The Tigers fans were quickly slumping into a depression during the A's series, and then something miraculous happened Tuesday and the bats came alive.
Then it was time for the A's fans to moan and whine.
Mark Purdy, a columnist for the San Jose Mercury News wrote after the 8-6 Tigers victory:
For the A's, lost opportunity does not begin to describe Tuesday.
What would be more accurate? Tuesday was a lost journey to glory that instead took a turn down a dank canyon full of starving wolves, poison-dart-wielding monkeys and chubby guys in windbreakers who reach up to steal baseballs and crush hearts.
Yup. That pretty much expresses it.
"Look, you gotta finish it out for nine innings," A's manager Bob Melvin said. "Just because we had the lead doesn't mean you're going to win the game."
He writes later on:
So here we go again, to face Detroit nemesis Justin Verlander, who beat them in this same situation a year ago. Meanwhile, Melvin said he had not decided on the A's starter. The decision is between rookie Sonny Gray and veteran Bartolo Colon -- with Gray the likely and better choice because of his shutout performance against the Tigers last Saturday. He will be out to break the A's well-known elimination-game curse: Including Tuesday's defeat, the A's are 1-11 in their last 12 opportunities to clinch a series.
