October 2, 2012

This time, it was manager Bob Melvin who took a whipped cream pie in the face.

All those walk-off wins from guys hardly known beyond the Bay Area until now, all those moving parts and the long list of injury reports day after day, Melvin has had as big a hand in Oakland's return to the playoffs as anybody -- and his players will swear by it.

So, fittingly, it was his turn to be celebrated.

Josh Reddick planted the pie in the skipper's face moments after a 4-3 win over the Texas Rangers on Monday night.

The upstart, scrappy, no-fear A's are now the playoff-bound A's.

They still hope to be AL West champions, too. Two more wins against the two-time reigning AL champion Rangers would do it.