Monday, April 8, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Geronimo Berroa gave the Oakland Athletics a 7-6 victory over Detroit with his two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning. But A's manager Art Howe said it was center fielder Ernie Young who won the game with a spectacular play six innings earlier.
Young started a rare triple play in the top of the third Sunday after making a leaping catch as he crashed into the center-field wall at Cashman Field. Detroit baserunners Alan Trammell and Chad Curtis were running on the play and never stopped. By the time Young came down with the ball, both had crossed home plate.
Young alertly picked himself off the warning track and fired the ball to cutoff man Brent Gates. Gates turned and threw to first baseman Jason Giambi, who was covering second, for the second out and Giambi threw to catcher Terry Steinbach, who was covering first, to complete the triple play.
"During the act itself, I wasn't really thinking about anything other than trying to catch the ball," Young said. "I was a little out of it. I didn't realize it was a triple play until after we came off the field. It was kind of strange to me -- I threw it in and I saw the second throw to (Steinbach), and I knew it was a triple play then."
Young, who also had a pair of singles in the game, said he couldn't wait to see the televised replay.
"I would like to see it because I only remember just making the catch," he said. "I don't remember jumping and then catching the ball. I don't remember falling on the ground. When you're concentrating on one thing, it's kind of tough ... the things around you sometimes don't even exist."
But Young knew exactly what the play meant to his team, which was clinging to a 1-0 lead at the time.
"It was a play that kept us in the ballgame and gave us a chance to come back and score some runs," he said. "It doesn't matter where I'm playing, if a play needs to be made, I want to be the guy who makes the play.
"It means a lot to me because you always think that if you can't do it on offense, the defensive plays can save a game. The two hits I got today don't even compare to the catch I had. I would say that's the best catch of my career."
Howe agreed.
"They don't come any better," Howe said of Young's catch. "He showed a lot of courage staying after that ball as close as it was to the wall. He ended up running into the wall and there's no padding out there at all. That's what made it even more miraculous because he showed no fear whatsoever going into that wall.
"That was the turning point of the ballgame for us, obviously. There's nobody out, they got two runs in and the meat of the order coming up -- who knows what would have happened then. We lose the ballgame without that."
The A's had taken a 1-0 led on Phil Plantier's solo home run in the second, but the Tigers got two runs back in the fourth to take a short-lived 2-1 edge.
Oakland scored three runs in the bottom of the fourth to go ahead 4-2, but the Tigers tied the score in the fifth on Bobby Higginson's two-run home run off A's reliever Don Wengert.
After Detroit made it 5-4 in the sixth on Trammell's run-scoring ground out, Oakland's Scott Brosius tied it in the eighth with a sacrifice fly, but Curtis gave the Tigers a 6-5 lead with a solo home run with one out in the top of the ninth.
Gates singled to open the bottom of the ninth for the A's and Giambi flied out to center. Down 0-2 in the count to Detroit stopper Brian Williams, Berroa belted a hanging slider over the wall in left-center field to send the A's to their second win in six games in Las Vegas.
"He threw a perfect pitch for me to hit," Berroa said of Williams' offering. "I was trying to make something happen. The first thing I got on my mind is going deep because we're one run down and we need the home run to win the game.
"I don't do that all the time ... but you have to try sometimes. I tried today and it's going good for me."
Howe, for one, said he was glad to be leaving the cozy confines of Cashman Field -- but he was ecstatic to be doing so on the heels of a victory.
"There's a lot to like about Las Vegas -- but it wasn't on the field," Howe said. "Even though it's the first week of the season ... 1-5 is not very attractive when you're starting on a long road trip. This was a big win for us."
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