walking tall

It was a first for Brandon Hicks, the former Mississippi Braves shortstop, but Wednesday’s walk-off win was just another day at the office for the Oakland A’s. The A’s, who have climbed to 47-44 (same as Baltimore and better than Tampa Bay, Boston, the New York Mets and St. Louis), have nine walk-off wins this season, most in the majors. While this isn’t really a Moneyball operation anymore, former Jackson Mets star Billy Beane, the A’s dynamic GM, has pieced together another solid yet unheralded club in small-budget Oakland. Recent additions such as Yoenis Cespedes, Josh Reddick, Brandon Moss and Seth Smith (the Ole Miss alum) have given the lineup spark. Hicks, a waiver claim from Atlanta in the spring, has seven big league hits. He’ll always remember the seventh, which came Wednesday at O.Co Coliseum. It was a tape-measure homer, his first in The Show, and it took down Texas, the American League West leader. Hicks has some power; he hit 10 homers in Pearl in 2009 and has 21 in Triple-A the last two seasons. He’s not a bad infielder, either. He can make contributions in Oakland. The A’s start a series tonight against the visiting New York Yankees (and former Jackson Generals ace Freddy Garcia). Suddenly, this is a series worth watching. Who’da thought it?