Angel Bullpen Battered by A’s : Baseball: Valera leaves game with 5-1 lead that becomes 9-5 loss to Oakland. Henderson, Canseco hit homers.

Jose Canseco’s sly smile and the slam of his bat declared what his words never said.

They said his eighth-inning home run off Steve Frey on Saturday was for all the critics, the fans who doubted the severity of his back problems and the columnist who insulted his pride and his heritage. After the Athletics completed their 9-5 comeback victory over the Angels before 33,149 at the Oakland Coliseum, Canseco said the homer was for his teammates, rewarding their tenacity in overcoming a 5-0 lead the Angels held through 6 1/2 innings.

“The key is that nobody really shut it down, nobody really quit,” Canseco said after his first homer in 60 at-bats and second since the All-Star break provided the final two runs in the six-run rally. “This is very encouraging for the team, not just for me.”

Rickey Henderson’s three-run home run off Chuck Crim (6-5) highlighted the wild eighth inning, during which the A’s sent 10 batters to the plate. Henderson, who was two for 26 against the Angels entering Saturday’s game, singled in the third inning off starter Julio Valera before unloading against Crim to give the A’s a 6-5 lead.

“Basically, Rickey won the game for us,” Canseco said of Henderson, who doesn’t speak with reporters. “I’m so happy Rickey hit that three-run home run. All these guys who have been talking (nonsense) about Rickey can now shut up.”

Valera, who pitched 13 shutout innings against the A’s in a relief appearance and a June 20 start, silenced Canseco and Henderson on Saturday. Angel interim Manager John Wathan took Valera out in the seventh after Walt Weiss walked and scored on Lance Blankenship’s double, but the bullpen couldn’t hold on.

The A’s made a mess of the pitching in the seventh and eighth innings. Canseco also had an RBI single in the A’s three-run seventh, an inning furthered by catcher Mike Fitzgerald’s misplay of a pop-up by Mark McGwire.

The ball should have been played by third baseman Damion Easley, but Easley’s inexperience--he was playing only his third major league game--led him to back off and let Fitzgerald try to catch it. Looking into the bright sun, Fitzgerald misjudged the ball and let it roll off his arm and onto the grass in front of home plate, allowing Harold Baines to take third and McGwire to reach first. Canseco scored Baines with his single to the left of Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina.

“That was my mistake. I didn’t call him off,” said Easley, who played shortstop in the minor leagues until he was moved to third base in recent weeks. “(Fitzgerald) looked at me and I looked at him and it fell in. I was supposed to take that one.

“They punish you every time. They’re too good a club for us to give them too many outs. It can’t happen, but it did.”

It happened again in the eighth inning. Walt Weiss led off with a single, and Lance Blankenship bunted. Easley pounced on it and looked to second; seeing no one covering the bag, he threw to first, but too late to get Blankenship. Then Henderson homered.

“The ball was up in the air long enough that I thought I had a play at second, but nobody was there,” Easley said. “I still thought he was out at first, but apparently he wasn’t.”

After Henderson’s homer, Jerry Browne singled to left field and pinch-hitter Willie Wilson singled to right off Frey, moving Browne to third. Browne scored on McGwire’s sacrifice fly, and Wilson scored ahead of Canseco as the A’s registered their 11th comeback victory from a deficit of three runs or more.

Canseco, his back sore, borrowed a lighter bat from Weiss, abandoning his usual 33- or 35-ounce bat. “I’m not able to swing the way I want to swing, aggressive and attacking the ball,” Canseco said. “The one I used is 33 1/2 (inches) long and 32 ounces. I’m down to that. It’s gotten pretty sad.”

Things are anything but sad for the A’s, who have an uncanny number of comeback victories using patchwork lineups. “In the movies, you’re supposed to win it all when things like this happen,” Weiss said. “This isn’t a movie, but this is a good sign. It’s something we haven’t done in a long time.”