The budding legend of Yoenis Cespedes grew some more on a steely-gray Wednesday of minimalist Oakland baseball, many odd occurrences and a stroke of baseball history that was eclipsed by the way this game ended.
Cespedes, the Cuban defector who is the A’s only true offensive threat, hit a monstrous two-run home run that set the stage for a 5-4 win over the Chicago White Sox in 14 innings.
Washed away by this electrifying moment was a ninth-inning home run by White Sox slugger Paul Konerko, the 400th of his career. Konerko became the 48th slugger in baseball history to hit 400 bombs – a luminous achievement – but he was soon crowded off the stage.
Facing White Sox reliever Hector Santiago with a runner on and one out in the bottom of the 14th, Cespedes showed a keen eye and an ability to adjust to changing situations that grows more impressive by the day. The A’s had just fallen behind 4-2 in the top of the 14th on a costly error by third baseman Eric Sogard that was followed by some unfortunate situational pitching.
What was left of an announced crowd of 13,032 seemed stunned, but Cespedes wasn’t.
“He’s a really tough kid,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin.
As he prepared to hit, Cespedes studied Santiago intently and quickly sized up the pitcher’s repertoire – fastball, slider, changeup. He then conferred briefly with Chili Davis, the A’s hitting instructor, before digging in.
“I had lots of opportunities to decide games in Cuba,” said Cespedes, who represented his country in the World Baseball Classic before defecting last year. “I was only looking to make contact.”
He did, parking a Santiago changeup beyond the 368-foot sign. The game was tied 4-4. The A’s would soon win.
“That was the biggest at-bat of the game,” said Kila Ka’aihue, the A’s designated hitter whose single drove in the winning run. “It seemed like everything took care of itself (after the Cespedes homer).”
It was the fifth home run of the season for the A’s rookie center fielder. Cespedes drove in three runs and has 18 RBIs, which places him among the leaders in the American League.
In the past nine games, Cespedes has hit .324 with 11 RBIs. He was 3 for 5 Wednesday. These would be sterling numbers for any rookie, even a 26-year-old with years of international experience.
But what makes Cespedes’ star turn all the more remarkable is that he is doing it on what is arguably the weakest hitting team in baseball. The 10-10 A’s have scored only 59 runs, fewest in the A.L.
The A’s also have the lowest team batting average in the majors, the next-to-lowest on-base percentage, the lowest slugging average and the lowest OPS – on-base percentage plus slugging.
“It seemed like nobody was going to score,” said Melvin, commenting on the huge swaths of a game marked by offensive futility save for Cespedes and Konerko.
By the end of nearly four hours of baseball, three men in the A’s lineup were hitting under .200 and four others were between .200 and .244.
That makes Cespedes a redwood in a patch of lemon trees.
Meanwhile, he’s doing this while still adjusting to a constant barrage of off-speed pitches from elite pitchers leery of his fastball-hitting prowess. He’s doing it in the damp air and cavernous spaces of Oakland’s football stadium after living his entire life in sweltering Caribbean heat. He’s doing it with no English skills and far from his family that now lives in the Dominican Republic.
Guarded and reserved in spring training – wary of questions about his politically tinged flight to freedom and riches – Cespedes is slowly opening up.
He’s smiling more amid increasingly familiar faces in the Bay Area.
After Wednesday’s win, a critical one before a nine-game Eastern trip, Cespedes was virtually nonchalant about his day and season so far.
“I can’t speak English and communicate with my teammates yet, but we all cheer for each other,” he said. “This is a young team, and I think we are going to go far.”
Maybe, but it won’t happen unless Cespedes is in the lineup.
