The A’s lost to the Red Sox Thursday dropping one game behind the Sox with 41 games to go in the 2003 season.

The Red Sox simply have more weapons than the A’s do in the bullpen and on the bench. When Tim Wakefield left after six innings, the Sox paraded three relievers out to finish the game and still had four that they could go to with confidence, remaining in the pen.

The A’s went to the well and found the usual suspects available to finish the game after Ted Lilly’s excellent start. Chad Bradford, Ricardo Rincon, Keith Foulke, and Jim Mecir got the prime time assignments (they threw 87 pitches in 3 2/3 innings, it was ugly out there).

The A’s pen looked tired and had to dodge bullets once again just to get the chance to close the game in the ninth.

It was clear Bradford and Rincon were not sharp, Foulke was asked to go two innings once again, and Mecir pitched for the first time in two weeks.

Manny Ramirez took care of things with a game tying homer off Foulke in the ninth (Foulke should look to bounce a couple his way next time), and Mecir struggled with his 78 MPH change up which has been his out pitch this season.

Even with all of that if Ken Macha had some power on his bench he could have gotten an insurance run in the eighth which would have made the Ramirez homer meaningless.

In that inning, Frankie Menechino, Eric Byrnes, and Billy McMillon were no match for Alan Embree’s 93 MPH gas, so the boys left two in scoring position with none out, thus wasting a golden opportunity to ice the game.

Where is Olmedo Saenz when you need him?

Byrnes was terrific in May and June, right now he is barely a AAA player. The A’s need some righthanded punch off the bench to counter the lefty relievers that they will definitely see down the stretch.

Adam Piatt couldn’t pinch hit, so find someone that can for the next six weeks.

The Red Sox play big market baseball, the A’s don’t, but when you get this close to the finish line it is time to open the wallet because you can make the dough back in the postseason if you get there.

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The Red Sox not only play for their own professional pride, but they carry the expectations and hopes of every baseball fan in New England on their backs. It is quite a burden.

As a team they are dead serious in the clubhouse, no loud music, very few hijinks before the game. The media swarms around the players desperate for a quote or an insight into the day’s game. They hope for a few words from Pedro Martinez, which are not forthcoming, you see Pedro now boycotts the media in his home city.

Last night the Sox beat the A’s and you could just tell the pressure was off the Beantowners. Heck, they have a solid team, it’s just that every fan with a Boston accent is awaiting that fateful losing streak that will send the Sox home without a world championship once more extending the drought which began in 1918 (ever hear of the Curse of the Bambino).

Mark Mulder wasn’t at his best last night. He looked like he was searching for the correct pitch, looking for his pitcher’s touch.

Mulder had Manny Ramirez groping like a man in the dark when he threw two straight splitters with the bases loaded to bring the count to 3 and 2. Would Mulder dare to throw the free swinging Ramiez another pitch that would dart out of the strike zone?

Not last night, he went to a running outside fastball that missed badly, the runner from third waltzed in, and the Red sox world sensed the night would end differently.

It is important to point out one thing about the big three on the A’s. This spring was slightly different from the past. The team was supposed to open the season in Japan March 24 or so. Those games against Seattle were cancelled due to the war. The A’s pitchers have been on their regimen since February 8th, about ten days earlier than normal. Even though we haven’t seen any signs of fatigue from the big guys, it bears watching over the next few weeks to see if the early spring work might take its toll down the stretch.

What about the A’s offense?

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It is a credit to Ken Macha and Rick Peterson that they have been able to navigate the championship season with essentially a three man bullpen in an era when teams need six relievers to play the game.

Chad Bradford once again was called upon to extricate the team from a sixth inning jam. He did so, taking the team into the eighth before tiring.

Enter Keith Foulke with second and third and the team clinging to a 5-3 lead. Not only did Foulke leave the runners stranded, but he retired Bill Mueller, Nomar Garciaparra, and Manny Ramirez without a run scoring.

Amazing.

Now the real story of the game. Macha wouldn’t go to Ricardo Rincon to face one or two lefty batters in the eighth because he had to save his lefty just in case Boston tied the score.

So here comes the top closer in the league Keith Foulke for a two inning save attempt.

Neither Michael Neu, Chad Harville, nor John Halama are considered by Macha when the game is on the line, meaning tied or close.

So, until Jim Mecir returns the A’s are operating with a three man pen.

They can get away with this scenario as long as the starters continue to go seven innings, but if Ted Lilly, Rich Harden, and Zito (from time to time) continue to go out in the sixth, they will need help, and I mean real bullpen help that they trust.

Is this the beginning of the end for Boston?

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With only 45 games to play and an eleven game lead over the nearest club, the team still has a major incentive. If they continue to maintain roughly the same lead over Arizona and LA as they have today they will be able to clinch the playoff spot ten games or so before the season ends. Having in mind that in the last ten games of the year they play LA seven times, this is a very important consideration.

Ed Stern’s Analysis is sound the only thing in his way are the thrty five games over the next seven weeks of the season, they have to be played.
Marty Lurie……..

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Tim Hudson made sure the A’s got off on the right off in the first of their seven games with the Red Sox with his best pitching performance of the year.

The Red Sox don’t hit as well away from Fenway, we know that, the stats tell the story. Batting average at home .323, batting average on the road .264, on base percentage at home .395, on base percentage on the road .327, and the numbers go on for the pitching as well.

The only team that has handled the A’s pitching in Oakland has been the Atlanta Braves. Last night was no exception.

Hudson was simply overpowering, nasty, dirty, or any other term you want to use to describe a pitcher who was in complete control of the game.

Pedro Martinez threw 100 pitches in five innings, the toll on Pedro’s arm from his prior three starts, where he threw 367 pitches, was obvious. No doubt he is an overwhelming pitcher too, but last night he had to work overtime because the A’s hitters worked the count to perfection.

Chris Singleton had a big hit driving in the first run, but his best play of the night may have been legging out what looked like a double play ball, forcing Pedro to throw many more pitches in the inning, thus ensuring the Cy Young award winner would be gone after five.

Tonight it is Barry Zito, the Red Sox are 8-12 against lefties on the road and they haven’t seen Mulder or Zito yet) facing soft tossing John Burkett. The Red Sox need a split in this four game series since they get the A’s at home next week for three and can pick up a game if things go according to their plan.

It was only the first game last night and Tim Hudson, more than anyone, made sure the A’s moved into a tie for the wild card lead.

The Red Sox can hit, make no mistake about it, but the A’s can pitch and for one night the best pitching stopped the best hitting.

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The story of the 2003 season picks up dramatically tonight in Oakland.

Not only is the wild card lead up for grabs between the Red Sox and the A’s, but the teams bring the oldest question in baseball history to the table:

Can good pitching stop good hitting?

The A’s have been on a roll ever since the starters decided to take matters into their own hands and pitch seven or more innings every game.

The key for the A’s is to get the ball to Keith Foulke. How they get it there is the question. If Oakland has to get into the pen in the sixth inning trouble looms, if they get into the pen in the eighth inning, good things happen. The seventh inning becomes the key to success. If Tim Hudson pitches that inning, chances are they will be fine at the Coliseum, if Chad Bradford and Ricardo Rincon need to get five outs, then it becomes dicey.

The A’s face Pedro Martinez who has pitched outstanding games in Oakland, but I seem to remember his leaving the game by the seventh inning. He may be leading 2-1, but he may leave his fate in the hands of the bull pen.

Pedro threw 128, 111, and 128 pitches in his last three starts, let’s see how far they let him go tonight?

The A’s should do what the White Sox did to Rich Harden yesterday, make him work and get his pitch count up, then beat the bull pen.

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In this Sunday’s New York Times it becomes clear that the question which has intrigued and bedevilled the teams’s followers since the start of the season, why does this team win, is being asked in places other than San Francisco. The answer to the question, however, is no more apparent to the New York sportswriter, Jack Curry, than it has been to those of us who have been following the team through it’s first 116 games. Curry defines the team as “the sum is greater than the parts San Francisco Giants” and takes off from that premise.

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Ken Macha has shown one distinctive trait in his first season of managing. Once he senses that a key situation has arisen that will determine the outcome of the game, no matter what inning, he brings in his most dependable reliever Chad Bradford to bail him out of the jam.

It worked Sturday night when the submariner was summoned in the fifth inning with one out and the bases loaded in a seemingly safe 6-2 game, Bradford proceeded to strike out the Big Hurt and then induce an easy ground ball off the bat of Magglio Ordonez to end the threat, putting the White Sox to bed for the evening.

Nice managing, nice pitching by Bradford who K’d five in recording seven outs.

By only going 4 1/3 innings, Ted Lilly puts pressure on the kid, Rich Harden to pitch at least into the sixth inning today or else the bull pen will have to work overtime which isn’t a good idea with the Red Sox in town for four starting Monday night.

AL Cy Young? Roy Halladay, Mark Mulder, and Esteban Loiaza in that order as of August 10th. All that can change over the next month especially with the A’s facing Loiaza today in a game the Sox need, then possibly seeing Halladay next weekend in Oakland.

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Can you slug your way to a pennant?

The Red sox are certainly trying to do just that.

Will they be successful?

Without settling into a reliable five man rotation it will be very difficult.

Pedro Martinez throws over 120 pitches per start, not a good thing for the fragile hall of famer to be. Derek Lowe now sports an ERA more typical of a pitcher on his way out. John Burkett is steady, but unspectacular in big games, Casey Fossum is not ready for prime time, Tim Wakefield, up and down with his knuckler, and Jeff Suppan is an adequate fourth or fifth guy.

This all adds up to hoping the hitters can carry the game to the bull pen and then pray they get it done. It’s been the same story for Boston since game number one this season.

The Red Sox come into Oakland next week for four games, which will test the mettle of the team. They will face Hudson, Zito, Mulder, and Lilly in that order. If they don’t hit the ball with the authority of the 27 Yankees, they won’t get very far, even if the A’s continue to hit like a team without a clue.

With only one lefty possibly going for Boston next week, the A’s lefthanded batters will get some decent swings after seeing Pedro Monday night. If Oakland wins on Monday, it will be no less than three of four for them by the time Boston leaves town on Thursday night.

Today in Chicago, Ted Lilly faces Jon Garland. The Sox are playing much better and having Carl Everett on the team is a big plus for the Sox because Everett, as a Ranger this year, has hurt the A’s with his bat and glove and lo and behold he did it again last night.

Runs will be plentiful in this game, the bull pens are well rested for both teams, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see each team in the pen by the sixth inning.

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The A’s take on the Chicago White Sox in Comiskey Park sending hometown lefty Mark Mulder against Mark Buehrle, a southpaw who has had mixed results against the Athletics.

There are times when Buehrle simply outpitches the A’s batters, then there are the times that the A’s simply crush the lefthander.

Mulder gets to face Carl Everett again since the enigmatic outfielder is now a White Sox instead of a Ranger. Let’s hope Chad Bradford doesn’t see Everett since the switchhitter has hit at least three homers off of Bradford this season.

The White Sox bull pen has been reduced at the end of the game to Damaso Marte and Tom Gordon. It is not clear who is the closer since Gordon has failed to hold the lead at least twice this week against KC.

In any case, Keith Foulke who always has something to prove against his former club should be a safer bet than either of the two Chicago short men. Billy Koch is not going to be a factor in the series unless he blows a mid inning lead to the Athletics. He is one mixed up dude right now when he comes into a game.

Eric Chavez is hot. Eric Chavez still doesn’t hit lefties with much authority. The A’s need Chavez to continue to hit well in the third spot, Chavez has hit some long homers in this park, too. It will be on his shoulders tonight to show his hot streak is not just a short term thing, but one the A’s can rely on to carry them this month. He is looking forward to seeing Jon Garland a righty tomorrow.

The A’s made so many mistakes yesterday it isn’t worth repeating them here, however Barry Zito pitched a decent game against a very bad ball club, giving hope that his next start against the Red Sox might be a good one.

For Zito’s sake he better not hang too many curves against Boston’s line up, they ain’t the Tigers.

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