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The sounds of October A's learn the hard way about importance of fundamentals
Now we know the Athletics. We know them not just as we did before October -- the lovable big bad daddies of the three-run Jimmy Jack and the frat house funsters. Now we know them as a playoff team. And thanks to the Yankees, who have a knack for bringing out the worst in teams, we know they are lacking. Oakland became the first team to blow a best-of-five series after winning the first two games on the road. The Athletics could write off the 1-0 ALDS Game 3 loss to the Yankees, chalking it up to the mastery of New York pitcher Mike Mussina. But they followed that game with two clunkers in which their defense broke down and their pitchers lost their aggressiveness. The Yankees of October do not allow such a wide margin of error. Was it the pressure? That's difficult to say. Oakland general manager Billy Beane stepped to the very edge of the tightening-under-pressure theory without stepping over the line. Asked how the series turned for the worse, Beane said, "We had no expectations at the start of the series. We had a real devil-may-care approach to the game. We sort of took things as they came. I think the expectations changed when we came home to Oakland [up 2-0]. All of a sudden, we created expectations." Put in a position where they were supposed to win and then had to, the A's could not. (Including last year, they are 0-4 in games in which they had a chance to eliminate the Yankees, and possessed the lead for a total of one inning in those games.) Is that a response to the pressure? Who knows for sure? What is known is that Oakland revealed itself as a team not fundamentally sound enough to win at playoff baseball, not against the Yankees, anyway. For instance, their infielders have a lazy habit of fielding routine grounders one-handed and off to the side, a habit that led to errors by both Miguel Tejada and Eric Chavez. Jason Giambi, who is built like Bluto and runs exactly like Babe Ruth on one of those old Movietone newsreels, showed he is a liability at first base. He cost Oakland two runs in Game 5 -- once by botching the throw from catcher Greg Myers on the strikeout of Bernie Williams and once by misfiring badly on a throw to second base when Oakland had Chuck Knoblauch picked off. Both runners scored. Go back to the biggest play in the series: the Shovel Pass Relay by Derek Jeter in the seventh inning of Game 3. All of the A's, including their befuddled manager, Art Howe, had no idea why a shortstop would be in position to make such a play. Jeter shrugged and said it's been in the Yankees playbook for years. "From now on," Tejada said, "I am going to do it." Jeter also had the athleticism and smarts to make the play. On the other hand, Jeremy Giambi, the slow-footed runner on first, had not enough of either to score the tying run. He said he thought he might have to collide with catcher Jorge Posada, so he didn't bother to slide. Big mistake. There was more dirt the A's couldn't hide under the carpet. Tejada didn't get to third on a single to right on which the outfield throw was made poorly toward home. Terrence Long jumped for (and dropped) a flyball he could have caught without jumping. Pitcher Corey Lidle pitched tentatively, as if he could ice the clock in baseball. Chavez swung wildly at pitches out of the zone. Oakland outfielder Johnny Damon did the best job of getting a pulse on the series. Said Damon, "We felt like we had a chance to win. We feel like we may still have a better team than they do. But they're definitely more athletic than us. Almost everybody they have can score on gap doubles, they can field, they make plays . . . They're just a good team." The Athletics may very well have been the most talented team in the playoffs and were good enough to beat most any other team in October --- just not the Yankees. New York understands the preciousness of every out in the postseason, a lesson Oakland should take from this series. The Yankees field groundballs with two hands and in front of them. Their pitchers limit walks (just four over the final three games to the team that led the league in walks). They hold leads. You cannot beat the Yankees playing a loose brand of baseball and hoping for the three-run Jimmy Jack will happen. Their history is imposing. Entering the ALCS, the Yankees under manager Joe Torre were 49-17 in the playoffs. In those 66 games they: Opponents might not know those exact numbers, but they know the effect. They know New York, like a basketball team with a fierce defense, forces you to protect the ball. The constant pressure of that threat -- knowing the Yankees will pounce on mistakes; ``piranhas,'' Braves pitcher John Smoltz once called them -- is a weapon unto itself. That is why Seattle is better equipped to stand up to the Yankees than was Oakland. The Mariners play sound baseball. They protect the ball. The future for the Athletics is a bit murky. Their closer, Jason Isringhausen, isn't coming back for budget reasons; Jim Mecir will get the ninth inning next year. Jermaine Dye has a broken leg. Damon will likely get $10 million a year from another club. Giambi might be wearing pinstripes next season. Still, plenty of talent remains, including in the front office. The Athletics will continue to be contenders. What they must do now is understand what it takes to win in October. For these are the cold facts about how the best team in baseball failed: Oakland had a 2-0 lead in a decisive game against the Yankees with Mark Mulder on the mound and Tim Hudson behind him. But in the relative eyeblink of three innings, the Athletics made three errors, dropped a flyball, hit two batters, walked two others and found themselves down 4-2 to the Yankees. Game over. Sports Illustrated senior writer Tom Verducci covers the baseball beat for
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