A’s beat: Joyce takes turn playing center field.
By Susan Slusser
SEATTLE — Matt Joyce hadn’t played center field in so long, he’d forgotten when it last happened.
“I was pretty sure it was high school,” Joyce said Saturday before a game at Safeco Field.
Actually, Joyce played four games in center for the Rays in 2009. And Saturday, he made his first start there for the A’s, with Chad Pinder taking over Joyce’s usual spot in right field. Pinder has played seven innings in center but has made no starts there.
“A guy who’s come from the infield and is so comfortable in right field — I think we’ve thrown enough at him this year,” said manager Bob Melvin, noting that Pinder still might go to center occasionally as part of an in-game move.
“Perhaps next spring we can incrementally use him, especially early on, to let him get that much more comfortable.”
Joyce said he’d take more balls in center before the game, but he was confident he’d be OK. “I feel very comfortable out there,” he said. “I feel it’s an easier position to play. Typically, (teams) have burners there — guys who are faster — but Jim Edmonds was one the best and I wouldn’t consider him a burner. He got great reads. If you understand the game and pay attention to the hitters, who’s up, how they’re pitching them,
the count, you can cheat a little bit.”
“He always tells me he’s comfortable anywhere,” Melvin said. “He used the phrase, ‘An outfielder is an outfielder.’ ”
Melvin said that Joyce’s ability to hit anywhere in the lineup is an indication of how easily he adjusts. “There was a stat the other day in Anaheim that said he’s hit everywhere but fourth,” Melvin said. “So he’s kind of lobbying for that spot. I guess at some point, I’ve got to get him there.”
Melvin had Joyce in center rather than Boog Powell, who is in a 1-for-18 slide. Powell entered Saturday’s game in the ninth, taking over in center as Joyce moved to left.
“Just having a rough patch,” Melvin said of Powell. “He started off strong and sometimes for a rookie, that first time it doesn’t go great you grind on yourself a little hard. But he’s done a really good job for us and a great job in center field. This is more about getting Pinder in the lineup; it doesn’t mean we’re not going to play Powell in center.”