A's Get Whiff of Victory

Kevin Millar stood at the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning, with Trot Nixon on first. The A's and closer Octavio Dotel were just one out away from a win, but the situation seemed all too familiar, and not in a good way. You see, just six days earlier, toward the beginning of Oakland's losing streak which at present stood at eight, Dotel had been called upon to close out a 2-1 game with Boston, and instead found himself a spectator, watching Millar' batted ball soar over Fenway's Green Monster -- a walk-off home run. The next night, he would watch Jason Varitek's batted ball do the same.

This was a big deal, because A's leads have not been easy to come by so far this season. They rank last in the major leagues in runs scored (which is especially bad since the National League teams must bat their pitchers) and last in batting average (.238, an average worthy of a trip to the minors). It's remarkable, given these statistics, that the A's had managed to win 14 games (out of 37). You can chalk that up to a semi-respectable 4.54 team ERA. But now with staff ace Rich Harden sidelined for at least two weeks and solid middle reliever Justin Duchscherer complaining of back pain, a series with the Red Sox could not have come at a worse time, even it was in Oakland.

But very little of this was going through the mind of Kevin Millar, original Boston Idiot of 'Cowboy Up' fame, as he dug into the batter's box. Oakland had taken the lead in the eighth on a two-RBI single by rookie callup Matt Watson. There's little doubt that Millar had a game-tying home run in mind. Instead Dotel got him to ground into what should have been a routine play at first, but ended up an error. The story of the A's season.

But then again, a game-tying home run it was not, and that had to -- and did --count for something. Dotel managed to strand Millar and close out the 6-4 victory for the A's, only their second the their last 14 games against the Red Sox. More importantly, the eight-game losing streak was over.

Tonight, Barry Zito takes on Matt Clement and I'm feeling pretty good about it. Nothing pleases me more than winning a close one against the Red Sox and their annoying fans, and I'm feeling at least one more, if not a sweep. I think the A's are back on the scent of victory. One good whiff was all they needed.