I said yesterday that Oakland couldn’t keep winning close games. Well, they proved me wrong, at least for today. The team was down 0-3 against Toronto from the first inning, and scored four of their six runs in the ninth in their 6-3 victory over the Jays.
Greg Smith, on the mound for Oakland, gave up just two hits in six innings (although there was that three run first inning). The A’s also got the bats going with eleven hits. The big ninth inning for Oakland was more of a result of Toronto’s bad pitching than anything else. Obvioulsly, Oakland deserves credit for their two hits of the inning, a triple (Ellis) and a double (Crosby), but what really made those hits count were Toronto’s mistakes and Oakland’s ability to take advantage of them. In addition to the two hits of the inning, Buck was hit by a pitch, Cust was intentionally walked, and Toronto’s reliever Wolfe threw a wild pitch against the first batter he saw.
Congrats, Oakland, but you can’t rely on these down to the wire ninth innings and pitching mistakes to carry you all season.
