By the Bay, It’s Who’s on Hill That Counts

The Oakland Athletics play well in Peoria and Pensacola because of all those huge bodies and majestic home runs, but they’re baseball’s winningest team because of a pitching staff that’s close to perfect.

This World Series is about cities as different as Gertrude Stein and Jack London, about comparing Jose Canseco’s biceps with Kevin Mitchell’s forearms, about mayors making corny bets and about ticket scalpers having the best week of their lives.

Ultimately it may not be decided by any of those things, not the chilling winds of San Francisco’s Candlestick or the Bash Brothers of Oakland. This World Series, like almost all of them the last 20 or so years, is about pitching. Which is why the A’s expect to win.

“Starting pitching,” A’s Manager Tony La Russa said. “If we get the most good games out of our starters, we’ll probably win. If they do, they’ll probably win.”

That may be true, except the A’s have several safety valves. Seldom have middle relievers ever been such a hot topic of conversation.

Yet seldom has a team had middle relief like that of the A’s. While their front four of Dave Stewart, Mike Moore, Bob Welch and Storm Davis were 76-35, the A’s are so deep in pitching that you could put together a first-rate rotation out of their bullpen.

There’s young right-handed Todd Burns. He’s 26, has a 92-mph fastball and a slider that will make your eyes water. On almost any other team, he’d be a front-line starter, on some a No. 1 or No. 2 starter.

In Oakland, he’s a 96-inning middle man, who saved eight games, won six and rolled up a 2.24 ERA. He was so impressive that A’s pitching coach Dave Duncan said, “The only negative thoughts I had about us signing Mike Moore last winter was that it would keep Todd Burns out of the rotation another year. He has accepted the role because this staff is so special.

“He won’t be satisfied with that forever.”

Down a couple of lockers is another hard-throwing right-hander, 29-year-old Gene Nelson. He had moderate success as a starter on bad teams in Seattle and Chicago, but with the A’s has landed in the middle and become a valuable piece of a championship team, appearing in 50 games, pitching 80 innings, winning three times and getting three saves.

There’s also left-hander Rick Honeycutt, who was a top starter with the Rangers and Dodgers. With the A’s, he’s the short man before the other short man -- Dennis Eckersley.

When Eckersley was injured this season, Honeycutt went 10 for 10 in save chances. He’s also a big reason Eckersley is so dominating.

“How many times do you see Eckersley come in and face a tight left-handed hitter,” an American League scout asked the other night. “Don’t take anything away from Eckersley, but La Russa gets the best out of all those guys.”

Indeed when someone asked Eckersley about facing Giants hitting star Will Clark in Saturday night’s Game 1, Eckersley smiled and pointed toward Honeycutt.

“Good luck, Rick,” he said.

Finally, the A’s have Eckersley, the first pitcher in history to go from winning 20 games as a starter to saving 45 as a reliever.

While other teams expect their starters to get them into the seventh or eighth inning, the A’s do not, especially with Davis and Welch, who usually go hard for five or six innings, then beat their teammates to the postgame buffet.

“We just feel like our pitching is the best,” said Stewart, the first pitcher since Jim Palmer (1975-78) to win 20 games three straight years. “People love to talk about home runs, but pitching and defense is what keeps you in every game you play.”

In fact, the A’s weren’t much of an offensive machine at all until Rickey Henderson arrived in June. They finished fourth in the AL in runs and tied with Cleveland for sixth in home runs.

But their 3.09 staff ERA was the league’s best in eight years and they’re the first team in 16 years to win back-to-back ERA titles. They allowed three or fewer runs a staggering 94 times (80-14 record).

The A’s are so deep in pitching that La Russa will use a four-man rotation in the World Series. That’s a change from a year ago when he went with three and hoped to pitch Stewart in Games 1, 4 and 7 (the Dodgers won in five games).

“Obviously the more times they give me the ball the happier I am,” Stewart said. “But this way worked in the playoffs and whatever works is okay with me. I still pitched the clinching game.”

Still it would be a mistake to sell the Giants short. Their 3.30 staff ERA was third behind only the pitching-rich Dodgers and Mets in the National League. And if they were entering this series at full strength -- with Don Robinson, Mike LaCoss and Dave Dravecky healthy and with Steve Bedrosian throwing strikes -- they could match staffs with almost anyone.

They are not. Manager Roger Craig has kept his staff together despite all kinds of problems. He has used 15 different starters, and his No. 1 reliever in April, LaCoss, became one of his best starters by August.

His No. 1 starter, Scott Garrelts, was a full-time starter for the first time in his career.

The Giants didn’t even have a full-time closer until they acquired Bedrosian on June 18. But he was very erratic down the stretch, and in the National League playoffs picked up three straight saves despite allowing six base runners in 2 1-3 innings.

When Craig announced that Garrelts, Reuschel and Robinson would start the first three games of the World Series, he added, “After that, we’ll see. I don’t know yet, but that’s the way the pitching has been all year.”

Craig also knows that what happened in April and July may be irrelevant in October, and this month his staff is in its best shape in months.

Reuschel, who had slumped for a month, was terrific in Game 5 of the playoffs, and Kelly Downs has been outstanding out of the bullpen. He has been so good that he might have gotten a start in Game 3 if not for Robinson’s bum knee.

Robinson says he’s fine once he gets to the mound, but he needs about 20 minutes to get ready, which makes it impossible to use him in get-ready-quick situations out of the bullpen.

The Giants’ hope is that all their pitchers will rise to the occasion, believing their staff at its best is as good as anyone’s.

They’re hoping that rumors that Stewart and Welch both have tired arms are legitimate and that Garrelts will be sharp, which he was for most of a 14-5 season. They’re hoping that Big Daddy Reuschel’s soft junk will give a fastball-hitting team fits.

Finally, they’re hoping they don’t have to go to the bullpen too often. Downs has been reliable but Craig Lefferts, Jeff Brantley and Bedrosian have had some shaky moments.

“Their pitching is outstanding, but our pitchers have done an outstanding job too,” Craig said. “We’ve had some injuries, but we’re ready for this series. It’ll come down to who makes the pitches, keeps the runners close and all that stuff. Our guys are capable of doing all those things as well as anyone.”