By Morris Phillips

If the A’s short trip to Detroit goes anything like their trip to Motown in August, Oakland’s moving on to the ALCS in short order.

In August, the A’s moved their playoff drive into high gear by taking three of four from the Tigers, scoring 34 runs in the process and coming within one out of winning all four games.  The trip to Detroit’s Comerica Park highlighted the A’s big stretch run in which they won 25 of their final 35 games to win the AL West going away.

This time the stakes are much higher, and the Oakland bats don’t figure to carry the day like they did in August.  And while the A’s don’t figure to average 8 runs a game, they do figure to benefit from not facing Justin Verlander or Max Scherzer in either game.

So far, there have been just six runs scored in first two games of the series.  For Detroit, all three of their runs came off A’s starter Bartolo Colon who had issues settling down while throwing his initial pitches.  For the A’s, two runs came later in Game 1 in a failed comeback attempt and the third run was engineered by Stephen Vogt’s game-winning base hit in the ninth inning Saturday night.

A lack of offense opposite a whole lot of quality pitches doesn’t equal fireworks, but so far, it has made for great theatre.

“For a real baseball fan, last night had to be one of the best games of the year, just watching a pitchers’ duel like that and then obviously a walk off.  That’s fun,” Vogt said.

Hitters on both sides have struggled, but if someone’s to bust out at Comerica Park, there are some obvious possibilities.  Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera continues to show the effects of a season filled with bumps and bruises, and he has yet to produce an extra-base hit in the first two games.  But while Cabrera might not be a threat to go deep, his ability to get hits and get them in big situations hasn’t dissipated.

For the A’s, Yoenis Cesepedes has the series only home run—a two-run shot in the Game 1, 3-2 loss—and he scored the winning run on Saturday.  The Cuban slugger may not have had a big regular season, but he appears quite capable now that the calendar has turned to October.

“He’s leading us, taken the reins, so to speak, getting us excited,” Vogt said of Cespedes.  “When he hits the ball, you can’t help but get excited, how loud and how hard he hits the ball.  He’s just been great for us so far.”

Jarrod Parker will make the start Monday for the A’s.   Given his status as Oakland’s second-best starter in the regular season, Parker could have been miffed at getting pushed back to Game 3, but he admitted he was not.

In fact, he was Gray’s biggest cheerleader on Saturday, exhorting the rookie throughout his eight scoreless innings. 

”I can’t put into words how great he was and how fun that is to watch,” Parker said.

Detroit’s Anibel Sanchez will oppose Parker in a game that will start at 10am PST.