These A's never count themselves
out — down and doubted is their dogma.
Brett Anderson outdueled fellow
postseason first-timer Anibal Sanchez and the upstart Athletics showed off
stellar defense all over the diamond, avoiding another playoff sweep by Detroit
by beating the Tigers 2-0 Tuesday night in their AL division series.
The A's cut their deficit in the
best-of-five matchup to 2-1.
Coco Crisp, whose misplay dearly
cost Oakland in Game 2, saved a likely home run by Prince Fielder with a
leaping catch at the top of the center-field wall in the second inning.
''You see him hit it and you just
kind of put your head down a little bit because you think you just gave up a
homer,'' Anderson said. ''Then you see him plow through there and catch the
ball and it kind of kick starts you to go out there and make pitches.''
Yoenis Cespedes hit an RBI single
in the first inning and Seth Smith homered in the fifth. That was plenty on a
night Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera, Fielder and the Tigers' high-priced
offense were shut down by the low-budget A's.
Tigers 16-game winner Max Scherzer
will try to close out the series in Game 4 Wednesday night against A's rookie
A.J. Griffin. Detroit swept the A's in the 2006 AL championship series.
Fielder was the biggest victim of
Oakland's spot-on defense, robbed three times. First by Crisp, Oakland's most
experienced player whose blunder on Cabrera's fly allowed two runs to score in
a 5-4 loss Sunday in Detroit.
''Not to be all over-confident or
anything, I think I'm going to catch everything out there,'' Crisp said.
''Obviously it doesn't happen that way - duh Detroit, right?''
Crisp let out a big ''Whoo!'' after
raising his arm to signal he'd made the grab.
''Coco's catch, the ball was out of
the ballpark and it came back,'' Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. ''The key to
that play was he was playing deep and that enabled him to get into a spot to
get up and make the catch. And it was a great catch, no doubt about it.''
A's shortstop Stephen Drew made a
tough play running to his left to stop Fielder's grounder in the fourth and
then threw to first while still off balance and in motion.
Then, in the seventh, Cespedes cut
over to make a diving catch on Fielder's liner to left field.
That delighted the yellow
towel-waving sellout crowd of 37,090 in this blue-collar city.
''It's frustrating. But it's a good
team you're playing,'' Fielder said. ''They're going to make those plays,
that's why they're here.''
After Cabrera singled with one out
in the ninth, Fielder grounded into a game-ending double play.
The A's own the lowest payroll in
baseball at $59.5 million. Fielder is getting big money in Motown: $214 million
over nine years.
Anderson, back on the mound for the
first time since straining a muscle in his right side Sept. 19 at Detroit,
worked quickly and showed no signs of a layoff or jitters in his first
postseason start.
That's just not the way the A's
have operated this year.
Last week, Oakland entered its
final three-game series of the regular season needing to sweep the two-time
reigning AL champion Rangers to capture the AL West - and the A's did it,
sending a stunned Texas team to the one-game wild card, which it lost to
Baltimore.
A club with a majors-best 14
walkoff wins and countless whipped cream pie celebrations snapped the longest
postseason skid in franchise history at six games. All of those against the
Tigers, too.
The Tigers are trying to reach
second straight AL championship series after losing last year's ALCS in six
games to the Rangers.
Detroit captured the AL Central in
Oakland last year and is hoping for another clinching party as soon as
possible.
Anderson did his job to delay it.
He insisted he was healthy and
ready to go - and manager Bob Melvin took his pitcher at his word and gave him
a shot in his biggest start yet. Anderson had shown plenty when he returned in
August following a 14-month absence recovering from elbow-ligament replacement
surgery and made six impressive starts.
Not feeling quite 100 percent, he
allowed two hits, struck out six and walked two in six innings. He was on a
pitch count of 80 and was done at exactly that, though was never told about it
beforehand.
''I don't know how you could expect
more than we got out of him tonight,'' Melvin said.
Next, the reliable bullpen took
over.
Ryan Cook pitched the seventh, Sean
Doolittle struck out the side in order in the eighth and closer Grant Balfour
finished the four-hitter for a save. The A's staff pitched the 11th postseason
shutout by the franchise, while the Tigers were blanked for the 13th time in
the postseason.
The A's had lost five straight
while facing elimination in the postseason, one shy of the longest active
streak by the Twins.
But this group has defied
expectations ever since the first full workout at spring training back in
February when the A's lost third baseman Scott Sizemore to a season-ending knee
injury. Opening day starter Brandon McCarthy took a line drive to the head
Sept. 5 and needed brain surgery. Starter Bartolo Colon was suspended for 50
games in August for a positive testosterone test.
Oakland became the first team in
major league history to win the division or pennant after trailing by five or
more games with fewer than 10 to go. The A's were five back of the Rangers with
nine left, then won their final six all at home with sweeps of Seattle and
Texas.
Smith hit a towering drive to the
deepest part of center field in the fifth for yet another timely home run for
the A's, whose 112 longballs after the All-Star break led the majors.
''That's how you win postseason
baseball games, with pitching and defense and timely hitting,'' Smith said.
''We had that. We got two runs and that's all we needed. Anderson was great and
our defense was, too.''
Sanchez gave up five hits and two
runs in 6 1-3 innings, struck out three and walked two.
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