Whew.

It’s September, and the A’s were two games back of division leading Anaheim going into last night’s game. Carmen had some homework to do, and the weather seemed beautiful, so I decided to go to the game and see the A’s versus the Twins.

The weather was beautful. I had seats right behind home plate in the Plaza Infield (second deck), and despite uneasily resisting the frequent cries of the ice cream sandwich man to break my diet, I settled in for a relaxing and fun night.

The A’s got off to a good start in the first. Ellis tripled in his first at bat when the Twins right fielder dove and missed at his diving shot to right field. Kendell got the RBI on a grounder, and the A’s were on the board.

They had their biggest inning in the bottom of the second. After Payton popped out and Hatteburg grounded out, Bobby Crosby walked, Johnson singled, and Swisher homered to drive in all three. On the very next pitch, Ellis crushed another one, and the A’s had back to back homers and a 5-0 lead.

Despite a kind of rough looking performance, Zito would leave after six and a third, having given up only two hits and no runs. Kiko Calero came in and gave up a homerun to Jason Morneau, giving the A’s the 5-1 lead.

In the bottom of the seventh, the A’s would score again. Chavez scored when Payton hit a soft tapper back the the infield, which was fielded by Twins pitcher J.C. Romero, and Payton would move to third when Romero’s throw to first sailed to the wall. Marco Scutaro would drive Payton in to complete the scoring in the seventh. A’s lead: 7-1.

Scutaro? Oh, he was in for Bobby Crosby, who came up limping when he hit the bag running in the bottom of the sixth. Bobby’s been out for a couple of weeks because of a broken bone in his foot, and after the game, it appears that he said that he really didnt feel much pain until he hit the bag tonight. I bet you they are gonna rest him for the rest of the Twins series. It’s great that Marco has been doing such a great job for the A’s, but still, Crosby would definitely be good to have going into postseason.

In the top of the 8th, Calero walked Bartlett, got Stewart to strike out swinging, and then walked Lew Ford. With lefties coming in, everyone knew that Rincon would be coming in, and he did. He got Mauer to fly out, but then walked Tiffee to load the bases. The crowd was relieved when he got Jacques Jones to strike out swinging, ending the threat.

I was getting ready for the Bart ride home. The crowd of 15,000+ who were in paid attendance had probably thinned to half that. I was content on soaking in the win.

But then, the top of the 9th.

Yabu relieved Rincon. Cuddyer: homer. A’s 7-2. Morneau singles, then Castro triples, scoring Morneau. A’s 7-3. The crowd begins its chant of “Street, Street, Street”. Sure enough, Street relieves Yabu (faced three batters, scored two, one on, nobody out) with Castro inherited from third. Ryan grounds out, and Castro scores. The A’s lead 7-4.

But the Twins have nobody on, and we have the hottest closer in baseball (Street’s ERA is an anemic 1.36). We are two outs away from closing this out.

Stewart grounds out, and we are one out away, with nobody on.

But the Twins don’t seem to notice. Lew Ford singles, and then goes to second on fielder’s indifference. Mauer pokes a ball to right pass Johnson (who it appeared to me should have at least tried to make a play) and Ford scores. A’s lead 7-5. In what appears to be a loop, Mauer goes to second on fielder’s indifference, and Tiffee pokes another ball to the left of Johnson, scoring Mauer. A’s lead has shrunk to 7-6. Finally, Street gets Jones to strike out swinging, and we all breath a sigh of relief.

A great night of baseball, with the right outcome for the pennant chasing A’s. Still, it was ugly at the end.

By this time next month, I’m gonna be missing baseball.

Addendum: Despite being right behind home plate, the woman sitting directly in front of me managed to get hit in the shin by foul ball tipped off Eric Chavez. She didn’t get the ball though. I consoled her with my story of how I was hit in the head by a Jeremy Giambi foul ball, and we had a good laugh. Still, every pop fly after that, she seemed to duck and hide. 🙂