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They nearly lost their shortstop to a catastrophic injury. Their most potent hitter went into an excruciating slump, and his teammates followed suit for 21/2 games. They lost two contests on the opposing team's final at-bat.
In other words, a whole bunch went wrong for the A's in their first jaunt away
from Network Associates Coliseum.
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Thus, they had every reason to feel mighty chipper about themselves as they packed their bags for a quick trip back to the Bay Area on Thursday. An 8-2 victory over the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field was in tow, as was a 6-4 record for the road trip.
Not a small thing given that the A's will be taking another journey starting
Monday. That road trip will feature three games in New York against the defending
American League champion Yankees and another three in St. Petersburg, Fla.,
against the no-longer-woebegone Tampa Bay Devil Rays.
All of it is part of a stretch in which the A's play 16 of 19 games on the road,
where they spent much of 2003 having problems. A weekend series with the Anaheim
Angels that starts tonight marks the only homestand in a schedule that will
see the A's play six series in six cities.
For that reason, manager Ken Macha had dubbed the past 10 games an important
stretch for his club. The A's went 3-7 on the same 10-game trip -- Texas, Anaheim
and Seattle -- to begin their road blues in 2003.
"Great road trip," Macha said. "We had the two losses here, but
we came back after that. They were well-played games. And we had a chance in
every game on the trip."
They won the final two against Seattle playing short-handed. They lost shortstop
Bobby Crosby to a bone bruise on his left knee in the second game of the series,
then lost that contest on a homer in the ninth. A night earlier, they lost on
a controversial balk call in the 14th.
"It shows the character of this club," Macha said. "After two
games like that ... then to come back and wind up getting a split is nice."
The blueprint for success in the finale was rather routine. Mark Mulder gave
the A's another quality start, tossing six innings and allowing just two runs,
though he wasn't at his best. Mulder gave up five hits and three walks and walked
a tightrope in four of his six innings.
"I didn't have great command of my fastball, so I went to other things,"
he said. "I tried to battle. ... I had a couple of batters where I lost
my command. It wasn't my best stuff. It was a mental grind."
What helped Thursday, Mulder said, was that the A's provided him plenty of offensive
help. Eric Chavez hit a three-run homer off Seattle starter Jamie Moyer in the
first, and the A's turned the contest into a rout by scoring in four more innings
as Eric Karros, Erubiel Durazo and Jermaine Dye all had RBI.
"It's too bad we didn't figure it out earlier," Chavez said. "Then
we probably would've won the first two games up here, and it would've been a
really great road trip."
Still, it was difficult for the A's to complain. Chavez homered in the final
two games of the series, and he reached base in his first four plate appearances
Thursday. In doing so, he seemed to put further behind him a slump that saw
him begin the road trip with a 2-for-20 run with an 0-for-17 mixed into it.
The rest of the A's offense seemed to take its cue from him, too. The A's were
held to two runs over the first 23 innings of their series against Seattle and
had scored just four through the first 28. But they rallied to scored 13 runs
in the final 14 innings.
Then they hopped on the plane feeling might good about themselves.
"Two out of three in Anaheim. Played well in Texas, and got a split here,"
Mulder said. "You really can't ask for much more than that."