaded liner right at Ichiro in LF.
Also that Yanqui pitchers throwing balls anywhere within 7 inches of the zone were getting the calls.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

The Orioles love O-vertime....that's 15 straight in extra innings.

Anybody think Mike Scioscia will finally get boned in the offseason? I do.

[Edgy MD]

Just got a vote of confidence from his GM. That can't be good.

[Frayed Knot]

Another exciting O's game too late for east coast eyes.

- the first good thing here is that this was a Felix Hernandez game. You gotta figure that Yanx fans already had this one in the loss column for the birds. Congrats to O's hurler Joe Saunders who matched Felix inning for inning (1 run over 8)

- 3 more scoreless innings for the O's pen to add to there 11-2/3 zeros the night before. I wonder what it's like to live in that world?

- The 11th inning HR by (former Mariner) Adam (I'm not Pacman) Jones was his 4th extra-innings HR of the year. Do the Mets even have 4 extra inning runs this season?

- After serving up the 11th inning HR, the M's got the first two runners on but first a GiDP, then a walk, then a caught stealing ended the game. I do know what it's like to live in that world.

[bmfc1]

The Second Spitter wrote: Anybody think Mike Scioscia will finally get boned in the offseason? I do.

Scioscia and Leyland are vulnerable. (Perhaps more vulnerable than TC, which is sad.)

[HahnSolo]

If you are a prospective manager, wouldn't Anaheim be a great landing spot? Lots of pieces, lots of talent, and management that started to show last offseason that they will spend money. Maybe they'll take TC back if we offer him.

[Frayed Knot]

Scoscia has a contract through [u:2uq3gtxy]2017[/u:2uq3gtxy] - which kind of argues against an off-season whacking.

Leyland, on the other hand, is the subject of speculation in Detroit newspapers today saying that if the Tigers were to miss the playoffs this year that he'd be let go, possibly in favor of Terry Francona.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

BJs blow.... And what do you know, the MFY face them again in a 4 game series to end the reg season.

Frayed Knot wrote: Scoscia has a contract through 2017 - which kind of argues against an off-season whacking.

Christ, they may as well give him tenure.

[Frayed Knot]

Oakland and Baltimore start the day tied for the two WC spots -- 4.5 games ahead of Angels; 5.5 up on Tampa; 7.0 up on Tigers
And we get a couple cases of competitor vs competitor action going on this weekend.

Oakland at Yanx
Yanx have a 1 game lead on Orioles.
A's just lost 2 of 3 to Detroit and are 4 games behind Texas in the West


ChiSox visit Angels
Chicago has a 2-game edge on Detroit despite coming off losing 2 of 3 to KC
For the A's it's WC or bust


The rest:
Tigers host Twins
Orioles at Boston
Rays host Jays
Texas at Seattle

[Frayed Knot]

They're in the 12th inning in Boston - and the O's have scored three times and are still batting.


They're in the 11th inning in da Bronx tied at 5



and, yes, these were both 1:10 starts

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

O's win.

A's MFYs still tied in 12th.

[Frayed Knot]

If they get to the 14th inning in YSIII, do they re-do the 7th inning stretch thing and have all the ushers herd the patrons into their chairs and forbid them to move again?

[Frayed Knot]

Jeter flies out with the bases loaded and two outs and it's on to the 13th -- But the best part was Kay's logic prior to the at bat:
He talked about how "everyone knows" that Jeter doesn't let moments like this overwhelm him and how the game doesn't speed up for him in such situations. "He might not always come through but if he doesn't it won't be because of the pressure".

The perfect can't-lose argument.

[Frayed Knot]

Oooooh - and then right after Jeter's non-choke Freddie Garcia gives up: Single - HR - HR on about five pitches to start the 13th
No word yet on whether Johnny Gomes and Yeonis Cespedes got lucky or simply failed to let the moment overwhelm them.

[Edgy MD]

What a story. O's winning a million extra-inning games in a row. Here's to a Baltimore-DC World Series.

[Frayed Knot]

Be nice if they could avoid the WC play-in game and the risk of their run being cut-off barely 24 hours after the season ends ... but the Yanx came back in their game after giving up 4 in the top of the 13th and then won it in the 14th following a series of plays almost too ridiculous to describe.

So the O's stay one back of the Yanx with Oakland, losers of two straight 1-run games in the Bronx, starting to hear footsteps.

[Edgy MD]

Blowing a four-run lead in extra innings to the Yankees? I expect that nonsense from the Twins... and the Mets... but come on, Oakland.

[MFS62]

Judging by the highlights I saw, if the A's can field ground balls cleanly, they win the game two or three different times.
Ugh.

Later

[Frayed Knot]

The error which ended the game (Oakland's 3rd) was obviously a killer but it was just one part of a whole mess towards the end and in extra innings.
But both teams blew numerous chances up to that point (NYY = 17 LOBs & 4/17 w/RiSP ... Oak = 13 LOBs & 3/16 w/RiSP) so you can play coulda/shoulda forever with this one.

The best part was the Yanx using their last non-catcher on the bench, a guy making his ML debut in fact, as a pinch-runner in the 14th -- which, considering it's September and they called up like 45 guys to sit on the bench, tells you how Girardi was playing it.
So this pr - Melky Mesa - was in for Eric Chavez after his lead-off single and got to 2nd via a sac bunt, and IW. ARod then smacks a one-out single up the middle and there's no doubt on either side that the winning run is going to score ... except that Mesa misses 3rd base!!. Missed it by at least 2 feet in fact which is probably the only thing that saved him. That it was so obvious he missed it meant he had to go back and touch it which killed any chance of scoring. Meanwhile ARod is standing at 1st wondering what happened and why the BB-gods keep conspiring to not allow him to be a MFY hero.
Mesa was then forced at home on a bases-loaded grounder (almost an A's error on that one too) for the 2nd out, and then it was the bases-loaded grounder which followed that one that the 1st baseman kicked (had an easy unassisted play) to lose the game.


The killer for the A's of course was not shutting off the bottom of the 13th after grabbing a 4-run lead via 3 consecutive HRs, and in allowing three HRs to Yanx old enough to collect AARP cards with their RBIs: one from Ichiro (38) and two from Ibanez (40). Not surprising that Ichiro already more HRs w/Yanx (5) this year than w/Seattle (4) in about 40% of the ABs. Who (besides everyone) saw that coming?

[MFS62]

I had the misfortune to hear part of the wrap-up show. (The station was on when I got into my wife's car.)
When I heard Sterling say "Ichiro, better than ever", I realized he has probably never even glanced at a stat book. Its one of his lowest season BAs ever, John. Then I quickly turned the station.
I didn't hear the final score until we got home.

Later

[Edgy MD]

Hey, Boston, stop helping the Yankees.

[Frayed Knot]

Eh, Bobby V's boys took just one of three from the O's, the same record they compiled against the Yanx recently.
Now if Toronto start giving them a hard time after laying down for the Yanx (and for just about everyone lately) then you've got a beef.

The O's - 1 game behind the Yanx, 1 game ahead of Oakland - have a four game set with Toronto at Camden starting with a good old fashioned twi-night DH later today.

Yanx are in Minnesota
Oakland goes to Texas

[Guest The Second Spitter]

Damn you O's . Bases loaded 0 outs, they only manage to score one run. Toronto then put up 4 in the next inning.

[Edgy MD]

Minny not getting it done against the Yankees.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

They left a ton of guys on in the early innings, making Pettitte look as though he was having a strong outing.

Tying run on deck now but 2 outs, 2 strikes, in the 9th.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

aaaaaand that's it. Thanks for nothing (again), Land of 10,000 Lakes.

[Guest The Second Spitter]

MFY implosion alert!

[Frayed Knot]

O's remain 1.5 games back of Yanx for AL East and Oakland sits a 1/2 game behind them for WC #2

But the Angels have climbed to 2 games in back of Oakland and the Rays, after going 1-7 in the games where it really mattered, have now won six straight and are one game behind LAA


ChiSox & Tigers are in a dead heat in their contest to see who can suck more coming down the stretch by stumbling against the likes of KC and Cleveland

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Twinkies offering typical resistance in rubber game.