Cries of "Chokeland" echoed forlornly off the empty facade of Mt. Davis as the A's lost to the hopeless Mariners four to two last night. Even though it was two dollar Wednesday, and a hefty contingent of Japanese tourists came to watch Ichiro! on his quest to break George Sisler's record (witnessing season hit #255, yet another infield single), the crowd in attendance was well below 27,000. Youngsters Rich Harden and Bobby Madritsch both tossed gems, but Harden was relieved by Ricardo Rincon with two runners on, and Rincon let said runners come around to score, giving up the A's one run lead and tripling Harden's portion of earned runs for the night. Madritsch finished with a complete-game, three-hit win and the A's fans had to face the cold wind of failure on their way home.

Today was a different story - not in the stands, with a paltry 19,201 in attendance, but on the field, with the A's winning three to two on the bottom-of-the-eighth heroics of Rookie of the Year candidate Bobby Crosby. The young shortstop put an oh and one pitch over the left field wall to put the A's ahead for good, and was mobbed after crossing the plate in a September scene all to familiar to A's fan the last few years. With Anaheim losing in Texas, the dinger put the A's back in a tie for first. Ichiro Suzuki will have to go back to Seattle still chasing his 257th hit after going one for five and ending the Mariner's chances today by striking out to end the top of the ninth. The A's host the Angels in a do-or-die three game series - win two games and they're in the Division Series. Lose two and they have a long season of workouts and winter ball to look forward to.