Seemingly ready to go quietly to a lopsided defeat, the A's scored six runs in the eighth
inning yesterday, four on a grand slam by
Mike Blowers, to ambush the White Sox
9-7 at Comiskey Park.
Unlike Saturday night, when they jumped
on the Sox early and didn't stop, the A's
waited until it was almost too late
yesterday. With the A's trailing 7-2 with
one out and the bases empty in the eighth,
Rafael Bournigal punched an
innocuous-looking single into left field.
That began the flood, as eight straight
Athletics reached base safely, six of them
scoring.
``Things like that can really get a team on
a roll,'' said A's starter Tom Candiotti,
who yielded six of the seven Chicago runs
in his five plus innings.
``When I really needed them to score, they
did. It's great, not just for me, but for the
team. When you are buried and come all
the way back to take the lead it says a lot.''
A's manager Art Howe said he told his
team he felt they could win when the Sox
removed starter Scott Eyre after
Bournigal's single. ``I'm not saying I
predicted it,'' he said. ``I was just trying to
give them a little confidence.''
This was only the second time in 18 games
the A's have won when trailing entering
the eighth inning.
Blowers had two hits and a sacrifice fly to
drive in five runs. In the two games he has
started at third base since Dave Magadan
went on the disabled list, Blowers is
5-for-9. He has started just 15 times at
third as Howe has gone with the
left-handed hitting Magadan on most
occasions.
``Shows you how smart I am,'' said Howe.
``I've got a Ph.D. all right. It stands for
Plumbing, Heating and Draining.''
Howe can't really second-guess himself on
this one, though. Magadan was off to a hot
start, the bulk of opposing pitchers have
been right-handed and Blowers
traditionally stinks in April. He hit .205 the
first month of this season, and his career
average for the month is .197.
``We're going to tell Blowers just to forget
about April and show up May 1, said
Howe.
That would be about the only cure
Blowers hasn't attempted. ``For whatever
reason, it takes about 50 at-bats to get me
going,'' he said. ``I have tried a lot of
things and nothing has worked.
Fortunately, I've been around long enough
that I don't panic. I know I'll come
around.''
Blowers' timing couldn't be better, as he
might allow the A's to weather the loss of
Magadan, who has a sprained wrist.
``I know now I'm going to get a lot of
at-bats in the next two weeks,'' Blowers
said. ``I've got to make the most of them.''
He has made the most of his chances with
the bases loaded. He is 2-for-3 in that
situation this year, and it was the seventh
slam of his career.
The Sox had just made their second
pitching change of the inning, bringing in
their closer, Bill Simas, to face Blowers.
``When they brought Simas in, I told
Blowers not to leave anything in his bag,''
said Howe, invoking one of his favorite
golf metaphors.
Blowers didn't. He belted Simas' first pitch
into the stands to tie the game. ``I'm
usually pretty relaxed in that situation,''
said Blowers. ``The pressure's on the
pitcher, I know he's going to try to throw a
strike, so I'm going to be swinging at the
first or second pitch.''
Jason Giambi followed Blowers' slam with
a walk and scored the go-ahead run on
Scott Spiezio's third hit of the day. In the
ninth Rickey Henderson's leadoff triple,
also his third hit, led to the final Oakland
run.
Reliever Buddy Groom (2-1), who faced
one batter and threw two pitches, earned
the win. Billy Taylor worked the ninth for
his eighth save.
Bush, David. "A's Shock White Sox on Blowers' Grand Slam."San Francisco Chronicle. 18 May, 1998. E1.
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