WINNING STREAK!

After receiving two gift cards (thanks Kimberly and to my Grandma) for the Oakland A's, I cashed them in last night for some primo seats on the first baseline for $1 each and settled in with a good friend from church, Scott, to watch the A's battle their division rivals, Texas.

As you can see from above, Rajai Davis continued to celebrate Rickey Henderson Month by creating chaos on the basepaths.

Pitching for the Rangers was Vincente Padilla, whose only accomplishment since 2000 is hitting 98 batters with pitches. Make that 99 after Kurt Suzuki took a pitch off of his back in the first inning. Way to go, Padilla. The A's did get payback later in the game by hitting a Ranger (Michael Young) with a pitch, and the kicker was watching Kurt Suzuki go yard and hit a home run off of Padilla in his next at-bat.

This kid, Chad Reineke, was called up to the big league club from Sacramento when regularly scheduled starter, Dallas Braden, suffered a foot injury. Reineke kept the A's in the game for five solid innings. He gave up 4 earned runs on 7 hits.

But the A's picked him up big time with a power surge that included four home runs: Scott Hairston; Kurt Suzuki; Cliff Pennington; and the last home run by Adam Kennedy, which was a two-run shot to deep right field that was the difference in the game. Final score: 7-5, Oakland.

At the end of the 8th inning, a kid in his early 20s somehow got onto the field by the A's bullpen in left field and came sprinting across the outfield. Pursuing him were some of the slowest, oldest security guards you've ever seen. He got out to the Rangers bullpen in right field and attempted to leap into the stands but was eventually tackled by guards on the other side of the field. The crowd erupted into applause, which I found hard to believe. Suppose this idiot blew himself up or something? Maybe that seems weird to think, but with all the crap going on today in the world, you just never know. It seemed a little weird to cheer for this liquored up idiot.

The really weird part was that just as he was being subdued, another moron from the Rangers side of the field took off in the complete opposite direction to where the first runner came from. He was also pursued by some of the most out-of-shape, old-aged security guards you've ever seen. It looked like one of the older guards (trailing the runner by about 30 yards or so) pants started falling down or something. It was hilarious.

Fortunately, both runners had their clothes on. And when this second runner made it to the A's bullpen, a guard waiting for the runner to show up, lowered his shoulder and slammed the kid to the ground. That got people cheering like we were at a UFC event or something.

After that excitement and quite frankly, stupidity, was settled down and no one else decided to take off running around the field, A's closer Andrew Bailey (our lone All-Star representative this year) came on to record his 15th save of the season, striking out the final batter to end the game. And for the first time in a long time, Oakland has yet to lose when I'm in attendance at the game. 2-0, but I'll take it.

And they've won 3 in a row now this week. After the two runners on the field at the end of the game, the only thought that occurred to me as Scott and I got up to leave was, "Now that's what you call a winning streak!"