Week 3 EGI: White Sox, A’s Extra Inning Thriller

The White Sox and A’s played what may very well be the most exciting game of the year. Here’s the top 10 for the week.

* denotes extra innings

Any time a game goes 14 innings, you can count on it being one of the games of the week. When that game also includes two blown saves and a walk off, you can bet it’s one of the best games of the year. The White Sox and A’s played an afternoon game on April 25th, as a getaway day for the White Sox, but it didn’t allow either team to go home early. It was 0-0 into the 6th, until Chris Sale gave up 3 hits to Eric Sogard, Josh Reddick, and Yoenis Cespedes which gave the A’s a 2-0 lead. The White Sox came back to make it 2-1 in the 7th, but the real fireworks came in the 9th when Paul Konerko hit a solo homerun in the 9th off Grant Balfour. Blown save #1. The game stayed tied until the 14th, but notably in the 9th – 13th innings between 7 different pitchers there were 9 baserunners, 3 of which reached second, 1 of which got picked off second, and another of which got thrown out at the plate. In the 14th, the White Sox finally broke through with 2 runs on a Alexei Ramirez double off of Jim Miller. Hector Santiago came on to close out the A’s for the White Sox, but a 2-run HR by Cespedes retied the game. Three straight singles (the last by Kila Ka’aihue) ended the game and gave the A’s a 5-4 victory and blown save #2.

Looking at the top 5 games of the year, we see two games from this week.

* denotes extra innings

The Yankees @ Rays game is still leading the 9 inning games.

Over the course of the year, the Blue Jays remain the most exciting club.

The Phillies, at 29.94, are the least exciting