A's do little things to beat Mets

Dodson's 3-for-4 gives him AL batting crown over Mastro'

A's manager Ryan Metcalfe wanted his team to work on the little things and the A's did just that, squeaking out a 4-2 victory over the Mets to tune up for the playoffs.

"We are going to need some of the good things we did today like bunting, stealing, hustling and playing sound defense," Metcalfe said. "I liked the way our guys played. We hit the ball a lot harder than it showed. We just hit them at them all day -- look at Keith Lederer's 0-for-3 with a liner to third and a blue darter to left. But one thing we've got to work harder on is being selective at the plate. We had no walks today and some of that goes to Ken Wright's pitching, but he also tempted us with slow stuff just off the plate and got us to hit the ball to his defense."

The A's broke a 2-2 tie in the eighth with a leadoff single by Brodie Nissen. Nissen stole second and scored on a strong single to right by Steve Nojima. An error by the right fielder allowed Nojima to race around to third and he scored on a grounder by Mike Mastro'.

Billy Dodson followed with a double to left to lock up the AL batting crown with a 3-for-4 game to outdistance Mastro', who went 0-for-4 with two RBI ground outs to end at .475 to Dodson's .522. Mastro not only finished second in average, but first in slugging (.738) on-base (.590) RBI (27) and doubles (8). Dodson finished second in slugging (.701) on-base (.562) and RBI (20).

"You couldn't ask for a better 3-4 punch than those two guys," Metcalfe said. "If we can set the table for those guys, they will drive us in and I hope we can find a way to get them home when they get on base. I think we have the best offense in the league. We've got 8 good hitters and a lot of other teams only have 3,4, maybe 5. But the teams in the playoff shave good pitching and are going to make us work for our runs."

The A's worked for al 4 runs in this game. Dodson, who picked up the win with a perfect inning of relief, reached on a single and scored in the fourth. He advanced on a single by Yeager and scored on a sacrifice fly by Shane Francisco. The combination of Nissen and Nojima set the A's first run up with Nissen reaching on an error, stealing second and advancing on a single by Nojima before scoring on a grounder by Mastro'.

Nissen finished with three hits and stole second four times. Nojima and Matt Wolfe both had two hits. Wolfe also stole second twice, but was left stranded. The A's used five pitchers with Shawn Purcell the most impressive, racking up 7 strikeouts in 3 innings, and allowing 1 hit and 2 walks. Steve Nojima pitched the final 2 innings to pick up the save, getting out of a couple of jams. Nojima helped himself, starting a 1-6-3 double play in the eighth. A pair of errors put the tying run on second with no outs, but Nojima induced a shallow fly to center that Clinton Yeager flagged down and Nojima got a couple of ground outs to kill the rally.

The A's talked about the playoffs and several leaders stepped forward to lend words similar to Metcalfe. Purcell, who finished with a league high 140 strikeouts, talked about the importance of defense and making the routine play. Francisco stressed the importance of hitting the cutoff man.

The A's (13-5) play the Nationals (14-4) in the best-of-3 semifinals, starting 10 am Saturday in a doubleheader at Cardinal Newman High. The A's expect a close series with the Nationals, after pulling out a pair of comeback victories during the season series -- 6-5 on a Steve Nojima RBI single in the eighth, set up by a Matt Wolfe walk and Kevin Metcalfe sacrifice bunt, and down 5-3 with 2 outs in the 9th A's erupted for 8 with hustle by Nojima creating an error and Clinton Yeager's 3-run triple. The Nationals will be the higher seed in the series due to the A's loss to the Angels, who forfeited to the Nationals.

The other playoff series features the Titans and the Astros, who fell to the Titans 4-1 and 7-6 this season. Either team should test the A's, who were swept by the Titans in a pair of close games and split with the Astros.

Billy Dodson puts the bat on the ball vs. the Mets. He used his power and speed to get
3 hits, including a bunt single & double to finish the season with an AL leading .522 avg.

Brodie Nissen took a shine to the leadoff spot stealing 4 bases against the Mets. He
reached first in all 4 trips to the plate with 3 singles and an error getting him to first.

Turning a 1-6-3 double play in the 8th, Steve Nojima picks off this comebacker & picks
up the save against the Mets. He also overcame a couple errors in the 9th.

Dodson- G18 MVP