A’s slugger Brandon Moss quiets announcer’s slump talk with big homer
When Brandon Moss stepped to the plate in the top of the first inning of Tuesday night’s AL wild-card game, TBS’ play-by-play guy Ernie Johnson gave the requisite intro about Moss’ recent struggles — how he had only hit four homers after the All-Star break, compared to 21 before it, and how since the Oakland Athletics traded slugger Yoenis Cespedes, Moss’ production had decreased more than anyone’s.
Johnson was in the middle of explaining all this, when Moss swung at a second-pitch changeup from Kansas City Royals starter James Shields and hit it deeeeeep into the right-field bleachers. The homer, Moss’ first since Sept. 16, gave the A’s a 2-0 lead. The Royals scored one in their half of the first to make it 2-1 early.
This is not to object to Johnson pointing out Moss’ struggles. They’re well-documented at this point, but the timing with which Moss answered the announcers (who he, of course, couldn’t hear) was at least amusing to anyone watching at home. The timing was also great for the A’s, who needed just this sort of spark early in a do-or-die game.
Their struggles have been well-documented too. They were baseball’s best team in the first half of the season, then fell out of first place in epic fashion, barely holding on to clinch a wild-card spot on the last day of the season.
You can bet skipper Bob Melvin told his Oakland squad a couple times leading into the wild-card game that they needed to score early and let ace Jon Lester go to work.
Brandon Moss did his part.
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