A's Win On One Hit and Three Runs in Bizarre Game for the Record Books

 

 First - Ever Regular Season A's Win With Only One Hit
 

 

If Your Team Gets Nine Hits and the Opponent Gets 1 Hit  You Would Expect Your  Team To Win. Not so for the poor Tampa Bay Rays, May 21.

Furthermore, your team gets two runs but the 'one hit wonders' still beat  you. How is that possible?  And, we're not talking music here...

 

The Oakland A's won their 11th in 12 games in unlikely fashion in one bizarre game at the Tampa Bay Dome, or whatever you call the indoor stadium. The A's  were able to bunch their one hit  , a homerun by Brandon Moss  with  walks and errors  by Tampa Bay;.

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay was NOT able to bunch their NINE hits.

Credit Oakland relievers Abad for getting out of a bases loaded jam in the eighth and Doolittle for blowing his fastball by the Rays after a ceiling-aided single in the ninth. 

 

CEILING-AIDED SINGLE

That's right. Even with the assistance of a 'sky rule' base hit in the ninth inning, Tampa Bay was unable to beat the dominant Oakland A's , who seem to find new ways to win. Tampa Bay's second  batter in the ninth hit a high  popup that hit the dome ceiling ring cross bar, altering the downward flight of the ball, causing John Donaldson to miss the ball. Perhaps an odd baseball book ruling allows such balls in play.
 

 

Oakland has never before won a regular season game when only scoring one hit and they managed to still win when the other team scored two runs. They did win on one hit in the 1974 World Series when Catfish Hunter - who else? - was pitching for them.  Only four teams have one a game on one hit in the last five years, but none scoring as many as three runs on one hit.

 

The A's also managed to win against their old closer, Grant Balfour, who closed out the ninth inning for Tampa Bay.  A game for the books...The Oakland A's have been called many things before and now they can be called One Hit Wonders.

Hopefully ,for the A's - who now have the best record in baseball -  they'll get more hits next time and not count on such an unlikely game.