OAKLAND - GAME RECAP

July 16th - Oakland 5, Colorado 1 - Attendance 13,808

The slumping Rockies were in town to end the interleague portion of the schedule against the A's. Gil Heredia started for Oakland and pitched well, yielding only a solo home run to Greg Norton in the 5th. Oakland's offense was all Ramon Hernandez, who hit two homers and had 3 RBI to lead his team to a 5-1 victory. This game was not that interesting, but we had press box seats so it gets a 6/10.

In the press box with Akira

July 17th - Oakland 3, Colorado 2 - Attendance 22,099

The final interleague game of the regular season pitted Pedro Astacio against Mark Mulder in an afternoon affair. After three innings, the game was still scoreless, but the A's broke it open in the 4th. The Giambi brothers led off with two singles, and Miguel Tejada followed with another single to give the A's a 1-0 lead. Tejada then stole second and the wild throw from Rockies' catcher Ben Petrick allowed Jason Giambi to score from third. Olmedo Saenz singled as well, scoring Tejada and it was 3-0 Oakland.

In the 5th, Cliff Brumbaugh singled and Juan Pierre tripled and scored on Neifi Perez's groundout to bring the Rockies within one. But Mulder and the Oakland bullpen were steady the rest of the way, and although the tying run was on third in the top of the ninth, Jason Isringhausen induced rookie Brent Butler to fly out and Oakland had swept the series with a gritty 3-2 victory.

Todd Helton is out at first

This game was good and close, and the outcome was in doubt until the end, so it gets a 7/10.