No Explanation for A’s Hitting Exhibition

Mark McGwire, Oakland A’s first baseman, hit a two-run homer in the first inning Thursday to tie Jimmie Foxx’s club record of 302.

With that, the A’s lumbered into Anaheim Stadium, leaving the Angel pitching staff in splinters. By the time the A’s were down, they had a club-record eight home runs from seven players in an 18-2 victory.

“How do you explain that?” said Manager Art Howe, who had only 42 home runs in 10 major league seasons. “Every time they made a mistake, we made them pay for it.”

The eight home runs were two shy of the major league record set by Toronto against Baltimore in 1987.

It also gave the A’s 49 home runs in June and 120 for the season, tops in the major leagues. Not that it’s done them any good. They began Thursday 12 games behind the Texas Rangers in the American League West Division.

“We have [22] consecutive games against teams in our division,” Howe said before the game. “If we’re going to get in this race, we better get something started now.”

He had no idea the enthusiasm with which the A’s would respond. By the time they were down, it resembled souvenir ball night, starting with McGwire.

“I didn’t think McGwire got all of it,” losing pitcher Shawn Boskie said. “[Right fielder] Tim Salmon said in the dugout that he thought he had it all the way.”

True, it could have been worse, like the 470-foot monster McGwire hit off Boskie last season. But this one was just one of those lazy fly balls by McGwire that few stadiums seem to hold.

And it was only the beginning.

No. 2--Scott Brosius with bases-empty homer in the second. He was merely warming up.

No. 3--Geronimo Berroa’s grand slam in the fourth. It gave the A’s a 9-0 lead and pretty much assured Angel closer Troy Percival a night off.

No. 4--Jason Giambi with two on in the fifth, which went deep into the right-field seats.

No. 4, 6 and 7--Terry Steinbach, Ernie Young and Jose Herrera each with the bases empty in the sixth.

No. 8--Brosius with the bases empty in the seventh.

“This is a good hitters’ park,” McGwire said. “The ball always flies out of here. But I’ve never seen anything like this.”

So rather than explain, the A’s just pointed fingers at each other.

“You don’t want to talk to me, you want to talk to [Brosius],” McGwire said to reporters. “He hit two.”

The home runs by seven players tied a major league record held by the Baltimore Orioles (1967) and Los Angeles Dodgers (1979). It was an eclectic group.

There were the hot. McGwire has 14 home runs in June. Steinbach has five in 12 games.

There were the cold. Giambi was three for his last 24 entering the game. Herrera was four for his last 32.

And there was recently recuperated. Brosius returned from the disabled list Tuesday after missing 47 games with a broken arm.

They all combined to set an Angel record, a dubious one--most home runs given up in a game.

Said Howe: “I don’t know what we ate on our off day, but we’re going to have it again tomorrow.”