May 21, 2005

NL Game 43

A's    4

Yankees    1

In a low-scoring rematch of the HAP A's and the Bill Battey's Yankees, the A's edged the Yankees 4-1.

Both teams were held scoreless in the first inning behind solid pitching from the Yankees' Christian Miller and the A's Sean Myers.

The A's got on the board in the second behind an RBI groundout by Sam Naismith and an RBI single by Chris Heinerichs.  The Yankees were held scoreless again thanks to nice defensive plays by Ian McKernan and Ashton Raines.

In the third frame, Yankees pitcher JT Harrar struck out the side allowing no runs.  The A's strong defensive effort continued behind pitcher Sean Myers as shortstop Daniel Enterlin made an unassisted double play to keep the score at 2-0.

The 4th and 5th innings featured more strong pitching for both teams.  JT Harrar and Brandon Burns combined to strike out 6 A's in the two frames allowing no runs.  A's pitcher Calvin Samson allowed only one run in the 5th on a run scoring double by Christian Miller.  Samson struck out 5 in the two innings and was assisted by a fine play by shortstop Ashton Raines to end the fifth.

The final inning provided an exciting end to a well played game.  The A's opened the inning with 2 runs behind RBI singles from Sam Naismith and Jeff Gregg to provide the A's with a 4-1 lead.  But the Yankees would not go quietly.  After getting runners at second and third with no outs, Calvin Samson struck out the next two Yankess.  With two outs, James Morris hit a single to third.  With the runner on third held tight at third, the runner from second tried to advance to third.  As the runner attempted to return to second, A's catcher Greyson Nelson made a strong throw to second to retire the runner ending the game.

For the A's, Sean Myers (3 IP, 5K, 0 ER) and Calvin Samson (3 IP, 7 K, 1 ER) contributed excellent pitching performances.  Christian Miller (2 IP, 2 K, 2 ER), JT Harrar (2 IP, 6 K, 0 ER), and Brandon Burns (2 IP, 5 K, 2 ER) also contributed solid pitching efforts for the Yankees.