Riding the roller coaster to the end

The season is over for the A's. It ends after five hours of high drama in a wild card game that resembeled a roller coaster ride of highs and lows...nothing new for A's fans who watched their team own the best record in the league, then undergo a complete collapse making the playoffs by finally winning the last game of the season. There will be much analyzing of the trade that sent popular spark plug Yoenis Cespedes to Boston for two time World Series winner Jon Lester. Lester did his part leaving the game in the eight inning with the lead, but the Royals turned the game into a track meet and will continue playing in October because they didn't give up.

The full on battle went back and forth with Oakland setting the pace with two massive home runs from Brandon Moss. Yet in the end the home field advantage once again came into play. For Royals fans it's been a lifetime of waiting. Giants fans know all about that. As Jon Lester said after the game, "the bottom line is we lost, and now we're pacing our bags and going home."  The crowd was loud, and enthusiastic even when their team fell behind 7-3 scoring 5 runs in the sixth inning.  That energy propelled the Royals' comeback, one hit and stolen base at a time. I don't love spitting the statistics but seven stolen bases by 7 KC players is way too many. Wednesday it will be the Giants in a raucous Pittsburg stadium. 25 year old pitcher Madison Bumgarner will hold the hopes of his team and Bay Area fans in his left hand, but in order to win, the entire squad will have to tune out the crowd and do the things that earned them world championships in 2010 and 2012. All together, we'll also participate by cheering at the TV.