A’s take 2 of 3 from Chisox

Oakland Coliseum - 8/7-8/9
GAME 1 - A's 2, White Sox 1
Billy Pierce vs Rick Langford
Harold Baines doubled home Nellie Fox in the top of the 1st for what would be the Chisox only offensive digit on the day.  Billy Pierce was tasked with the near impossible assignment of making that lone run stick.  For the better part of the day it looked like Pierce was going to get done.  Then just like that in the bottom of the 7th Joe Rudi led off with a triple and Gene Tenace followed that up with an RBI double to tie the game at 1.  Bill North was called on to pinch hit for Vic Power with the sole goal of bunting the slow footed Tenace over to third.  North's bunt wound up in the gold glove of the hard charging Robin Ventura, who made a split second decision to throw th third to cut Tenace down.  Kudos to Luis Aparicio for putting the rotation play on and executing it to perfection.  Oakland looked to have blown a golden opportunity.  North immediately stole second in an effort to attone for his sin of not getting Tenace to third.  North would prove to be a repeat sinner on the following play as he was gunned down by Harold Baines at the plate on Dick Green's single.  Oakland at this point really looked like a team that was destined to shoot itself in the foot by blowing so many golden opportunities to take a late inning lead.  Rickey Henderson was then give an intentional pass to create a force on the bases since Green snuck into second on the play at the plate.  Bert "Campy"  Campaneris stepped to the plate and delivered a clutch RBI single off of Hoyt Wilhelm, who by this time was in to replace the hard luck Pierce.  Neither team scored in the 8th, so Dennis Eckersley was called on to close out the 9th and protect a 1 run lead.  "The Eck" nearly got fouled up on his first pitch as Floyd Robinson hit one to the track in right that Canseco caught just on the edge of the outfield grass.  Aparicio tried to bunt himself on, but a hard charging Feris Fain, who replaced McGwire for defense, nipped Little Louie by a hair with his throw to Green who was covering first.  Jim Landis was Chicago's final hope and he did little to create a buzz with a ho-hum two hopper that Campy easily fielded at short to end the game.

GAME 2 - White Sox 11, A's 4 (15 inn)
Joe Horlen vs Bob Welch
A rare blow out extra inning win was recorded by the Chisox.  After carrying a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the 9th the Chisox could not seal the deal.  Once again Wilhelm had trouble late.  Today's trouble came in the form of a solo shot by light hitting second baseman Tony Phillips.  The game headed to extra's and the Chisox looked to once again put it away when they scored a solo run off of reliever Rick Honeycutt in the top of the 10th on single to right by Nellie Fox that Jose Canseco booted into a run.  Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, performs miracles in August too as evidenced by his 10th inning lead off tape measure job off of Wilhelm to once again tie the game up.  Neither team would score in the next 4 extra frames.  John "Blue Moon" Odom looked rock solid for the A's until the wheels fell completely off his proverbial wagon in the top of the 15th.  Chicago would go on to send 13 batters to the plate in that half inning and score 8 runs to make the game a blow out and Odom's ERA soar through the stratosphere.  Minnie Minoso had a 2 run double in the 15th.  Greg Walker followed with a 2 run triple and a few batters later Ozzie Guillen had a 2 run single.  The floodgates surely opened wide.  Eddie Fisher, who pitched 3 2/3 innings of relief wasn't able to stick around long enough to get the win, which went to Bobby Thigpen.  Starters Joe Horlen (6.2 IP / 1 ER) and Bob Welch (7 IP / 1 R) didn't factor into the decision and their efforts became barely noticed like a page 32 retraction in Saturday's paper.

GAME 3 - A's 9, White Sox 4
Gary Peters vs Catfish Hunter
The highly publicized pitcher's duel between respective aces (Peters & Hunter) never materialized.  Both squads scored early and often with the A's jumping out to a 4-1 lead on the heels of a Gene Tenace 3 run shot in the bottom of the 2nd.  Chicago answered right back with 3 in the 3rd off of Hunter who has looked more like a joker than an ace in his first two early season starts.  Peters was gone before the second inning expired and the Chisox went to their pen early and often.  In all 6 relievers came on board as manager Dan Holm wore out the sod between the third base dugout and the mound.  After a rough first 3 innings Hunter battened down the hatches and pitched 4 shutout innings until he handed the ball off to reliever Paul Lindblad, who got the save thanks to 2 scoreless innings of his own.  Rickey Henderson's 2 run blast off of Thigpen in the 9th turned a 3 run lead into a 5 run blowout.  Oakland's base stealing merchant had himself a 3 for 4 day where he scored 3 runs and knocked in 2.