Frank Thomas' two home runs lifted the Oakland A’s past Johan Santana and the Twins this afternoon.
Barry Zito (1-0) threw eight strong innings to give Oakland the 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series. Zito gave up four hits, one run and three walks while striking out one. Thomas went 3-for-4 with two homers, including one in the ninth off reliever Jesse Crain. Santana also lasted eight innings, but took the loss by allowing two runs in the second inning. Final Boxscore.
Beginning at 4 p.m., San Diego hosts St. Louis in the first National League game. Chris Carpenter (15-8, 3.09 ERA) has the ball for the Cards. San Diego counters with Jake Peavy (11-14, 4.09). Boxscore Live!
Then at 8 p.m., early season Cinderella Detroit is in New York to take on the Yankees. Nate Robertson (13-13, 3.84 ERA) takes on Chien-Ming Wang (19-6, 3.63). Boxscore
The Big Hurt is the 2007 AL MVP!
Posted by: That Dude | Tuesday, October 03, 2006 at 04:42 PM
Varsho, Bombard and Dancy justy got the ax. Milt and Dubee get one year extensions. I guess Uncle Idiot is hanging around.
Posted by: That Dude | Tuesday, October 03, 2006 at 04:49 PM
lets say a fair and warm goodbye as well to longtime Phils organist, Paul Richardson. He passed away on Monday.
Posted by: Paul | Tuesday, October 03, 2006 at 05:41 PM
That Dude: What's your source on that. I'd love to see the news...
Posted by: Phillieanthropist | Tuesday, October 03, 2006 at 05:48 PM
Story on Varsho, Dancy, and Bombard is now on phillies.com
Posted by: Billy Mac | Tuesday, October 03, 2006 at 05:56 PM
Very surprised to hear that Varsho was fired. I wonder what prompted that. The base coaches were just loyal flunkies, but Varsho seemed to be a good anchor for Manuel in that dugout.
That is sad to hear about Richardson. He made the Vet a fun place with his organ. I still miss "The Tarantella" during rallies.
Posted by: RickSchuBlues | Tuesday, October 03, 2006 at 06:53 PM
Is there a radio station in the Warminster, PA area that is actually broadcasting any of the playoff games? I can't get MLB radio thru my computer here at work, it gets blocked out.
Posted by: theragtopguy | Tuesday, October 03, 2006 at 06:58 PM
The firing of coaching assistants is a "throwing a bone" to dissatisfied fans mechanism, while the head coach or manager gets to keep his job. Normally the assistant coaches that get let go are ones coaching in areas where the fans are not satisfied.
The Phils hit pretty good, so the hitting coach gets kept. The Phils score a lot of runs, so the basepath coaches get fired. Duh! The pitching sucks, so the pitching and bullpen coaches are retained. Duh! The dugout management sucks, so the dugout coach gets canned. Some of this makes sense, some of it does not. Look to see a tactician get the dugout job. I don't understand the basepath coaches firings. Help me understand all of this!
Posted by: Lake Fred | Tuesday, October 03, 2006 at 07:10 PM