The Boston Red Sox traded for Curt Schilling for one reason and that is to pitch and win game one of the division series.

The Angels make you beat them before the sixth inning or else you have to deal with their bull pen anchored by Scott Shields, Brenden Donnelly, KRod and Troy Percival.

Not a lefty in sight for Mike Scoscia.

You can’t let Vladimir Guerrero beat you, but you better keep Chone Figgins and Darin Erstad off base ahead of the free swinging AL MVP candidate.

To win a five game ALDS or NLDS you have to play almost flawless baseball for the entire series.

The game changes by the minute and whoever makes the fewest mistakes wins.

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It would seem that a similar pattern of the field Manager revolving door may be starting with the A’s. Today’s Contra Costa Times leads one to believe that Ken Macha may want to leave the Manager’s job due to Beane’s resistance to deviate from the old Baltimore strategy of two walks and wait for the home run. All the years Baltimore employed this strategy they won three championships from 1966-1983. They lost more than they won, including three playoffs to the A’s. Lighting and lumber will always beat those who wait for things to happen.

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2004 regular season is
h i s t o r y.
Below are my picks
for the main awards.
Everybody here
follows the game
so the stats are
there to see.

Amaury Pi-González

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Marty, This is being written the morning after the ninth inning. It is still not known how today’s games play out. The likelihood is that the season is over for the Giants today but it matters litttle. No matter how today’s games end, the season is over. The Giants will not be successful in a playoff, if, by some unlikely scenario, they get that far. This season’s last column is not premature.

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Within the space of 29 minutes both Bay Area teams suffered agonizing losses.

The Giants might live for another day, the A’s won’t.

The A’s lost when their starting pitcher, Barry Zito, didn’t want to return to the mound in the eighth inning because his legs were starting to feel funny and he thought he was losing his fluidity on the mound.

Huh?

Can you picture Juan Marichal, Jack Morris, Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax, Tim Hudson, or Dave
Stewart saying such a thing?

No way. Unbelievable!

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With the playoffs scheduled to open up next Tuesday I can’t find a clear cut favorite to win the world series.

The Cardinals looked closest to a sure thing two weeks ago. Now over the past two weeks their starting pitching has come apart.

Matt Morris, the ace of the staff has an ERA over 4.70 after giving up 6 runs in 4 innings Thursday to the low flying Brewers. Chris Carpenter is out of the first round with forearm miseries. Jason Marquis has struggled noticeably in September, leaving Woody Williams and Jeff Suppan as Tony La Russa’s most reliable starters.

Teams win in October with strong starting pitching. It’s not a pretty sight right now in St. Louis.

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The Dodgers have to be talking to themselves tonight. The Giants beat then 4-2 to move within
2 games of 1st place. Is it possible that the Giants
could sweep the Dodgers? Why not. Stranger
things have happened. It’s quite possible that there
will a 4th game with the Dodgers to determine
the outcome. For all the Giant fans out there you
just have to love the desire that this group has shown all year. The get an A for effort and there
could just be another miracle waiting to happen.
Shades of 1951.

Jerry Feitelberg [Read more →]

The A’s lost tonight by a score of 10 to zip. The
neat thing about baseball is that a team can lose a
laugher one day and then come back and win the
next game or 2 and take the set. Tha A’s must in Saturday. If they lose the season is done. Zito
must be in top form. One has to wonder if Mulder
is suffering from a tired arm. It happens a lot in baseball. That’s why pitch counts are important. But
arms get tired late in the season and while the mechanics look good, the velocity just isn’t there.
So, all the A’s fans let’s hope that Barry Zito can
pitch a great game saturday and prolong the season for 1 more day. The A’s still have a chance
to win the division. It won’t be easy but there is
no quit in this team. Give your best shot guys.

Jerry Feitelberg [Read more →]

Marty, One hundred and fifty -nine games behind them; a long stretch which has seen the team go from despair, with a pitching staff, both starters and bullpen, in disrepair, to cautious optimism, wondering how a team with such obvious flaws remains in contention.

Click below for Ed’s answer.

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You play 157 games and figure by that time you ought to know where you stand.

No such luck.

The A’s now have five games at home to right the ship. The Angels have five games on the road to win the West.

Baseball wisdom tells me that the home team will prevail, but the A’s pitching has been abysmal. If they don’t get it right over the next two days with Rich Harden, their best starter, and Mark Redman, their worst starter at home, then it will be a tough weekend at the Coliseum. You don’t want to go in to that series down a game or two.

To make matters more appealing for Oakland, the Angels are throwing their pitchers this week on three days rest. I love the throwback to the days of Spahn, Ford, Drysdale, and Marichal, but I haven’t seen that plan work in the last 20 years.

If the A’s don’t get this one right it will be a huge upset.

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