OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — These Oakland Athletics never count themselves out — down and doubted is their dogma.
Brett Anderson outdueled fellow postseason first-timer Anibal Sanchez and the upstart A’s were stellar on defense all over the diamond, avoiding another playoff sweep by Detroit by beating the Tigers 2-0 Tuesday night in their AL division series.
The A’s cut their deficit in the best-of-five matchup to 2-1.
Coco Crisp saved a likely home run by Prince Fielder with a leaping catch at the top of the center-field wall in the second — and the A’s will play another day in this improbable season full of remarkable rallies.
Yoenis Cespedes hit an RBI single in the first inning and Seth Smith homered later. That was plenty on a night Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera, Fielder and the Tigers’ high-priced offense were shut down by the low-budget A’s.
Tigers 16-game winner Max Scherzer will try to close out the series in Game 4 Wednesday night against A’s rookie A.J. Griffin. Detroit swept the A’s in the 2006 AL championship series.
Fielder was the biggest victim of Oakland’s spot-on defense, robbed three times. First by Crisp, Oakland’s most experienced player whose Game 2 blunder on Cabrera’s fly allowed two runs to score in a 5-4 loss Sunday in Detroit.
Crisp let out a big “Whoo!” after raising his arm to signal he’d made the grab. A’s shortstop Stephen Drew made a tough play running to his left to stop Fielder’s grounder in the fourth and then threw to first while still off balance and in motion.
Then, in the seventh, Cespedes cut over to make a diving catch on Fielder’s liner to left field.
That delighted the yellow towel-waving sellout crowd of 37,090 in this blue-collar city.
After Cabrera singled with one out in the ninth, Fielder grounded into a game-ending double play.
The A’s own the lowest payroll in baseball at $59.5 million. Fielder is getting big money in Motown: $214 million over nine years.
Anderson, back on the mound for the first time since straining a muscle in his right side Sept. 19 at Detroit, worked quickly and showed no signs of a layoff or jitters in his first postseason start.
That’s just not the way the A’s have operated this year.
Last week, Oakland entered its final three-game series of the regular season needing to sweep the two-time reigning AL champion Rangers to capture the AL West — and the A’s did it, sending a stunned Texas team to the one-game wild card, which it lost to Baltimore.
A club with a majors-best 14 walkoff wins and countless whipped cream pie celebrations snapped the longest postseason skid in franchise history at six games.
“We’ve played a lot of games when we lost tough games and we’ve come back and won the next day,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said earlier. “We do have some history with that.”
Anderson faced the minimum in three of his four innings, throwing 51 pitches through four.
Cabrera stepped to the plate to huge boos in the first, when he grounded out to second on the first pitch he saw to start a 1-for-4 day with a strikeout.
Detroit manager Jim Leyland knew he would need more from his hitters to win this one after Detroit scored only one run via hit in their first two games at home — on Alex Avila’s solo home run in Saturday’s 3-1 Game 1 victory.
“That’s a little freaky, to be honest with you,” Leyland said before Game 3.
The Tigers are trying to reach second straight AL championship series after losing last year’s ALCS in six games to the two-time reigning AL champion Texas Rangers.
Detroit clinched the AL Central in Oakland last year and is hoping for another clinching party as soon as possible.
Anderson did his job to delay it.
He insisted he was healthy and ready to go — and Melvin took his pitcher at his word and gave him a shot in the biggest start yet. Anderson had shown plenty when he returned in August following a 14-month absence recovering from elbow-ligament replacement surgery and made six impressive starts.
He allowed two hits, struck out six and walked two in six innings. Then the reliable bullpen took over.
Ryan Cook pitched the seventh, Sean Doolittle struck out the side in order in the eighth and closer Grant Balfour finished the four-hitter. The A’s staff pitched the 11th postseason shutout by the franchise, while the Tigers were blanked for the 13th time in the postseason.
The A’s had lost five straight while facing elimination in the postseason, one shy of the longest active streak by the Twins.
But this group has defied expectations ever since the first full workout at spring training back in February when the A’s lost third baseman Scott Sizemore to a season-ending knee injury.
Oakland became the first team in major league history to win the division or pennant after trailing by five or more games with fewer than 10 to go. The A’s were five back of the Rangers with nine left, then won their final six all at home with sweeps of Seattle and Texas.
Smith hit a towering drive to the deepest part of center field in the fifth for yet another timely home run for the A’s, whose 112 longballs after the All-Star break led the majors.
That was a big lift after Oakland struck out 23 times in the first two games. Melvin and hitting coach Chili Davis weren’t concerned, saying Ks are part of the game with a power-hitting club.
Tigers pitching coach Jeff Jones paid Sanchez a mound visit after Cespedes’ first-inning single, then the right-hander retired Brandon Moss on a called third strike and induced Josh Reddick’s inning-ending double play.
Sanchez gave up five hits and two runs in 6 1-3 innings, struck out three and walked two.