OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Coco Crisp saved a likely home
run, and Oakland's season for at least one more game.
If the center fielder had any lingering frustration
about that two-run error that dearly cost Oakland in Game 2, this might have
erased it.
Crisp made a spectacular leaping catch at the top of
the center-field wall to rob Prince Fielder, and that was just one in a handful
of defensive gems by the Athletics to back Brett Anderson in a 2-0 victory over
the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night.
The A's cut their deficit in the best-of-five AL
division series to 2-1.
Anderson outdueled fellow postseason first-timer
Anibal Sanchez and the upstart A's showed off stellar defense all over the
diamond to avoid another playoff sweep by Detroit.
"Robbed home runs are good," Anderson posted on
Twitter late Tuesday.
"You see him hit it and you just kind of put your head
down a little bit because you think you just gave up a homer," Anderson said.
"Then you see him plow through there and catch the ball and it kind of kick
starts you to go out there and make pitches."
Yoenis Cespedes hit an RBI single in the first inning
and Seth Smith homered in the fifth. That was plenty on a night Triple Crown
winner Miguel Cabrera, Fielder and the Tigers' high-priced offense were shut
down by the low-budget A's.
Tigers 16-game winner Max Scherzer will try to close
out the series in Game 4 Wednesday night against A's rookie A.J. Griffin.
Detroit swept the A's in the 2006 AL championship series.
Fielder was the biggest victim of Oakland's spot-on
defense, robbed three times. First by Crisp, Oakland's most experienced player
whose blunder on Cabrera's fly allowed two runs to score in a 5-4 loss Sunday in
Detroit.
"Not to be all over-confident or anything, I think I'm
going to catch everything out there," Crisp said. "Obviously it doesn't happen
that way — duh Detroit, right?"
Crisp let out a big "Whoo!" after raising his arm to
signal he'd made the grab.
"I thought I had a hit," Fielder offered afterward.
"Coco's catch, the ball was out of the ballpark and it
came back," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "The key to that play was he was
playing deep and that enabled him to get into a spot to get up and make the
catch. And it was a great catch, no doubt about it."
A's shortstop Stephen Drew made a tough play running
to his left to stop Fielder's grounder in the fourth and then threw to first
while still off balance and in motion.
Then, in the seventh, Cespedes cut over to make a
diving catch on Fielder's liner to left field.
That delighted the yellow towel-waving sellout crowd
of 37,090 in this blue-collar city.
"It's frustrating. But it's a good team you're
playing," Fielder said. "They're going to make those plays, that's why they're
here."
After Cabrera singled with one out in the ninth,
Fielder grounded into a game-ending double play. Fielder is now batting .172 (11
for 64) in his postseason career — .083 (1 for 12) this year.
The A's own the lowest payroll in baseball at $59.5
million. Fielder is getting big money in Motown: $214 million over nine years.
Anderson, back on the mound for the first time since
straining a muscle in his right side Sept. 19 at Detroit, worked quickly and
showed no signs of a layoff or jitters in his first postseason start.
That's just not the way the A's have operated this
year.
Last week, Oakland entered its final three-game series
of the regular season needing to sweep the two-time reigning AL champion Rangers
to capture the AL West — and the A's did it, sending a stunned Texas team to the
one-game wild card, which it lost to Baltimore.
A club with a majors-best 14 walkoff wins and
countless whipped cream pie celebrations snapped the longest postseason skid in
franchise history at six games, all losses to Detroit.
The Tigers are trying to reach a second straight AL
championship series after losing last year's ALCS in six games to the Rangers.
Detroit captured the AL Central in Oakland last year
and is hoping for another clinching party as soon as possible.
Anderson did his job to delay it.
