The A’s are the type of team best described as “grinders”, that is they work very hard to win a game, not the spectacular way, but by putting themselves in a position to win numerous times during a game, and then finally executing properly, and chalking up the “W”.

Wednesday night against Texas was a good example. With Miguel Tejada, Eric Chavez, and Jermaine Dye all in a deep freeze at the plate, the A’s had to turn to some very tough at bats late in the game to pull out the victory.

They constantly worked the count in their favor, the relievers wiggled out of jams, and when the game was on the line, Scott Hatteberg came through with a bloop hit, also in a hitters count.

What preceded the hit was typical A’s baseball. Billy McMillon, terrific off the bench singled, Adam Melhuse looked horrible trying to get a bunt down, so Ken Macha let him hit away and wouldn’t you know it, double play, rally over.

Not so fast. Mark Ellis stroked a single, Eric Byrnes, who pitchers are starting to work hard on the inside part of the plate, walked. Hatteberg gets the hit, and the A’s win.

Oakland tied the game in the ninth in similar fashion with Hernandez singling, McMillon getting a key walk preceding Ellis’ sac bunt, then Hatteberg drove in the tying run with a sac fly.

No homers, no extra base hits, just a lot of heart pumping, tough at bats which resulted in a win.

That is how a “grinder” wins a game.

Click below for more.Oakland gets to face former farm hand Mario Ramos, lefty making his major league debut. First games for any pitcher are tough nerve racking events, this one should be even more dramatic for the soft tossing Ramos who the A’s traded to Texas for Carlos Pena.

Mark Mulder better go nine because Ken Macha used the entire pen last night except for Michael Neu, who only pitches when the game is no longer in doubt, and long reliever John Halama, who needs to be rested since he may have to bail out Aaron Harang Saturday night.

The Giants need to grind out some runs. They are leaving runners on base in key situations. Getting hits with runners in scoring position, moving runners with outs, has long been the problem of this club. Right now, a few homers from the Big Guy, Barry Bonds, with men on base would help too.

Injuries take their toll during a season and hardly can be avoided. JT Snow is out, Robb Nen is gone for the year, Kurt Ainsworth is slowly working his way back from arm miseries, and Ray Durham has been hampered by muscle pulls. All this adds up and the Giants heavily weighted with young pitching and older position players are heading for some trouble unless one, the pitching gets more consistent, and two, someone in the order gets hot other than Bonds.

The A’s Giants series this weekend pits two teams not scoring many runs these days. Small things such as walks, getting in the proper hitting counts, bunts, and bull pen work will be part of the weekend. With the A’s throwing Aaron Harang, Tim Hudson, and Ted Lilly, the Giants will miss two of the best starters the A’s have.

The A’s will face walk machine, Damian Moss, which looks like trouble for SF, Jerome Williams, another pitcher the A’s will wait out, and Jesse Foppert, a young pitcher the type Oakland drives from the game in the sixth inning.

This weeknd series may spell trouble for the Giants if they continue to waste scoring opportunities because Oakland will keep the pressure on these young pitchers, who better be prepared to throw stirkes, since the A’s don’t turn it loose until absolutely necessary at the plate.

Esteban Loaiza threw another gem for the White Sox last night against a dynamite hitting club, the Red Sox. If only the White Sox would wake up and smell the roses they could make a serious run at the Twins with their pitching staff.

Kansas City is getting closer to knocking the Twins from the lead in the Central. Tony Fiore is gone to the minors, a sign that the bullpen, long a strong suit for the Twins is in disarray.

Kansas City is playing very loose and really did play the A’s and Giants very well over their nine games against each other.

Joe Mays tries to stem his personal losing ways against KC’s Kyle Snyder who pitched well against the A’s.

I had the opportunity to interview Hall of Famer Larry Doby, who passed away yesterday, in Cooperstown last summer. He was a very soft spoken man who broke the color line in the AL July 5, 1947. What made Doby’s story so compelling is that he was brought on to a team (Cleveland) that was in contention, in the middle of the season, no one knew him on the Indians, and many including Eddie Robinson, southern first baseman wouldn’t even acknowledege his presence.

Doby didn’t do much that first year but was instrumental in Cleveland winning the pennant in 1948. He was a gentleman and one hell of an athlete. He didn’t have many friends on the Indians in the beginnning, but by his actions showed them the meaning of respect. He was finally accepted as a teammate after heartbreaking rejection by the club.

Important man in baseball history and in the struggle for racial equality which peaked after World War II.

Seattle keeps rolling along. Today Jamie Moyer against Ramon Ortiz. Unless the Angels hit like crazy they may be digging themselves a hole that even they can’t get out of. A loss today places them 14 1/2 behind Seattle. Not a good picture for the Seraphs.

Jose Reyes, Mets young shortstop is the real deal. You can forget about Miguel Tejada going to rejoin Art Howe on the Mets unless he wants to be a thirdbaseman.

Kerry Wood is giving the Cubs the type of starts that they wished for. With Mark Prior, these two can carry the club a long way. I still think Houston is the club to beat in the Central, but I don’t underestimate two horses like Prior and Wood down the stretch (check method used by Arizona recently with Johnson and Schilling). At some point Sammy Sosa will get hot and carry the club too.

Jason Schmidt needs to hold LA down and the Giants need to score early in the game to put pressure on the Dodgers offense. Also, it would be a good idea for Schmidt to go eight in order to rest Joe Nathan and Felix Rodriguez for the weekend.

The Red Sox and Blue Jays aren’t grinding out wins, they are whacking the ball, both teams make the Wild Card race very tight. If they both play this way into August, the Wild Card may be the best race of all.

2003 has many turns left in it, this weekend will be one of them for the Angels, Dodgers, Giants, A’s, Mets, Yankees, Cubs and White Sox.

Those matchups are about all we need in interleague play. You can keep the rest.