SEATTLE – Oakland A’s manager Art Howe didn’t dwell on the “we must get off to a good start” theme during spring training, even though his ballclub stumbled to a 2-10 getaway a year ago and watched the Seattle Mariners walk away with the American League West Division title.
He did touch upon the subject, though, in his first speech of the spring.
“My Sermon on the Mount had a lot to do with avoiding the slow start we’ve had the last couple of years,” the affable skipper said Sunday night.
His players took it to heart. Near the end of spring training, they didn’t feel as though they had played enough night games to get adjusted to the lights so Howe called a couple of evening practices.
“It wasn’t mandatory, either,” he said. “And this was after these guys had played in the afternoon, near the end of spring training when you’re starting to drag a little bit. Yet they came back out at 7 o’clock at night under the lights for an hour on their own. You know what was great? Everybody showed up. That’s another sign of what that room is all about in there.”
He nodded his head towards the clubhouse where the A’s players were savoring a 6-5 decision over the Mariners, allowing them to win the series 2-1 and get out of town with first-place in the division.
The way Howe trotted in pitchers from the bullpen Sunday night, you’d have thought he was managing the seventh game of the World Series. Six times the bullpen door swung open, four times in the seventh inning alone as the A’s tried to hold off the pesky M’s.
“We figured with tomorrow off, we’d use everyone and everybody,” Howe said. “I almost went down there and started warming up.”
We hear so much about managers trying to make “statements” early in the season. Was this what Howe was attempting to do?
Maybe in one respect.
“It was a big psychological lift for us in the fact that we weren’t fully manned,” he said. “That we were able to come in here and win a series without Jermaine Dye, with Eric Chavez missing two out of three games, with Randy Velarde missing the whole series speaks highly of the troops. They’ve got to feel pretty good about that.”
They also have to feel pretty good that their starting pitcher was able to go six strong innings. The night before, Tim Hudson had a full-body rash he developed from something he ate. He took some antibiotics and held the M’s to four hits and one run.
He did this despite the roof being open. It could have snowed and the game would have been played under the stars. Hudson, you see, came into the game with a career record of 11-0 in domed stadiums with the roof closed.
The guy is tough to beat wherever he pitches. And he’s been especially hard on the M’s. He’s 6-2 lifetime against them.
He showed what kind of pitcher he is by getting out of bases-loaded jams twice without giving up a run. “He’s got a little Houdini in him,” Howe said. “He learned at a young age not to panic. When I went out and talked to him, I told him to take his time and make quality pitches and you’ll be OK.”
He got Jeff Cirillo to strike out and Dan Wilson to fly out with the bags filled to end the fourth. Then, in the sixth, he got forceouts at home and third to wipe out an M’s threat.
Hudson is part of a sterling trio that went 56-25 last year and makes the A’s such formidable foes this year. He was 18-9, Mark Mulder was 21-8 and Barry Zito was 17-8. You know what’s so scary about this? Hudson is the oldest at 26.
The A’s, of course, lost a very good player when Jason Giambi chose to sign with the New York Yankees. But the guy who replaced him isn’t looking like he’s too bad, either.
Young (23) Carlos Pena clubbed his fourth home run of the season Sunday and was batting .308 at the end of the night.
Giambi was a strong leader, but Howe believes he has another guy who can step in and assume that role.
“I think David Justice has to a large degree,” he said of the man the A’s got from the Yankees in an offseason trade. “No.1, he’s done it just through his play, but he also does a lot of positive talking during games, between games, in the clubhouse. He also has more postseason at-bats than anybody who’s played the game and I don’t think he wants that streak to end.”
If the A’s keep playing as they have in the first week of the season, it won’t.
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