Esteban Loaiza gave up seven runs in six innings and twice gave up leads in Game 2 of the ALCS. AP
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OAKLAND -- The one aspect of the A's game that they weren't worried about this postseason, the one part they just knew they had going for them, was their pitching. The A's, we all know, always have pitching. This year it just so happens that they probably have more than usual.

Yet here lie the A's, down two games to zippo in the first-to-four American League Championship Series, and everyone who's seen anything of this get-together knows exactly what's gone wrong.

It's the pitching, stupid.

Isn't it always the pitching?

Esteban Loaiza, one of the better starters in the AL this year, was knocked around in Wednesday's 8-5 Detroit win, a day after Barry Zito -- a pretty good pitcher himself, and one who will strike it rich as a free agent this winter -- couldn't last through four innings against the Tigers in Game 1.

Two little losses is a small sample size, granted. Things can turn around in a hurry with a couple of good performances this weekend as the ALCS moves to Detroit. Still, the A's should be four-alarm screaming about the way things are going now. Through two games the A's pitching staff has a 6.50 ERA. It's allowed 22 hits in 18 innings. And the A's have served up four home runs, too.

"We need a starter to step up and shut down their offense," agreed Oakland third baseman Eric Chavez. "They're relentless, on both sides of the ball. They're just a very balanced, good team.

"That's probably the best word for them: relentless."

It's not that the A's pitchers are simply getting roughed up by the Tigers. It's that they're getting kicked in the shins by Detroit's little guys, toppled by the hitters at the top of the lineup and beat up by those on the bottom. The middle of the order -- mainly Magglio Ordoñez, Pudge Rodriguez and Carlos Guillen -- have two hits apiece in the two games, and two RBIs among the three supposedly big swingers.

But in Game 1, No. 9 hitter Brandon Inge had three hits in the 5-1 Detroit win. And Wednesday night, Alexis Gomez -- released by the Royals in 2004 and sent down to the minors twice this year by the Tigers -- made Detroit manager Jim Leyland look like a card-carrying genius.

Gomez, inserted as DH for the day, had two hits and drove in four runs in Game 2. His two-run homer off Loaiza in the sixth inning put the Tigers up 7-3.

"I didn't know anything about him," said Loaiza, who left a 73-mph changeup a little too close to the outside edge of the plate against Gomez in the sixth. "I tried and tried and tried. But that's baseball."

Loaiza was a little more effective than Zito was Tuesday, but the right-hander still struggled against Detroit's lineup, almost from the beginning. The A's took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, but Loaiza gave back the lead in the second inning when No. 7 hitter Craig Monroe drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. Oakland took a 3-1 lead in the third inning on the first of two Milton Bradley home runs. But Loaiza coughed up the lead the next inning when the Tigers' bottom three -- Monroe, Gomez and Inge -- all came through again.