Toronto hoped to start Roy "Doc" Halladay in the opener, but arm trouble kept him from meeting this goal. Instead Gustavo Chachin was give the unenviable task of facing HOF'er Jim "Catfish" Hunter. Thing looked good for Chachin as he was given a 1 run lead in the 2nd when Vernon Wells hit a solo shot to lead off the inning. Oakland's offense would get on track in the 3rd when Bert Campaneris led off with a single and normally light hitting Dick Green turned on a Chachin fastball and pulled it just inside the foul poll for a 2 run homer. After Danny Cater grounded out weakly to third Reggie Jackson, not yet Mr.
October, homered off the hotel room windows in center. Oakland would add solo runs in the 4th and 5th to bump their lead up to 5-1. After fanning 7 Blue Jay batters and throwing 119 pitches Hunter was done after 7 innings of fine work. Jack Aker came on in the 8th and made things a bit interesting by allowing the first 2 runners to reach base and advance on a ball in the dirt that just skipped by catcher Jim Pagliaroni. Aker got serious and jammed Wells, who popped up to the catcher for the 2nd out of the inning and got Shea Hillenbrand to line to right. Paul Lindblad came on for an uneventful 9th to close it out and notch the save.8/13 - Rogers Center - 2005 Blue Jays 15, 1968 A's 5
Toronto applied the beat down to Jim Nash and A's in this uncontested contest. Nash yielded 6 runs on 7 hits and never got out of the 1st. In fact he was only able to get 1 out. Frank Catalanotto was the hitting star with 2 homers and a long double off the right center field wall that narrowly missed being home run #2. Eric Hinske also had 2 homers and a whopping 6 RBI. Oakland trotted out 3 pitcher and Toronto lit up each and every one of them in succession.
8/14 - Oakland Colliseum - 1968 A's 7, 2005 Toronto 5
Toronto jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 2nd when Cory Koskie singled home Vernon Wells who led off the inning with a walk. A's starter Blue Moon Odom got Zaun and Hill out to limit the damage to 1 and strand two runners. Odom wasn't thru putting his mark on the 2nd inning. After Reggie and Sal Bando led off with outs Mike Hershberger tripled. Toronto's manager curiously gave both Rich Monday and Jim Pagliaroni intentional passes to face Odom, the pitcher. What he failed to realize was the fact that Odom was a pretty darn good hitter with some lightning fast speed. Odom singled to
center to score Hershberger and Monday and stake himself to a 2-1 lead. That lead would balloon to 7-1 after the A's scored 3 in the 3rd and 2 in the 4th. Odom was on cruise control until he faltered in the 8th. Toronto plated 4 runs to cut Oakland's lead to 2. Odom seemed rattled, but without any bullpen help coming was forced to get out of it. With the bases jammed he got Koskie to pop out to first. The 9th inning was uneventful. Oakland almost got caught with it's pants down when they decided to start removing their regulars after the 7th inning in what at the time looked to be a laugher.
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