Henderson, Oakland Have Toronto on Run, 6-3 : Down 2-0 in AL Playoffs, Blue Jays Accuse Athletics of Showing Them Up

Put yourself behind Ernie Whitt’s chest protector for a moment and try to fathom what catching the first two games of the American League playoffs for the Toronto Blue Jays must have felt like.

You went 0 for 4 trying to throw out base stealers in Game 1 and you’re on your way to an 0-for-6 pasting during a 6-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics in Game 2 Wednesday. By now, you’re sick of the sight of Rickey Henderson and when you look up from your crouch in the seventh inning, there he is again--breaking for second base, trying to get his third steal of the day.

You have no play, so you watch helplessly as Henderson shifts down and pulls up three steps before the base. After gingerly tiptoeing the final few feet, as a crowning touch, he slowly circles the bag, then theatrically stamps a foot on it.

Finally, you lose it.

From his locker stall in the aftermath of Round 2 of the Oakland Relays, Whitt lashed out at Henderson, accusing the straw that stirs the A’s drink of showboating, grandstanding, hotdogging and basically rubbing Blue Jay noses in a playoff deficit that stands at 0-2.

“I don’t like to be showed up--and Rickey showed this club up,” Whitt said. “If you can steal a base, steal the base. But don’t stop three steps short of the bag, tiptoe in and then circle the bag. You don’t do that.

” . . . You don’t see a Carney Lansford doing that. But that’s Rickey’s style of play. It’s unfortunate.

“To me, he’s doing everything he can to fire this ballclub up. He may be inspiring the A’s, but he’s inspiring this team, too, with some of the things he does.”

Whitt predicted, rather ominously, that measures would be taken to prevent any reruns this weekend in Toronto, but stopped short of specifics.

“That’s a loaded question,” Whitt said. “I don’t answer loaded questions.”

Meanwhile, across the hall in the Oakland clubhouse, Henderson was busy spraying out loaded answers to the tiptoe controversy.

“Show him up?” Henderson said. “I don’t need to show him up. I hate guys who lip off that I try to show them up.

“I think (Whitt) is probably ticked off that I did such a good job, he couldn’t even make a throw. If he wants me to slide just for the hell of it, next time he should just yell over, ‘Slide, Rickey, slide!’

“To me, that is a sign of frustration. I beat him and he couldn’t even make a throw. I don’t think he can ever throw me out. Maybe they should put another catcher back there.”

After two games, Henderson is six for six in stolen bases. He was two for two Tuesday and four for four Wednesday, and has already established the individual record for a championship series.

With Lansford and Tony Phillips adding two steals apiece, the A’s are 10 for 10, which is bound to make any opposing catcher a little testy.

Oakland Manager Tony La Russa, however, had no time to consider Whitt’s tender feelings.

“We’re not running on Ernie Whitt,” La Russa said. “We’re running on their pitchers. They have slow releases. We won’t be running Friday because Jimmy Key is pitching for them and he has a good move. If (Whitt) is embarrassed by it and taking it personally, he’s a fool. Why doesn’t he mix in a little . . . common sense? Was there a throw? No. Why should Rickey slide then?”

Some Blue Jays were also stewing about Dave Parker’s sloooow -motion style on his home run trot in the sixth inning, a leisurely celebration of his first home run in 93 postseason at-bats.

“If I was pitching, the next time Parker came up, I’d be decking him,” Toronto third baseman Kelly Gruber said. “Parker and (Rickey) Henderson both. Nobody likes that. I’m not going to lose any sleep over it, but, indeed, they were hotdogging it.”

Again, La Russa provided rebuttal.

“I don’t like to hear that,” he said. “The Blue Jays have their talents and push them and push them, and we have our talents and we push them. But I don’t talk . . . when it’s over. The Blue Jays are competitive. They’ve lost two games. They’re going to be upset. (But) I don’t like nonprofessional etiquette of any kind. I’ve watched that as closely as anything. We don’t like to embarrass anybody.”

But that’s precisely what the A’s have done, completely discounting any of Game 2’s baserunning high jinks.

Take away the first three innings of both games and Oakland has outscored Toronto, 12-3.

Take away the first three innings of both games and Oakland has out-hit Toronto, 16-3.

The A’s, who trailed, 3-1, in Game 1 before rolling to a 7-3 victory, fell behind again in Game 2, 1-0, on two singles and a run-scoring groundout by Fred McGriff in the top of the third.

Again, it was Rickey Henderson who altered the tone. Leading off the bottom of the fourth with a walk, Henderson stole second and third, momentarily unnerving the Blue Jays’ young starting pitcher, Todd Stottlemyre.

Lansford followed with a game-tying single to left field and when he scored on a double by Mark McGwire, Oakland had the lead--a dangerous situation for Toronto, with Mike Moore on the mound for the A’s and Dennis Eckersley available in the Oakland bullpen.

Moore didn’t allow another hit, finishing seven innings of three-hit pitching. La Russa’s first choice of relievers, though, was a bad one. Rick Honeycutt yielded three consecutive baserunners, setting up a two-run eighth inning for Toronto. But, as usual, Eckersley was there, savior of Oakland victories and janitor who presides over late-inning messes.

He surrendered a run-scoring single to the first batter he faced, McGriff, got a double-play grounder from George Bell, then got the last four outs in succession.

He also got his fifth save in six relief appearances in American League playoff games. The A’s are 6-0 in those games--they swept Boston in 1988--and the only win Eckersley didn’t save, he still preserved. That was Tuesday’s 7-3 victory over Toronto.

The series moves to Toronto for Games 3 and 4, and Game 5 if necessary.

“It’s not to the point where we’re desperate,” Whitt said. “There’s no reason why we can’t beat the A’s. I know this club will be fired up Friday night.”

Rickey Henderson, the source of that anticipated adrenaline rush, eagerly awaits the challenge.

“If he feels I’m showing him up, their pitchers had better keep me off base,” Henderson said. “Because when I’m on base, I’m going to run.”

So far, the Blue Jays have failed to come up with a satisfactory response to that.

Wednesday, they had enough trouble with the concept of Rickey Henderson walking.

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