So I went with Marcus to see the A's battle the Mariners at the Coliseum last night. Taking the game as an excuse to get some schoolwork done, Marcus kept a scorecard and jotted notes on the game.
The rookie-heavy A's were leading 2-1 in the eighth inning on some masterful pitching by Rich Harden when he gave up a single and a double with one out. In comes Ricardo Rincon to strike out the next batter. Then Ken Macha drops Rincon for the more favorable righty-righty matchup of screwballer Jim Mecir against Jolbert Cabrera. Bang, Cabrera drops a single to right, scoring both runners. The next batter hit a single, but Mark Kotsay's throw from the outfield was wild, allowing Cabrera to score. 4-2 Mariners, and the game seemed less close than the score. A's fans started bailing out almost at the moment of Kotsay's wild throw. To add insult to injury, the loss dropped Oakland to second place in the AL West race, with no chance of the wild card (Boston has it wrapped up).
The A's September has been full of mental mistakes and lackluster hitting. And the Coliseum has a persistent stink of garbage in the air. Maybe the cleaning crew isn't up to snuff, or the Coliseum neighborhood is just filthy. Marcus chalked it up to the smell of bad baseball being played. With this stench of failure in the air, we didn't even get to see Ichiro set the single-season base hits record. A disappointment all-round.