The Battle for Second Place: DAY 3

TEX 10, OAK 8

After bitching about a cold summer we finally get some hot weather in the Bay Area. It's not Texas hot, or even Texas humid, but for the Bay Area, it's hot. It's about 80 degrees where I'm at right now.

If the A's were to lose any one of the games of this series, it would have been this one. Kenny "I like the smash cameras" Rogers has always found little difficulty winning in the Oakland Coliseum. I feel that the Rangers pushed back his start to today not only because of his usage in the All Star Game but also to give the Rangers a must-win game of this series.

The Battle may have been lost, but the series can still be won. I'm confident about tomorrow's game, despite what you see on paper, I think Haren's much better than Young.

Although this was a loss, it was still a good game in my eyes because the A's made it exciting in the end. The old boring A's would go quietly after being down by such a big defecit, these A's just don't quit.

Payton homered again, welcome to Oakland, Jay.