Wait is worth it for Tigers
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Buyers in baseball's winter marketplace will determine whether Barry Zito is a $15-million-a-year starter, but last night the message to them was clear: Kick the tires and look under the hood before committing such resources to the curveballing lefthander.
At least the Detroit Tigers made that case in a 5-1 win over the A's in the opening game of the American League Championship Series before 35,655 at McAfee Coliseum on a cool fall night.
Zito was out of the game with two outs in the fourth inning after allowing seven hits, three walks, five runs, and a pair of home runs.
The disciplined Tigers changed their normally aggressive offensive style and became very patient against Zito.
``We made him throw his fastball," said Pudge Rodriguez, who homered to lead off the fourth. ``He tends to throw it high in the zone. When you're patient against him, he has to throw his pitches.
``He's a great pitcher, don't get me wrong, but we had a great game plan against him and we went out and stayed patient with it and we finally were able to get something going against him."
None of the first 12 batters who stepped in against him offered at his first pitch, as Zito was forced to throw 92 pitches over 3 2/3 innings. He departed the game far earlier than expected, considering he retired the first eight batters.
The Tigers, meanwhile, got five shutout innings from lefthander Nate Robertson, who did a terrific job working out of jams. But that work took its toll, and the Tigers went to their bullpen in the sixth inning.
Zito's demise was interesting to watch.
With two outs in the third inning, the Tigers scored two runs, starting with No. 9 hitter Brandon Inge's home run down the left-field line on a 2-and-1 pitch. Inge, who had a homer and double off Zito (and three hits in all), had entered the game 3 for 24 (.125) against him, but drastically changed his approach.
``He hit a fastball for the home run and put a good swing on it," lamented Zito. ``I started to nitpick after that instead of coming right at them. I don't know what I'd done against Inge in the past but he got the best of me this time for sure."
``I was actually looking for a ball out over the plate," said Inge, ``and I was surprised when I got it in and I guess my hands didn't cooperate with my mind and my bat was able to pull it down the line and out of the park.
``I'll take it, because he's a great pitcher who gets you to chase a lot of stuff out of the zone."
After Inge's homer, Curtis Granderson took advantage of Zito's ``nitpicking" by doubling to right field. The Tigers loaded the bases as Zito walked both Placido Polanco and Sean Casey. Granderson scored on Magglio Ordonez's hot shot that Gold Glove third baseman Eric Chavez couldn't handle.
``You have to play good defense in the playoffs, and that wasn't good defense right there," said Chavez.
In the fourth, Rodriguez homered to make it 3-0. Craig Monroe walked and Marcus Thames reached second on a throwing error by D'Angelo Jimenez, who was trying to turn a double play. Inge scorched a double off the left-center-field fence to score Thames, and Polanco's single up the middle scored Inge with the fifth run.
After Casey singled, A's manager Ken Macha came out to remove Zito.
``I just got away from my game plan and tried to pick," said Zito. ``I know they're an aggressive team. Most guys are pretty aggressive. I need to take advantage of that and make them swing at bad pitches, and I think some of the pitches were just out of the zone too far and they laid off them."
Zito, the subject of trade rumors for three years, doesn't fit the A's salary structure, and when he becomes a free agent after the season, he likely will join former teammates Mark Mulder (St. Louis) and Tim Hudson (Atlanta) as pitching stars the A's have lost.
Robertson did his best work with runners on base, especially in the fourth inning when he walked Frank Thomas and allowed a double off the left-field fence by Jay Payton.
With runners at second and third and nobody out, Robertson struck out Chavez and Nick Swisher swinging and Marco Scutaro looking.
In the fifth, No. 9 hitter Jimenez singled and Jason Kendall walked with nobody out. But Mark Kotsay knocked into a double play, and Monroe made a diving catch in left to rob Milton Bradley and end the inning.
``I just made some pitches when I had to," Robertson said. ``I didn't come up with a super fastball or anything."
The A's had two runners on in the first and third innings as well, but each time Robertson was up to the challenge. That trend didn't change when Fernando Rodney relieved him in the sixth. He put two A's on base with one out (Payton double, Chavez walk), but got Swisher to pop up and Scutaro to hit into a forceout.
The A's were 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position through six innings.
Joel Zumaya came on for the Tigers in the eighth, and it was against him -- and his 102-103-miles-per-hour fastball -- that the A's broke through.
Bradley led off with a double to center, took third on Thomas's ground out, and scored when Payton's hard-hit grounder deflected off the heel of Zumaya's glove to third baseman Inge, who threw out Payton by a hair.
