Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
The Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim matched up on Monday night in what turned out to be a ridiculous game of mythical proportions — but it came at a cost for both teams. It finally ended with first baseman Brandon Moss lifting a walk-off two-run home run in the 19th inning off pitcher Barry Enright (and getting pied in the face, as seen above).
Over the course of the record-setting game, the A’s tied the game twice (in the ninth and 15th), but lost outfielders Chris Young and Coco Crisp to injuries. Crisp pulled up at first with a strained left hamstring in the 14th, and Young pulled up in the 15th with a quad injury after grounding into a double play.
Los Angeles outfielder Peter Bourjos also left the game with a hamstring injury of his own — something Mike Scioscia and the Angels definitely didn’t want to see.
As if those injuries weren’t already enough to handle, the game’s absurd length (which became the longest time-wise in Oakland A’s history in the 18th) forced Bob Melvin to bring in Brett Anderson for relief. Anderson, still dealing with an ankle sprain, was scratched from the start in the first place — but ended up making an appearance anyway.
Well, Anderson came up large, throwing nearly 80 pitches and going more than five innings in relief, but left the game in the 18th after tweaking the ankle again.
This is the kind of game that makes you almost wish they hadn’t tied it up dramatically (this time with a Yoenis Cespedes single off the outfield wall). It’s unfortunate to see a game like this result in injuries to key players, but that’s exactly what happened.
The team hasn’t yet made any official announcements regarding the injuries to Crisp and Young, though those are expected sometime this morning.
Adrian Garro is an Oakland Athletics writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter and/ or add him to your network on Google.
