2006-10-11: From the Oakland Media

[pfife]

D-Train did these during the Pistons' playoff run last year, and I enjoyed them immensely. So, I'm going to try to do this for the remainder of the Tiger's playoff run. Please, feel free to contribute!

[pfife]

http://www.insidebayarea.com/athletics/ci_4474331


Harden moved to Game 3
After his instructional league outing, As switch him with Haren
By Josh Suchon, STAFF WRITER
Article Last Updated:10/11/2006 02:38:15 AM PDT

OAKLAND — Hes the biggest unknown, yet has the best chance to dominate, and the As have decided Rich Harden will start Game 3 of the American League Championship Series against Detroit.

Harden didnt pitch in the division series because the As swept the Twins in three games. His final start in Anaheim — six walks in 3 innings — caused some concern about how close Harden is to midseason form after being out 15 weeks with a strained ligament in his right elbow.

The As appeared to be leaning toward Harden in Game4, but decided Tuesday to push him up one day, despite his allowing five runs in the fourth inning of his instructional league outing Monday.

We need to find out what Rich Harden can do, said Billy Owens, the As director of player personnel who was among those watching Harden in Arizona. Were trying to win this series, and we need to win four of seven. But to win the whole ball of wax, we need to win eight of 14. Rich is still an integral part of the team, even though hes only started eight games all year.

Owens reiterated that Hardens line was deceiving. Hardens velocity was good, he was pain-free, and he threw all his pitches in the first three innings that he breezed through.

He threw a lot of strikes, Owens said. Hes ready to pitch.

Dan Haren will start Game 4. If a Game 7 is necessary, Harden is in line to start it. Haren could be available to pitch on three-days rest, either in relief, or starting if something happened to Harden.
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Pushing Dan Haren back a day is a tough decision, As manager Ken Macha said. He has pitched a lot of big ballgames for us and pitched very well. But we just feel at this particular time that Rich is going to be the guy in the spot.

Harden was told Monday, and was happy with the news.

I was hoping to go a little sooner, Harden said. I really want to get out there and pitch, and see what happens.

The forecast for Game 3 in Detroit is a high of 49 degrees, a low of 37, and a 30 percent chance of rain or snow.

As long as my preparation is fine, and I stay loose between innings, (Ill be fine), Harden said. I grew up in that weather. Im used to it, being from Canada. Im kinda looking forward to it.

[pfife]

http://www.insidebayarea.com/athletics/ci_4474317

A stumbling start this time Zito, A's defense and offense sputter

By Josh Suchon, STAFF WRITER,
Article Last Updated:10/11/2006 02:51:48 AM PDT
OAKLAND — The previous Game 1 was everything this Game 1 wasn't for the Oakland Athletics.

It wasn't a good start for Barry Zito, the A's defense or the offense. The Detroit Tigers scored five runs off Zito in four innings en route to a 5-1 victory Tuesday evening in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series before a sellout crowd of 35,655 at the Coliseum.

That was in sharp contrast to the division series opener in Minnesota, a 3-2 victory that triggered an A's sweep.

But since the best-of-7 LCS format began in 1985, just 10 of the 20 AL teams to win Game 1 have gone on to win the series, and just one of the past six.

With runners in scoring position, the A's were 0-for-13 with two double plays and three strikeouts. They stranded nine and hit into an LCS-record four double plays.

"We didn't execute, and that's what we did best last series — we executed with timely hits," said A's center fielder Mark Kotsay, who hit into two of the twin killings Tuesday. "We had them on the ropes every inning. We just didn't get the job done."

Tonight in Game 2, it's Esteban Loaiza vs. Justin Verlander.

Milton Bradley called Tigers starter Nate Robertson's performance — five shutout innings, despite six hits and three walks — a "smoke-and-mirrors" job.

"What can you do?" Bradley said. "I know I swung at his pitch. ... We made the experts look smart tonight. I guess they got it right one time."

It was an atypical game for the A's defensively, even though none of the five runs charged to Zito was unearned.

Third baseman Eric Chavez couldn't come up with a grounder to his left, which led to one run. Second baseman D'Angelo Jimenez made a poor throw to first on a double-play attempt, which led to two runs.

"Barry needs to hit his spots to be effective," Chavez said. "It was five runs, but it probably should have been three runs. We let him down. I know I did."

Zito retired eight straight batters to begin the game, then just three of the next 13. Brandon Inge hit solo homer just inside the left-field pole. After that, Zito stopped throwing strikes and never recovered.

Curtis Granderson doubled on a 2-0 pitch. Zito walked Placido Polanco on a 3-2 pitch, then walked Sean Casey on a 3-2 pitch. Magglio Ordonez hit a grounder in the hole, a play that Chavez normally makes, that scored a run. It was scored a single.

"If I do that play 10 times, I probably make it nine times," Chavez said. "As soon as I caught it, it popped out at the end."

Zito added: "I can't be frustrated with anything Chavy does over at third. He's gold. Most guys don't even give you a chance at that one."

Zito retired Carlos Guillen to end the damage at two runs for that inning, but Ivan Rodriguez opened the fourth with a solo homer to right-center to make it 3-0. Zito walked Craig Monroe, then the absence of second baseman Mark Ellis was felt on the next play.

Chavez made a nice stop on Marcus Thames' grounder down the line and quickly threw to second for one out. New second baseman D'Angelo Jimenez's relay throw was way off line and low, bouncing past first baseman Nick Swisher.

"(The throw) was a little to my right, and I was trying to get rid of it quickly," Jimenez said. "It was a tough play. I'm trying to sidearm and the ball sinked a little to the ground. But it happened. It's part of the game."

Inge doubled home Thames, and scored two batters later on a Polanco single up the middle. Zito was done after 92 pitches and 3 innings — easily the shortest of his seven postseason starts.

"You fall behind, they're good fastball hitters, and that's basically what happened," A's manager Ken Macha said. "They hit a couple homers off him, and he gave up some hits, but the game could have been reasonable had we turned that double play."

The A's had plenty of opportunities against Robertson. They stranded two runners in the first inning, hit into inning-ending double plays in the second and third, and squandered a golden opportunity in the fourth after a walk to Frank Thomas and Jay Payton double.

Chavez chased a 2-2 slider outside the strike zone. Swisher whiffed on a high 2-2 fastball. Marco Scutaro looked at a 3-2 fastball down the middle.

"I came up with a super fastball all of a sudden," Robertson said, joking. "You have to make pitches. I've never backed down from a situation like that. If they beat me, they beat me with my best stuff, so I came right at them."

The A's started the fifth with two on and none out again. This time, Kotsay hit into the team's third double play, then left fielder Craig Monroe made a diving catch on Bradley's line drive to end the inning.

"He just made his pitches," Kotsay said. "I had a 2-0 situation. I fouled a ball off, then 2-1 he threw a nice good sinker, down and in, and I hit into the double play. He took the momentum right away from us. We had other chances earlier. When the pressure was on, he executed his pitches."

How they scored

Tigers third: Inge homered with two outs. Granderson doubled. Polanco walked. Casey walked, Granderson to third, Polanco to second. Ordonez singled infield, Granderson scored. Tigers 2, A's 0.

Tigers fourth: Rodriguez homered. Monroe walked. Thames grounded into fielder's choice, then went to second on Jimenez's throwing error, Monroe out. Inge doubled, Thames scored. Granderson grounded out, Inge to third. Polanco singled, Inge scored. Tigers 5, A's 0.

A's eighth: Bradley doubled. Thomas grounded out, Bradley to third. Payton grounded out, Bradley scored. Tigers 5, A's 1.

For more A's coverage, visit http://www.insidebayarea.com/athletics and to read ANG's baseball blog, some go to

www.ibabuzz.com/baseball

[Yoda]

They're crazy for starting Harden I think. Use him out of the bullpen. He threw 50 pitches the other day and was tired afterwards.

By the way, great thread. I like this.

[pfife]

http://www.ibabuzz.com/baseball/2006/10/10/how-much-does-game-1-matter/

How much does Game 1 matter?
Posted by Josh Suchon on Tuesday at 7:02 pm

A year ago, the White Sox lost game 1 of the ALCS, yet still won the series 4-1. Houston lost Game 1 of the NCLS, yet still won the series 4-2.

But what about historically? Well, if you take all baseball, all hockey and all basketball series ever played in a best-of-7, the team that won the first game has won the series 71.1 percent of the time. In baseball, it’s 61.3 percent of the time.

Wish I could say that I was that much smart and did the research myself. Actually, I’m really glad I never did the research because that would take forever. Actually, there’s a really cool website called www.whowins.com that will give you every possible formula you could ever hope to never have to look up yourself.

[pfife]

http://www.ibabuzz.com/baseball/2006/10/10/fox-gun-is-way-off/


Fox gun is way off
Posted by Josh Suchon on Tuesday at 6:36 pm


If you’re watching the game on Fox, the radar gun readings are 3-4 mph too fast — at least, compared to the stadium gun. Fernando Rodney hit 100 on the TV gun, but he hasn’t done it all year, so I can’t believe it’s accurate. The Coliseum gun had him at at 97 on that pitch, which is right. Joe Kennedy hit 97 on the TV gun, and there’s no way he throws that hard. If Joel Zumaya comes into the game, it should make for good TV. Zumaya has thrown a legit 103, so 106 would be something on TV … even if it’s not legit.

[pfife]

http://www.ibabuzz.com/baseball/2006/10/10/casey-pulls-hamstring/

Casey out of game
Posted by Josh Suchon on Tuesday at 6:33 pm

Sean Casey left the game with a left calf injury after six innings. The Tigers don’t have a true backup first baseman. Chris Shelton, who got off to a huge homer binge in April, was sent down to the minors after a prolonged summer slump. Shelton was back up in September, but is not on the postseason roster. Shortstop Carlos Guillen was moved to first base and Ramon Santiago came into the game at shortstop.

[pfife]

http://www.athleticsnation.com/story/2006/10/11/096/84041


4 GIDP + 0-13 RISP + 1 E = 0-1
By Blez on Tue Oct 10th, 2006

That was one dubious equation that the A's created tonight. And the funny thing was that after the A's beat the Twins all the experts could say over and over again was that the A's are a team that plays the game the right way. If that's the right way, I don't wanna be right.

Tonight was essentially George Costanza's opposite day. At least on the defensive front. And it wasn't just the Jimenez error, although that was huge. Swisher not getting an out on the Granderson play. Chavez missing a ball that he vaccuumed up during the regular season. It just wasn't the A's on the defensive side.

As for the GIDP thing and the lack of hitting with RISP, well, that is a tendency of our lovable muppets. And if the A's are to advance, that's something that they're going to overcome with great pitching and defense. Tonight, the pitching and defense couldn't bail them out.

Yes, the umpiring was horrid. I found the non-strikeout call on Polanco to be the worst offense of the night. But our boys lost this game tonight. If that's Zito's last appearance in an A's uniform, then that's a sad way to go out. I was surprised that the Tigers were able to go against their stats and have a very patient approach against Zito. They looked more like Yankee hitters than Tiger hitters and for that they deserve kudos. I think the Twins could've done the same thing and had success against Barry because to me, the majority of Zito's pitches were also out of the zone. The difference was that the Tigers gave the ump a chance to call them balls. When you throw 92 pitches and only 49 are strikes, you aren't going to win many games.

The A's set a couple of ignominious records tonight with the most double plays in a nine-inning game in an ALCS game and missing success with RISP, going 0-13.

The way I'm trying to approach this series (my wife would argue unsuccessfully considering how I was yelling at the TV) is that this has been a successful season and I need to be happy with whatever happens. But the truth is that it's really hard to get this close to a World Championship and not have every play make you go crazy.

Still, 0-1 isn't the end of the world. Although the Tigers have probably their most talented starting pitcher going tomorrow against a guy who most A's fans still think is going to fall apart like a house of straw any moment now. The one thing that could be the difference in this series...if the Tigers remain that patient and approach every game that way, this could be a quick series. Although the Sean Casey injury could have a big impact on their offense.

As for the A's RISP problem, I expect it to change if the A's continue to get guys on base, but the truth is that it probably won't since it hasn't all year. They are also facing a great pitcher each and every night now in the playoffs, so it could continue to be tough sledding.

The Tigers lost the first game last series and then went on to win three straight. Let's turn the tables this time.

GO A'S!!!!!!!

[pfife]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/11/RATTO.TMP&type=as

Beginning with a loud dose of dud

Ray Ratto

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Well, that was magic all around, wasn't it? The tarp looked great, the mozzarella-stick fan-ticklers made for a swell backdrop, and the "Hey, we're about to be on national TV everyone, so make a bunch of noise" cry was so purely small-town America that one couldn't help but feel like good things were about to bust out all over.

Yeah, right. Sure.

And so it was that those good things all happened Tuesday night -- all over the locals. Detroit cruised 5-1, and now the home folks -- those who got seats and those who couldn't because a green piece of canvas had a sugar daddy in the A's ticket office -- they all understand the deal a bit clearer.

The Barry Zito-morphs-into-Shawn-Hillegas outing (get the first eight guys, then three of the next 13, and lose a slightly tight Jerry Crawford strike zone entirely) ... the four double plays (two by Mark Kotsay) ... the clutch hitting (0-for-13 with men in scoring position, and now 3-for-35 in the postseason) ... the typically tight defense blobbing all over itself (Nick Swisher unable to release a grounder toward first base, a D'Angelo Jimenez relay throw to the Reuters photographer) ... and the great Why are they pitching Nate Robertson?" debate ... all of it withered into soot before the game was an hour old.

In all, what we had here was an old-fashioned comprehensive beat-down, a reminder to any Oaktown folks who thought there was only one piggy-backing October monkey for the boys to excise -- that, in fact, there are three, and this very well might be the hardest.

In chess terms, the A's lost a bishop in Zito, who finessed and nitpicked and subdivided and struggled with the zone even in the first two innings. They also re-demonstrated their yearlong weakness by doing the absolute minimum with their 14 baserunners. If not for a hard smash off Joel Zumaya's leg that scored Milton Bradley in the eighth, the A's would have nothing to show for their first really big evening in 14 years.

"We had a lot of opportunities," designated hitter Frank Thomas said after going 0-for-2 with RISP himself. "A lot, and we just didn't capitalize."

"We dodged a big bullet tonight," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said, opting for grace rather than doubling over in laughter. "We put a lot of guys out there, but we had a combination of good pitching and some timely hitting."

This was, in fact, classic May A's baseball, something that occasionally will rear its listless head. This is a team that has limitations that its pitching and defense typically are much better at hiding, but Zito's quick expulsion helped expose the biggest limitation of all: offensive inefficiency.

The upside for you cheerless locals? It's Game 1, and that's all it is. Oakland hasn't been a bad team very often since the Fourth of July, and its players are able to compartmentalize toads like this and move quickly from them. Zito hasn't put together two consecutive stinkers this season, the meat of the lineup now has seen Zumaya, the uber-filthy reliever, Brandon Inge eventually will make an out, and ultimately, there is this:

Momentum is for suckers.

Of course, that's an easier argument to advance when you don't have any. And nothing says flat quite like never being in the first game of a postseason series.

On the other hand, the Game 1 winner is only a 58 percent shot to win an ALCS, which is not quite a coin flip but close enough. How the A's deal with Tuesday tonight will explain nearly everything we need to know about them.

If the A's win, the notion that this match is too close to call is proven to be so, normalcy is restored, and now it's first-one-to-three. If not, well, Detroit can be a cruel place in which to expire, and no, that's not a crack about dry-roasting taxicabs or good-natured looting. That's a simple statement of baseball fact -- these Tigers are not all that cute and cuddly and overachieving after all. They are an unpleasant bit of business. They slowly pulled the wings off the A's best pitcher, showed a patience and plate discipline people doubted they had, and Nate Robertson laughed at America's need for encapsulated wisdom. Fourth starter, my spleen.

Still, there was good news for the A's on Tuesday night -- the fact that no tarps were arrested for cursing, drunkenness or creating any kind of disturbance at all. They were well behaved and added to the evening's atmosphere.

Or lack thereof.

[pfife]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2006/10/10/SPGOELLVH91.DTL&type=as

Pressure? They’ll manage
JIM LEYLAND: Perception of former Pirates icon has changed from hyperactive to master psychologist

Ray Ratto

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Jim Leyland won the World Series with Florida in 1997 and...

The story goes that manager Jim Leyland aired out the Detroit Tigers after a bad day's work against Cleveland in April and so inspired the boys with his analytical and rhetorical skills that they came to Oakland, won the series, kept winning for three months, and became the team of the year in the American League.

Andy Van Slyke offers a rebuttal.

To him, it was weeks earlier, before anything the Tigers had done well or poorly this season had come to light.

"The biggest thing to me was when Kirby Puckett died," Van Slyke, the Tigers' first-base coach, said. "We had a meeting in spring training, and he just talked about how Puckett was the epitome of what a major-league player should be, and he got pretty emotional and started crying. After it was over, one of the players came up to me and said, 'You know, that was cool.' "

The story goes that Leyland was tough enough to get into the face of Barry Bonds in spring training one year over the positioning of a photographer.

Mark Kotsay offers a rebuttal.

"The coolest thing I ever remember was us going into Houston for a series the year after the (Florida) Marlins had won the World Series, and I'd been going pretty good for a while," the A's center fielder said. "I was starting to slow down and so he calls me into the weight room in Houston and says, 'Do something for me; step on the scale.' I'm a rookie and he's the manager, so I get on the scale and it says 165. Now I started the season at 190.

"So he says, 'You go in the food room and stay there and eat, and I'm gonna fine you every day you aren't in there. You can come out and play catch with (first-base coach) Tommy Sandt, but that's it.' So I don't play that whole series, and when I come back, I start hitting the ball again and I end up having a pretty good year."

These are not stories that would have been told about Leyland when he first was trying to make his bones in Pittsburgh 20 years ago, or even nine years ago in Florida. The Leyland stereotype of those eras was that of the chain-smoking wraith with one gear whose ultra-demanding father was the predominant voice in his head.

Today, he is portrayed as an angular Yoda, a master psychologist who pets and prods and cajoles and nudges and makes teams better than they know they are. And this Tigers team, the one that lost 119 games three years ago and improved by 24 wins between last year and this, is presented as his masterwork.

All of which would amuse him greatly, if he gave into expressions of great amusement. He is more the road-wise traveler of the endless road, capable of being surprised but only rarely, because there is little he hasn't seen, or done. His charm is that of the converted banty rooster, the reformed hyperactive. And his skill is based on knowing the difference between public perception and truth.

"The difference between him in Pittsburgh and now?" said Van Slyke, who played eight seasons (1987-94) for Leyland with the Pirates. "He's 61 years old. He's won a World Series. His reputation is made. There isn't anything he has to prove to anyone."

That's what Leyland has always said, that he didn't have to prove anything to anyone, but it's easier to believe when it comes from someone who has proven everything.

Leyland comes into this American League Championship Series as the man on top of his game, and his world. He has defied convention and taken a bad team and made it very good in what in baseball terms would be an instant.

And of course, he says that it isn't his doing at all.

"I'm like every other manager," he said Monday. "This is my 15th year in the major leagues, and when I've had good players, I've done pretty good. And when I haven't had good players, I haven't been worth a s -- ."

He had good and bad players in Pittsburgh, defined in large part by that ownership's commitment. He had good and bad players in Florida, defined almost entirely by that ownership's commitment. He had a mediocre team in Colorado, and his heart wasn't in it.

With the Tigers, he has a gifted team with no preconceived ideas about how to be gifted. It simply is, and his job is to let it be good and to correct it when it forgets.

And he will defy the conventional wisdom when it clashes with his. Take his pitching choices for Games 1 and 2. When most folks thought he would start Justin Verlander and Kenny Rogers, the one for his three-digit fastball and the other for his ungodly numbers in Oakland, Leyland went the route less considered because it made more sense to him.

"There wasn't really much (of a) decision on that one," he said with that audible shrug of his. "It's kind of Nate's (Robertson's) turn, and Verlander follows, and of course Bondo (Jeremy Bonderman) just clinched (the New York series). That kind of falls into place. That's just the way we're going to do it."

Robertson. Verlander. Rogers. Bonderman. Not because Leyland wants to convince you that he knows what he's doing, but because he doesn't have to convince you of anything. It isn't much more complicated than that. He is encased in his own security, so much so that he can say with a straight face that Kotsay remains his wife's favorite player of all time, "the cutest thing going," he said.

To which Kotsay smiled, "I'm flattered, I guess. I'm not really sure what to do with that, to be honest with you."

Well, he could play it safe and take it for what it is. That's the safest route with Jim Leyland -- the new Jim Leyland, or the old one.

E-mail Ray Ratto at rratto@sfchronicle.com.

[pfife]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2006/10/11/SPGB9LMQJG1.DTL


Stranding room only
A's lack of clutch hitting is one for record books

Susan Slusser, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Though the tickets read Game 1 of the American League Championship Series, the results were more early-season A's and Tigers.

Oakland reverted to its annual April-May inability to drive in runners in scoring position, while Detroit looked every bit the force that grabbed control of the AL Central in the first half while claiming Game 1 of the best-of-seven series 5-1 on Tuesday night at the Coliseum.

The A's, who were coming off a three-game sweep of the Twins in the Division Series, went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position, matching the worst mark in postseason history. Even their lone run scored on an out. They also established an LCS record by grounding into four double plays.

"We didn't get it done tonight, but it's a long season,'' said A's DH Frank Thomas, who was 0-for-3 and hitless in two at-bats with men in scoring position. "We've got to come out and play better tomorrow night. After three days off, guys were not in sync. We had a lot of opportunities, but we didn't come through.''

The numbers shouldn't be all that surprising: During the regular season, the A's were second to last in the league in hitting with men in scoring position (.243) and they led the majors in grounding into double plays, with an Oakland-record 170.

"What can you do?'' Oakland outfielder Milton Bradley said. "I know that, for myself, I swung at the pitcher's pitch. I should have waited.''

Nate Robertson went five innings for Detroit, and though he allowed six hits and three walks, he worked best when he was in trouble. Asked how Robertson wriggled out of danger, Bradley said, "Smoke and mirrors. I don't know.''

Robertson induced three double-play balls, and with two on and nobody out in the fourth, he struck out the next three hitters, Eric Chavez, Nick Swisher and Marco Scutaro. The left-hander joked after the game that he'd come up with a "super fastball all of a sudden or something.''

Said Chavez: "When you strike out the side, something clicked. We were probably swinging at bad pitches. He got the better of us there.''

Oakland's only run came in the eighth off flame-thrower Joel Zumaya; Bradley led off the inning with a double, went to third on a groundout and scored on Jay Payton's sharp shot off the mound. Payton was thrown out at first by third baseman Brandon Inge.

Payton and Bradley both had two hits, but like Thomas, both thought the team was off offensively.

"It's nice to win three games in a row, but then you sit around for three days and it showed,'' Payton said. "We were a little rusty with the bats.''

Zito, the one constant in the A's rotation the past seven seasons, got the Game 1 start and he bolted out of the gate, retiring the first eight hitters, but the Tigers were, for them, relatively patient -- the first 12 Detroit batters did not swing at the first pitch.

"He threw some good pitches,'' Oakland center fielder Mark Kotsay said. "They just laid off 'em. They had a great game plan.''

Zito began falling behind and struggled thereafter, giving up seven hits and five runs over the next inning. It was the highest run total Zito has allowed in seven career postseason starts.

Thomas suggested that Zito didn't get the benefit of many calls, especially with his "monster'' curveball. Zito said that he began to nitpick, which is something that occasionally gets in him trouble.

The A's did not trail at any point of the Division Series against the Twins, but it was the Tigers who drew first blood in the ALCS.

With two outs in the third, Inge lofted a home run down the left-field line on a 2-1 fastball from Zito. Inge had only three hits in 24 previous at-bats against Zito. "Today, he got the best of me,'' Zito said.

The Tigers added another run in the inning when Curtis Granderson doubled, Placido Polanco and Sean Casey walked and Magglio Ordoñez reached on an infield single to third; Chavez dived to his left but the ball went in and out of his glove as Granderson came home to score.

Ivan Rodriguez homered to right-center to lead off the fourth, and Zito walked Craig Monroe. Then D'Angelo Jimenez, subbing for injured second baseman Mark Ellis, tried to complete a double play but bounced a throw past Swisher at first base, allowing Marcus Thames to get to second.

That brought up Inge, who rapped a double to left-center on a tough changeup, scoring Thames. A groundout moved Inge to third, and he came home on Polanco's single to center

Now, Oakland needs a victory tonight, or the team would head to Detroit needing to take two games there to stay alive.

"Obviously, you don't want to be down 0-2,'' Payton said. "That's no good at all. But even if you don't win the first three, you can still win a seven-game series as long as you get four wins. It doesn't matter what order you do it.''

Chavez wasn't overly perturbed, either.

"Even if we'd won tonight, it wouldn't mean a hill of beans,'' he said. "It's still an uphill battle. That's why you don't panic.''

[pfife]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2006/10/11/SPGPOLMU5A1.DTL


Zito deserves better ending in Oakland

Gwen Knapp

As Barry Zito walked toward the dugout, clocking out way too early Tuesday night, some A's fans rallied. They stood and clapped politely and soberly, almost as if a hearse were carrying Zito out of the game. But at least, they took an edge off the boos resonating in Zito's ears during his final minutes on the mound, throwing what could be his final pitches at the Coliseum as an Athletic.

They weren't pretty. But the Detroit Tigers spent a lot of time looking at them, forcing full count after full count until Zito cracked. He left Game 1 of the American League Championship Series faster and more scarred than he had ever departed a playoff game. He couldn't get through the fourth inning, and he couldn't contain Detroit's No. 9 hitter, Brandon Inge, who had collected only three hits in 24 career at-bats against Zito.

Inge hit a home run in the third inning and a double in the fourth, which probably should have finished off Zito. But manager Ken Macha left him in the game for three more batters, which led to two hits, another run and a lot of booing.

After the game, Zito sounded numb. "You know, it's just like a normal feeling after any game that doesn't go the way you want it to,'' he said, his voice stuck in a zone that sounded more like denial than healthy perspective.

Not panicking might be a good strategy right now, but the fact is that Zito's win over Johan Santana last week set up the A's for their confident, relentless march past the Twins in the first round. They knew they had a giant-slayer, and perhaps a giant of their own. On Tuesday, Zito faced Nate Robertson, considered the fourth starter in Detroit's rotation, and Zito pitched with minimal authority. Again, Zito's teammates followed his lead, this time to a 5-1 loss.

At first, Zito looked like the money pitcher that the A's need him to be now and his agent wants him to be for the purposes of the offseason free-agent market. He went through eight batters without a nick.

There were only two, fairly small hints of trouble. In the first inning, a grounder appeared to glance off Zito's body before he fielded it and threw to first. He left the mound grimacing and limping slightly. The limp was gone when he returned in the second, and he didn't discuss it later. He sent the Tigers down in order again, so everything seemed fine. Well, almost everything. Both Magglio Ordoñez and Ivan Rodriguez worked 3-2 counts before Zito finished off each of them, and from the Tigers, who swing aggressively and sometimes indiscriminately, that was a bad sign.

"I need to take advantage of that aggression and come after them, make them swing at bad pitches early,'' Zito said. "And the pitches, I think, were just too far out of the zone for them to chase them early.''

According to Detroit manager Jim Leyland, the Tigers might have more of the same in store for the other A's starters.

"I think ... playing the Yankees, it really kind of helped us with our offensive approach, because we mentioned something about how patient the Yankees were, and how they made the pitcher work and everything,'' Leyland said. "And I think by talking about it so much, some of our guys picked it up. We're a little better than we were. We're not home free yet.''

What's more Zito might not be done, either. Barring a sweep, he will pitch Game 5 in Detroit on Sunday, trying to render Game 1 a fluke. By his usual playoff standard, it was. He took a postseason record of 4-2 and ERA of 2.43 into Tuesday's game. Even in the years of the Big Three, with Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder bolstering the rotation, Zito often came up as the Big One in the postseason. His Game 3 against the Yankees in 2001 was brilliant, eight innings of two-hit ball, but ended in a 1-0 loss after Jeremy Giambi's saunter home.

To Zito's credit, he did act like an ace in one respect Tuesday night: He made no excuses. Macha pointed out that a hard grounder in the third might have spared Zito a run if Eric Chavez hadn't let the ball dribble out of his glove.

"I can't be frustrated with anything Chavy has done over there at third because he's gold over there,'' Zito said. "Most guys don't even give you a chance out there.''

A's fans will see Zito again under three conditions: One, the A's go to the World Series, two, they detonate their budget and re-sign him, or three, they somehow force a Game 7 and he appears in relief.

His elastic arm would make that possible, just as it had made him immensely valuable. Zito's seven years in green and gold deserve a better home-field valedictory than he delivered Tuesday, and A's fans knew it. They cheered partly to say goodbye and thank you, but also as wishful thinking, that he and the A's will wash away all memories of the boos and Game 1.

E-mail Gwen Knapp at gknapp@sfchronicle.com.

[pfife]

http://www.insidebayarea.com/athletics/ci_4474321

Tarps come off if A's make Series Tarps come off if A's make Series
By David Pollak, MEDIANEWS
Article Last Updated:10/11/2006 02:37:50 AM PDT

OAKLAND — If the A's advance to the World Series, the tarps that have covered seats in the upper deck at McAfee Coliseum all season will disappear.

A's president Michael Crowley said Tuesday that baseball commissioner Bud Selig told the team to remove the coverings put in place at the start of this season, "and we will honor that request."

That will increase the stadium's capacity to about

47,000 should the A's get past Detroit and face either the Mets or Cardinals, Crowley said.

That figure includes standing-room-only and would be roughly 11,400 more than the crowd expected inside the Coliseum for each game of the Detroit series.

The decision means about 15,000 seats per game will be available after the business community and season ticketholders get their share.

Those World Series tickets will be sold for $150 each — a price set by Major League Baseball — to randomly chosen winners among 125,000 fans who signed up for a lottery on the team's Web site. The deadline for registering was Monday, and selected fans will be notified by e-mail.

Crowley took the directive from Selig in stride, even though the team had expressed a preference for keeping the capacity limited.

"When we made the decision to go to 34,000 seats, we said that as long as that decision was ours, we were going to maintain that throughout the postseason," he said.

Basic laws of supply and demand are at work. The A's, for example, have been
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able to sell about 1,700 season tickets for 2007 by offering access to the current postseason — a hook many teams use.

But the A's — who have made no secret about their search for a new ballpark — said the main reason for limiting capacity was to create a more intimate setting in their oversized stadium.

Before, Crowley said, a weeknight crowd of 12,000 could feel lost in the bigger park. "It was like going to a restaurant," he said, "and you're the only couple there."

Attendance did drop from 2.1 million in 2005 to 1.97 million this season. But the A's president said revenues increased because fans who bought more expensive seats also were spending more on food and merchandise — in part, because it was easier.

"Could we have made a little more money?" Crowley asked about the decision to keep the tarps in place to this point. "Yeah, we probably could have. ... But there are a lot of people who liked it the way we did it."

[Biff Mayhem]

http://www.insidebayarea.com/athletics/ci_4474317

Milton Bradley called Tigers starter Nate Robertson's performance — five shutout innings, despite six hits and three walks — a "smoke-and-mirrors" job.

"What can you do?" Bradley said. "I know I swung at his pitch. ... We made the experts look smart tonight. I guess they got it right one time."


I wonder if Bradley will go "Bradley" in the clubhouse now.

[pfife]

I wonder if Bradley will go "Bradley" in the clubhouse now.

I hope so. Those acts entertain the heck out of me.

[jadefalcon]

I wonder if Bradley will go "Bradley" in the clubhouse now.

I don't think anybody would be surprised if that happened.


I really liked that Leyland article.

[thewave84]

Wow, if the Tigers sweep that might have been Zito's last start with Oakland (since he will be an FA this offseason). I hadn't thought of that.

[pfife]

I really liked that Leyland article.

'twas a great article.

[MelissaG915]

Tonight was essentially George Costanza's opposite day.

I'll have chicken salad, on rye, with a side of potato salad an' a cuppa tea!