A’s Get Jump on Blue Jays With 7-3 Win : Rickey Henderson Puts On Quite a Slide Show

OAKLAND —  Modesty and Rickey Henderson have never been running mates, so asking him what he’s meant to the Oakland Athletics this season is a little like forgetting to throw over when he’s leading off first base.

“I can say I was the final piece of the puzzle,” Henderson was telling reporters before Game 1 of the 1989 American League Championship Series. “They were missing a leadoff hitter, they were missing a left fielder. When I used to look at the Oakland team, I’d think about what was holding them back from being a great team.

“Maybe they were waiting for me to come back and fill that.”

That’s Rickey. Speak loudly and carry a big quick.

As for the rest of humanity, all we can do is listen and watch when Rickey decides to let his legs do the talking, as in the sixth inning of Tuesday night’s AL playoff opener, when Henderson turned a tense 3-3 standoff into an eventual 7-3 Oakland victory with one 90-foot sprint.

At the end of Henderson’s dash from first base was Toronto second baseman Nelson Liriano, taking a toss from shortstop Tony Fernandez and bracing for an inning-ending double-play pivot.

But Henderson ambushed Liriano just as he received the ball, sliding hard and forcing Liriano off balance and out of sync. Liriano’s relay to first base more resembled an infield dribbler, skittering wildly past Blue Jay first baseman Fred McGriff for an error that allowed the second of two Oakland runs to score.

A tie had been broken, along with the Blue Jays’ spirits. Toronto failed to manage another hit during the final three innings and surrendered quietly, watching its only real shot at a split in Oakland go up in a cloud of dust.

“I think we sent a message,” said Oakland’s other Henderson, center fielder Dave. “You got your No. 1 man on the mound tonight. I know that if Stew failed for us, we’d be feeling a little letdown. I’m sure they feel the same way.

“Now, they’ve got to rely on their second and third guys to win--which their first guy didn’t do. And that puts more pressure on them.”

And Toronto’s second guy is a 24-year-old right-hander named Todd Stottlemyre, who was in triple A as recently as June 30, an owner of 34 major league starts and an 11-15 major league record.

Oakland will counter with Mike Moore, whose final regular-season numbers were 19-11 with a 2.61 earned-run average.

Yep, that was one hell of a slide by Henderson.

An inning earlier, the A’s had trailed, 3-1, before Dave Parker singled home Carney Lansford. Then, in the bottom of the sixth, Mark McGwire homered off Stieb to get Oakland even, 3-3.

A strikeout and a pair of infield singles by the Lower-Case A’s, utilitymen Tony Phillips and Mike Gallego, followed, bringing Henderson to the plate.

Jim Acker, who relieved starter Dave Stieb, got a fastball in on Rickey Henderson and wound up stinging him on the wrist. Henderson jogged down to first to load the bases for Lansford, who seemed to shut down the threat with a weak bouncer to Fernandez.

“Carney Lansford didn’t hit the ball tremendously well,” Henderson said, quite accurately. “(But) I got a great jump, a big lead. With the speed I have, that’s why I was able to get to second base so fast.

“I knew I had a good chance to break it up.”

When Henderson staggered Liriano so that his throw wound up rolling into foul territory, both Phillips and Gallego were able to score, giving Oakland a 5-3 lead.

“A game-breaker,” was how Oakland starter Dave Stewart, the winning pitcher, described Henderson’s slide.

“Obviously, a key play in the game,” added Oakland Manager Tony La Russa. “I think if anybody gets hit on the wrist--and he got popped pretty good--the adrenalin starts pumping and Rickey made the pivot man pay the price.

“He runs hard, plays hard, slides hard. That’s our style.”

And Henderson revels in his role as Athletic style-setter.

“I can create things and be a very productive player,” he said. “I watched this team from the stands during the last playoffs (in 1988) and noticed that they lacked something exciting at the top of the order. I can give this team excitement at the top of the order.

“If we win the championship, I think I’ll be a difference because I can get on base and make things happen.”

Other A’s, while thankful for the midseason trade that engineered Henderson’s return to the Bay Area after 4 1/2 years with the New York Yankees, were somewhat less effusive in their praise of their leadoff man.

Hard to blame them, though. Few can keep up with Rickey in that department, either.

“He’s an important difference,” La Russa said. “I don’t want to put it on one guy. But it’s obvious that we now have a set lineup when we didn’t have one last year. And Rickey takes care of the leadoff spot.”

All Stewart would say about it was that “Rickey’s an addition to an already good ballclub. We’re now capable of winning games under any condition.”

Before Rickey Henderson, Oakland subsisted fairly well on the home run--and there were two of those Tuesday night. Dave Henderson accounted for the A’s first run with a solo homer in the second inning and McGwire’s shot in the sixth tied the game and set the stage for Rickey Henderson to win it.

Two more Oakland runs scored in the ninth, the first when Gallego blooped a double to left and came home on a wild pitch by reliever Duane Ward. The second came courtesy of Rickey Henderson, who walked, stole second and scored on a single by Lansford.

A total of seven bases were stolen Tuesday, establishing an AL playoff record. The previous record was four, which the A’s tied with two steals by Rickey Henderson and one apiece by Lansford and Phillips. Toronto’s three steals were by Mookie Wilson, Liriano and Fernandez.

It wasn’t a great night for the catchers, Toronto’s Ernie Whitt and Oakland’s Terry Steinbach, although Whitt did manage to hit a bases-empty home run in the fourth inning.

That evened his ledger for the evening: Four bases gained, four bases given up.

Whitt’s home run was notable for one other reason. It was the last hit Stewart allowed. Once Whitt gave Stieb a 3-1 lead, Stewart retired 13 of the next 15 batters he faced, issuing only harmless walks to Wilson in the fifth and Liriano in the seventh.

In the ninth, Dennis Eckersley took over for Stewart and as he did four times in four attempts against Boston in the 1988 playoffs, Eckersley closed out the victory--this time retiring the Blue Jays in order.

Henderson remembers those A’s of ‘88, the ones that swept the Red Sox before unexpectedly falling to the long-shot Dodgers in five games. He remembers, as a Yankee observer, being remarkably unimpressed.

“When I played against them, I didn’t think they were that good at all,” Henderson said, grinning. “I never thought they had that great a group of guys.”

And now?

“Now, I think we have a tremendous team.”

No brag, just fact, Rickey says. And it was hard to argue with the facts at second base in the sixth inning Tuesday night.

STRONG STATEMENT

Dave Henderson and Mark McGwire provide power the A’s missed in ’88. Ross Newhan’s story, Page 8.

PLAYOFF NOTEBOOK

Family life has given Cub shortstop Shawon Dunston a new perspective. Story, Page 8.