If...
If Coco Crisp hadn't hurt himself in an 11th inning that never should have happened, he would have been out there to snag that fly ball that found turf in the twelfth. Or Sam Fuld is in left, where he belonged, and he gets it, and lovable but immobile Jonny Gomes is on the bench, a minimum safe distance from his glove...
If Geovanny Soto doesn't get hurt in the early going, forcing the A's to insert throwing-challenged Derek Norris so that the Royals run six-stolen-bases wild and literally steal the game...
If the A's aren't playing no doubles in the bottom of the ninth, then Josh Willingham's fly ball maybe gets caught and the Royals go down 7-6....
If rock-solid ace Jon Lester doesn't inexplicably give up six to a lineup that neither gets on base nor hits for power....
If the A's hadn't lost their middle infield to injury just after trading for Lester, sending them into a tailspin that dropped them into the second wild card spot and a one game winner-take-all against an improbable bunch of Kansas City Royals...
If Oakland hadn't managed to somehow recreate their entire season in one game - charging to a big lead, changing key pieces, swapping in pitchers who were supposed to be unhittable but proved to be less so, and finally falling short....
An inch here, an inch there. It took a great many miracles for the A's to lose that game, and somehow the relentless Royals got all of them.
And this is why there's October baseball.
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