A’s Win!

Yesterday, Stuart and I watched Miguel Tejada hit a game-winning 3-run home run on TV to extend the Oakland A’s’ winning streak to 18 games. With the American league record set at 19 games, we decided that we would go to the game today (despite their streak and the penant race, for some reason, Oakland A’s games don’t sell out in Oakland – indeed, even today, they were probably only half-full). The game was excellent. The A’s were playing the Royals, who quickly built a 5-0 lead, while their pitcher (Hernandez?) no-hit the A’s through 5. then, over 2 innings, the A’s came back to take a 6-5 lead. In the 8th, however, the Royals tied it up, which led to the ninth. Terence Long led off the bottom of the ninth for the A’s with a triple. The Royals then intentionally walked the bases loaded, to get the force out at home. The next batter grounded to second and indeed, the Royals got the runner coming home, keeping the game alive. They were now only one double-play away from getting out of the inning, with Miguel Tejada coming to bat. After yesterday’s heroics, the question was: could he do it again? And with the crowd roaring the M-V-P chant I’ve been hearing on the TV since I arrived here (my brother is a big A’s fan – after watching parts of a couple of games, and this entire one, I can understand why), Tejada came through, smacking a single up the middle to win the game, squeaking through the pulled-in infield (the Royals had even brought in one of their outfielders to plug up the gap, to no avail). The crowd went nuts, the chorus of M-V-P reverberating around the stadium while Stuart and I made our exit. It truly was excellent. I, unfortunately, continued my bad tourist ways in that I forgot my camera for the second day in a row. So no pictures of the game, or yesterday’s zoo visit, but upon my return, a trip summary will be forthcoming, as well as what photos I do have. A warning to potential viewers, however: a professional photographer I am not. Hopefully, I’m at least a decent snap-shot taker.