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Blogs: C. Trent Rosecrans

Patience Pays For A's

By C. Trent Rosecrans Cincinnati Post 6/19/07 OAKLAND -- Reds starter Kyle Lohse was sure his slider was good enough for A's designated hitter Jack Cust to chase. Instead, Cust watched ball four and the next batter, second baseman Mark Ellis, hit a three-run home run to help lead the A's to a 6-1 victory over the Reds on Monday. "I went back and looked at it (on video) and I don't know how you take it," Lohse said of the 3-1 slider to Cust with two outs in the fifth. "It was a ball. It's just that they're real selective over there and they make you pitch." The A's made Lohse pitch all night, but twice he got into trouble. Once he got out of it, and the other time he didn't, sending the Reds to their fifth loss in their last six games on the road at the beginning of another long road trip. "It's a tough inning, you're trying to get out of it with minimal damage," Lohse said of the fifth. "And then I made the mistake to Ellis and that pretty much put it out of reach with the way (A's starter Joe) Blanton was throwing." Lohse loaded the bases with one out in the first inning and nearly got out of it when he struck Cust out and then got Ellis to ground to short. Reds shortstop Alex Gonzalez dropped the ball as he tried to transfer it from his glove to his hand and allowed a run to score on his 12th error of the season. But Lohse then got a ground ball form first baseman Dan Johnson that second baseman Brandon Phillips was able to field cleanly and throw on to first to get out of the jam with just a run for Oakland. For the Reds' part, they put pressure on the A's in the third inning when the first two batters of the inning and last two batters in the lineup -- Gonzalez and catcher David Ross -- singled to put runners on first and third with no outs. Leadoff man Norris Hopper grounded into a double play, which allowed Gonzalez to score but also cu the rally short when former Athletic Scott Hatteberg grounded out to end the inning. "(Blanton) is a pretty good pitcher and he got out of that one inning when Hopper smoked the ball for a double play and we had first and third with nobody out," Reds manager Jerry Narron said. The Reds didn't mount much of a threat again until getting two runners on with two out in the sixth, but by that time the game was farther out of reach than a single swing could fix. Lohse cruised through the second, third and fourth innings, but gave up a leadoff single to No. 9 hitter Jason Kendall to start the fifth. After a wild pitch, he walked left fielder Travis Buck to put two on. Center fielder Mark Kotsay followed with a sharp grounder to second that took a hop over Phillips to score one run. Lohse was able to strike out right fielder Nick Swisher before third baseman Eric Chavez hit a sacrifice fly to right for a 3-1 A's lead. With Kotsay on second, Lohse tried to get Cust to chase a couple of pitches out of the zone, including the 3-1 slider. "We got ahead of him and I made a couple of tough pitches -- they're real selective over there even when they're ahead in the count," Lohse said. "He just didn't chase." The A's penchant for patient hitters became famous in Michael Lewis' 2003 book, "Moneyball." The book focused on A's general manager Billy Beane's philosophies in organizing a team, and one of the core elements is having batters who are patient, work counts and get on base, stressing on-base percentage and slugging percentage over batting average. Few understand and appreciate the importance the A's put on those qualities more than Hatteberg. Hatteberg is the subject of the eighth chapter in Lewis' book. He was acquired by the A's as a free agent in 2002 after he was not tendered a contract from the Colorado Rockies following the 2001 season. A catcher who had a devastating shoulder injury, Hatteberg was converted by the A's into a first baseman and resurrected his career. "They do stress (pitch selection). I think they recruit it," said Hatteberg, who was 1-for-4 on Monday. "It's something you do, it's something that's in your blood. They're very high on guys who take pitches and walk, and that comes from being selective and pitch recognition. They have a lot of guys who do that well. It's collective." The reason Hatteberg was attractive to the A's was not only his relatively low asking price, but also the fact that he was selective at the plate and got on base. Hatteberg hit .280 for the A's in 2002 and had a career-high 15 home runs (which he tied in 2004). More importantly to the A's, Hatteberg averaged 4.15 pitches per plate appearance, the third-best mark in the American League. In 2003, Hatteberg led all major leaguers in percentage of pitches taken (67.1 percent) and had the lowest percentage of swings at the first pitch (6.3 percent). He was second in the majors in percent of pitches taken in each of the next two seasons. In short, Hatteberg was a model for the A's model that continues today with hitters like Cust. "Unlike a lot of teams, they have a team philosophy, a team strategy," Hatteberg said. "That's what they want to do. It's not like they want to accumulate as many players as they can. It works because everyone is on the same page. It's harder for pitchers to go deeper in games because they run up pitch counts and they end up getting good pitches." With a 3-1 pitch and two on, Ellis got his good pitch, a fastball -- and pounded it over the left field wall.