As I first wrote back in July for Bleacher Report, the Oakland Athletics are the best show in baseball. Seriously, if the A’s are playing, watch them. Win or lose, it will be a spectacular show.
Take the game played today, Sept. 29. It looked like the A’s were going to go quietly and let the Seattle Mariners get the best of them. Going into the bottom of the 8th inning, Seattle was up 4-1 and cruising to a win.
Jason Vargas pitched seven strong innings and Seattle manager Eric Wedge handed the ball to the bullpen.
Then the A’s gave whichever fans stuck around for the end a show.
First baseman Brandon Moss, whose error led to the first Seattle run, doubled home Coco Crisp to make the score 4-2, but Stephen Drew was thrown out at home on the same hit to end the inning.
See, even their inning ending plays are worth watching.
In the bottom of the 9th, still down 4-2, Jason Donaldson launched a game tying home run over the center field fence off of Tim Wilhelmsen.
Then in the bottom of the 10th, it was Moss again. This time he hit a walk-off three-run shot to give the A’s a 7-4 victory.
The Athletics scored one run in the first seven innings and six runs in the last three.
The team that was supposedly in a rebuilding mode has won its 90th game and are, as of this writing, 2 1/2 games out of first place going into the last day of September.
And of their 46 home wins, 14 have been a walk-off victory. More than 30 percent of their home victories ending with the winning run crossing the plate in the final inning.
You may not know the names, you may not have any emotional attachment to the Oakland Athletics, but trust me. Watch their games. If you like baseball, you will not walk away bored.
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