brainwagon

The drubbing of the Oakland A’s at the hands of the Boston Red Sox did two positive things: it reminded me that a great duel between Pedro Martinez and Tim Hudson is yet to come, and it reminded me of another terrific game which happened Labor Day weekend two years ago.

Retrosheet Boxscore: Oakland Athletics 12, Kansas City Royals 11 The A’s were trying for their record 20th victory in a row, and they started out strong, scoring six, one and four runs in the first three innings to jump out to an 11-0 lead. But the A’s would then go scoreless for five more innings, and the Royals came back to score five in the 4th and in the eighth to trail by only a single run. Going into the ninth, the Royals would tie the game, and it looked like extra innings. But with nobody on and one out, they pinch hit Scott Hatteberg for Eric Byrnes, and Hatteberg hits a walk off home run to win the game.

Now that’s baseball.