A's bats remain frozen

DETROIT -- They lost 119 games just three years ago. They lost 31 of their final 50 regular-season games in 2006, which made them the coldest team in the history of postseason baseball. They were issued a standing eight count after losing their first playoff game to the Yankees.

The indignities never stopped. Nobody bothered to tell them that their second game in Yankee Stadium was rained out. They had to find a new Manhattan hotel. When they beat the $200 million payroll guys three straight times to advance to the American League Championship Series, it was all about the Yankee fold. Then their first home ALCS game in 19 years was switched from night to late afternoon in order to put the New York Mets on prime time television.

And now these no-respect Detroit Tigers are one win away from going to the World Series.

White-hot on a frosty (42 degrees) Friday the 13th -- paced by the Tanana-esque pitching of the oft-maligned Kenny Rogers -- the Tigers beat the listless (two hits) Oakland A's, 3-0, yesterday to take a commanding 3-0 series lead. Detroit has won six straight playoff games and the sons of Jim Leyland can earn a ticket to the Fall Classic with a victory this afternoon/evening at Comerica Park.

The A's, meanwhile, must look to the 2004 Red Sox for inspiration. Boston's curse busters are the only team in baseball history to recover from a 3-0 series deficit, but the A's thus far have given no indication they are up to the task. Oakland's no-show in this ALCS has been nothing short of an embarrassment. The A's managed only a pair of feeble singles in Game 3 and are batting .216 over the first three games.

``I think the approach is always one game," said Oakland manager Ken Macha. ``I mean, that's what you look at . . . You can't give up and our guys aren't going to do that. They're going to go out and play. My friend over there in Boston, [Terry] Francona, they were in the same position and they wound up doing it. So it's not an impossible task . . . This thing's far from over."

Rogers gave up only two hits and two walks over 7 1/3 innings. He fanned six and 63 of his 97 pitches were strikes. Coupled with his masterpiece against the Yankees last week, he has hurled 15 consecutive shutout innings this postseason. All this from a 41-year-old lefthander who came into 2006 with a playoff ERA of 8.85. Rogers was winless in nine prior postseason games.

``I don't think I can top the last one because of the importance of that game," Rogers said of his win over the Yankees in Game 3 of the Division Series. ``The first inning was a little tough, trying to get a grip on the baseball. But me getting ahead of the hitters is imperative against a team like that."

``He's a professional pitcher," said Leyland. ``There's guys with other stuff. There's guys that will light up the radar gun a little bit more. But to be honest with you, for the most part of this year, he's pitched as good as anybody we have. Nobody could have pitched better than what Kenny's pitched the last two outings, including John Smoltz, who is the best postseason pitcher I've ever seen."

``When you can throw any of your pitches any time for strikes it makes it difficult for the hitters," said Macha. ``Apparently he was doing the same thing with the Yankees and that makes it very difficult. He does a lot of things extremely well."

It was over when the Tigers scored twice in the first. Oakland starter Rich Harden was supposed to have ice water in his veins -- he grew up in British Columbia -- but he seemed bothered by the cold more than Rogers. Because of back and elbow injuries, Harden made only nine starts during the season. Cold and rust are a bad combination.

Curtis Granderson led off with a four-pitch walk, took third on a perfect hit-and-run single to right by Craig Monroe, and scored on Placido Polanco's single. Monroe scored when Magglio Ordonez grounded into a force play, giving Rogers a 2-0 lead.

Detroit almost blew it open in the second when Harden walked three Tigers, but the righthander got out of the jam when he fanned Monroe on a 2-and-2 pitch.

Rogers fanned four A's in the third and fourth, getting the side in order in both frames. He looked a little like an aging Frank Tanana when Tanana beat the Blue Jays to clinch the AL East on the final day of the 1987 regular season.

One Oakland player who didn't give up was center fielder Mark Kotsay. With Omar Infante on second with one out in the fourth (Infante singled and stole second when no one covered second base), Kotsay made spectacular back-to-back catches; one in each direction. He raced toward the infield to make a shoe-top grab of Ramon Santiago's sinking shot, then sprinted halfway to the Renaissance Center and tracked down Granderson's would-be triple for the final out of the inning.

Monroe gave Rogers some insurance in the fifth, swatting an 0-and-1 pitch over the left-field wall. Harden went one more inning before he was pulled by Macha in favor of Chad Gaudin with two outs in the sixth.

Rogers kept allowing the A's to get themselves out into the eighth inning. With one on and one out, he was replaced by Fernando Rodney, who promptly induced a double-play grounder.

Todd Jones, a bullpen afterthought with the 2003 Red Sox (he was one of the ones who didn't get the call when Grady stuck with Pedro), came on to close the book in the ninth.

The Tigers are on the threshold. Detroit could play host to a Super Bowl and a World Series in the same calendar year.

The A's? They're checking out the playbook of the 2004 Red Sox.

Dan Shaughnessy can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com.