Rookie's gaffe comes up gold
Peña's baserunning mistake leads to go-ahead run
By Mychael Urban / MLB.com

OAKLAND, Calif. -- With two out in the second inning of Saturday's
game between the White Sox and A's, Oakland rookie Carlos Peña got
the green light to steal second base and ran with it.

Jeremy Giambi was at the plate, and Peña took off on Chicago southpaw
Mark Buehrle's first move in an effort to get into scoring position.
Halfway down to second, though, Peña heard the crack of Giambi's bat.

"I heard it, but I had no idea where the ball was," Peña admitted.

The ball was headed for left field, in front of Carlos Lee, and Peña
finally picked it up just after rounding second base. Looking
slightly confused, he paused every so briefly before breaking for
third.

At that point Lee was maybe 100 feet from third with the ball in his
hand. Peña was about 80 feet away, and just then his inner base coach
spoke up.

"I saw the ball drop into left field and I said to myself, 'Oh, no.
I'm in trouble,'" Peña recalled.

It looked like your classic rookie mistake, getting thrown out at
third to end the inning, but Lee's throw was anything but a classic.
It didn't even make it to third on the fly, and it was well off-line.
Peña slid to the inside of the bag and just beat third baseman Jose
Valentin's tag.

Then came the voice of the outer base coach, Ron Washington.

"Wash told me, 'Hey, man, you gotta pick me up [coming around
second],'" Peña said.

Moments later Peña was sprinting home on a wild pitch to snap a 1-1
tie. The A's went on to score 14 more runs and win 16-1.

"So yes, bad baserunning for the moment, but good baserunning in the
big picture," Peña said with a grin. "I had no business running
there, but I made it and we ended up getting a run.

"I mean, I'm not proud of it, but it worked out for the best, right?"

Said manager Art Howe: "He got away with one there."

True enough. But not completely. There were a few more outer base
coaches waiting for Peña in the dugout after he scored the go-ahead
run.

"Yeah, we were giving him a hard time when he got back in," said
reserve outfielder Mike Colangelo. "He's faster than most people
think he is, but come on. He's not that fast."

Fortunately for Peña, his gaffe escaped the notice of one of his best
friends on the team. Eric Chavez, not one to hold his tongue when it
comes to razzing the rookie, missed out on the fun.

"What happened?" Chavez asked. "I wasn't paying attention."

Peña, 23, is fairly certain that his younger brother Pedro was paying
attention. A 21-year-old outfielder at Old Dominion, Pedro is fond of
leaving messages critiquing his big brother's slip-ups.

"Oh, Pedro will be the first message I hear today," Peña said with a
laugh. "No way he missed that."

Nor, then, did Pedro miss his brother breaking out of an 0-for-8
slump. After his second-inning adventure on the bases, Peña hit the
third of four Oakland homers in the third inning. A laser off Buehrle
that cleared the wall just left of dead center by a good 15-20 feet,
it traveled about 410 feet and gave Peña his seventh home run of the
season. No other big-league rookie has more than five.

Peña added a third hit an inning later and finished 3-for-4 with
three runs scored to lift his average to .268 overall and .353 (12-
for-34) over the past 11 games.

"It's still so early," Peña said. "And I don't want to even think
about numbers or home runs or anything like that because I know I'm
going to go through so many ups and downs. But what's gratifying
about a day like this, after a couple of not-so-good days, is knowing
that I stuck to the same plan at the plate that I had in those bad
games, and today that faith paid off."

And then, just before turning for the showers, Peña smiled again and
added, "Maybe everyone's faith in my baserunning will come later."