Sound drums and trumpets! farewell sour annoy!
For here, I hope, begins our lasting joy.

—King Henry VI, Part III, Act V, Scene VII

Get denied something you want too many times, you will eventually come to feel that getting what you want is impossible.

After eight losses in a row, I had reached that point with the A’s. I had lost my ability to even imagine the A’s winning.

But hallelujah, the A’s won this evening! Suddenly, my imagination, locked away in some dark corner of my mind by the recent downturn, burst forth with a barrage of optimistic ifs.

• If Matt Watson can keep hitting in Oakland like he did in Sacramento, the offense may finally have found the sparkplug it needs to turn itself around. His two hits tonight keyed both the A’s run-scoring innings.
   
• Bobby Crosby took batting and fielding practice this afternoon. Ken Macha said on the pregame show that he may begin a rehab assignment this weekend. If he can return and play well, we may have the right-handed power the lineup has been so sorely lacking.
   
• Eric Chavez had three hits tonight, all singles to left field. His left-field stroke has been MIA so far. If he’s found it, we may have the Eric Chavez we expected to see all along.
   
• Murphy had every opportunity to shove his cruel Law back in our face again, just like he had done all season long, but for once, failed to do so. The Red Sox, not the A’s, twice failed to score after getting two runners in scoring position with no outs. Then Octavio Dotel, with an opportunity to get the final out of the game, missed the bag when covering first base, bringing the winning run to the plate. But Dotel got out of the jam. If Murphy has moved on to torture someone else for a change, maybe it’s not too late to salvage this season after all.