As usual, the A's have all the answers in their second half push toward October

Sporting News, The, August 23, 2004 by Dave Albee

The A's are like fireworks on the Fourth of July, John Elway and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven." They get even better in the second half.

Over the last live seasons, the A's have baseball's best regular-season, record after the All-Star break. They began the week leading the A.L. West by 1 1/2 games and had climbed a season-high 14 games over .500. At the All-Star break, they were right games over .500 and trailed the Rangers by two games.

Though accustomed to second half surges, the A's have had more obstacles to overcome this time around. There have been injuries to key players, and leaning on the big bat of a Jason Giambi or a Miguel Tejada no longer is an option. Oakland's three-time Gold Glove, power-hitting third baseman Eric Chavez, who signed the biggest contract in franchise history during spring training, missed 33 games with a broken bone in his right hand. Ace righthander Tim Hudson, one of four pitchers to spend time on the disabled list, missed six weeks with a strained oblique.

What really hurt, through, was that 17 of the A's first 45 losses came in the other team's final at-bat. That happened only 14 times all last season. There have been other challenges: Barry Zito, the 2002 A.L. Cy Young winner, went more than a month without a win and hasn't had a winning record since June 8; the A's new closer, Arthur Rhodes, blew tire saves in his first 14 opportunities and has not pitched since June 22 (back injury); and Oakland's replacement for Tejada, rookie Bobby Crosby, was hitting .183 after 23 games before coming around.

All this misery, and yet the A's are atop the West and well on their way to reaching the postseason for the fifth consecutive year.

"This has been probably the most resilient club we've had in the last three, tour, five years," general manager Billy Beane says. "We're always overcoming defections and losing players, but this is the first year we've had injuries to major players, and we've found a way to keep our finger in the dike."

There's a handful of reasons for that, but determining which is No. 1 is like figuring out a tossup question on Family Feud: Name Something That Allows The A's To Get Over In The Second Half.

The answers:

* A more balanced offense. The A's entered the week with six players with 13 to 21 home runs and eight with 46 to 65 RBIs. First baseman Scott Hatteberg, left fielder Eric Byrnes and catcher Damian Miller already have set career highs in RBIs, though you won't find any of them among the league leaders.

"Before, Jason (Giambi) carried us at times, and Miggy (Tejada) did, and I've gotten hot at certain points," Chavez says. "But now you look at our lineup, and you're not really fearing it too much. ... We're kind of nil-picking and scoring a couple of runs here and there."

* Organizational depth and ingenuity. The Ns lost Tejada, their MVP shortstop, when he signed with the Orioles as a free agent last offseason. Then second baseman Mark Ellis suffered a season-ending right shoulder injury during spring training. So the club called on Crosby, their first-round pick in 2001, at short and stuck Marco Scutaro, claimed off waivers last October, at second.

"It wasn't the combination we anticipated," Beane says. Nor the results. The A's had committed the fewest errors in the A.I,. through last week and led the league in turning double plays. Crosby has emerged as a future star; Scutaro had a team-leading 27 doubles and was hitting .311 when he batted ninth in the order, which was most of the time. He has been rock solid platooning with 39-year-old Mark McLemore, another waiver-wire pickup.

The club's pitching is so deep that 21-year-old Jairo Garcia, who started the season at Class A, was called up on August 9 to replace injured Chad Bradford and promptly pitched two scoreless innings against the A.L. Central-leading Twins. Garcia joined two other rookie righthanders, Justin Lehr and Justin Duchscherer, in the A's bullpen. Duchscherer entered the week third among all A.L. relievers with 72 innings pitched and had a 3.13 ERA.

The A's have shown there's more to their pitching than the Big Three. Though lefty Mark Mulder is the leading candidate to win the A.L. Cy Young Award, others have stepped up. Lefthander Mark Redman has picked up the slack for Zito, and righty Rich Harden, 22m has been more consistent than he was last year.

* Beane's proactive moves. Beane traded catcher Ramon Hernandez and outfielder Terrence Long for center fielder Mark Kolsay in the offseason, and Kotsay has been a stalwart in the leadoff spot. He is tied for the club lead in batting average and has helped solidify the outfield defense.

But Beane's best move might have been realizing Rhodes was not the answer at closcr. Beane traded for the Astros' Octavio Dotel on June 24, five weeks before the non waiver trade deadline. The bullpen's ERA has been 2.72 since the All-Star break; before then, it was closer to 6.00.

* Second half mind-set. The A's were in second place on July 28 when they went on an 11-game road trip to play the A.L.'s three division leaders--the Rangers, Yankees and Twins. The A's came home in first place.