PADECKY: Don't count the A's out

OAKLAND — Only one of the eight runs the Tigers have scored against the A's in their first two ALDS games have been the result of a hit. A wild pitch, a double-play grounder, a dropped fly in center field, a ground out to first base, a sacrifice fly and botched scoop of a slow roller have been culprits to bring down the A's.

You can look at this one of two ways.

Look, the Tigers could say, we won two games with only one RBI, Alex Avila's solo homer in the fifth inning of Game 1. Prince Fielder is but 1-for-8 with no RBI. Triple Crowner Miguel Cabrera is 3-for-8 but with no RBI. Just wait until we actually start hitting. We already beat you twice without hitting. Imagine when we begin hitting like we did during the season, when we had the third highest batting average and the most RBI in the American League. We are on such a roll.

Or, the A's could say, our starters have a 2.19 earned-run average, our staff as a whole has a 2.50 ERA and those two games were at your place. Conventional wisdom says you can't live on wild pitches, double-play grounders, sacrifice flies. Conventional wisdom says good pitching beats good hitting.

In other words, folks, contrary to what you might expect, this ALDS is far from over. This ALDS has a convoluted plot line. Before this series started, if you said the biggest play of the first two games would be Oakland center fielder Coco Crisp dropping a fly, you might have been told to lie down and rest your head until the pain goes away.

Only two things have followed true to form. One, Detroit's Justin Verlander pitched like he is the best pitcher in the game. Two, the A's are in a big heap of trouble. Then again, the A's always are in a big heap of trouble. It's how they live. And thrive.

"I think there has been 4-5 season-ending losing games for us," said Petaluma's Jonny Gomes, Oakland's designated hitter and left fielder. "The most recent one probably was that extra inning game in New York (A's lost 10-9 in 14 innings). Oh, how devastating that was! Oh, how could you ever come back from that! We beat the Yankees the next day."

Truth to tell, the A's could make it to the seventh game of the 2012 World Series and they still would be the underdog to someone. No one wants to believe this collection of castoffs and footnotes can do any serious damage in the playoffs. Heck, you could even make the case the Rangers were in a slump when Oakland swept them in three games to win the AL West.

There's plenty of reasons to diminish the A's, the chief of which is that .203 team batting average. Sure, those 23 strikeouts in the ALDS mean something but not as much as it would for other teams. But the A's play Earl Weaver baseball. Remember Weaver's Baltimore Orioles? The three-run homer, pitching and defense took the Birds to the World Series. Of course, Baltimore had a Hall of Famer, Jim Palmer, on that staff.

To the casual baseball fan the A's have five guys named Moe starting for them. "We got guys born in the late '80s on this team," Gomes said. "They aren't developing in the minor leagues. They are developing in the major leagues. And whoever made this 162-game schedule is an A's fan."

Meaning: Oakland matures the longer it plays. The more it is exposed to the next set of can't-be-dones, the more experience it receives on how to do what can't be done.

"The baseball gods are really testing us," Gomes said.

And right now, if one were to take a poll, the ALDS ends here in Oakland with the A's collapsing like a souffl?

"I think Detroit over there (in the other clubhouse) is sitting pretty comfortable," said A's reliever Grant Balfour.

As they should. The A's let one get away Sunday.

"But I have never seen a team bounce back like this one," said A's hitting coach Chili Davis, the ex-Giant. "That's what people should call this team: &‘The Bounce Back A's.'"

Can they? Davis said a couple of days ago that the only way a team can beat Oakland is be hotter than the A's.

So do the Tigers look hot? No. They are up in games, 2-0, but Oakland wasn't beaten in Game 2; the A's lost it.

So do the A's look hot? No. They gave Game 2 away. They aren't offsetting all those strikeouts with the Big Fly, as they did during the season. And Ryan Cook's wild pitch in Game 2, the one that let Detroit's tying run score, did that contain a hint of rookie jitters? Just wondering.

In fact, that's what I'm doing now. Just wondering. If the A's are as resilient as they say they are, Game 3 tonight is theirs. In fact, they win the next three and they become once again the best story in baseball.

Oh yeah, remember way back when? Like last Wednesday? They beat the Rangers. Swept three straight. Won the AL West. They became the best story in baseball. Maybe that's the lesson here. In American sports, you have to keep winning for people to notice and remember you.

You can reach Staff Columnist Bob Padecky at 521-5223 or bob.padecky@pressdemocrat.com.