So they said the invention of the baseball wild card would suck the life out of
a gorgeous pennant race, would provide an unsightly safety net for a team that
loses its season dream to a divisional rival.
Now, as the four-game series between the Oakland A's and Seattle Mariners
begins Thursday night -- the much-anticipated Showdown at Safeco, the
can't-hardly-wait Pomp by Puget Sound, the American League West Race in the
Rainy City -- it turns out they might be right.
|  | | Tim Hudson takes a four-game winning streak into Thursday's start. |
Sad but true, sports fans.
The Mariners' three-game lead over America's $32 million darlings would seem to
put undue pressure on Oakland to take three of four or -- dare to dream -- sweep
the M's at their fresh new crib. But there remains the not-so-small matter of
Cleveland and the wild-card standings when this series is through.
The A's, see, woke up Thursday a mere half-game from postseason glory, chasing
the mighty Tribe, pursuing an Indians team that has an obstacle course to run
in the final fortnight bordering on sadistic.
Oakland could split four in Seattle, leave town three games out, but still lead
the final week's dash for October pending what Cleveland is doing a) in their
doubleheader with Boston Thursday (they lost the first game); b) in their three-game visit to unpredictable
Kansas City; and c) in their hilarious day-night, two-team doubleheader on
Monday
Kinda makes M's-A's for all the marbles lose its edge, eh?
But we're in the business of hype, and there are still so many appealing
factors at play in the Oakland-Seattle square-off that it is entirely worth your
while to pay attention to them. After all, there is the very real proposition
that the winner of the West could be the division's sole postseason
representative, meaning this series could be dripping with meaning by Sunday
night after all.
And there's always the notion that the A's could win the first two games of
this series, sit one out going into the weekend, and crank up that sweet hype
machine into four levels of overdrive.
That being said, let's enjoy Five Things About This Series, five delights to
keep an eye on as the shadows grow on sold-out Safeco's immaculate turf:
1. Tim Hudson's start on Thursday night. Raise your hands if you knew Hudson, the sleightest little right-hander you've never heard about, is one of the five best starting pitchers in the American
League. You did? Liar. Hudson is 17-6 in this, his first full year in the bigs.
After an 11-2 rookie year, the guy who is listed at 165, probably weighs 155,
but dominates like he's a 405-pound gorilla is 27-8 and has the best winning
percentage in Oakland history. To call him a bulldog is to make a bulldog look
like a Chihuahua -- Hudson is the most tenacious, split-fingered throwing,
come-inside competitor going in this entire series. He's a delight to watch, and
provides the perfect foil for his opponent on Thursday, soft-serving, cerebral
Jamie Moyer.
The A's think so much of their 25-year-old ace, they juggled their rotation to
get him this start, and to be on the mound for the season's final game on Sunday,
Oct. 1 against Texas.
"I'm ready to go," Hudson said. "I wish we could just snap our fingers and
be on the mound for that final game, too."
2. The A's turning to two-bit players with it all on the line. What's a pennant race without unlikely heroes? Who knew Brian Doyle before the
1978 World Series? Consider, then, that Oakland's Friday night starter is Omar
Olivares, a career 70-77 pitcher who was limping through a 3-8 season before
landing on the DL on June 16. But an injury to A's rookie starter Mark Mulder
has left a spot open, and Olivares is filling it. What will the A's get? Who knows? That's the beauty, baby.
Even more beautiful and mysterious is Sunday's starter. That's right, Ariel
Prieto, the 30-year-old (so says the media guide) Cuban who has been mostly a
waste of a uniform for the organization since it drafted him in the first
round in 1995. But the devastation Hurricane Gordon wreaked on the A's pitching
rotation through Tampa and Baltimore has left Prieto to go on Sunday, an
even more unlikely man in the spotlight than Olivares.
The A's could still decide to start 15-game winner Gil Heredia or
dazzling rookie Barry Zito -- both of whom pitched Wednesday and are scheduled to miss the Mariners --
on three days' rest.
3. Two MVP candidates in their prime. Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi get to shine when the lights are brightest. It is a sweet pairing: A-Rod, the slick superstar with the lithe body, the sure
glove, the powerful right-handed bat, the status as the game's best overall
player; Giambi, the swaggering Southern Californian, the slick-locked, tattooed
slugger who has carried the A's all year, and burst into the AL elite.
Frank Thomas may be the frontrunner to many MVP voters, but Rodriguez or Giambi could stake
a serious claim with some theatrics at the Safe.
4. The cooling of one hot team, the sizzle of another. The only thing hotter than the A's this month has been the Mariners. It has been a sensational symmetry all year. In June, when the A's won nine straight,
the M's won seven. In August, when the Mariners lost 15 of 18, the A's lost 11
of 19. Now, in September, when both teams had to respond, they have: The A's
are 13-5 in the month, the M's are 14-5. The A's have won nine of 11, the M's
eight straight.
Something gives at Safeco.
5. The games themselves, man! It may not be winner-take-all. It may not be the last meeting of these two teams this year. It may not be your father's pennant race. But it's sold out at
Safeco, it's one of baseball's best veteran teams against one of its best young
teams. It's meaningful ball in late September, and it's damn well worth your
while.
Brian Murphy covers the A's for the San Francisco Examiner. He is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. | |
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