Tonight Is A Crucial Contest....

Here is what I'm thinking;

1.  We just ran a gauntlet of top teams ( Angels, Houston, Cleveland, and Boston ) and did very nicely, thank you.

2.  We ran the table with comebacks and last minute heroics.  Different guys stepped up on different days.  Have we emptied the well on these Hollywood endings?

3.  The pitching seemed better than any of us could imagine.  We even lost a starter for two months and survived.

4.  There were two long winning streaks.  We easily could have won the game we lost last night.

5.  But we didn't.  And now Oakland rolls into town.

6.  This game is huge because there will be a collective sense of achievement from that 18 days of pressure, and a danger of falling into a negative run.  The danger is called " over-confidence."  The danger is thinking " all we have to do is show up, because these guys aren't that good."

7.  We have a pitcher starting tonight whom we still aren't sure of.

8.  Oakland is hungry.  They dealt us our pitcher for some nice players.  Fowler will be playing for them.  There is a lot of Karma lined up for this game.

It is a much bigger game tonight than many imagine.  A loss could put us on a bad track.  Boston isn't easily beaten by anyone, and their pitching seems much stronger than ours, despite us winning two of three.  So we don't want to drop down in the loss column.

We need a stopper to get out off this skid.

 Is Sonny that stopper?  Are we tough and resilient?

Game one of this series is the key to May.