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Powell powers A's with first MLB homer
Reminiscent of Gibson, catcher hobbles around bases
By Mychael Urban / MLB.com
05/24/09 8:28 PM ET
OAKLAND -- As discouraging as Saturday night's 11-inning fall-from-ahead loss was for the A's, Sunday's comeback win was every bit as encouraging.Maybe more so.
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Needing to give Oakland's oil-leaking bullpen a blow, rookie left-hander Josh Outman delivered the longest outing of his brief career, allowing one earned run over 7 2/3 masterful frames.
And moments after waving in Ryan Sweeney from third base with the tying run after a wild pitch with one out in sixth, hobbled rookie catcher Landon Powell did a passable Kirk Gibson, tagging his first career homer and hobbling slightly around the bases to provide all the support Outman would need.
The A's closed out a three-game Interleague series against the visiting D-backs with a 6-2 victory at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, and Outman's arm and Powell's legs carried the clubhouse chatter afterward.
Actually, it was all Powell could do to carry his hefty frame around the bases. Idle since tweaking his right hamstring Monday at Tampa Bay, he gimped his way from home, thinking about Gibson, whose homer for the Dodgers off A's closer Dennis Eckersley to end Game 1 of the 1988 World Series is one of the most replayed moments in baseball history.
Gibson is Arizona's bench coach.
"I was trying not to limp because I knew I'd hear a bunch of Kirk Gibson references when I got back to the dugout," Powell said with a smile. "I'm not sprinting anywhere, that's for sure."
Outman, too, was smiling when asked to assess said trot.
"Uh, pretty bad," he offered. "It was good that he hit it that far, so he didn't have to run."
Not that speed has ever been -- or ever will be -- a big part of Powell's game. A first-round pick in the 2004 First-Year Player Draft, his progress toward the Majors has been frequently stalled by injury. He missed all of the 2005 season after tearing the ACL in his left knee, a left knee strain ended his 2007 season in July, and his 2008 season was ended by a right knee strain in August.
"When you think about the things he's had to battle through to get here, this has to be a big day in his life," said A's manager Bob Geren.
"You always dream about that first home run," said Powell, who made his sixth start of the season Sunday. "It's a great feeling."
The A's are growing accustomed to feeling pretty good about their chances when Outman takes the hill. He couldn't get out of the fifth inning in any of his four April starts, but he's unbeaten in five May starts, getting through six innings four times while crafting a 2.17 ERA.
On Sunday, he rolled four double plays to offset five walks while allowing four hits before leaving to a standing ovation with the bases empty and two out in the eighth.
Convinced by the second inning that his breaking ball had deserted him for the day, Outman relied heavily on his low- to mid-90s fastball while throwing a career-high 106 pitches.
"Outman was good," said Arizona manager A.J. Hinch. "He's got plenty of arm strength, he's got plenty of weapons, and we just couldn't scratch enough early on or build his pitch count up enough early on to get him out of the game.
"He pitched a great game."
A's second baseman Adam Kennedy, acquired for a player to be named later in an under-the-radar deal with the Rays on May 8, was duly impressed with Outman's ability to cover for his season-high free passes.
In fact, he's been impressed with Outman since he arrived.
"He's been lights-out every time I've seen him here," Kennedy said. "You don't like all the walks, but if you back it up with double plays, so be it."
Kennedy was right in the thick of the double-play action, and he and Jason Giambi made sure that Sunday's celebration wasn't a rookies-only party.
A night after breaking out of a slump with the 400th home run of his career, Giambi gave Oakland some insurance by going deep again. And Kennedy chipped in by going 2-for-5 -- including a game-breaking two-run single with two out in the eighth -- to keep his batting average since the trade at .400.
Picked up to fill in while Mark Ellis rehabs his strained left calf, Kennedy is batting .485 (16-for-33) with six multi-hit games and nine RBIs over his past eight games.
"It seems like he's been a big part of every win we've had since he got here," Geren said. "Offensively and defensively."
The D-backs opened the scoring on an RBI groundout by Stephen Drew in the top of the first inning, and Jon Garland kept the A's off the scoreboard through the first five frames.
After Sweeney scored on a sixth-inning wild pitch, Powell pounced on a 2-0 pitch from Garland and hit it off the top of the out-of-town scoreboard in right field.
"We had pretty much shown him in, in, in, the whole time," Garland said. "If I had to guess, he's sitting on one pitch right there and letting it fly, because I personally don't feel if he's not sitting on that, I don't think he can do that with it.
"But tip your cap. He did. He got it."
An inning later, Giambi hit a towering shot to right-center field off lefty Doug Slaten. Giambi has gone deep 192 times in an A's uniform; he's tied with Sal Bando for fifth in Oakland history and eighth in franchise lore.
An error by shortstop Orlando Cabrera helped the D-Backs cut into the lead in the eighth, but even that run featured some brilliance by Outman. It scored on a double play.
"Two-for-ones are tough," Hinch said. "Those are tough ones, because it kind of ends rallies in a hurry when you think you've got stuff going. But their defense converted.
"Again, I credit Outman."
Mychael Urban is a national writer for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
