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Athletics Reclaim Championship

The Oakland Athletics and Colorado Rockies would face off in the 2003 World Series. This would be a case of two opposite style teams going head to head. Oakland is a pitching based team. Starters Mark Mulder, Tim Hudson, and Barry Zito had been unhittable throughout the playoff run. Now they would go against the top scoring team in baseball. Colorado featured a line up that could score at any time and put runs up in bunches. Playing in the thin Denver air would probably mean there would be few low scoring games. This series would be interesting to say the least.

SERIES BOX SCORES

GAME ONE The underdog Rockies looked like they wanted to show everyone that they were not going to be intimidated and go away quietly. Colorado were planning on winning this series and winning it their way. Oakland was able to build up an early 5-1 lead. Eric Chavez would hit a 2 run homerun in the top of the 2nd, then Jason Giambi and Jermaine Dye would follow up in the top of the 3rd with back to back solo shots. Ben Petrick and Todd Walker would duplicate that feat in the bottom of the 3rd to cut the score to 5-3. Oakland would extend their lead to 6-3 before the wheels fell of in the 6th. Mark Mulder, who had been untouchable throughout the playoffs, would find out the hard what it was like to pitch in Coors Field. Colorado would score 6 times in the inning to take a 9-6 lead. Todd Helton would lead the way with a 3 run homer in the inning and would blast another 2 run shot in the 7th. Oakland would not score again as Colorado collected the Game One win. Oakland-6 Colorado-11 (Colorado leads series 1-0)

Todd Helton's heroics would give Colorado the win in Game One

GAME TWO

Colorado taught the Athletics a valuable lesson in Game One. No lead is safe in Coors Field. Oakland would take that lesson to heart in Game Two. Once again the A's would jump to a big lead. Eric Chavez would kick start the Oakland offense with a 2nd inning 2 run blast, his second of the series. An inning later, Chavez would come to the plate with the bases juiced and hit a double to the right field corner to score all three runners. The A's would stack on four more runs in the inning, including a Johnny Damon homer to take a 9-0 lead after just three innings. But after the Rockies Game One comeback, Oakland was going to take nothing for granted. Barry Zito would hold Colorado scoreless until the 6th, when Todd Helton would hit a 2 run homerun to cut the lead to 10-2. Even with the big lead, Art Howe did not hesitate to pinch hit for Zito in the 7th. The move would pay off as pinch hitter Ricky Bell would double to score Brook Fordyce. Johnny Damon would hit his second homerun of the game to extend the Oakland lead again. Colorado would be stymied for the rest of the game as the A's cruised to a 14-2 win with the series shifting back to Oakland.

Oakland-14
Colorado-2

(Series tied at 1 game each)

GAME THREE As expected, the first two games of the World Series were shooting matches played in the thin air of Denver. Now, with the series back in Oakland, pitching would take center stage. Tim Hudson would take the mound for the Athletics. Hudson had a subpar season by his standings, but was pitching incredibly in the post season. So when Ron Gant hit a one-out solo homerun in the top of the 3rd it came as somewhat of a surprise. The run would be the first surrendered by Hudson during the post-season. It would also be the last, at least for this day. Meanwhile, the Athletics were struggling to score runs as well. Johnny Damon led off the 1st with a double and moved to third on a Brian Bohanan balk. Eric Byrnes slow grounder to second would score Damon to give the A's a 1-0 lead. Things would stay even until the 6th when Adam Piatt and Adrian Brown hit back to back singles. Brook Fordyce would draw a walk to load the bases. Miguel Tejada would hit a hard grounder that Rockies short stop Neifi Perez had to go deep into the hole to field. Perez was able to get Tejada at first, but Piatt would score to give the A's the 2-1 lead. Jim Mecir came in and closed out the 9th to seal the win for the A's. Oakland-2 Colorado-1 (Oakland leads series 2-1)

Colorado scored the first run off Tim Hudson in the postseason, but it wasn't enough to top the A's in Game Three.

GAME FOUR

Even after Oakland took the 2-1 lead in the series, no one really believed the Rockies were going to go away quietly. Game Three could have gone either way, and the championship was still very much up for grabs. Justin Miller was making his first start of the post-season, and Colorado pounced on him early. The Rockies would score 5 runs in the top of the first, led by Todd Helton's 4th homerun of the Series and Neifi Perez's bases clearing double. The A's would scratch together 2 runs in the 2nd, but Todd Helton homered again in the 4th to give the Rockies a 7-2 lead. Oakland would respond again with 2 runs in the 5th, but that was as close as they could get as Colorado tied the series at 2.

Colorado-8
Oakland-4

(Series tied at 2 games each)

GAME FIVE

After splitting the first two games in Oakland, the Athletics would have one more chance to take control of the series before it shifted back to Colorado. The A's would draw blood in the 4th. Oakland would convert 4 singles and a walk into 3 runs for the early lead. The Rockies would trim the lead to 3-1 with a Todd Hollandsworth solo shot in the top of the 7th. But things really turned in the top of the 8th. Mark Mulder was starting to wear down, so the A's brought in Matt Williams to try to hold the lead. Todd Walker and Todd Helton would each single to lead off the inning. Garret Anderson would blast a mammoth homerun to left-center to give Colorado the 4-3 lead. Larry Walker would follow up with a double and that would be it for Williams. Jeff Tam would come in to try to salvage the inning. With one out Todd Hollandsworth would double in Walker, but would get thrown out at third. Neifi Perez would double with two outs and Ben Petrick would bring him in with a single one out later. The A's would manage to get one run across in the bottom of the 9th to make it a 6-4 game, but that would be it. The Rockies were taking a 3-2 lead home to Denver.

Colorado-6
Oakland-4

(Colorado leads series 3-2.)

GAME SIX The Rockies would have two chances at home to close out the A's and claim their first ever World Series championship. With the games back in the thin air of Coors field, high scoring games were once again to be expected. However, game six turned into a rare pitching duel. Oakland would notch the first run of the game in the top of the 3rd. Eric Byrnes would draw a walk and Jermaine Dye would double to bring him in for the 1-0 lead. The A's would make it 2-0 an inning later on Eric Chavez's solo homer. With Barry Zito pitching for the Athletics, two runs would be all that was needed. The Rockies put a couple of runners on second base, but couldn't get the hit to bring any of them home. Colorado finally got two runners on with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, but Jim Mecir came in and got Larry Walker to ground out to end the game, evening the series and forcing a deciding game 7. Oakland-2 Colorado-0 (Series tied at 3 games each.)

Barry Zito's Game Six shutout would keep the A's alive for another day

GAME SEVEN The Oakland Athletics and Colorado Rockies went back and forth for six games with neither team able to finish the other off. Now it would come down to one final game to decide who the World Champion would be. Oakland would send their best pitcher of the post-season, Tim Hudson, to the mound. Colorado would counter with left hander Brian Bohanon. Bohanon was still looking for his first win of the playoffs, but Oakland usually struggled against lefties. Oakland would score first again in the top half of the 1st. Johnny Damon would double and score on Jermaine Dye's RBI hit. The A's would extend the lead in the 4th, this time behind Miguel Tejada's double and Brook Fordyce's RBI single. The Rockies would cut the lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the 4th with a Todd Helton RBI double, but Oakland would answer in the 5th when Eric Byrnes singled, stole second, and came around to score on a Jason Giambi single. Jermaine Dye was tagged out at the plate trying to score on the same hit. Oakland extended their lead to 5-1 in the top of the 6th with Eric Chavez's 4th homerun of the series. Meanwhile, Colorado was having no luck breaking Tim Hudson. Hudson would go 7 innings, giving up just 1 run on 3 hits, while striking out 4. The A's would up their lead to 7-1 in the 8th with Johnny Damon's 2 run homerun. Colorado would manage to push two runs across in the 9th, but Jim Mecir would shut down the rally to give the Athletics the win and their second World Series Championship in three years. Tim Hudson would win the Series MVP award for his dominating performance in Games 3 and 7. Oakland-7 Colorado-3 Oakland wins series 4 games to 3...

Manager Art Howe pays the price of victory as the A's celebrate their second championship in 3 years.