Detroit Tigers @ Oakland Athletics

 The first game of my holiday saw Detroit making their only visit of the season to the Oakland Athletics.  I saw the Tigers' star pitcher, Skubal, and he was very good, but so was Oakland's pitching staff, although there were a few hits for both sides, not many runs at all.  Both managers removed their starting pitchers earlier than they needed to, it seemed, as it was still only 2-2 going late into the game.

This game started at 6.40pm local time, which was convenient, as it meant I had had the day to spend before having the evening event (Saturday's game is a 1.05pm start, in contrast)  I choose not to take my sweater, coat or hat and that was OK, although it was beginning to get a bit chillier towards the end of the game - I would definitely have taken at least the sweater and coat if the game had been in San Francisco.

The game remained tied at 2-2 after nine innings, so off we went into extra innings, where the recent rule change from a few year's back came into play, that the last player out in the previous inning is placed on 2nd base to start the inning.  The idea is that it makes it easier to score and helps break the tie more easily.  Tonight, that did achieve the first of those objectives, but not the second!

Detroit scored a run in their 10th inning, Oakland managed to scrape one in the bottom of the 10th.  The wheels came off in the 11th, as Detroit scored 2 runs, only for Oakland to get a 2-run HR in the bottom half.  5-5.  Detroit scored yet again in the 12th, only for Oakland to tie it up again in the bottom half.  Finally, Oakland managed to stop Detroit scoring in the 13th inning and then got the winning run in to take the game 7-6 in 13 innings, much to the relief of the thinning crowd, although there were actually more people still there than I expected, a combination of it not being a school night, and the earlyish start for an evening game.

I nearly got a foul ball this evening - a Detroit player popped the ball up trying to bunt and it landed 5 seats to my left, but the lady at the end of the row got it on the rebound.

In the end, I got back to my hotel quite late - after 11pm.

I looked to see how the NFL game in Brazil had gone, particularly as I have Philadelphia's QB and star WR in my fantasy team - they did OK, but not great.  I'm leading my matchup in the league at work 73-0 - my opponent hasn't had any of his players play yet!