Nats and A's split 2 in our Nation's Capital

8/17 - 8/18 - RFK Stadium - Washington, D.C.

GAME 1 - OAK 5, WAS 4:

Those Swingin' A's jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first when Reginald Martinez Jackson hit a 2 run homer off of Bill Goglewski (2-7, 3.03). Blue Moon Odom gave two runs back in the 4th when Gogolewski helped his own cause with a 2 out opposite field single that scored Frank Howard and Jeff Burroughs. Both teams exchanged runs in the 7th, but the A's scored a run in both the 8th and 9th to win it. Sal Bando hit a solo shot in the 8th and Mike Epstein had a sac fly in the 9th to score Campy Campaneris. Don Mincher's 1 out homer in the 9th made it 5-4, but Frank Howard popped to Bando at 3rd and Burroughs K'd for the final out. Jim "Mudcat" Grant pitched the final 3 innings and gave up 1 run and earned his first win since arriving from Pittsburgh in a waiver trade.

GAME 2 - WAS 3, OAK 2:

The Nats drew first blood when Del Unser led off the home half of the first with a double to right. Dave Nelson bunted Unser over to 3rd and Don Mincher scored him with a sac fly to right. Pete Broberg was blanking the A's until the top of the 5th, when Dick Green led off with a double and pitcher Chuck Dobson bunted him over to 3rd. Broberg balked and Green was able to score while Campaneris was batting. Campy eventually singled and moved to second after Joe Rudi walked. Tommy Davis singled to center to score Camp and the A's and Chuck Dobson had a 2-1 lead. The Sens would tie it up in the 6th when Dave Nelson single with two outs to put runners on the corners. Del Unser, who was on third reached base on a throwing error by Campaneris at short. Don Mincher plated Unser with a sac fly to George Hendrick that just fell short of the warning track in deep center. With the game knotted at 2 the Sens would take the lead for good in the 8th when Tim Cullen walked. He moved up to second on a wild pitch by reliever Jim Roland, who then compounded his gaffe with another...an inadvertent balk. Del Unser lifted a medium range

fly to Joe Rudi in right to score Cullen. Pete Broberg was able to get Larry Brown and Dick Green to pop out weakly for the first 2 outs in Oakland's final at bat. When Reggie Jackson was brought on board to pinch hit for Roland Joe Grzenda was summoned from the pen to give Washington the coveted lefty/lefty match up. Jackson was jammed on a pitch he probably shouldn't have offered out and Mincher picked up the slow roller to first to get Jackson unassisted to end the game and salvage a split for the series.