In a famous scene from the film Pulp Fiction, Marsellus Wallace says, "The night
of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That’s pride f__king with
you. F__k pride. Pride only hurts, it never helps."

Needless to say, Marsellus Wallace didn’t know what the f__k he was
talking about, because pride is the thing that is keeping this ballclub
fueled, afloat, and in the running for a pennant, and there were
boatloads of the stuff on display on Sunday.

At a certain stage of every season, at every ball club, a player will
look across a crowded locker room at another player, eyes will meet,
and nods will be exchanged.

No, this isn’t the prelude to a wedgie, it’s called ‘the turning
point’. It’s a moment where one player decides, "enough is enough," and
another player finds himself thinking the exact same way, and between
them, the snowball starts to roll – even if just an inch or so – slowly
picking up more players as it rolls until the entire team is geared
towards achieving the impossible.

As the players left the ballpark on Saturday night after a 1-0 loss to
a team they should destroy in their sleep, the mood was one where you
felt, if there was to be a turning point this season, it was going to
be here. Yesterdays game was a case of that snowball picking up steam,
as a couple more players hopped aboard the "we’re not going out like
that" bandwagon, and tonight I expect more of the same.


Howling Greg Dowling is one guy who is not about to lie down and coast
through the remainder of this season. In his last ten games, the Howler
is hitting .375. Ditto Jason Fernandez – his 9.1 innings of scoreless
ball this season (including 3.1 in Sunday’s game) have not gone
unnoticed, and he’s rapidlyt becoming the long reliever of choice when
the scores are close.

Closer Scott Moore is also breathing fire right now, and his 0.2 inning
effort to save yet another game and retain his 0.00 ERA was so
efficient that people are now starting to leave the ballpark early when
he’s called into a game, because the affair is all but over when he
step onto the mound.

Larry Cobb dosn’t just run out 2-out flyballs, he tries to grab an
extra base on them… just in case (he grabbed a triple on Sunday).
Matt Sulentic is hitting so well (2-4 on Sunday, .356 on the season)
that opposing pitchers have stopped trying to take advantage of his low
walk totals, and have started intentionally showing him to the base, because lord knows, a walk beats a double, every time.

Is that enough to get a team to the pennant? Hell no – but it’s the
start of something good, and if one more player every game picks up on
Cobb’s ferocity or Dowling’s patience or Fernandez’s maturity or
Moore’s fury or Andrew Bailey’s ridiculously overwhelming talent, we’ll
have Salem-Keizer caught by the weekend.

For a rundown on how the Sunday shutout came about, click the link below.

On Friday, I wondered out loud where the C’s team leader would come
from. I named a couple of names – people who needed to knuckle down and
do what they’re paid to do.

On Saturday, they knuckled down and succumbed to bad luck.

On Sunday, your team leader to be opened proceedings with a lead-off triple, and Tri-City crumbled in fast time.

Larry Cobb, belting a line drive to right field, took off for first
like a shot, then ripped in towards second, and as the ball came in, he
just kept on going, beating the throw into third with time to spare. It
was a ballsy play – a mood-setter – and Cobb’s teammates followed suit,
with Lorenzo Macias driving Cobb home, and Sulentic busting out an
infield single, and then keeping the pressure on with a steal attempt.

He was thrown out, but Tri-City’s starting pitcher understood the
message loud and clear – the C’s had come to make his life hell this
eve.

With Bam-Bam Bailey on the mound for the C’s, chewing up Tri-City
hitters like they were Juicy Fruit, the home team offense stepped up
and kept the pressue high, with the D-Bomb, Greg Dowling, doubling to
left to open the 2nd.

With the pressure on Dust Devils starter Keith "None The" Weiser, he
started to make fundamental errors, like trying to throw out Greg
Dowling on an infield grounder, rather than getting the easy out at
first.

The hijinks continued as Weiser fluffed another throw at the next at
bat, allowing Valdez to scoot to 2nd and Dowling to scoot home. A Sam
Hernandez grounder pushed Valdez to 3rd, before a Mike ‘Fearless’
Affronti drove the runner in on a single to center. 3-0 Canadians, and
the Vacuum Cleaners are in need of a new hose or two.

New kid on the block, Lorenzo Macias, opened the 3rd with a double, but
Weiser finally gathered his faculties and actually pitched out of the
jam with Macias stranded, but Tri-city’s inability to lay wood on
anything Andrew Bailey pitched at them, ensured that the testosterone
stayed high in the Vancouver camp as Sam Hernandez hit a double in the
4th, and Gustavo ‘Rosie’ Rosendo sent him home with an RBI single up
the middle.

With the game getting away from Tri-City, they began to make defensive
substitutions, but it was to no avail – Andrew Bailey is one of the
most in-form pitchers around right now, and there isn’t any hitter in
the Dust Devils roster who will make him think twice about throwing a
strike.

Like Scott Deal, Bailey was one of those kids who, in school, would
throw nasty heat and make the batter chase. But in pro ball, he’s been
refined, smoothed out, matured by the A’s sysytem coaches, so that he
can now lay claim to being a ‘pitcher’ rather than a ‘hurler’. And it’s
paying bulk dividends. Bailey is getting in front of hitters, he’s
mixing his pitches, he’s hitting his spots, and he still has good heat
that he can rely on if he needs to. He’s an unequivocal success for the
A’s drafting team – no question about it.

Ditto Jason Fernandez, who is starting to get more of a look now that
the bullpen has taken a beating recently. Fernandez is just pure class,
he’s a pitcher who will take very little coaching to get ‘right’, and
at this level he seems to have outmatched opposition hitters every time
he’s come up to throw.

As Vancouver stranded two more in the 5th, and Fernandez came in to
relieve Bailey in the 6th, this game was all but settled. Tri-City
still couldn’t lay bat on ball, and Vancouver, as much as they failed
to twist the knife on the scorecard after the 4th, kept the pressure up
until the finish, getting a man on base in every inning but the 7th.

The assembled crowd enjoyed the display, and the coaches would have to
be pleased with the way things went, but how Vancouver keeps the
pressure on will dictate if that ’sting’ of pride becomes the turning
point, or a small blip on the seasonal radar.

I’m voting turning point, but tonight’s game will tell a lot about
whether I know what i’m talking about, or I’m just a wishful thinking
homer.

July 30, 2006
	Final 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Tri-City 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 3 Vancouver 1 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 X 4 9 0 wrap | box | log W: A. Bailey (1-1, 1.17); L: K. Weiser (1-1, 3.60); SV: S. Moore (6) HR: None.