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A's sweep Expres in another classic double header

For the 6th time in nine games against the Express in 2009 the A's trailed with 2 outs in the seventh inning.For the fourth time in those six games they came back to win.The A's jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, and were ahead 3-2 in the fifth inning when Dan Trotta hit a 2 run single with the bases loaded to put the Express up 4-3.The Express tacked on another run and held a 5-3 lead entering the 7th inning.With rally start by a Cory Taylor single,Jason Werthmeir single and Jose Pinto double they cut the lead to 5-4, but they were down to their last out with runners on second and third.Remmington Laboy hit what looked to be a game ending groundball when Express first basemen Trotta went from hero to goat dropping the throw enabling the tying runner to score. He then compounded his mistake by overthrowing the catcher for his second costly error on the same play, allowing Werthmeir to score the go ahead run. Werthmeir, a former Express player, then went out and pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the 7th to earn a complete game victory 6-5.

In the second game A's starter Pinto gave up 2 earned runs in a complete game effort, and hit a key 2 run double in the A's 3 run 5th inning which tied the game at 3.The A's then scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 6th inning to go up 7-3, but the Express took advantage of some defensive mistakes and got some clutch hitting to cut the deficit to 7-6, when Pinto was able to close out the game with a strikeout stranding the tying run on first base. After a putrid 0-3 start in the fall season, the A's are now 6-3-1, and after an 0-2 start against the Express in 2009, they are now 6-3 against their rivals.

A's come from behind yet again to beat the Express in a deciding game three

After splitting four regular season games and two playoff games with the Express, the A's met the express for a third and deciding playoff game Sunday night August 16th at Taft High School. For the third time of the season the A's faced Express pitcher Adrian Santiago. For the third time of the season their offense was unable to muster up much of an offense against him.But much like in his last start Santiago was removed from the game with just enough time for the age to stage a comeback. Santiago pitched brilliantly allowing one run over six innings of work. A's pitcher Brendan Thomas settled down after a three run first inning, matching Santiago with scoreless work through the sixth inning.In that time the A's defense gunned down three Express base runners (two by Paul Oliver and one by Remmington Laboy) at home plate to keep the game close. In the top of the seventh inning Santiago was removed from the game and the A's took advantage of yet another Express coaching blunder. Trailing 3-1 with two outs and nobody on Laboy hit a double to center field. He advanced to third on a wild pitch as Fernando Santini drew a walk. Alvin Mata ran in Santini's place under rule 6.3 of the NYCMBL rule book (a Dan Trotta favorite rule) and promptly stole second base.On the next pitch Tommy Fusaro singled to center scoring two runs and tying the game at three.In the top of the eighth Brendan Thomas led of with a single. advanced to second on Cory Taylor's sacrifice bunt and scored the go ahead run on a dropped fly ball. However, as usual the Express would put up a fight. In the bottom of the 8th, they had a man on second with one out when Laboy ran down a deep fly ball just a few feet in front of the left field fence. With the tying run still on second, the game ended when Thomas grabbed a line drive heading into center field, to finish off a 14 strikeout complete game victory. The A's advance to the second round of the playoffs to face the # 1 seed Marlins in a best of three series starting on August 22nd.