A’s Fall Short in First Playoff Game vs. Detroit Despite Fans’ ’10th Man Effort
The Scrappy Oakland A’s were the underdogs in the first
American League playoff Game against Detroit and Cy Young Pitcher
Max Sherzer. Their own ace, 40 year old wonder Bartolo Colon was,
perhaps affected more by the five day layoff after the end of the
season and gave up three runs in the first inning. But, after that, the
A’s were the winners, scoring the only other runs of the game in the
sixth inning on Yeonis Cespedes’ two run homerun that put them only
one run down. With 48,000 screaming fan exhorting the A’s on almost
every pitch one almost expected A’s Magic to happen again as it has so
many times during the season. But the top pitcher in the American League
and Detroit’s bullpen was just a little more than the A’s could handle;
perhaps the layoff and first game jitters could account for part of
their weak hitting performance ( only 3 hits on the night for a team
with a .295 average against Sherzer; of course, the other side had to
contend with the same layoff and jitters though it might have been
harder for a 40 year old pitcher and an A’s team of younger players.
The second game on Saturday will truly show what the A’s have in them,
if they can bounce back – but it won’t be easy with another top pitcher,
Verlander , going against them.
But, this game has to go down as one of the more exciting games for
the home fans, despite the loss. As a fan next to me said, the
enthusiastic A’s fan base may have gotten Cespedes’ juices going to hit
the big home run that brought the A’s back to within one run. But one
player’s performance a game does not make – Cepedes had two of the three
hits – and the A’s needed fewer strikeouts and better performances from
some other players this night. Our guess is that the A’s will show
definite improvement in Game 2 with the first one under their belt.
