Breslow pitched in the top of the eighth inning

Breslow pitched in the top of the eighth inning, and he got the first two batters out, but then a line drive hit him.The runner was safe at first, and Geren decided to take him out of the game and bring in Michael Wuertz.A strikeout ended the inning.Wuertz had a good top of the ninth, too.The first out was a fly ball to left field, the second was a strikeout, and the last of the game was a ground ball that Wuertz fielded.He threw underhanded to Barton to end the game at 9:55.

　　I felt pleased enough.Not only did the A’s win, but the Rangers and the Angels lost.The A’s had 11 hits on the night, which was 4 more than in their previous three games combined.On the National League scoreboard, Barry Zito lost, and the Padres won, so now the Giants are 5 games behind in the division race.The Phillies moved ahead of the Giants in the wild-card race.

　　The sad news was that Bobby Thomson, famous for the pennant-winning home run for the New York Giants of 1951, had died at 86.Ken Korach talked a lot about it.In fact, he quite often talks too much about baseball history when he should concentrate on finding what’s interesting right in front of him and trying to convey some sense of humor.

　　Christina had given me a game information sheet which had a feature called This Date in A’s History.On August 17, 1980, Brian Kingman pitched a team record ninth consecutive complete game in Seattle.The A’s would finish the season with 94 complete games from their pitchers.On August 17, 1987, Reggie Jackson hit the last home run of his career, Number 563, against Mike Witt of the California Angels.In the team store I had seen a Reggie Jackson jersey that was in my size and was nearly affordable for me at $100.On August 17, 1990, Bob Welch won his 20th game of the season, on his way to 27 wins.

　　On the way home, I listened to one of my favorite Elvis Presley albums, “From Elvis in Memphis.”Two of the tracks I liked best were “Gentle on My Mind” and “True Love Travels on a Gravel Road.”It had some good bonus tracks, too, like “Suspicious Minds” and “Kentucky Rain.”