A's Byrnes' exciting play helps Twins
Hot hitter's running gambit backfires in first inning of close loss
By Mark Saxon, STAFF WRITER
OAKLAND -- Oakland A's bench coach Terry Francona was sitting in the dugout chatting with a group of people the other day when the topic turned to outfielder Eric Byrnes.
"He's doing a lot of exciting things, and the good thing is they're all for us," Francona said. "In the past it's all been exciting, but you weren't sure which way."
Byrnes did a few more exciting things Wednesday, but this time the most exciting one went the Minnesota Twins' way. Byrnes barged through third-base coach Ron Washington's stop sign in the first inning, got thrown out at the plate by Torii Hunter, and what might have become a big inning wasn't so big.
It became an issue when the A's lost 4-3.
Riding a 12-game hitting streak, Byrnes happens to be the A's hottest hitter. Yet there are times the A's still question whether his energy and effort outweigh his lack of instincts for the game.
"I'd have to say that was not good judgment there," A's manager Ken Macha said.
Byrnes said he thought Washington was sending him at first. He also said his foot touched the plate before Tom Prince applied the tag. Umpire Ron Kulpa didn't agree.
"At the last second, he tried to stop me, but at that point there was no going back for me," Byrnes said.
The only reason Byrnes' goof got so much play after the game is there wasn't a whole lot else to talk about.
The A's lost another one- run game -- they're now 4-7 in those -- because they couldn't come up with as many clutch hits as they needed, their late-inning relief was suspect and Barry Zito was just so-so.
Other than the Zito part, that's pretty much been the story all season when the A's lose.
Zito was good, not great judging by just one strikeout. But he still could have kept his All-Star hopes right on track after pitching seven innings of five-hit ball except Ricardo Rincon and Chad Bradford coughed up his tiny one-run lead in the eighth inning.
Rincon allowed a leadoff single to Cristian Guzman, who owns him, and Bradford allowed two RBI singles later in the inning. Zito (6-3) hadn't had a no-decision all year before Wednesday, so it gave him a little taste of what Tim Hudson has been dealing with all season: low run support and failures in the clutch by A's relievers.
"You're not going to get the win every time when you come out of the game with a lead," Zito said. "Bullpen guys are human, too."
Bullpen guys may be human, but occasionally Hunter looks super-human. He didn't just throw Byrnes out in the first. He also made a diving catch of Mark Ellis' tailing line drive in the second inning and accounted for the only Twins' runs off Zito with a two-run homer.
Ellis went through a whole battery of emotions watching his ball shooting toward the gap in the second inning. A leadoff double there might have made life uneasy for Twins starter Kenny Rogers, who still hasn't lost at the Coliseum since 1994 (34 starts).
At first, Ellis was worried because he knew Hunter catches almost everything. Then he thought he had a hit, because the ball was slicing hard. Then...
"He just comes out of nowhere and dives and makes a great catch," Ellis said.
The big inning is apparently an endangered species in the East Bay, or at least in the vicinity of I-880 and 66th Avenue. It wasn't just the first inning that could have blown up in Rogers' face, but the third and fourth, too. The A's had three hits in each of those innings and scored just one run both times.
Erubiel Durazo took a called third strike at a costly time, and Adam Piatt hit into a deflating double play an inning later. The A's are on perpetual lookout for the one big hit that will break the dam.
"We had a lot of chances early, and we didn't cash in as much as we should have," Macha said.
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