a great game

You can watch baseball for a long time and not see a game as good as Oakland and Anaheim tonight. Granted, it was not a September game nor a play-off game, but with five weeks to go in the season (32 games, I think), one game separated them at the start of the night.

The pitching was superlative; both starters went at least nine innings. Colon either retired the side in order or had a double play in every inning; one bad pitch to Chavez led to a double in the fourth, and Dan Johnson - watch this kid play - got sawed off but muscled the ball through the middle of the infield for their only run. Interestingly, they had a more dramatic shift against Johnson in every other at bat, but Cabrera played closer to the normal shortstop because of the runner on second base, trying to keep him from getting a bigger jump. If Cabrera is in his usual spot against Johnson, he makes a routine play.

Zito was just as good; his one bad pitch was hammered by who-dat third baseman Rob Quinlan into the left field seats. He pitched nine solid, never really threatened except for the bomb. He had seven strikeouts, and the higher pitch count meant that he was pulled after nine.

The defense was excellent on both sides, particularly tonight by the Angels with four double plays, a wonderful catch by Erstad in foul ground to keep the game tied in the tenth, and a sparkling running catch by Garret Anderson to rob Chavez in the middle innings.

These may well be the two best teams in the AL, and it looks like a whale of a pennant race coming home.