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 Dog day for Oakland Athletics fall out of wild-card lead with loss to White Sox
Posted: Sunday August 29, 1999 07:59 PM
CHICAGO (AP) -- Rookie Carlos Lee wasn't fazed by Kevin Appier's string of victories against the Chicago White Sox this season. There was no reason to be. "I'd never faced him before," Lee said after his three hits and four RBIs helped Chicago to a 7-2 victory over Appier and the Oakland Athletics on Sunday. "You have to come to the park the same way no matter who is pitching. I take the same approach all the time. And once you get in a streak, you don't want to do too much. Just keep swinging the same way." The loss knocked Oakland one game behind Boston in the AL wild-card hunt after the Red Sox beat Anaheim 7-4 Sunday. James Baldwin (9-11) allowed seven hits and two runs in six innings with three walks and seven strikeouts to win his fifth straight decision. And reliever Keith Foulke, who posed for pregame pictures with his dog Shep as part of the White Sox's Dog Day of August promotion, got his seventh save. He pitched out of a one-out, bases-loaded situation in the eighth and threw a doggone perfect ninth. "Dog care means a lot," Foulke said. "But that's not what I'm out there pitching for." Appier, meanwhile, has lost three straight after winning his first three for the A's. He entered the game 4-0 against the White Sox this season, including three victories before he was traded by Kansas City on July 31, but was hurt by his own wildness and two infield hits by the White Sox. He allowed eight hits and seven runs with six walks in four-plus innings. He said a strain in his upper right leg has been affecting his pitching. "The leg's been an issue. Today I did feel better, but I was having trouble driving through some balls," Appier said. "In compensating for it, it was making me do some weird stuff with my upper body. Today, it just kind of held me back from getting clean to my target." Lee hit a two-run, bases-loaded single in the fifth and a third run scored on the play when Oakland center fielder Rich Becker overthrew third. That gave the White Sox a 6-2 lead and finished Appier (12-12). "He threw me some off-speed pitches and I stayed back and drove it through the middle," said Lee, who is 14-for-29 with 14 RBIs over the last seven games Moments after his hit, Lee slid home with the fourth run of the inning as Greg Norton's slow roller crawled up the first base line for a single. Matt Stairs led off the second with his 30th homer to give the A's a quick lead. Chicago tied it in the bottom half on Chris Singleton's single, stolen base and RBI single by Lee. Lee was cut down at the plate by second baseman Randy Velarde while trying to score on Norton's double. Stairs singled in the third and scored on Ben Grieve's double for a 2-1 lead. But Appier walked Ray Durham and Frank Thomas in the bottom half and Magglio Ordonez hit an RBI double. Paul Konerko also walked to load the bases and Chicago went up 3-2 when Lee's two-out, topped roller down the third-base line stayed fair for an infield single. The A's loaded the bases in the eighth before Foulke got Becker on a comebacker which he threw to the plate for a force and then retired Velarde on a fly ball. Notes: Woof Woof: The White Sox's annual Dog Day promotion brought 500 canines to the game. Included in the mix that took a pre-game walk around the field were tiny Mitzi, a 12-year-old Yorkshire Terrier weighing 2 1/2 pounds, and Shep, Foulke's 3-year-old Black Lab that wore his master's No. 29. "We just bought a jersey and threw his name and number on it so he could represent the team," Foulke said. Shep and others were offered doggie-style ice cream as part of their pregame snack and then took their seats in the right-center field bleachers. Chicago right fielder Magglio Ordonez said he could hear the dogs barking during the game. ... Oakland won the season series 7-3 and had beaten the White Sox seven straight before Sunday. ... Oakland has scored 192 runs in August, the most by any major league team in any month this season. ... Oakland shortstop Miguel Tejada, who just missed the cycle by a single Saturday night, was 2-for-2 with two walks, finishing the season 15-for-34 against Chicago with nine walks. ... White Sox manager Jerry Manuel said no decision has been made on whether to demote Jaime Navarro to the bullpen for a second straight year. Navarro, in the third year of a four-year, $20 million contract, is 7-12 after losing Saturday night. He is 1-7 in his last 12 starts.
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