Rickey Henderson Steals Thunder, 6-5

Jose Canseco can hit a home run that nearly kisses the roof, Rick Honeycutt can take the Oakland Athletics on another late-inning white-knuckler, and the Toronto Blue Jays can unearth yet more hidden character, but Game 4 of these American League playoffs, as with the other three, will always be remembered for Rickey Henderson.

Adding to a postseason portfolio that already rivals those of Reggie Jackson, Roberto Clemente and George Brett, Henderson hit two two-run home runs Saturday--one a fairway drive, the other a one-iron shot--to pace the A’s to victory over the Blue Jays again, this time by a 6-5 score.

The Rickey Series stands at Oakland 3, Toronto 1, with the A’s standing on the brink of their second consecutive World Series and their ace, Dave Stewart, scheduled to start Game 5 today.

To get the A’s to this point, all Henderson has done is:

--Reach base 12 times in 19 at-bats.

--Hit .417 (five for 12).

--Steal seven bases in seven attempts.

--Score seven runs.

--Ruffle more than a few Blue Jay feathers with his tip-toe-through-the-brick-dust act in Game 2.

--And now, become the eighth man in the history of the American League Championship Series to hit two home runs in one game.

The first broke a scoreless tie in the third inning and landed on the black tarpaulin beyond the center-field fence, 440 feet away.

The second was a line drive that tucked barely inside the left-field foul pole and nestled in the netting behind the wall.

The second homer gave the A’s a 5-1 lead that eventually became 6-5 before Dennis Eckersley rescued Honeycutt in the eighth inning for his second save of the series.

“This is one of the greatest times I’ve ever had in baseball,” said Henderson, who will be glad to remind you that he’s had many great times in baseball.

“As a ballplayer, you always dream of being in this position. I’d always looked at great players in the postseason and seen how some of them wouldn’t do what they’re capable of, what they wanted to do. And I always thought, ‘When I get there, I want to do my best.’

“So far, that’s coming true.”

Saturday, Henderson’s best was enough to upstage one of the longest home runs ever hit in a postseason game--a third-inning blast by Canseco that was estimated at 480 feet, was probably closer to 510 and definitely landed in the fifth deck of SkyDome’s bleachers.

That deck, which straddles the facility’s roof, is officially known as the SkyDeck, and before Canseco, nobody had ever hit a SkyBall into the SkyDeck.

Oakland first baseman Mark McGwire came close earlier this season, pinging one off the cement facing above the fourth deck that is now covered with red, white and blue bunting.

“I had cement stop mine,” McGwire said. “Mine was going to China. His was only going to Hawaii.”

Canseco said he got a kick out of how his homer instantly muted a SkyDome crowd of 50,076--”I heard their jaws hit the ground,” he said.

Henderson said he had to be helped off the ground.

“I fell off the bench,” Henderson said, laughing. “It put mine to shame. I’m sitting there thinking that I hit mine a long ways and then he hits one about 600 feet.

“It blew my mind.”

Canseco hit his homer one out after Henderson’s. With two pitches, Toronto starter Mike Flanagan had given up three runs on nearly 1,000 feet in home runs.

But according to Flanagan, the real damage was done later by the shortest of the lot--Henderson’s fifth-inning line drive down the left-field line.

“I can live with Jose’s home run,” Flanagan said. “I can live with Rickey’s first home run. What I can’t live with is Rickey’s home run into the net.

“We had come back to make it 3-1 and then I go out and make it 5-1. That’s tough to accept.”

It would prove to be a critical home run, too, because Oakland Manager Tony La Russa continues to think it shrewd baseball strategy to bring Honeycutt into pressurized playoff games.

Starter Bob Welch, a nervous type who hasn’t dealt well with these things since his storied strikeout of Reggie Jackson in the 1978 World Series, muddled through five innings of jams, threats and budding rallies--somehow escaping with only one Blue Jay run and seven runners left on base.

But asking Welch to complete a sixth inning was apparently asking too much. He left with two out in the sixth and another Toronto run in, coming on a single by Kelly Gruber and a double by Junior Felix.

A relief pitcher, clearly, was needed. Not so clear, however, was La Russa’s eventual selection, Honeycutt, who faced a total of six batters in Games 2 and 3 and hadn’t retired one.

A man without an ERA--having given up three runs without recording an out, Honeycutt’s earned-run average, technically, was “infinity”--the Oakland left-hander walked the first batter he faced, Lloyd Moseby, before finally retiring Mookie Wilson on an inning-ending force play.

But that was simply a sign of things to come.

In the seventh inning, Honeycutt gave up two more hits and another run. Tony Fernandez doubled to center and pinch-hitter Pat Borders singled him home.

In the eighth inning, Honeycutt failed to field Manny Lee’s single and walked Moseby to set up a two-run inning for Toronto, an inning that ended only with the assistence of Eckersley.

Suddenly, despite the heroics of Canseco and Henderson, Oakland led by only 6-5 with the ninth inning still to play.

Why had La Russa so stubbornly stayed with a relief pitcher who so obviously continues to struggle?

“I looked at the matchups and I liked them,” La Russa said. “I liked Honeycutt in the eighth inning against Lee, I liked Felix (a switch-hitter) better batting from the right side and I liked him against Moseby (a left-hander), too.

“I was real encouraged by Rick Honeycutt. He got us four or five big outs. I’m looking at the way he’s throwing and he was looking more like himself today.

“We wouldn’t be here today without Rick and we wouldn’t have won the game without him today.”

La Russa could talk that way because of the way Eckersley handled the ninth inning. Two quick outs, a single to Gruber and then a confrontation with pinch-hitter Lee Mazzilli.

Eckersley and Mazzilli played chess until the count was full. Eckersley check-mated him with a fastball, which jammed Mazzilli and prompted a pop fly that A’s third baseman Tony Phillips squeezed for the last out.

“It’s hard to think about being up, 3-1, right now,” La Russa said. “Right now, we’re exhausted. It was a real hard game.

“I asked Cito (Gaston, Toronto’s rookie manager) outside if he’s sure he wants to do this for a living. . . . It was a hard game to win. Both clubs gave everything they had.”

And because the A’s had Rickey Henderson, the American League pennant, for the second time in as many years, is today theirs for the taking.

* RELATED STORY: Page 6

MULTIPLE HOME RUN GAMES A list of players who have hit two or more home runs in one game in league championship series history.

AMERICAN LEAGUE

GAME, YEAR PLAYER TEAM No Game 2, 1971 Boog Powell Baltimore 2 Game 3, 1971 Re. Jackson Oakland 2 Game 2, 1973 Sal Bando Oakland 2 Game 4, 1976 Graig Nettles New York 2 Game 3, 1978 George Brett Kansas City 3 Game 3, 1985 George Brett Kansas City 2 Game 1, 1987 Gary Gaetti Minnesota 2 Game 4, 1989 R. Henderson Oakland 2

NATIONAL LEAGUE

GAME, YEAR PLAYER TEAM No Game 2, 1971 B. Robertson Pittsburgh 3 Game 3, 1973 Rusty Staub New York 2 Game 4, 1974 Steve Garvey Dodgers 2 Game 1, 1978 Steve Garvey Dodgers 2 Game 1, 1984 G. Matthews Chicago 2 Game 1, 1989 Will Clark San Fran. 2