The Anniston Star from Anniston, Alabama • Page 26

Thursday, Oct. 18, 1990 Page 8B Hatcher setting Series on fire Tha Associated Prasa it sfa7 I si the tying run in the eighth on Glenn BraggV forceplay grounder. 3 The World Series has never seen this kind hitting, and Hatcher said it's all because hs seeing the ball amazingly well. "4 "I'm seeing the ball come out of the pitcher's hand. I can even see the seams," Hatcher said.

"It's a great feeling. I just hope it lasts a couple of more days." If it does, the Series might last only a couple Sf more days. 2 "Hey, I have confidence in myself," said Hatcher, a career .263 hitter before this season. "I remember one time when I went have confidence I can hit." He hit .400 during an eight-game hitting streak in April and had a four-double game against the Cubs on Aug. 21, tying a major-league record- He's now within reach of many other World Series records, and he's making it look oh-sp-easy.

"No, it's not easy at all," he said. "Things art just happening for me and I'm getting the godjJ part of the bat on the ball. I really don't can about records but I care about winning twb "I said two months ago, the reason we were in position to win (the National League West) was because we got Billy Hatcher," Ron Oester said. "Nobody plays the game harder than him. He really wants to be in there." That's been Hatcher's problem finding a way to get in there.

He didn't enjoy platooning in Houston, but played even less when he was traded to Pittsburgh in August 1989 because of the Pirates' All-Star outfield of Barry Bonds, Andy Van Slyke and Bobby Bonilla. When he played little during the shortened spring training. Hatcher asked Pirates manager Jim Leyland to deal him if it all possible. If he should win the car that goes to the World Series' Most Valuable Player, perhaps Hatcher should lend it to Leyland and general manager Larry Doughty for six months in appreciation for being traded. "I think I could play every day, but Lou (Piniella) makes out the lineup and I played a lot this year," said Hatcher, who.

played enough to hit .276 with five homers and 25 RBIs. He has been Mr. October II in the postseason, hitting .333 with a homer against his former Pirates' teammates in the NL playoffs. Overall, he's hitting .545 with four RBIs and six extra-base hits in eight 1990 postseason games. Hatcher doubled home Barry Larkin and scored in Cincinnati's two-run first against 27-game winner Bob Welch, then tripled and scored CINCINNATI Billy Hatcher spent a year trying to get into a lineup, any lineup.

Now, the Cincinnati Reds can't get him out of theirs and the Oakland Athletics can't get him out, period. Of all the storied stars who have played in a World Series, none of them Cobb, Ruth, Gehrig, Mantle, Mays ever had a better start than Hatcher. None. Hatcher is 7-for-7 with four doubles and a 'triple and has reached base in all nine plate appearances as the Reds have taken a 2-0 lead over the A's, the team many were calling a dynasty just two days ago. Hatcher, obtained by the Reds in an early-April spring training deal considered minor at the time, was 3-for-3 in Tuesday's 7-0 victory, then went 4-for-4 with two doubles, a triple and two runs scored Wednesday in the Reds' 5-4, 10-inning victory in Game 2.

Jle's scored more runs five than the A's (four) have as a team. He has more extra-base hits (five) than the A's (three) have. He is the first player to get seven straight hits since the World Series started in 1903, and he's done it in his first seven Series at-bats. Of all the off-season trades, free, agent signings and million-dollar contracts, who would have thought a Hatcher-for-two minor leaguers deal with Pittsburgh might win a World Series? more games. And if that happens, I'm going Associated Prats get a ring." Hatcher ignited Cincinnati's offense Brash Bullpen winning battle Reds pull a surprise to Oakland's 4-2 lead in the thlr By Alan Robinson Tha Asaoclatad Prasa inning.

"The key to the ballgame was til bullpen," Cincinnati manager Lop 450 Vvv4 Assoclstsd Prsis McGwire congratulates Canseco following HR Eckersley 's 'mis take3 gives Cih cinn a ti 2-0 lead in Series By Tim Llotta Tha Asaoclatad Praaa CINCINNATI The Bash Brothers have run head-on Into the Brash Bullpen, and It's been no contest. And neither has the World Series. The Oakland Athletics were supposed to be a "dy-nasty," were supposed to win the Series In four straight games. But the best team In the world has been no match for the Cincinnati Reds' Nasty Boys bullpen. In case you're scoring at home, your World Series scorecard should read: CinclNasty 2, Bay Area Bashers 0.

Oh, Jose Canseco hit one of his monstrous homers and Mark McGwire had two singles and a walk. But when it was clutch time in Game 2 on Wednesday night, the A's mostly clutched up. "We let It get away," losing pitcher Dennis Eckersley said. With one on and nobody out In the ninth in a 4-4 game, Rob Dibble got Canseco to hit into a double play in the ultimate matchup of power hitter against power pitcher. He then struck out McGwire swinging on a slider that "was probably the best pitch I made all night" after setting him up with a couple of 100 mph fastballs.

"I don't think about location," Dibble said. "I just throw as hard as I can. I know it's going to come back inside on righthanders, so I don't worry about it getting outside. That's what you don't want to do because if they get their arms extended, that's what happened on Canseco's home run." The A's also got a runner on in the 10th. as they have throughout the postseason, the Nasty Boys were well, downright nasty as Dibble struck out pinch-hitter Harold Baines.

The Reds then won 5-4, beating Eckersley and his 0.50 ERA on an RBI single over third by Joe Oliver, a platoon catcher who was hitting .179 against right-handers. Sure, Eric Davis set the tone in Game 1 with a two-run homer to center in the first and Billy Hatcher yes, Billy Hatcher is 7-for-7 with five extra-base hits. But, just as they were the decisive force in the six-game National League playoffs against Pittsburgh, the Nasty Boys are making this into a Red-letter October. First the Killer B's of Pittsburgh. Now the killer A's.

"When you have our bullpen, you always have a chance to come back," Barry Larkin said, pointing By Joe Kay Tha Attoclalad Praia CINCINNATI No one was more surprised than Billy Bates when he got thrown Into the middle of World Series history. And no one was more, surprised than the Oakland A's when Bates sprinted home moments later with the run that has put the Cincinnati Reds within reach of a major upset. "I thought we had this game," said A'l reliever Dennis Eckenley. The Reds have a way of leaving opponents wondering how this one got away. With a lineup devoid of superstars outside of Eric Davis, they've somehow managed to scratch out 12 runs while winning the first two World Series games.

Their 5-4 victory Wednesday night in 10 Innings was a tribute to their resourcefulness. They overcame a 4-2 deficit by getting a pinch-hit RBI single from Ron Oester his first RBI as a pinch-hitter since Aug. 14, 1983. They tied it as Billy Hatcher an outfielder who couldn't even crack the Pittsburgh Pirates' lineup this spring tripled in the eighth for his record seventh-straight World Series hit and moved around to score. Then came the ultimate surprise: Billy Bates.

Yes, the Billy Bates who hadn't gotten a hit in the National League. The Billy Bates who was on the playoff roster only because Bill Doran needed back surgery. The Billy Bates whose baserunning blunder might have cost the Reds Game 1 in the NL playoffs. The Billy Bates who was standing at the end of the Reds' dugout watching Eckersley prepare to retire Davis to open the bottom of the 10th. The Billy Bates that manager Lou Piniella chose for the role of hero of the day.

"I was very surprised," Bates said. "I was standing down at the end of the dugout. Lou looked down and said, 'Bates, get All I had time to do was get my bat, get my helmet and take some practice swings." Eckersley got ahead 0-2 in the count, and Bates managed somehow to catch the top sliver of the baseball with his next swing. It smacked off the dirt and hung in the air too long for third baseman Carney Lansford to throw him out Piniella said: "We held them score less from the third Inning on. But It's something they've been doirjg all year," Well, not quite like this, becausj nonbody's bullpen has ever been Ufls good for an entire season.

The Rede bullpen hat pitched 9V scorelefy World Series innings and has Jp postseason ERA of 0.33, allowing two runs, one earned, In 27 innings. The Nasty Boys got tome hep Wednesday as Scott Scudder pitched lVfc scoreless innings and Jak Armstrong allowed one hit in thrffe Innings before Norm Charlton and Dibble combined for three scoreless Innings. Just as the Nasty Boys did ft neutralizing the Killer B's of Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla, they arc making life miserable for the Ar team's Canseco and McGwire. In six at-bats against the Reds' bullpen, Canseco and McGwire are O-for-8 with four strikeouts. Against starters Jose Rljo and Danny Jacst-son, they are 3-for-8 with a homeland two RBIs.

The A's have thrown Dave Stewart, one of baseball's top postseason pitchers, 27-game winner Bob Welh and Invincible closer Eckersley Iji the first two games and have ing but an 0-2 record to show for il. MS "I have due respect for their bullpen. We had a lot of good at-baEfe against them, but not qulf enough," Oakland manager Tony LaRussa said. "Their bullpen has lot of talent, but a couple or threl times I was disappointed with th way we went about our Many people thought the Red had no business even being on the same field with the A's. The Reds somehow haven't gotten ilia message they aren't supposed win this World Series.

A "They have the best team irt" baseball, based on their record," Charlton said. "Nobody won more games (103) than they did. Record-wise, they are the best. But this series will determine who is the best team in baseball. That has yet to be determined.

"Our team has been so loose fffi season we have tried to sidestep the pressure and just do what we had to do. I don't think anyone expected us to be here, except the people in this (clubhouse)." stay and fight it out. "We're the defending world champions. I'm not going to give anybody anything. If I'm going to go down, I'm going to go down fighting." Up and down the Oakland locker room after Game 1, player after player declared the A's alive and well on their way to defending their World Series title.

It was an unruffled room. After Game 2, the A's looked a little more disbelieving, a little more shocked. They knew they had lost a game they could have won. They had been unable to deliver an early knockout, and they allowed the Reds to hang around long enough to win on points. Nothing went right in Game 1, so it was easy to shrug off that one.

This time things worked for Oakland. Rickey Henderson scored the game's first run in the first. Jose Canseco hit Oakland's first postseason home run in the third. They played solid defense. Bob Welch did not cave in to World Series pressure.

And still the A's lost. "We played better ball tonight than we did last night," Lansford said. "We pushed and pushed and pushed, and we just couldn't get that big hit late in the game, and they did." Twelve of the first 23 A's to bat Wednesday night reached safely, and Oakland scored four times. But the other eight stranded runners represented wasted opportunities. The story of Game 2 was actually the same story as Game 1, in which the defending World Series champions stranded 11 baserunners, going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

This time the A's stranded two runners in the first, third and fourth innings. In the second, seventh and eighth, they stranded another runner each time. CINCINNATI It wasn't a crippled Kirk Gibson It wasn't as dramatic or electrifying. But It was just as painful for reliever extraordinaire Dennis Eckersley. Eckersley, who has been as close to flawless this season as any pitcher, was the man the Cincinnati Reds beat with three straight lOth-inning hits.

He took it the same way he did when Gibson hit a game-winning, pinch homer off him to lift the Los Angeles Dodgers to a victory in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series. "You can't make a mistake or you lose when you do what I do," Eckersley said. "I did, and I lost." Eckersley said he did not think of his 1988 failure Wednesday night as the Reds rattled off three consecutive hits in the 10th inning to win 5-4 in Game 2. He just thought he may have rushed things. "I was in the stretch, trying to be quick," Eckersley said.

"Sometimes that affects me. That's my excuse. "I just thought I was too quick. You can't be so quick when you're throwing breaking balls. But, hey, you can't look back.

What? Am I going to work on that?" The A's can't look back either. If they did, they would not like what they saw. Dropping two games to the Cincinnati Reds, who outplayed them, outpitched them, outhit them. Oakland was expected to come to Cincinnati to begin its one-sided march to a Series championship, a sweep even. Instead, the A's return to Oakland in quite a spot.

"We'll just have to get our stuff together in Oakland," A's third baseman Carney Lansford said. "If we keep playing hard, the worm will turn for us. We'll just have to get the job done." That's all the A's can do at this point. "What are you going to do?" Lansford said. "You're either going to crawl in a hole and let them win or you Little-known in fielder becomes World Series hero Tha Associated Praaa Infield single.

It was happening again. "It doesn't surprise me one bit," Oester said. "It's been like this all year. Everybody's done their job." "Who's going to be the hero? It's been that way the whole year," reliever Norm Charlton said. When Chris Sabo followed with a single and Oliver pulled a ball just fair down the third baseline to send Bates home, the Reds found themselves underdogs no more.

By taking a 2-0 lead, the Reds put themselves in good company. Three-fourths of the teams that have won the first two games of the Series went on to win it all. Are the A's surprised? "I'm surprised that we're not scoring as many runs as we're capable of scoring," Lansford said. And the Reds? "The guys in this clubhouse are not surprised," Oester said. "The only ones surprised are the writers and the people on TV which is pretty justified.

They have been the best team in baseball the last two years." The Reds just wanted everyone to know they have a formidable little team, too. tsburgh. Bates got a chance to redeem himself when manager Lou Piniella let him bat for pitcher Rob Dibble with one out in the 10th against Dennis Eckersley. "I was really surprised when Lou yelled for me to get loose. I just had enough time to get my bat and helmet." Eckersley got two quick strikes and Bates fouled off a pitch.

He then hit a chopper and was safe when third baseman Carney. Lansford could not make the play. "I've seen Eckersley pitch enough that I knew he'd be around the plate," Bates said. "I was fortunate to get a piece of it." Bates took second on Chris Sabo's single and scored without a throw when Joe Oliver singled past Lansford down the left-field line. Brownings have a baby Cincinnati pitcher Tom left during Game 2 of the World Series on Wednesday night to be with his wife Debbie, who gave birth to a baby boy.

The Reds beat Oakland 5-4 in 10 innings and then left for California. Game 3 will be played Friday in Oakland and Browning is scheduled to pitch against Mike Moore. Browning was expected to join "the Reds today for an afternoon practice at the land Coliseum. La Russa switches lineup Oakland manager Tony La Russa thought a lineup switch might help the offense in Game 2 of the World Series, so he put National League batting champion Willie McGee on the bench and started Dave Henderson in center field. Henderson, one of the most productive postseason players in history, again came through.

He singled twice in four at-bats and walked, but the Athletics still lost 5-4 to Cincinnati in 10 innings. McGee started the opener and went l-for-5, and Henderson struck out in a late pinch-hitting appearance. McGee got into Game 2 as a defensive replacement in the bottom of the 10th inning. McGee is more accustomed to playing on artificial turf than Henderson because of all his years in St. Louis.

La Russa has not said who will start when the series moves to Oakland's grass field. "I think the AstroTurf thing is overrated," Henderson said. "We've got a lot of players around here, like me, who were raised on turf. It's no big deal." Canseco less-than-impressive Jose Canseco started out Game 2 of the World Series in fine fashion, but it's how he finished that has Oakland manager Tony Russa concerned. Canseco hit an RBI grounder and a solo home run in his first two at-bats, but then struck out twice and grounded into a double piy- In the eighth inning, he let Billy Hatcher's drive to right field skip off his glove for a triple, setting up the tying run, and then made an off-line throw to the plate after catching a fly ball.

"It's a play that if you want to win the game, you have to make," La Russa said of Hatcher's hit. "I don't think he got a very good jump." I CINCINNATI For a guy who didn't expect to bat in the World Series, Billy Bates sure made the most of his first hit for the Cincinnati Reds. Bates singled and scored the winning run in the 10th inning Wednesday night as the Reds beat Oakland 5-4 for a 2-0 lead. "It hasn't really sunk in yet, what I accomplished," Bates said. "I'm just glad I was able to help." Actually, Bates didn't even expect to be in the playoffs or World Series.

The rookie infielder was acquired from Milwaukee in June along with Glenn Braggs for Ron Robinson and spent most of the season in the minors. Bates went 0-for-5 after being called up by the Reds in September, and was added to the postseason roster only when Bill Doran was injured and unable to play. Bates did not bat in the National League playoffs, but was caught stealing on the back end of a double steal, perhaps costing Cincinnati a chance to win Game 1 against Pit- I.