A’s Not Much to Look At, but They Clean Up Well

Ask the manager of Team “Moneyball” why the Oakland Athletics are still relevant to the Angels this week and you won’t hear a detailed statistical analysis, you’ll learn about the apparent time-shifting and worry-shedding properties of good hygiene.

“Go take a shower, it’s a new day,” Ken Macha said. “After that game, you take a shower and you come in with a new day and a good attitude. I think [the players] just try to treat each game as a separate unit. Don’t count these guys out.”

Somehow, despite key injuries and an abundance of inexperience, the A’s are a sweep of a four-game series with the Angels away from a share of first place in the American League West after a 6-2 loss to Texas on Sunday night kept them four games behind.

There’s probably some numerical explanation for it, but you won’t hear it in the clubhouse. Ask the team’s winningest pitcher about it and he won’t pull out a spreadsheet report. If there’s a relevant piece of paper, it’s on the wall next to Barry Zito’s locker. It has an artsy, circular design and the words “self actualization.” So, Mr. Zito, is this a self-actualized team?

“Pretty much, man,” Zito said. “We have a lot of confidence and we see ourselves doing something. Most of the time we’re going to do it. Being so young, being so poised is pretty rare in this game. That’s been our M.O., basically, since I’ve been here.”

Zito has been in Oakland for five years, making him one of the longest-tenured A’s on a team that relies heavily on four rookies and four other players with less than three years’ experience. It’s an underfunded franchise that regularly loses American League MVPs to free agency but remains a factor in the playoff chase.

“I think [General Manager] Billy Beane sets a tone for just having a relaxed vibe, [a] kind

of pressure-free environment,

so we don’t put too much on ourselves,” Zito said. “Most of the time when you’ve got a rookie playing in September, he’s not worried about a pennant race, he’s just happy to be here and wants to finish out the season strong and help the team. They’re not worried about the external things.”

Maybe McAfee Coliseum is such a stress-free place because it doesn’t feel like a pennant race when fewer than 20,000 people are showing up to the ballpark (which happened twice last week) and the public address system is playing songs by Chuck Mangione and Sonny and Cher before games (which also happened last week).

Or maybe it’s because this entire season has been devoid of pressure, a supposed transition year after Beane broke up the team’s pitching triumvirate by trading Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder, leaving Zito as the only established starter. There’s a rookie starter (Joe Blanton, 11-11 with a 3.60 earned-run average) and a rookie closer (Huston Street, with 22 saves in 24 chances).

Initially the A’s fulfilled the diminished expectations, and on May 29 they were sitting 12 1/2 games behind the Angels, with a record of 17-32. Then came the instant transition: they won 49 of their next 65 games to briefly take a one-game lead over the Angels.

Now the summer’s gone, Cleveland’s the new hot team and, nationally, Oakland is as forgotten as last year’s “The Apprentice” winner. But even after Oakland’s inevitable cool-off and an eight-game winning streak by the Angels in September, the A’s remain in the chase.

The Angels didn’t just make this season more difficult when the hitters and bullpen malfunctioned this summer and allowed Oakland back into the race. They made future seasons more challenging as well by giving the A’s meaningful games to play in September. A young team that should remain intact next year now has the benefit of experience.

“I had a chance to come up last year and get a taste of it a little bit,” rookie right fielder Nick Swisher said. “But actually being part of it, it’s a grind. It’s more mental than anything. For me, just being able to get the opportunity to go out there day in and day out to try to help the team, I couldn’t be more happy with it.”

A year ago Dan Johnson was a September call-up who couldn’t even make it to the dugout because he was battling vertigo and unable to leave the clubhouse. Saturday he got the tying hit when the A’s rallied from a three-run deficit to beat the Rangers.

Another reason for the A’s to feel confident next year: They’ve done this without shortstop Bobby Crosby and starter Rich Harden for significant portions of the season.

Crosby, the 2004 AL rookie of the year, started opening day, then missed Oakland’s next 48 games with stress fractures in his ribs. His return May 30 marked the starting point of the 49-16 run. Crosby’s return gave Macha a defensive anchor and a right-handed bat to throw into an order that sometimes ran three or four left-handed hitters in a row.

But after Crosby broke his left ankle Aug. 27, the A’s lost 10 of 21 games during his second stint on the disabled list. Crosby’s injury came a week after Harden, whose earned-run average of 2.61 is lowest among the starters, strained a muscle below his pitching shoulder. Harden’s return has been painfully slow, but he is expected to be available for a relief role in the Angel series.

The one thing that’s always present for the A’s, no matter who’s available, is a feistiness and free-wheeling attitude.

“We’re not going to quit until that last out’s made, no matter what,” Johnson said.

This is what the Angels started. Now they have four games to deal with it.