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SAVING FENWAY, MORE PEDRO
AND A FRUSTRATING SEASON
Carl Everett's walk-off HR wins
April 16, 2000 ... The
A's not only were reeling from a 5-4 defeat that abruptly ended when
Carl Everett pounded a 3-and-1 fastball from reliever T.J. Mathews
into the first row of the center-field seats leading off the bottom
of the ninth, they were steaming because for the second afternoon in
a row, one of their hitters was drilled by a Martinez.
This time,
it was Ramon the Elder, plunking Oakland first baseman Olmedo Saenz, who had
taken Pedro the Younger deep the day before and last May Day in Oakland took a
Pedro fastball in between the numbers. On Saturday, Pedro also hit Miguel
Tejada, which he described as an unintentional act of violence against a good
buddy from the Dominican.
The A's
aren't buying the coincidence angle anymore. Oakland pitchers did not retaliate
yesterday; the game was too close, according to starter Omar Olivares. But
Olivares, who lost a 4-2 lead in the seventh when Jose Offerman followed a wild
pitch by smacking a two-run single, said it may be a different story this
morning in the finale of this four-game set.
It was of no
consolation to the A's, losers of five of their last six games and seven of
their last nine, that after Saenz was hit in the left shoulder to start the
fourth, they went on to score three runs off Ramon Martinez on Eric Chavez's
bases-loaded double to take a 4-1 lead.
But in the
bottom of the inning, Everett doubled home Troy O'Leary, who had singled, the
wind wreaking havoc with Everett's liner to left. And after Offerman's two-out
single tied the score in the seventh and Derek Lowe put the finishing touches on
three innings of scoreless relief by the Sox pen.
Tim
Wakefield kept the A's at bay with 1 2/3 scoreless innings of relief.
Everett's
drive, landed in the first row of the bleachers. The home run was the team-high
fifth of the season for Everett, who has a team-leading 15 RBIs, 11 in his first
six games on Yawkey Way. Five of those six home games, not coincidentally, have
been Sox wins. Everett’s walk off home run was into the teeth of a
mini-Nor'easter. |
