Greatest A’s Comeback EVER!

Well, in their history in Oakland. There was a larger comeback in 1925 when the team was still in Philadelphia, but this was their greatest comeback victory as the Oakland Athletics.

Tonight’s game was just simply amazing. I’m going to keep this one fairly short since it is late and the game just finished up. I had not planned on posting this evening, but you can’t pass up an opportunity like this one. Not after this game.

The A’s were down 12-2 early after Gio Gonzalez ran into the wrecking ball that was Justin Morneau and the Minnesota Twins offense. Gonzalez only managed to go 2.2 innings and was clubbed for 11 earned runs after four Minnesota home runs, two of which came off the bat of Justin Morneau. Morneau was responsible for seven runs batted in after a grand slam in the second inning and a three-run home run in the third. It didn’t look good for the A’s early and it certainly wasn’t the type of start that they wanted to see from Gio Gonzalez as his season ERA rose from 6.29 to 9.33. Manager Bob Geren declined to talk about Gio’s spot in the rotation in the post game and the reporter didn’t pry much after a great game like this one.

At that point, it looked dire for the A’s as their offense hasn’t scored more than 12 runs in a game all season long. They started to chip away immediately in the third on a Jack Cust RBI single and a home run from the newly recalled Daric Barton (Jason Giambi went on the DL with a strained quad prior to the game). It was 12-5 following the third. Still unsurmountable right?

Then the amazing happened. Finally! Matt Holliday arrived and brought his bat with him. Apparently he has gone back to his old swing after he had changed his mechanics, a fact uncovered by Jeff Passan at ummm, some other site. Well, whatever Matt was doing tonight was working as he hit a 2-run bomb in the fourth to cut the lead to 12-7. Now we were looking at a reasonable amount to come back from, especially if Matt Holliday brought his hardhat.

The Twins added a sac-fly in the fifth to increase the lead to 13-7.  Justin Morneau scored on the play and finished with a huge night, going 3-for-5 with two home runs, seven runs batted in, and four runs scored. Congratulations to anyone that may have him on their fantasy teams (he is on three of mine, yay me).

The seventh is where the magic happened as Orlando Cabrera doubled to bring in two more as he continues to swing a very hot bat. That cut the score to 13-9 and you could see the moment setting itself up. The A’s managed to load the bases and Matt Holliday came up with the chance to be the hero. A role that he was acquired to fill this season and has struggled in at times this year. Well, tonight was not one of those times as he delivered big with a monster grand slam to tie the game at 13 a piece. The wheels had totally come off the Minnesota wagon and Jack Cust followed up Holliday’s home run with one of his own to give the A’s a 14-13 lead. 

Well, the game wasn’t over with yet. This was one of those “last man standing” type of games and the Twins still had that Morneau guy coming up in the ninth. It was a ninth inning in which there would be no Andrew Bailey as he was unavailable after throwing 29 pitches last night.

Michael Wuertz would need to be the man.  He came with that nasty slider of his and looked very good striking out Nick Punto on a full count slider, setting up the high pressure moment with Justin Morneau. After throwing mostly fastballs to Punto, Wuertz decided to go exclusively with the slider to Morneau.  And why not? Gotta go with the money pitch in those situations. He threw four in a row and got Morneau to swing over the top of the last one as it tailed into the dirt. No problem right?  We can all breath easily.  

Not so fast. Michael Cuddyer doubled to left setting up an at-bat from Jason Kubel.  The same Kubel that crushed a Wuertz pitch into the stratosphere earlier this year in a ballgame.  The A’s didn’t waste any time and decided to break that unwritten rule about not intentionally walking the winning run. So, with the score now 14-13, Delmon Young stepped in.  Wuertz threw a first pitch slider for a ball and followed it with a pitch in the dirt that got away from Kurt Suzuki.  The runners advanced to second and third and when Suzuki couldn’t find the ball initially, Michael Cuddyer broke for home. The ball beat Cuddyer to the plate, but Cuddyer clearly slid in under the tag. Home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski was somewhat blocked from the play and called Cuddyer out to end the game. So, unfortunately the game of the year ended on a blown call from the ump. It is unfortunate too because that shouldn’t be what people talk about after a game like this one. It was just too good and too exciting to be blemished. Greatest comeback in Athletics history.  Relish it A’s fans. There haven’t been many moments like this during the season. Hopefully it can carry this team for a little while and they can build some momentum.