Peña's homer wins it in 9th
New closer Koch blows the save, but rookie's big blast sends fans
home happy
April 3, 2002

By JEFF FLETCHER
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

A'S 3, RANGERS 2

OAKLAND -- Until Tuesday night, Carlos Peña's brief time with the A's
had been more about promise than production.

But that all changed with one swing of the bat, followed by one
shaving cream pie.

Peña, the touted rookie acquired to be the long-term replacement for
Jason Giambi, led off the ninth with a walk-off homer against the
Texas Rangers, snatching a 3-2 victory for the A's just after closer
Billy Koch had blown a one-run lead in the top of the inning.

When Peña was standing on the field afterward for a television
interview, he got the traditional pie in the face that might have
been his official welcome to the team.

"This is great," Peña said. "I can't express in words how it feels to
do this."

Adding a little spice to Peña's heroics, his homer came against the
team that had traded him. He hit a 1-and-1 fastball from Dan Miceli.

"A walk-off homer is something that not a lot of players are
fortunate enough to do, and to do it in your second game with a new
team, against your old team is pretty special," said manager Art
Howe. "He must be on cloud nine, and he took us with him."

The A's had envisioned this sort of thing from Peña when they sent
four of their best prospects to the Rangers in a January trade. But
there was talk that he might not be ready for the big leagues when he
hit .153 in spring training.

Despite the poor numbers, the A's kept him in the big leagues because
of his potential and his glove. He demonstrated the latter when he
made a brilliant diving stop on the first batter of the game.

That earned him a big thumbs-up from starter Tim Hudson, who slung
his normal assortment of darting fastballs, diving splitters and
tantalizing changeups on his way to 6« strong innings.

Hudson certainly pitched well enough to pick up his 50th career
victory, but he was denied that chance by Koch's dicey introduction
to his new fans.

After suffering through Jason Isringhausen's nightly high-wire act in
2002, the A's saw more of the same on Tuesday night.

Koch, who started the ninth with a 2-1 lead, didn't pitch that badly.
His only real mistake was a leadoff walk to Rafael Palmeiro.

"If you walk the leadoff hitter, that's going to bite you in the
ass," he said. "Especially against a team like that, you know it's
going to cost you sometime."

Ivan Rodriguez then blooped a single into left. Koch fought back to
get the next two outs, including a strikeout of Hank Blalock on a 99
mph fastball, but No. 9 hitter Gabe Kapler dumped a soft single off
the end of his bat into center field, driving in pinch-runner Mike
Young from second with the tying run. Koch then whiffed Frank
Catalanotto to strand the potential go-ahead run at third, preserving
the tie.

"It's never good when you blow a save like that, but I'm glad I was
able to come back and make some pitches to give our offense a chance
to get back out there, and then Carlos got the big hit," Koch said.

Asked what he wanted to say to Peña after the homer, Koch said: "I
love you."

Peña's homer not only bailed out Koch, but helped on a night when the
A's offense was virtually silent. The A's were patient, but not very
productive. The A's drew eight walks and had another batter hit by a
pitch, but they had only five hits.

They mounted a tough rally in the first when leadoff hitter Jeremy
Giambi was hit in the right forearm by a pitch. Giambi would later
come out of the game as precaution. He'll have X-rays today.

Giambi and Frank Menechino each scored on David Justice's triple.