A's Rebound Versus Yanks

Yet another reminder of how deceiving Opening Day can be, and how quickly momentum changes in baseball, occurred in the A's-Yankees season-opening series.

The Yankees smoked the A's 15-2 in the opener, but the next two games were close, and the A's rallied for runs late in both games to take the series, two games to one.

"(The opener) was probably more disappointing for the fans," third baseman Eric Chavez said. "We were able to shake it off."

Down 4-0 Wednesday, and with starter Dan Haren's pitch count at 67 after three innings, it didn't look promising for the A's.

"It's rough, you give up four to the Yankees early, there's a thought that comes to your mind the game is over," Haren said.

"You can tell yourself it's over or you try to fight back. I sat in the dugout after the third inning. I told myself I have about 40 pitches left. If I put up three zeros, we have a chance to come back. Fortunately, we did that."

Milton Bradley was in the middle of every rally, hitting a triple to start the five-run outburst in the eighth that won the game.

"They're a good ballclub, but at some point you have to stop putting them on a pedestal to catch them," Bradley said. "We all have to play 27 outs. We were able to come up on the winning end tonight."

REPLAY: With the A's trailing the Yankees 4-0 after three innings, Milton Bradley ignited a comeback by doubling home two runs in the fourth. He walked with the bases loaded to plate the tying run in the fifth, and he led off the eighth with triple off the wall in center.

Bradley scored on an error by Robinson Cano, Marco Scutaro singled home an insurance run through a drawn-in infield, then Frank Thomas delivered the knockout blow with a three-run double off the out-of-town scoreboard, and the A's posted a 9-4 win.

Wednesday's Notebook

--RHP Justin Duchscherer struck out reigning AL Most Valuable Player Alex Rodriguez for a second straight night with a runner in scoring position in the eighth inning.

--DH Frank Thomas hit a three-run double in the eighth inning Wednesday, giving him 1,469 RBIs for his career. That moves him past Rusty Staub for 47th place in major league history.

--RHP Dan Haren allowed four runs (all on home runs) in six innings, walked none and struck out eight Wednesday. A's pitchers retired the side in order two times Monday and Tuesday. Haren did it three times Wednesday.

--CF Mark Kotsay, moving into the leadoff spot Wednesday after two games hitting second, had two hits and a walk in five at-bats. Kotsay started last year with four straight multihit games. This year, he has two multihit efforts in three games.

--SS Marco Scutaro, the sub for the injured Bobby Crosby, had two more hits, including another RBI single late in Wednesday's game. Scutaro hit a walk-off single over the head of Yankees LF Hideki Matsui on Tuesday, then he singled past diving SS Derek Jeter with a drawn-in infield in the eighth inning Wednesday.