#21: The Squeeze

Pleasant surprises in baseball are always a welcomed sight. We continue our "25 Greatest A's Wins" weekly countdown with win #21, and a return to October 1, 2003 for Game 1 of the 2003 ALDS.  

This game proved to be one of the greatest pleasant surprises any A’s fan could ask for. In one of the better playoff victories of the Moneyball era, this game was one that has long since been remembered because of the tremendous ending.

The 2003 season was another winning year for the A’s. Ken Macha’s club had won 96 games and won the AL West without any .300 hitters or any guys with over 30 home runs. Ironically, the A’s finished the year with a losing record on the road but never suffered a losing month. Heading into the postseason, the A’s would have to compete without one of their fabled “Big 3”, Mark Mulder, who suffered a hip injury against the Red Sox in late August. Ken Macha would go with a 3 man rotation of Tim Hudson, Barry Zito, and Ted Lilly during the division series.

For the Red Sox, 2003 was the first season that new age baseball thinker, Theo Epstein took the reigns as GM. This was after Billy Beane famously turned down Owner John Henry’s offer to become the highest paid executive in all of sports and returned to Oakland. The Red Sox had set a record for team slugging percentage in 2003, and were widely known for their impressive lineup. The lineup included Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, Kevin Millar, and Johnny Damon, to name a few. In the rotation, the Red Sox had their longtime ace Pedro Martinez at the helm once again, to go along with Derek Lowe and Tim Wakefield. Kevin Millar’s battle cry of “COWBOY UP!” became the slogan of the 2003 Boston Red Sox.

Game 1 would be a contest between Tim Hudson and Pedro Martinez. A pitcher’s duel was expected. Three batters into the game, Todd Walker, who said before the series, “We’re gonna go into Oakland, kick some ass and then we’ll take it from there” came to the plate.  Walker's strong words were validated early on as he took Hudson deep into the right field seats to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. Pedro Martinez looked strong in the early going only allowing one hit through two innings. After Hudson danced out of trouble in the top of the 3rd, Pedro started to encounter some trouble. The 9-hitter, Chris Singleton started the rally with a one-out double. Mark Ellis followed with a walk, and then Erubiel Durazo made Pedro pay by lining a double into right. Singleton scored easily and Mark Ellis scored all the way from first to give the A’s a 2-1 lead with Durazo standing on second. After Eric Chavez flew out, the former MVP Miguel Tejada lined a single into center, and the usually slow running Durazo was able to score from second because of the weak throwing arm of the center fielder, Johnny Damon. Tejada would then get caught in a pickle to end the inning with the A’s in front 3-1 after three.

Hudson would go onto complete the shutdown inning by retiring David Ortiz, Kevin Millar, and Bill Mueller in order. Then came the top of the 5th, Hudson would get Trot Nixon to start the inning with a flyout but next came Jason Varitek who would crush a 1-0 pitch into the right field seats to make the score 3-2. Hudson stopped the bleeding there in the 5th. Hudson and Martinez would achieve clean innings up until the top of the 7th. Hudson erased a Varitek walk with a double play from Johnny Damon. This was then followed by a single from Nomar Garciaparra which prompted Ken Macha to make the move for Ricardo Rincon the lefty, who would face Todd Walker. Rincon would fall behind Walker early in the count at 2-0. Walker would take advantage and in a huge way by taking Rincon deep and putting the Red Sox up 4-3 in the 7th. Rincon would get Manny Ramirez to fly out and end the inning, but the damage had been done. Rincon did not do his job and that was to get Todd Walker out.

With the lead, Pedro Martinez was looking to go as deep into the game as he could. He’d run into some trouble in the bottom of the 7th, as the A’s would load the bases up for Eric Chavez who miserably disappointed by fouling one off to the catcher who ended the inning. In the top of the 8th, Rincon would meekly walk David Ortiz, then he’d get Kevin Millar to strikeout, followed by a Bill Mueller double to make it runners on second and third with one out. With Red Sox manager Grady Little pinch hitting the righty, Dave McCarthy, Macha made the move to the submarining Chad Bradford who was hoping to Houdini the A’s out of this jam. Little countered the move by pinch hitting again, as he took McCarthy out of the on deck circle and brought in Adrian Brown. Brown proved to be no match for Bradford as he struck out swinging. The A’s would intentionally walk Jason Varitek to load the bases to set up the force play and Bradford would face Johnny Damon in a critical situation. Damon would get something to hit on 2-1, but Damon grounded to Eric Chavez who stepped on third to end the inning.

Grady Little would bring in Mike Timlin to pitch the 8th for the Red Sox. Pedro Martinez had thrown 130 pitches total just to get through 7 innings, his line read: 7 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 4 BB, and 3 K’s. He definitely wasn’t at his best that night and the A’s did a good job of making him work. Timlin would face the 4-5-6 hitters and he’d set them down in order with two strikeouts.

Ken Macha would bring the A’s closer, Keith Foulke in to pitch the 9th and keep the deficit from increasing. He’d face Nomar, Walker, and Manny. And on twelve pitches, he’d get all three to flyout and send the game to the bottom of the 9th.

The Red Sox were using a closer by committee and brought in their own submariner, Byung-Hyun Kim. Ramon Hernandez would lead off and get into a quick 0-2 hole.  Having to protect, Hernandez flied out as a result. To play the matchup, Ken Macha brought in Billy McMillon to pinch hit for Jermaine Dye. McMillon took four straight balls and now the tying run was on first with one out. 

Macha would take McMillon out and use Eric Byrnes to pinch run since he’s the much faster runner. Chris Singleton would get hit by a pitch to make the situation, runners on first and second, one out, and the score 4-3 Red Sox in the bottom of the 9th. 

Mark Ellis came up next, and unfortunately he couldn’t come through and struck out. The A’s were down to their last hope and that guy would be Erubiel Durazo. Grady Little once again played the matchup and brought in the veteran Alan Embree. Durazo would get the count to 1-1, and he would take a big hack and he delivered. He smoked a pitch into left field! Eric Byrnes scored easily to tie the game, and Chris Singleton hustled to third. Unbelievable drama had unfolded and Eric Chavez was coming up with the winning run on third. Chavez would then groundout to shortstop and wouldn’t be able to come through. It was time for extra innings.

Keith Foulke stayed in the game in the 10th inning, and he’d sit down Ortiz, Millar, and Mueller in order on 7 pitches. The Red Sox were being extra aggressive and Foulke took advantage. In the bottom of the 10th, the Red Sox brought in another reliever, Scott Williamson. He’d face the minimum by overcoming a Scott Hatteberg one out walk, by completing the strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out double play, getting Terrence Long to strikeout and throwing out Hatteberg at second.

In the top of the 11th, Macha stayed with Keith Foulke for the third consecutive inning. He’d thrown 19 pitches up to that point, and he wanted him to give just a little more. A 10 pitch at bat with Gabe Kapler would start the inning, but Foulke got him to strikeout. He only needed 4 pitches to retire Varitek on strikes, two outs. Then came Johnny Damon. Damon would force a walk, with Foulke possibly showing signs of fatigue. Damon would steal second to force the issue and bring the go ahead run to second, and Foulke would intentionally walk Nomar Garciaparra to face Damian Jackson who replaced Todd Walker in the 9th as a defensive replacement. Foulke would expose the lighter hitting Jackson as he struck him out on 6 pitches, and as a result the A’s were out of the inning. In total, Foulke threw 51 pitches and didn’t allow a single hit in his 3 innings of relief. A tremendous effort from the closer who was being stretched out in this pivotal playoff game.

The bottom of the 11th was up next for the A’s, and Grady Little brought in one of his starters, Derek Lowe. Lowe was slated to start Game 3 for the Red Sox, but Little figured he could get an inning or two out of him. Leading off was Ramon Hernandez, who forced a 6 pitch walk. Eric Byrnes was up next, and he weakly struck out. Chris Singleton would then groundout to short. The Red Sox would get the force at second, but Singleton would beat out the relay throw to make it one out with the winning run on first. Then Singleton took a walking lead and broke on Lowe’s first pitch to Mark Ellis to steal second. Ellis would not be able to be the hero as he struck out to the end inning.

In the top of the 12th, Ken Macha brought in his 5th starter, Rich Harden. He’d face the middle of the order for the Red Sox, and Harden would make things difficult on himself by walking Manny Ramirez on 7 pitches. He’d make things even more difficult with the count at 0-2 to David Ortiz. Harden threw a wild pitch to the backstop and Ramirez would advance to second putting the go ahead run at second. Harden would put Ortiz away on the next pitch to make it one out with Mr. "Cowboy Up", Kevin Millar coming to the plate. Millar would take a strike and then he’d go for it all on the next pitch, but luckily for the A’s all he could do was hit a pop fly on the infield to Eric Chavez to made it two outs in the inning. Harden would intentionally walk Bill Mueller to face Gabe Kapler. Harden would get behind in the count at 2-0 but Kapler could only groundout to Eric Chavez who stepped on the bag at third to end the threat and send the A’s to the bottom of the 12th.

It was getting very late in Oakland, and the worn out bullpens had certainly held firm. Derek Lowe would face the 2-3-4 hitters for the A’s. And just like in the 11th, Derek Lowe walked the leadoff hitter, this time it was the 9th inning hero, Erubiel Durazo. Eric Chavez would come up next, and he’d hit into a force out but would importantly beat the relay throw to keep the threat alive. With one out, and the winning run on first, Miguel Tejada came up and weakly grounded out to third, Bill Mueller could not get Chavez at second so he settled by getting Tejada at first to make it two outs. The next couple of plays were really incredible, Hatteberg walked, in his own trademark fashion, and Eric Chavez boldly stole third and made it runners on the corners with two out and Terrence Long coming to the plate. On the first pitch, Hatteberg used his veteran instincts to take off for second and the Red Sox didn’t even throw over to second, since they didn’t want to risk any errant throws that would end the game. With first base open, Lowe went on to walk Terrence Long to load the bases.

Ramon Hernandez was the next man. Hernandez took a strike to start the at bat. The infield was playing back with it being two outs and Ramon Hernandez being the catcher and all. There was no way the A’s were doing anything other than swinging away, since they’re the A’s after all. There’s just no way. Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek wanted the next pitch inside to Hernandez, the pitch was a fastball of the 86 mph variety which was typical from Lowe. The ball ended up on the outer part of the plate and then Hernandez brought the bat head down and there it was. Hernandez was laying down a bunt for a squeeze play. He got the bunt down as the ball went right down in the direction of third, Bill Mueller had no chance to throw out Hernandez at first or Chavez at home. The A’s had won the game on a walk-off squeeze play from their catcher! No one would have ever guessed. Watch it here.

This goes hand and hand with the amount of criticism the A’s received after their postseason exit in 2002, the whole thing about them not manufacturing runs in the playoffs. This criticism and league-wide reputation played a big part in why Hernandez was able to execute this play due to the element of surprise.

Most importantly, the A’s had taken a 1-0 series lead with all the momentum in the world against the notoriously snake-bit, Boston Red Sox. The A’s would then light up the knuckleballer, Tim Wakefield to win Game 2 behind Barry Zito. With the A’s ahead in the series 2-0 heading to Boston, the house of horrors struck the A’s. Game 3 included many unfathomable plays including a runner not touching home plate, base running obstruction that wasn’t called and then the gaming ending a walk-off home run from Trot Nixon in extra innings. After game 3, Barry Zito and Tim Hudson went out to a Boston bar.  About 12 hours before Game 4 where Tim Hudson would be making his start a fight would break out at the bar. Tim Hudson started swinging haymakers and had to be held back by all of the bouncers on duty at the bar. Fast forward to Game 4, Tim Hudson had to come out of the game after pitching just one inning. The official story goes that Tim Hudson did not come out of the game because of the bar fight, but I think we can all draw our own conclusions. The A’s would lose that game in heartbreaking fashion. And then I was in attendance for Game 5 in Oakland, and we all know what happened.

The defeat in the 2003 ALDS doesn't diminish how great the Game 1 victory was and there’s no doubt it deserved a place on this list of top 25 Greatest Wins!

Next week Win #20. Stay tuned!

-- Wes

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