Fatrolf’s Monday Sketches: Did You Survive This Week Edition

No-Hitters, Walk-Offs, and other heart-stopping madness!

To say “it’s been an exciting week for Bay Area sports” would seem a little hokey at this point. An understatement. It’s been nerve-wracking and tear-inducting, the kind of stuff that keeps you gripping at your barstool until your fingers are white and cold. Your heart beating in your throat until you feel like you can’t breathe. The Warriors battled Houston to a heart-stopping Game 6 win, the Sharks gnawed their way to a win over Colorado in Game 7, and the A’s flipped from dismal to three-walk-offs-and-a-no-hitter in one week. This isn’t a lazy, hazy May, this is Bay Area sports at its finest. This is the fight to stay relevant, to keep the season alive.

Do you still have a pulse?

Let’s go.

Edwin Jackson has been sitting patiently in AAA, working his way back up. A solid arm who the A’s could have easily kept hoarded away all season, pulling him up for a fill-in here or there. Instead of letting a good guy go to waste, the A’s traded Jackson to Toronto on Saturday, allowing him to go off and set a pretty neat record. When he makes his first start for Toronto on Wednesday, the Blue Jays will become Jackson’s 14th MLB club played for, which is a major league record.

We had three walk-offs this week, two back-to-back during the series against Cleveland and we now have two consecutive seasons with pitchers throwing no-hitters! Sean Manaea in 2018, now Mike Fiers in 2019 — the last team to do this was the Chicago Cubs in ‘15 and ‘16. This was the second for Fiers, which happened to be the 300th in the history of Major League Baseball. He earned it, too, rocking 6 K’s and only allowing two walks. Congrats, Mike! Can’t wait for the next one!

As we know, you can’t throw a no-hitter without good guys to back you up. Josh Phegley was behind the plate that night, navigating Fiers through 131 pitches. Not to mention Ramon Laureano’s super-human home run robbing catch that saved not only the no-hitter, but possibly the game!

And all of this was done without the help of Khris Davis, who missed this past week due to his left hip contusion — suffered from running into a rail to make a gutsy catch last Sunday. Davis returned yesterday against Cleveland. The A’s didn’t come away with the win, but Khrush got two hits in his comeback.

A walk-off is always exciting. From a bloop single to a rocket home run, busting through a tie-breaker or a come-from-behind victory, it doesn’t get much better than that. Or does it? How about winning not one, but two games like that in one week?! That’s the good stuff.

Ahhh, but how about three?

One...

Two...

...aaand, three!

Mike Fiers dedicated his 2015 no-hitter against the Dodgers to his mother, who he lost in 2013. Originally slated to start on Mother’s Day, Fiers planned to dedicate the day to her again. After some discussion, it was decided Fiers would be better off with another day of rest, following his momentous — and strenuous — previous start.

Today, Fiers takes the mound against Yusei Kikuchi and the Seattle Mariners as the A’s hit the road again after a quick dip at home. This will be Fiers’ first start since his No-No, meaning more national notice for the 33-year-old than he’s had since ... his last one in 2015!