A's Have Winter to Ponder Late Stumble
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The Oakland Athletics are baffled by their late-season collapse. It's so completely out of character. The A's are headed home for an even longer winter this year thanks to their problematic pitching in crunch time and a sputtering offense that caused this club to miss the playoffs for the first time in five years.
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In this space two weeks ago, I wrote that the most popular baseball game of the winter was the Minnesota Twinsâ attempt to trade Johan Santana. Iâm not so sure I was right.
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The Oakland A&#39;s have been problematic for the Anaheim Angels for so many years (think the early &#39;70s, late &#39;80s, and the last few seasons) that you&#39;d have thought this was a bigger deal than it was.
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The Minnesota Twins are finding their form from last season when they made an unlikely playoff run. Second-half success for the Oakland A's, meanwhile, has yet to be found.
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Joe Torre may not have slept well on Sunday night after watching his team lose Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, but it wasn&#39;t because he was up second
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Minneapolis -- They were down by four runs. They were five outs from defeat. Hmmm. You think the Yankees were actually worried about losing?
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By the time things mercifully came to a conclusion last night -- or was it early morning? -- the dominant story for the first two-thirds of Game 1 of the ALCS, a 10-7 Yankees victory, had been reduced to a footnote.
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Sometime during the last several weeks, pitcher Jarrod Washburn began to sense a change in the mood surrounding the Anaheim Angels. Losing was no longer an option.
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Whaddya think? Let him close tonight? He threw only 99 pitches and he was still pumping high-octane gas at the end. Curt Schilling might be good for a batter or two in a pinch tonight.
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The news on East and West Coasts this week reflected the fragility of hope based on an aging pitcherÂs arm and a young pitcherÂs value.
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Barry Bonds had better watch out. J.T. Snow seems to have designs on the slugger's spot in the San Francisco Giants' lineup.
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Bobby Abreu is starting to feel better at the plate. Albert Pujols has been feeling pretty good all season.
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A-Rod's slump is a thing of the past, and the streaking New York Yankees are leaving Boston far behind in the AL East. The sinking Red Sox are getting some of their regulars back, but they can only hope it's not too late to make a final playoff push.
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The Oakland Athletics swept away years of first-round futility, then partied hard enough to make up for all those missed chances and then some. Milton Bradley homered and threw out Torii Hunter in a disputed play at the plate as the A's snapped a stretch of nine straight losses in potential playoff clinchers, beating Minnesota 8-3 Friday to reach the ALCS for the first time in 14 years.
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For a flickering moment, there was a race in the American League East, when the Yankees cut the margin to four games eight days ago. But there is no more. At least not now.
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Like the autumn leaves, baseball changes in October. Pitchers dominate, and hitters desperately look for ways to score runs. By Andre Pichette, AP.
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The Oakland Athletics eked out a 1-0   road win at Minnesota on Wednesday, in a game where the Twins'   playoff hopes were dealt a severe blow after pitcher Francisco   Liriano aggravated an elbow injury.