Section 148: #6 Miggy Magic

It’s rare to see one player carry a baseball team on his back, but through the final games of “The Streak” it seemed that Miguel Tejada was doing just that. Whenever the A’s needed a hit, he was there to provide it. And to go along with Miggy’s emotion seen in the dugout, it was clear that he was the heart and soul of the 2002 Oakland Athletics.’

We continue our 25 Greatest Oakland A's Wins weekly countdown by returning to September 1, 2002 for game number 18 of The Streak. Going into this game, the A’s had already won 17 in a row and with every win, a new record was broken. The A’s had already set the franchise record after the 15th win, and now that they had won 17 in a row, the American League record of 19 was well within their sights.

With Mark Mulder on the mound for the A’s, and the struggling Joe Mays starting for the Twins, they had to like their chances to increase their win streak to 18. A crowd of nearly 38,000 would be on hand for this Sunday afternoon game, and it was going to be hot all day, the temperature at game time would be 76 degrees which can feel like close to 90 in the Oakland sun.

The first inning would call for both starting pitchers to get out of early jams. Mark Mulder would give up a two out single to Torii Hunter and then a walk to Matt LeCroy before getting Corey Koskie to ground into a force to end the threat. Joe Mays would really walk the line in his first inning of action, Ray Durham would stay hot for the A’s by singling, then Scott Hatteberg would double sending Durham to third. Miguel Tejada would then hit an odd infield single that Durham wasn’t able to score on. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Mays would strikeout the side. He’d get the trio of Chavez, Dye, and Mabry to end the threat.

Mark Mulder would rack up plenty of strikeouts in his next two innings of work, clearly Mulder had his stuff on this afternoon. Mays on the other hand was throwing a lot of pitches and in the bottom of the third, Mays would start the inning by walking Scott Hatteberg on 7 pitches. Then Miguel Tejada would make Mays pay by smashing a towering home run to left to give the A’s a 2-0 lead. The home run was Miggy’s 30th of the year. It was clear that Miggy had reached his breakout season.

Mark Mulder continued to be flawless. He’d give up a walk to Corey Koskie in the 4th, but he quickly erased this blemish by picking Koskie off in smooth fashion. Joe Mays appeared to have settled down as he found two scoreless innings of work in the 4th and 5th. Heading into the 6th with the score still at 2-0, the back and forth would start with both lineups seeing the starting pitchers for the 3rd time.

It would start with Torii Hunter doing what he usually did to the A’s, with Christian Guzman leading off with a single. Torii Hunter launched a towering home run of his own to tie the game at 2, just like that. Mulder would go onto retire the side after that big blow, and luckily for him, the A’s would answer. It would be John Mabry providing yet another one of his unexpected blasts, which seemed to be the norm during the whole entire streak. The blast was of the opposite field variety, and it soared over the out of town scoreboard into the Left Field Bleachers. The A’s were now back in front at 3-2. And they weren’t done yet, the rookie Mark Ellis would hit a line drive single to keep the rally going. Then Terrence Long would nearly get ahold of a Joe Mays pitch but instead it was just a loud out. Ramon Hernandez would hit a soft ground ball to the third baseman that was hit too softly to be a double play ball, Hernandez was thrown out at first, but Ellis advanced to second with two outs in the inning. It was there that the newly acquired, Ray Durham stayed hot and laced a single to right field, Ellis would score easily and Durham would try to be extra aggressive by trying to stretch the hit into a double which didn’t end well, Durham was thrown out at second to end the inning but it was now a 4-2 A’s lead. In hindsight, Durham should’ve stayed at first, especially with the top of the order of the A’s lineup coming up and since Mays was absolutely getting lit up at that point, it was important to keep grinding him. And for all we know, maybe Ron Gardenhire the Twins Manager was going to pull Mays anyway, but now we’ll never know.

Mark Mulder went out for the 7th inning with once again, another 2-run lead. And in typical Mark Mulder fashion, he threw an economical, 9 pitch, 1-2-3 inning. It was clear that the A’s bullpen wasn’t gonna play much of a factor in this game, and with the way the game had gone the day before, that was a relief. The A’s had won the game 6-3 over the Twins, but it was at the expense of A’s relievers, Ricardo Rincon and Jim Mecir getting rocked in relief of the late Cory Lidle. Luckily, the Twins bullpen got rocked as well, so the A’s had to like their chances with Joe Mays leaving the ballgame (even though they rocked him pretty good too).

Ron Gardenhire brought in the veteran right hander, Michael Jackson (no relation) in to face the A’s in the 7th to face the A’s 2-3-4 hitters and Jackson induced 3 fly ball outs to get the A’s down in bottom of the 7th. Now in the 8th inning, Mulder continued to show precision. He did walk the first batter, but then he got Christian Guzman to hit into a 1-6-3 double play before getting Torii Hunter to hit an infield pop fly to end the inning with the A’s 3 outs away from number 18.

Gardenhire would bring in Tony Fiore to pitch to the A’s in the 8th, and once again, the A’s could not add onto their lead, despite getting John Mabry to second.

Now it was time for the 9th inning, and with Mark Mulder at 101 pitches, Art Howe had a decision to make. With A’s closer, Billy Koch warming up in the bullpen, the decision for managers would usually be to bring in the closer with a clean inning. In this case, Koch had thrown 23 pitches the night before, and the night before that he had also thrown 8 pitches. That, coupled with Mulder’s dominance shown throughout his outing, it became a no-brainer for Art Howe who decided to send Mulder out for the 9th inning seeking a complete game.

With Matt LaCory’s 12 career Major League home runs coming into this game, I don’t think Mark Mulder was expecting any issues with him on a power standpoint. All this confidence was immediately chucked onto 880 when LaCroy launched a ball over the jagged edge in left-center for a solo home run to cut the lead to 4-3. The alarm bells were starting to go off - if Mulder can’t finish, who do we put in? The usage of Billy Koch throughout the year was entirely puzzling, Koch would constantly go into non-save situations and as a result, Koch would seem to fizzle out later in the year (most notably, in the playoffs). And for this reason, it was imperative that Mulder would shut the door on the Twins with no drama attached. Corey Koskie was the man who came up next, and this was a guy who had some notable pop in his bat, and on a 1-1 pitch, Koskie launched one into the left field staircase to tie the game and now, it was really time to panic. Howe came right out of the dugout and took the ball from Mulder and out came Billy Koch to try and keep the score level.

A daunting task awaiting the A’s, if the Twins could get another run across Twins closer Eddie Guardado would come into the game. He had been an All-Star that season, and Guardado would lead the league in saves at the end of the year.

At first, Billy Koch showed no signs of fatigue from being overworked. An 8 pitch at bat with Jacque Jones ended with Jones grounding out to Mark Ellis. Then another 8 pitch at bat ensued, this time with Doug Mientkiewicz, and Billy Koch would gas Mientkiewicz for the second out of the inning.

Then came the gut punch, Michael Cuddyer came to the plate. And before you readers start envisioning the Michael Cuddyer who was a pretty solid pro in the late 2000s, end that mindset, now. This was 23 year old, Michael Cuddyer. A Michael Cuddyer who had only 2 Major League home runs coming into this game, and with Billy Koch rearing back throwing near 100 mph, Cuddyer decided to go for it all by swinging at the first pitch, he connected.

The ball flew over the left-center field fence and now the Twins were ahead 5-4. The streak was about to be in jeopardy, a colossal meltdown by the A’s in the 9th inning was about to end this incredible run of form. And they weren’t out of the mess yet, Billy Koch clearly had lost all of his competitive edge and this was clear as he walked Tom Prince on four pitches. Luis Rivas was up next, and somehow, Tom Prince would steal second even though he’s a catcher. The A’s were in shock it seemed, but luckily the insurance run would not come across the plate, Rivas hit a short fly ball to right, Jermaine Dye was able to run it down and now it was time for the bottom of the 9th.

Eddie Guardado came strolling to the Coliseum mound, he had gone to Franklin High School in nearby Stockton before taking his talents to San Joaquin Delta College and was drafted in the 21st round of the 1990 MLB Amateur Draft by the Minnesota Twins. He’d make his Major League debut for the Twins in 1993, where he’d start 16 games that season. He’d start only 9 more games the rest of his career before being made a permanent reliever in 1996. It was this season, that Guardado led the league in games pitched with 83. He’d establish himself as a solid lefty that was quite durable and reliable. And because of this, he was nicknamed “Everyday Eddie.” In 2001, Ron Gardenhire made Eddie Guardado the closer and he never looked back, on this day, he was 3 outs away from getting the Twins a big victory over the hottest team in baseball.

Due up for the A’s was Ramon Hernandez, Ray Durham, and Eric Byrnes. Guardado would start the inning with a bad omen, Hernadez forced 8 pitches out of Guardado and this forced a walk. Right away, Howe pointed to Randy Velarde to come in and pinch run for Ramon Hernandez’s slow catcher’s legs. Next up came Ray Durham, hitting right handed. And Durham would continue to swing the bat well, hitting a line drive to the opposite field into right field, Velarde would stop at second and with two on and nobody out, the A’s were back in business and the crowd had now recovered from Cuddyer’s gut punch. The fans remembered what team they were watching. With Guardado being a lefty, Howe pinch hit Olmedo Saenz for Eric Byrnes. And on three pitches, Guardado got Saenz looking for the first out of the inning.

Then came the next man up, and that man was Miguel Odalis Tejada. Nicknamed Miggy by many of us, and La Gua Gua (which apparently is supposed to be a minibus in Central America) in his home country of the Dominican Republic. A’s fans went crazy at the sight of their MVP candidate. He had already hit a towering home run earlier in the game, and at this point in time, nothing seemed to be out of the reach of Miggy. Eddie Guardado forced the count to 1-2 on Tejada before this happened… it’s time to let the A’s television play-by-play man at the time give his call about what happened next.

“Tejada to left field… well struck! Miguel Tejada has done it! Miguel Te—( Ray Fosse makes a noise of “ROHHHHH” in the background)jada HAS HIT A 3-RUN WALK-OFF HOMER TO WIN THE GAME! 18 IN A ROW!”

In my opinion, this is the greatest call of Greg Papa’s tenure as A’s television play-by-play man. It captured the moment in the best way possible, it’s one that I remember as a 9 year old watching it in my living room. I remember running into the hallway not believing that it was real. See it HERE.

The pitch was low and away, it didn’t matter. Miguel Tejada connected with it, and now the A’s were only two wins away from history. Tejada was mobbed at home plate and the mobbing went in the direction of the Twins dugout, in the middle of the scrum, Billy Koch was one of the biggest guys in there celebrating as if to say, “Thank you for saving me.” and the last to make it to the scrum was A’s manager, Art Howe. He slowly walked to his players in a look of almost surprise and disbelief about what he had just seen.

In my opinion, this win is my personal favorite of the streak just because it defined everything the 2002 A’s were about and it also gave Miguel Tejada his MVP moment. I love win number 20, and more on that later, but this one was my favorite.

A few days later, the A’s would go for win number 21, and in the Metrodome, Brad Radke would shut the A’s down and the A’s would lose 6-0 to the Twins. In some ways, this was a foreshadowing of what was to come in the playoffs, the A’s would lose in 5 games to the Twins in the ALDS and in many ways, The Streak was a moment of false hope. However, let’s not take away from this great win, because it will always be something that I can remember and instantly smile. Miguel Tejada is my favorite A’s player from my viewing experience and this was one of the reasons why. He was full of life and an exciting homegrown talent. See the rest of the highlights HERE.