Ever watch a no hitter live?

In Oakland tonight, Sean Manaea just did and I was there to see it.

12th one in A’s history.

And against the Red Sox.

 

There were a couple of “close calls” :

• Leon’s bloop hit that the shortstop almost caught. They rules it an error vs. a hit
• Bennintendi’s chopper where they eventually ruled him out of the baseline and out but originally called him safe

As a baseball fan, it’s luck of the draw for this occurrence and there have been only 297 no hitters in baseball history, or an average of 2 a year. So some slim odds of seeing one live.

It was scout day at the a’s game which is why we were there. Some of the members of our party were happy to see a win as the last 3 scout days the A’s had lost. I then pointed to the score board and they were like “oh, ok”.

Happy to provide the Red hosiery with their third loss of the season .

Another fun fact: no team who has been no hit has gone on to win the World Series since the 88 Dodgers. While the Red Sox have been at a historic blistering pace to begin the season (17-3 now), history is not on their side.

There’s always next year.

 

5th.

Marcus Simeon was ranging back and the center fielder was coming in. Might have been a moment of miscommunication, but Simeon had the ball and just dropped it.

But in that situation, take the error.

 

Safe if you discount the fact that the rules state no more than 3 feet outside of the path to the base.

And the grass is that limit.

The more questionable one was the error on Simeon. That was the hometown discount .

David Price you get you back in the W column today.

 

That would have to be self promoted.

Of all the sports, baseball scouts are like weather men: plenty of opportunities and they get it right some of the time.

But I’m sure the bad apples ruin the bushel.

 

Bob Melvin engaged the home plate umpire and the other umpires “conferences” and the call was changed .

So I guess only a prompted peer review could apply.

 

They are positioned well for success (excellent starting pitching, good defense, well rounded lineup,etc), but now they’ll be fighting an uphill history battle.

I had our 7 year old there last night and he stayed up for the whole game and actually watched it.

Asking questions the whole time, so it broke up the natural lull in action.

 

It was a bit closer than I would have thought heading into the game.

Mr. Megden was using his handle bar stache to channel his inner Rollie Fingers in rooted Oakland fashion .

But back onto your winning ways.