If A's fans would have been told Coco Crisp would lead off the game with a solo home run off Justin Verlander; and Tigers boppers Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder would go a combined 0-for-7; and Oakland starter Jarrod Parker would throw 6 1/3 respectable innings; and reliever Pat Neshek would emotionally record two outs just days after he and his wife suffered the tragic loss of their one-day old infant son days earlier; and the tying run would come to the plate in the eighth inning with Verlander already out of the game; would you take that? Probably. The A's have carved out a reputation as a team that if the game is close in the late innings they have a realistic shot to win or at least tie.
But digging deeper into the 3-1 loss, and it was disappointing for the Athletics despite the positives mentioned above. The A's didn't do a lot wrong without bats in their hands. True, they allowed a run in the first thanks to two diving infielders who got gloves on ground balls but pushed them into the outfield and permitted Tigers' runners to take extra bases. And Parker flipped the ball away from him on a no man's land grounder between first base and the mound that proved to be an error, another extra 90 feet and a run for the Tigers that proved to be the game-winner in the third.
But even with Verlander on the mound and the Tigers' best relievers Joaquin Benoit and Jose Valverde needing to throw just an inning each, the A's won't stick around this series very long unless they have better at-bats than they generally lagged through at chilly Comerica Park. It was bad enough that following Crisp's homer they would get just one batter as far as second (Stephen Drew's one-out double in the third). But consider this fact: Oakland hitters had 15 at-bats after a runner had reached base. It's bad enough that those plate appearances resulted in no hits, no walks and 15 outs. But not once in eight tries with less than two outs did the runners as much as advance up one base.
I'm not advocating that the A's, whose best weapon is the home run ball and aggressive baserunning, resort to bunting over runners and wasting outs for a team hitting .238 in the regular season. And stolen base attempts with Verlander throwing his fastball and Detroit catcher Alex Avila's knack for throwing out base-stealers should be proceeded with caution. But at some point even against an ace like Verlander who got stronger after a somewhat shaky beginning, offenses have to string together something that suggests a rally is possible, and that won't happen if consecutive hitters don't reach, which never happened in Game 1.
Instead, after Yoenis Cespedes walked in the first, Brandon Moss and Josh Reddick struck out. Following Drew's double in the third, Cespedes couldn't advance him when he bounced out to third, and Moss struck out. In the fourth and fifth, the A's got the leadoff man to first base, but six hitters combined for two strikeouts, two fielder's choice grounders that forced runners at second, and two outfield fly balls. One of the few "good outs" proved to be Moss hitting what at first glance had the makings of a tying two-run home run off Benoit in the eighth that landed in Andy Dirks' glove a couple feet shy of the fence in right.
OK, enough negative overreaction. Despite the 9:07 a.m. PDT Sunday start that will test the Athletics' West Coast body clocks, the Detroit portion of this series can still provide a major positive and put Oakland in a favorable position to win the series. The A's won't be buried if they go O-for-Motown, but the Tigers' shovels will be within digging distance by the time the visiting buses get to the 880 Hegenberger exit leading to the Coliseum on Tuesday afternoon. So let's just go ahead and call Game 2 a Green and Gold must win to create more suspense and tension, because that's what we're supposed to do in forums like this one.
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