But did this game ever feel good! Like the improbable winning streak, the game began with the grim look on the announcer’s faces (day game, so I could not attend). Cy Young winner vs. Kid Pitcher-expect the worse. But the kid struck out the side in the top of the first. Dare we hope?

No, Morales homered in the second off a missed location pitch. Warning flags going up!

But then, all of a sudden, Greinke could not find the strike zone. There were crossups, there were a lot of balls in the dirt, four runs later, the A’s had a lead. A lead that the Angels chipped away at immediately with another homerun on another location mistake. Then the roof fell in in the fifth and Straily lost command entirely and the Angels had the lead.

Dirty little secret: Over the last 8 games, the Angels bullpen ERA is over 10. Not over 4.00, over 10.00. Enter LaTroy Hawkins in relief of Greinke who had thrown an un-Cy like 103 pitches in 5 innings. I don’t know what happened to his velocity, but Hawkins was all junk, all the time yesterday. Five runs and only 2 outs later, Hawkins was gone and the A’s had 9 runs and a 4 run lead.Time for the “A” relief. Of course, they surrendered 3 runs to make it squeaky close. The wave of joy/relief that swept the Oakland faithful was palpable, even across the airwaves.

Maybe it was just a series in August, but somehow, the A’s had done it, taken 2 of three from the far richer team, the team with the huge names and the huge contracts. That felt really, really good.

Yeah, because one game changes everything…

But in the end the MLB team will seal the deal. The AAA team won’t.

Also, CC will certainly wonder why a baseball player is named after the American Law Review.

That balk call was weird–it came after LaRoche had driven in the run with a sac fly. They called ALR back to the box, the two base runners advanced (one to home) and ALR then struck out. So it looks from the box score like the Astros played terrible, but they didn’t actually, they played pretty tight. Gio also got called on a balk. Harper got seriously jobbed by Angel Hernandez, and he (more or less) kept his cool, but nearly gave the game away in the bottom of the 9th with a bad throw to 3rd (backed up by Gio, who did EVERYTHING ).

If you watched this game and didn’t know which was the 68-43 team and which one was the 36-76 team, you still wouldn’t. Overall, it has taken two extra-innings games, a web gem, and a CG by Gio to win this series. I know they all count the same in the standings, but the Astros are not giving an inch.

Does anyone know what was behind Suzuki getting hit by Galarraga? That sure looked deliberate. Something carried over from their AL days?

There is so much negativity, anger, hatred, greed and bitterness infused among this crop of despicable, unlikeable prima donnas that, at this point, NO ONE is untouchable, not even Pedroia.

The entire team needs to be flushed down the toilet and rebuilt from the ground up.

I feel bad for Bobby V…this sure as hell ain’t his fault and he looks like he’s suffering from PTSD while taking questions after games. Let him go…I’m sure he can find another team to manage, perhaps one with hungry young talent that actually wants to, y’know, PLAY BASEBALL.

The Sox deserve to wallow in the cellar of the AL East for a few years while they manage to get their shit together.

Are there any recent historical examples of ownership completely dismantling a team and rebuilding it from the ground up? If not, then this is a precedent that the Sox need to set. Now.

I had 2 extra tickets that I couldn’t even give away because he was pitching. He must be really tough on the scalper economy.

Hopefully Fister keeps rolling today & taking 3 out of 4 from the Yankees will make last nights debacle just a blip on the radar.