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Here are some away messages that graced my buddy list this morning:

excruciating…
a f*cking bunt…..
what a let down
unbelievable….AND….David Justice is a Moron!
SOX….time to cowboy up….
A bunt?! Are you kidding me?! Who bunts?!…. friggen A’s…GO RED SOX!!!

and then my favorite:
A’s just delaying the inevitable…
By the way, who’s winning the other series?

Anyway, here now the thoughts on the game:

Heroes
Ramon Hernandez OAK
He saw Mueller playing back with the bases loaded. The bunt was just ballsy, heads up baseball. Ken Macha said he did it on his own, and the Athletics have him to thank for their one game lead.

Eurbiel Durazo OAK
Key hits in the third and ninth of two of Boston’s best pitchers drove in three runs. For what its worth, Durazo’s patience at the plate stymied Pedro Martinez, and was a key part in driving him from the game after seven.

Todd Walker BOS
Probably the player of the game. Went 4-5, with two homers, one of them off one of the toughest lefties in the game. Walker’s play in the last month or so is starting to make me feel bad about the death threats from July and August. Heeeeeeeeyyyy Walkaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Goats
Grady Little BOS
God, where to I begin? The vomit is at the top of my throat thinking about it. Just see below.

Manny Ramirez BOS
I love Manny like he was my autistic Dominican brother, but come on. Manny went 0-5, including ending innings with the bases loaded once and with runners on 1st and 3rd once. The only think that is keeping me from going into all out rant mode is that he busted his ass on Kapler’s grounder to Chavez in the 12th, and almost beat him to the bag.

ESPN
Not only were Brantley and Justice terrible last night, but they cut to the pregame for the Red Sox and left the Bear Cubs fans watching that instead of their game. To top it off, we are subjected to Joe Morgan today. Why doesn’t ESPN just put Tim McCarver, George Steinbrenner, and Satan in the booth together? Plus their game story on this game sucks. I’m actually stealing their sidebar content to save you guys from having to go to the site.

Turning point
When Grady Little decided it was better to have your Game 3 starter come in the game to pitch then one of your relievers.

Take that, conventional wisdom!
Keith Foulke pitched great for three innings and 51 pitches. Brantley said how stupid it was, because the A’s lost their closer…in the 9th.

Jeff’s Take
Grady Little blew this game.

He blew it long. He blew it hard.

I will itemize the managerial decisions I questioned:
*Starting Nixon in right when the calf was obviously bothering him.
I was wrong here. Nixon is still a better defensive right fielder with a hurt calf then anyone but Brown and Kapler, and his bat was needed against Hudson. Having Kapler or Brown against Hudson scares the shit out of me.

*Not pinch running for David Ortiz in the 8th.
Lessee…you need insurance runs, and you keep your slowest guy at 1st. Mueller doubled and Oritzzle only made it to third. If the worry was burning players, then Grady shouldn’t have wasted two hitting for Nixon with one out. Adrian Brown shouldn’t hit in the playoffs. There is a reason he is Adrian Brown.

*Pulling Byung-Hyun Kim in the 9th.
This boggled my mind. Embree was called on to face Eurbiel Durazo despite two facts. The first is that Durazo hits lefties better then righties. The second is that Kim retires lefties at a better rate then Embree. Grady, if you don’t trust Kim and you insist on having a closer, then make Williamson/Embree/Timlin your closer. Don’t jerk BK around. Kim retired Hernandez with a flyout, walked Billy McMillion, hit Chris Singleton, and then struck out Mark Ellis. Grady actually waited for Kim to get an out before the call. Horrible decision. Sauerbeck or Williamson would have been better choices.

*Bringing in Derek Lowe in the 11th
Listen, managing a bullpen can’t be this hard. You have a long man in your bully, plus a game 4 starter. If you are worried about experience, then bring in Burkett. If you are worried about sucking, then bring in Arroyo. I don’t know how anyone can defend bringing Derek Lowe out of the bullpen for the first time in two years to pitch the extra innings of a playoff game. For the record, of Lowe’s four walks in 1.7 innings, one was intentional. Williamson could have worked the 11th as well.

*Intentionally walking Terrence Long
If you look at the blog Beaneball, they have a Jail Terrence Long graphic. The reasoning is that Long is a horrible hitter. Now, since Grady was in the mood to micromanage last night, he could have pulled Lowe, brought in Sauerbeck. Sauerbeck still can get lefties out, and if you walk him, so what? You were going to intentionally walk him anyway. Then you can bring in Bronson Arroyo for Hernandez. Or you can pitch to him when he has a 0-1 count. DON’T INTENTIONALLY WALK TERRENCE LONG. There were two outs, and runners on first and second. Chavez stole third, then Hatteberg went to second on defensive indifference. With a 0-1 count, Grady decided the best course of action would be to walk one of the A’s worst hitters. This is the winner for bonehead move of the game.

I really don’t have the energy or patience to talk about the Giants and Bear Cubs falling into ties against their opponets. Just so all of my readers know, just because ESPN (Joe Morgan today will harp on this) says the A’s and Braves won their games with smallball doesn’t mean that’s the way to play (or true). The A’s won on a fluke suicide squeeze in the 12th inning, and the Braves still had 13 hits. The Marlins, Giants, Cubs, and Twins won with Bigball this weekend. Don’t listen to the myth propagation.

4pm today in the Al Davis Egoplex…Tim Wakefield vs. Patrick Duffy nephew Barry Zito. Insert Step by Step joke here.

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