A's notebook: Adam Dunn mere spectator in 1st postseason (w/video)

KANSAS CITY, MO. - Heading into the postseason, it was the Athletics’ most upbeat story: Adam Dunn, the veteran slugger acquired in a late-season trade, would finally get to play in the playoffs after 2,001 major league games over 14 seasons.

But Dunn didn’t see the field Tuesday night in Oakland’s 9-8 wild card loss. He and Billy Burns were the only position players who didn’t play.

After the Royals won in 12 innings and celebrated on the field, Dunn and Brandon Moss - who would have been the hero if the A’s had won, with two homers and five RBIs - were the last two players watching at the rail.

“I was gonna use him had we not taken the lead,” manager Bob Melvin said of Dunn. “(Alberto) Callaspo’s spot (in the 12th inning) would have been the natural one, but they would’ve walked him, I think. .?.?. I was gonna potentially use him at (Nick) Punto if I had a chance to. He was ready to go a couple times, I just didn’t think they were gonna pitch to him.”

DROPPING LIKE FLIES:

The A’s late-season collapse was partly driven by injuries, and they had two more in the wild-card game. Catcher Geovany Soto, in the game to counter Kansas City’s speed on the base paths, hurt his thumb while tagging out Eric Hosmer at home plate in the first inning.

The Royals stole one base against Soto, and they stole a whopping six against his replacement, Derek Norris - including a crucial steal in the 12th inning when Norris dropped the ball on a pitchout and Christian Colon took second base. Two batters later, Colon scored the winning run.

In the 11th inning, center fielder Coco Crisp hurt himself while striking out against reliever Brandon Finnegan. That one might have made a difference, too, because Crisp’s replacement in center, Sam Fuld, and Fuld’s replacement in left, Petaluma native Jonny Gomes, were unable to get to Eric Hosmer’s 12th-inning fly ball that turned into a triple. It was Hosmer who scored the game-tying run.

SAVING THE MANAGER:

Had the Royals lost this game, their fans would be picking apart manager Ned Yost’s pitching change all offseason - if not for years.

James Shields began the sixth by giving up a broken-bat single to Fuld and walking Josh Donaldson. But his pitch count was still at 88, and Kansas City had traded a top prospect for Shields, who has been assigned the moniker “Big Game James,” before the 2013 season for precisely this sort of moment. Yost yanked him, though.

The reliever was an even bigger surprise.

The Royals have owned the later innings this season thanks to the triumvirate of Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland. Typically they pitch the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, respectively. But none of them had warmed up. Yost signaled for Yordano Ventura, a young pitcher who had started 33 of his 34 major league games, to pitch to Moss. Ventura had thrown 73 pitches just two days earlier, against the White Sox.

The kid threw two balls, got a mound visit from catcher Salvador Perez, then served up a 97.7-mile-per-hour fastball that Moss blasted over the wall in dead center.

Yost brought in Herrera after two more batters, and he wasn’t much better, giving up consecutive singles to Norris, Eric Sogard and Crisp that pushed the score to 7-3.

MOSS-MANIA:

Moss is the first player in Athletics history with at least two home runs and five RBIs in a postseason game. He became the ninth player in franchise postseason history to go deep twice in in a game. (The last was Milton Bradley in the 2006 ALCS Game 2.) Strangely, Moss had two homers in his final 154 regular-season at-bats.