Thursday, June 21, 2012

Oakland A's Walk Off Beats Dodgers

In an Oakland Coliseum shamefully overrun by Dodger Blue, the Oakland A's wearing "Throwback Thursday" yellow jerseys sent their fans home cheering with pride. Attendance 23,337.


Yes, the L.A. Fodgers played like possible contenders right up until the bottom of the ninth inning.  In that inning the A's took advantage of their opponents loss of focus at the mound, then with two men on, A's rookie Yeonis Cespedes (DH) drove a pitch that seemed for a minute to sail straight at me sitting in the left outfield second level.  In slow motion, the ball swerved toward the foul pole as it came into what I call 'fan focus."  Then in the blink of an eye the ball disappeared down into the lower level and we fans standing puzzled in wonder heard the eruption of the crowd below.  




After hearing Dodger fans out-cheer the home crowd all day, I first thought maybe it was a foul ball.  But within milliseconds of the cheering I saw the A's dugout spill out toward home plate to greet the rookie slugger.  Cespedes was a hero with his first walk-off home run, and the Dodgers were swept away from the Coliseum, losers of all three games.


A's pitcher Travis Blackley did well against Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw. The score was frozen at 1-1 right up to the wonderful walk-off.  


Wearing my new #47 Gio Gonzales hat and Oregon pullover with the yellow "O" (Oregon) on the left chest, I was right at home yelling "Beat L.A. into the cloudy Oakland skies.  The sun did peek out a few times but majority of the game was cloud cover, windy and borderline cold.  But I'll weather a damn snow storm if it means seeing the Dodgers lose a game, any game.


The A's have won eight of their last ten games and might just make some waves in the AL race for the playoffs.  Meanwhile, the Dodgers might still have the NL's best record at 42-28, but their definitely not as dominating as their early schedule had them looking.  


The A's will host my San Francisco Giants Fri, Sat. and Sunday.  The Dodgers will come back to the bay to play the Giants Mon., Tue. and Wednesday.


Final Score
Dodgers 1
A's 4

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