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OAKLAND -- Work the count. Wear down the pitcher. Get guys on base, hit them along and get them in.
On most nights of the season, it's the "Moneyball" variation that the A's have ridden into this American League Championship Series. So far this postseason, it has become Tigerball, never so evident as in Tuesday's ALCS opener.
While Nate Robertson escaped one jam after another on the mound, refusing to repeat his loss from the Division Series, his teammates wore out Barry Zito for one of the rare times in his career against them. The resulting 5-1 victory allowed the Tigers to take home-field advantage in the series by taking a page out of Oakland's stylebook.
The two clubs would've met a week earlier at Comerica Park had the Tigers managed to win one of their final five regular-season games to take the AL Central title. It was too late to change venue, but Detroit's hitters managed to take the road environment out of play.
Zito looked primed for his unusual dominance against Detroit, retiring the first eight Tigers in order. However, hitters were trying to work him. Once Brandon Inge ended the stretch with a solo homer, Zito retired just three of the final 13 batters he faced.
Inge worked his way into a 2-1 count before turning on a high, inside pitch to pull it down the left-field line and inside the foul pole. Zito wasn't the same after that, falling behind on 2-0 counts to the next three batters he faced. Curtis Granderson doubled before back-to-back full-count walks to Placido Polanco and Sean Casey loaded the bases for Magglio Ordonez, whose sharp ground ball forced a sliding stop from Eric Chavez. The Gold Glove third baseman stopped the ball, but couldn't field it cleanly enough for a throw, bringing in a second run.
Rest of story: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20061010&content_id=1707814&vkey=re
cap&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
On most nights of the season, it's the "Moneyball" variation that the A's have ridden into this American League Championship Series. So far this postseason, it has become Tigerball, never so evident as in Tuesday's ALCS opener.
While Nate Robertson escaped one jam after another on the mound, refusing to repeat his loss from the Division Series, his teammates wore out Barry Zito for one of the rare times in his career against them. The resulting 5-1 victory allowed the Tigers to take home-field advantage in the series by taking a page out of Oakland's stylebook.
The two clubs would've met a week earlier at Comerica Park had the Tigers managed to win one of their final five regular-season games to take the AL Central title. It was too late to change venue, but Detroit's hitters managed to take the road environment out of play.
Zito looked primed for his unusual dominance against Detroit, retiring the first eight Tigers in order. However, hitters were trying to work him. Once Brandon Inge ended the stretch with a solo homer, Zito retired just three of the final 13 batters he faced.
Inge worked his way into a 2-1 count before turning on a high, inside pitch to pull it down the left-field line and inside the foul pole. Zito wasn't the same after that, falling behind on 2-0 counts to the next three batters he faced. Curtis Granderson doubled before back-to-back full-count walks to Placido Polanco and Sean Casey loaded the bases for Magglio Ordonez, whose sharp ground ball forced a sliding stop from Eric Chavez. The Gold Glove third baseman stopped the ball, but couldn't field it cleanly enough for a throw, bringing in a second run.
Rest of story: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/gameday_recap.jsp?ymd=20061010&content_id=1707814&vkey=re
cap&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
