The A's steady ace got rattled and routed in Game 1 of the AL championship series on Tuesday night, failing to get out of the fourth inning in arguably his biggest start for the club.

The left-hander with one of baseball's most beautiful curveballs gave up seven hits, three walks and all of the Detroit Tigers' runs in their 5-1 victory, failing to provide the boost Oakland wanted to open its first trip to the ALCS in 14 years.

Brandon Inge and Ivan Rodriguez homered as the Tigers patiently picked apart Zito, refusing to bite on his bad fastballs while hitting an assortment of mediocre off-speed stuff.

But the mellow veteran seemed unfazed after the shortest start of his playoff career.

``It's just a normal feeling after any game that doesn't go the way you want it to,'' Zito said. ``I just got away from my game plan.''

The eccentric starter has had a career-long tendency to go from great to awful in remarkably short order, but Oakland needed him to be solid down the stretch and into the post-season. He was doing fine this fall until this tumble, which was confoundingly swift: After retiring the first eight batters, 10 of Detroit's next 13 hitters reached base until Zito was yanked.

Zito failed to strike out a batter for the first time in seven post-season appearances. He pitched into the sixth inning in each of his previous playoff starts, including an outstanding eight-inning effort in Oakland's 3-2 victory over Minnesota in the division series opener.

It might have been an unsavoury Coliseum farewell for Zito, who's widely expected to leave as a free agent after the season. He isn't scheduled to start at home again unless Oakland reached the World Series.

``He just got some balls up, and people were taking advantage of it,'' catcher Jason Kendall said. ``He's going to be fine.''

During Oakland's previous four post-season appearances, Zito was a steady part of the A's Big Three with fellow starters Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder. He became the Big One after his longtime teammates were traded before last season, then provided a steady, constant presence atop the A's rotation while they rolled to the AL West title and swept Minnesota in the division series.

But when the A's needed him, Zito was a Big Zero.

Sean Casey's first-inning comebacker hit Zito in the upper leg, but the left-hander showed no obvious effects except for a grimace. He got through the first eight hitters with no fuss _ but then Inge, the Tigers' No. 9 hitter, pulled a 2-1 pitch down the left-field line onto the Coliseum's short porch for the game's first run.

Zito prides himself on mental tenacity and a uniform approach to every start, but something went wrong after that unimpressive homer. He began missing with high pitches, walking Placido Polanco and Casey to load the bases before Magglio Ordonez's run-scoring infield single.

``After that, I started to nit-pick instead of just coming after them,'' Zito said. ``This is the playoffs, so it becomes more exposed.''

Zito eventually escaped, but gave up Rodriguez's solo shot to open the fourth. Detroit's next six batters reached base, and manager Ken Macha yanked his starter after Casey's single.

Zito got a smattering of applause as he kept his head low until reaching the dugout.