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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