A's Play Long Ball in Game One

by Staff

The wildcard Oakland A's started their playoff series against the Yankees in New York last night in a game that featured high emotions and some monster shots. The prime pitching matchup featured Mark Mulder vs. the Hall-of-Fame-bound Roger Clemens. The mayor had a front row seat. Nearly a month after the WTC disaster, New York had something else to put on the front page.

Sadly for the locals, it was a 5-3 Oakland victory, due mainly to a pair of Terrence Long solo-shots and a homer by Athletics slugger Jason Giambi. While Mulder performed quite well, Roger Clememns was forced to leave the game early with a bad hamstring. He is day-to-day. Clemens was tagged with the loss, he hasn't beaten the A's in the playoffs since he was tossed in the second inning against them in the 1990 playoffs. The A's were putting baserunners on against Clemens and his replacements all game long, but couldn't bunch the hits they needed to drive in the runners. This game could have been a blowout with more timely hitting.

Yankee Stadium was filled with signs honoring the fallen of September 11. Fox had the mayor speak as a special guest during their broadcast. New York native Frank Menechino made an error on one of his first chances. All sorts of uniformed individuals sand patriotic songs. As much as baseball and America are linked, at times it felt that it was as much a rally as it was a baseball game. But perhaps that is what is needed right now.

In any case, the Yankees go into tonight's game down 1-0 in the series. They send Pettitte against Hudson. Perhaps when the focus is more on baseball the results will be different.