Sports Redux: Obstacle Oakland

The Red Sox flew to Oakland after sweeping the home stand and hoped that momentum would come along for the trip. But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball wasn’t dancing last night when the A’s beat the Sox 8 – 3.

Jack Hannahan flied out in the first inning and it could have gone our way after that, but it didn’t. Bobby Crosby hit a double, Jack Cust hit a single, Frank Thomas hit a homerun and that’s when the wheels feel off this wagon. The three-run first inning was followed by a four-run third inning that featured another homer by Mark Ellis.

The Sox finally got their first run on the board thanks to a solo shot by Pedroia. Wakefield pitched 5 inning with 4 strikeouts, 4 walks and 8 hits, bringing his record to 3 – 3. Oakland’s Rich Harden faired a little bit better going for six inning, with eight strikeouts, three walks and four hits. Is it wrong to wish that Harden would fall back into his old ways of being a permanent fixture on the DL list?

Game two of the series is tonight and hopefully the Sox got whatever it was out of their system and they’re not taking a page from the Celtics by relying on winning at home alone. Speaking of the C’s, they’re in Detroit for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The series is tied and the Celtics did win one game during the regular season at The Palace, so they got that going for them. Let’s just hope the hometown teams adjust to their time on the road and turn it into wins.

Image from Amazon.com