Sayonara Oakland – thanks for playing.
If the A’s don’t get swept right out of Detroit on Saturday, I’ll be shocked.
Pitching, pitching, pitching – is the way you win in the playoffs and it should not come as a surprise to anyone that the team with the best pitching staff in the regular season is now blowing through the postseason. Kenny Rogers (2-0) is pitching out of his mind and there’s no doubt that he has been the best starter in all of the postseason thus far. Rogers pitched 7.1 innings of scoreless baseball and now hasn’t surrendered a run in over 14-straight playoff innings. He gave up a miniscule two hits, only walked two and struck out six in an absolute dominating performance.
Two of the Tigers total three runs came in the first inning. Placido Polanco (2 for 4, one RBI) drove in Curtis Granderson (0 for 1, three walks) with a single to center to give Detroit a 1-0 lead. Magglio Ordonez followed up with a fielder’s choice on the very next at bat to score Craig Monroe, who had moved to third on Polcanco’s single. The only other run scored by both teams came on a Monroe (2 for 3, two runs scored and a RBI) home run to left in the fifth inning.
There wasn’t much the A’s could do to counter Rogers and now face elimination Saturday in Detroit. Starter Rich Harden (0-1) had a decent outing despite not pitching in over four months. Harden went 5.2 innings, gave up all three runs on five hits, but obviously got no support from his offense and was pulled for reliever Chad Gaudin.
It’s no secret why the A’s are on the verge of getting swept by Detroit and why Oakland is now facing elimination. The A’s have squandered scoring opportunities in this series by grounding into multiple double plays and not having a force in the lineup that can do more than hit seeing-eye singles. Frank Thomas, after a fantastic regular season and an excellent divisional round against Minnesota, has completely gotten manhandled by the Tigers pitchers. He is now 0 for 9 in this series and has contemplated changing his nickname officially, to the “Big Skirt.”
I will say this about the A’s, however: Mark Kotsay played a tremendous centerfield in this contest. Kotsay kept the game at 2-0 in the fourth inning with back to back excellent catches. Kotsay made a diving play right in front of him to take away potential extra bases from Roman Santiago. Then on the very next play, Kotsay ran hard to deep left-center and made a backhanded grab to take away a Granderson base hit and end the inning with no harm done.
For the elimination game in Detroit tomorrow (Saturday at 4pm ET), Oakland will try and save its season by sending Dan Haren (1-0) to the mound. The Tigers will counter with Jeremy Bonderman (1-0), who eliminated the Yankees in the ALDS.
