Month: May 2014

OAKLAND, CA - MAY 09: John Jaso #5 of the Oakland Athletics is congratulated by teammates in the dugout after hitting a home run against the Washington Nationals during the third inning at O.co Coliseum on May 9, 2014 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Jason O. Watson/Getty Images)

A Masterpiece By Milone & Three Homers Propel A’s Over Nats 8-0

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OAKLAND, CA - MAY 09: John Jaso #5 of the Oakland Athletics is congratulated by teammates in the dugout after hitting a home run against the Washington Nationals during the third inning at O.co Coliseum on May 9, 2014 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Jason O. Watson/Getty Images)
OAKLAND, CA – MAY 09: John Jaso #5 of the Oakland Athletics is congratulated by teammates in the dugout after hitting a home run against the Washington Nationals during the third inning at O.co Coliseum on May 9, 2014 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Jason O. Watson/Getty Images)

 

By Kahlil Najar

Oakland – Tommy Milone (1-3) grabbed his first win of the year after he pitched eight scoreless innings and only giving up two hits. Milone also struck out seven different batters in the Nationals lineup. John Jaso, Brandon Moss and Yoenis Cespedes all hit homers tonight which contributed for five of the seven runs the A’s put up tonight.

On his performance tonight Milone said “I think just the energy level, I felt lifted. Just grab the ball, get on the mound and throw it.”

“He was awesome. That’s pretty much all I got,” said Moss. “We’ve definitely seen that all before from him.”

The A’s got on the board in the bottom of the first when Josh Donaldson was driven home on a shard ground ball single to right field from Brandon Moss. In the bottom of the third, Jaso hit his second homer of the year to center field and gave the A’s a 2-0 lead. In the fourth, the A’s added a pair of runs after Doug Fister threw a wild pitch and scored Cespedes who was waiting on third. The second run came on a single from Eric Sogard who scored Josh Reddick and made it a 4-0 lead.

The A’s continued their scoring in the bottom of the fifth when Moss hit a two run homer to center field and Cespedes followed up right behind him with his seventh dinger of the year. Derek Norris added one more run in the bottom of the seventh and gave the A’s the 8-0 victory. Fernando Rodriguez came in for relief of Milone and pitched on inning and only surrendered one hit.

The A’s had a whopping 12 hits while the Nationals had a game to forget as they had as many errors as they did hits tonight.

The A’s send Sonny Gray to the mound tomorrow against Tanner Roark, game time 6:05 pm PST.

Belt injured in win

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By Jeremy Kahn

On a night where Madison Bumgarner pitched eight innings, and Brandon Crawford went deep for the third time on this trip, those things were overshadowed by one pitch.

Brandon Belt was hit by a Paul Maholm pitch in the top of the second inning, and after receiving X-Rays, it was confirmed that Belt suffered a broken left thumb.

Belt could be lost to the team for six weeks due to the injury, and this will be the second time on the disabled list for Belt, who missed time due to a broken arm in 2011.

As for the game, Crawford hit a two-run home run off of Maholm in the top of the fifth inning, as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 at Dodger Stadium.

This was the 12th win in the last 15 games for the Giants, and increase their lead to 2.5 over the Colorado Rockies and 4.5 over the Dodgers.

It was the third home run of the road trip for Crawford, who hit two in Sunday’s win over the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field.

Bumgarner pitched a great game, as he went those eight strong innings, allowing one run on four hits, with eight strikeouts and won for the second consecutive game after losing three in a row.

Over his last six starts at Dodger Stadium, Bumgarner is now 5-2 with a 1.45 earned run average and over that span, Bumgarner has not allowed more than two earned runs in any of those starts.

Joaquin Arias, who replaced Belt at first base, drove in the third and final run of the game for the Giants, as he hit an infield single that scored Hunter Pence.

The lone mistake by Bumgarner came off the bat of Yasiel Puig in the bottom of the sixth inning, but on the home run trot by Puig, there was chirping from both Bumgarner and Puig.

After Puig hit his long home run over the center field wall, he flipped his bat and as he crossed home plate, there were things said between the two.

Luckily for both Buster Posey and home plate umpire Will Little, things did not escalate beyond the yelling between the two.

Sergio Romo pitched a perfect ninth inning to pickup his 12th save in 12 opportunities this season.

OKC leads series, 2-1

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By George Devine, Sr.

With the series returning to Staples Center, and the angst over team ownership winding down, the Clippers had an opportunity to take the lead in the second round. They just were overpowered by the Oklahoma City Thunder, 118-112.

It was a tightly played contest in which Los Angeles led in the first and third quarters, and the lead went back and forth throughout the evening. But Oklahoma City pulled ahead in the fourth, and the rest was history.

For OKC, MVP Kevin Durant played almost the entire game (45:48) and led the scoring with 36 points. He contributed 8 rebounds — all defensive — and 6 assists, enough to make the difference. Russell Westbrook had 25 points, 13 assists and 8 boards. Serge Ibaka had 20 points and 6 rebounds. Reggie Jackson, who was poorly defended, was able to score 14 points, as was Caron Butler. The team as a whole shot 85.7 from the free throw line, well over the typical NBA pcrcentage.

For the Clippers, Blake Griffin was on the court for 42:16, pouring in 34 points; he also was responsible for 8 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks. Chris Paul was in for almost as long (42:01) and scored 21 points. More importantly, he contributed a spectacular number of assists with 16. Jamal Crawford had 20 points, Matt Barnes 14 and DeAndre Jordan 10, with 11 boards.

The next game is at 12:30 p.m. PDT on Sunday, May 11.

SF 49ers draft day: Ward at pick number 30 hopes to bring some safety to San Francisco

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by David Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–The 49ers had their pick on Friday and they had the number 30 pick there was a lot speculation that they might trade because that’s what they’ve done in the last few years. If you remember last season they traded up from the number 31 spot to number 18 in order to acquire Eric Reid at starting safety.

This year there was some speculation since they have 11 picks and they don’t have 11 roster spots that again they would try to trade up to target a wide receiver or a cornerback. There hasn’t been enough time since the first round of the draft if the Niners tried. One thing that we do know if they tried they failed and were not able to trade up.

The bottom line is they did select safety Jimmie Ward from Northern Illinois and if Northern Illinois sounds familiar its because they had a great season last year and they lost in the bowl game. Nevertheless their one of the better teams in the NCAA.

Ward was the reason their defense was really strong, he played safety if you look at his size, weight, and height, he doesn’t look like the typical safety he’s kind of on the small size as far as safety he’s probably 5’10-5’11. He hits big, for a guy his size,but if you watch some of the film on Ward he definitely plays like a cornerback.

Ward is kind of a corner whose playing safety, the Niners are doing two things, they picked Reid last year after Dashon Goldson left for Tampa Bay. This season Donte Whitner left for Cleveland and the Niners signed free agent Antoine Behtea away from the Indianapolis Colts.

Bathea got a couple of years deal and he’s not going anywhere right away but he could eventually. He’s not a spring chicken, he’s a guy who’s got a few more years left in the tank. At 5’10-5’11 Ward he may not be necessarily a safety but he’s a guy who can step in and play corner, nickle, and slot, and if they want to take advantage of his safety abilities then perhaps what they intend to do is drop him into the safety spot.

Maybe when Bathea leaves the 49ers a few years from now Ward would be the guy whose the aire to his position. That might be what it is, and there will be more forthcoming information from 49ers General manager Trent Baalke and head coach Jim Harbough at that future time.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Raiders Draft day: Raiders have big expectations for Mack at linebacker

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by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–It’s time for the NFL draft which means speculation galore and the Raiders had the number five pick and there was some thought that the Raiders would try to trade down. That they would try to stockpile some more picks. While they do have their first round pick they still do not have their full compliment of picks in the whole draft they only five or six selections.

For a team that needs a lot of help a few extra picks would help them out, no the Raiders did not trade down they stood pat at number five which was probably smart because this draft was considered to have six blue chip players. At number five the Raiders were considered to get one of them.

Nobody knew who that would be depending on how all of the picks shook out as it stood the Raiders ended up getting offensive linebacker Khalil Mack from Buffalo University and if your wondering what’s the deal with U of Buffalo? I can’t think of a player that came out of there.

There was a good reason for that, they were in division two until less than ten-15 years ago, and even then they were a really bad program until just a few years ago. This is a university that has been working to put itself on the map. It certainly is not one that everybody had heard of outside of upstate New York.

Mack considered the best linebacker in the entire draft and he was a guy who some people thought might go with a number one spot or maybe the number two it just didn’t work out that way. This is a guy whose a three down linebacker and he can play in any scheme whether there’s a four three or three four.

He can rush the passer he can block, he can tackle in the run defense, he can play pass defense. He’s a very good player and hopefully he doesn’t bring back memories of a previous Raider linebacker drafted in the top ten by the name of Rolando McClain.

McClain was a complete and total bust, Mack doesn’t seem like he would be in that category. There is a lot of factors that go into whether a guy would end up being a bust or not. Part of that is whether he gets good coaching,whether he gets good support around him.

Mack seems to be a good kid, playing at Buffalo he certainly got a chip on his shoulder because lets face it if you play at Buffalo you don’t get a lot recognition. When McClain was in college he was at Alabama everybody was singing his praises and he heard it a little too loudly and took advantage of his position.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

A’s to host annual Breast Cancer Awareness Day

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By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Thursday, May 8, 2014

The Oakland Athletics had Thursday off and start a three-game home interleague series against the Washington Nationals.

On Sunday, the A’s will host their 16th annual Breast Cancer Awareness Day to honor those who have courageously battled breast cancer. In a pregame ceremony, more than 350 Bay Area breast cancer survivors will form a symbolic human pink ribbon on the field. A breast cancer survivor raffle will determine who throws out the ceremonial first pitch.

For the 11th straight year, the Athletics will donate $5,000 as part of “A Gift of Faith” grant to Pink Access Foundation in memory of Faith Fancher, the late KTVU Channel 2 reporter.

Pink Access Foundation is a Bay Area nonprofit organization that raises funds to fight cancer in disadvantaged communities.

Proceeds from the sale of commemorative pins, hats, pink jerseys and head ribbon pendants, an A’s autographed quilt raffle tickets, and varied fan and sponsor support will benefit the American Cancer Society.

Since 1990, the Athletics have raised more than $1.3 million to assist with breast cancer education and research.

Giants storm back to beat LA

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By Jeremy Harness

Well, at least there’s one team in the Bay Area that is able to beat LA.

The Giants shook off the sting of the Pittsburgh loss pretty quickly. When you think about it, however, it’s not like they had a whole lot of time to think about it, either.

Following the Wednesday defeat to the Pirates at PNC Park, the Giants flew across the country in time to meet the Dodgers in Los Angeles Thursday night. The lack of a layoff certainly paid off for the Giants, as they came back to beat the Dodgers, 3-1, in 10 innings.

The Giants got a great outing from starter Ryan Vogelsong, who went 7 1/3 innings and gave up only a run on five hits against a potent Dodgers lineup.

“He threw the heck out of it,” Brandon Hicks said of Vogelsong. “I thought for a while that he was going to throw a no-hitter. He had it going tonight.”

He got a huge save from his bullpen after he gave up a pinch-hit single to Chone Figgins in the eighth. Jeremy Affeldt made a great fielding play to get Dee Gordon while Santiago Casilla got Yasiel Puig swinging after a long battle at the plate to end the inning.

Casilla was not done, however. With closer Sergio Romo warming up in the bullpen, Casilla went through the heart of the lineup and had considerable help in doing so. Shortstop Brandon Crawford made a fantastic diving stop to nail Hanley Ramirez while Hicks ranged well to his right in shallow right field to get Adrian Gonzalez.

The righty finished off the inning himself, as he struck out Matt Kemp to send the game into extra innings.

The Giants had a big opportunity in the 10th inning, as Angel Pagan and Hunter Pence each reached base with one out, forcing reliever Jamey Wright to have to pitch to Buster Posey.

Posey worked the count to 3-0 before Wright fought back to get it to 3-2, with Posey fouling off a couple of pitches before coaxing a walk out of Wright to load the bases.

Hector Sanchez capitalized for the Giants by launching one to the warning track in right field, plenty deep enough to score Pagan from third, before Brandon Belt brought Pence in with a single through the left side of the infield to give the Giants a 3-1 lead.

The Giants had trailed 1-0 in the seventh inning before Hicks, who has quickly been known to get the big hit, connected for a solo home run off Dodgers starter Josh Beckett, who himself had a great performance in giving up only that one run on five hits over 6 2/3 innings.

Giants head to SoCal

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By Jeremy Harness

Giants vs. Dodgers. It doesn’t ever get old. And just because it’s not in September doesn’y mean it’s any less significant.

And besides, when September rolls around, these two teams will most likely look back to the games that are being played now as the contests that make just as much difference between winnign the division or not.

Yes, we’re far from that point of the season, but you get the picture.

The next installment of NorCal vs. SoCal begins Friday night, as the two eternal rivals hook up at Dodger Stadium for a four-game series that starts tonight.

At the start of the season, most people were picking the Dodgers to run away with the division going away, but things are a little different now.

See, the Giants, with their improved pitching and stellar bullpen, are tied atop the National League West with the Colorado Rockies while the Dodgers, with their highly-fattened payroll, are 2 1/2 games back in second place.

Ryan Vogelsong (1-1, 4.60 ERA) will take the hill for the Giants and will head up against Josh Beckett, who has an 0-1 record with a 3.14 earned-run average and is looking for his first victory in more than a year and a half.

If the Giants’ offense performs like it did during their series defeat at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates, Beckett will have a great opportunity to do just that.

Friday’s matchup will feature Madison Bumgarner, the Giants’ Opening Day starter, going up against the Dodgers’ Paul Maholm, two up-and-coming star hurlers.

Yusmeiro Petit, in his first year in the starting rotation, will take the ball Saturday and will face LA righty Zack Grienke, who suffered a shoulder injury that sidelined him for two months after an on-field confrontation with San Diego’s Carlos Quentin.

And finally, Tim Hudson, who nearly had a complete game against the Padres last Wednesday, will try to close the series out in style on Sunday, but standing in his way is budding megastar Clayton Kershaw, who signed a seven-year, $215-million deal in the offseason.

Larry Leavitt on the Stanley Cup Playoffs: Hawks up on Wild, Habs can go up by 2, Pens one more for round three

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by Larry Leavitt

Los Angeles vs. Anaheim: The big four Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and L.A. they’re all still in and they’ve all been in it in years past and there’s probably a reason. So if you watch their style of play they sure look like they can be in it for the long haul too.

Drew Dougty of the Kings is impressive the minutes he put into a game is what is so impressive and he plays the most minutes of any NHL defenseman and it’s just not eating up minutes, it’s quality minutes. Dougty is a tough defenseman, he moves the puck well, and the Ducks in this series have been trying to hammer him because he was hurt at the end of this season.

The Ducks are really going out of their way to hit Dougty but he seems to be chugging along and the Kings in general just have a tough, tough team all around. The best part about the Kings right now is they have people who are out hurt and people who are filling in.

There has not been a drop in quality of play, their keeping their standards high, their going out and playing a team game. It’s not an individual it’s very much a team game. Heat flying one through four and quality attacking lines, quality defending lines, the Kings are playing a well rounded game.

Minnesota vs. Chicago: The Chicago Blackhawks are expected to carry the series because their so deep but who’d expect Minnesota to go down 2-0 and they did. Minnesota came back and won the third game and then the Wild and Hawks have an exciting game coming up.

Minnesota is just one of those teams that really don’t have that star power on every line. They have a lot of superstars on the team but the people who are there are doing the job and doing the job well and they just hang around and wait for that opportunity and when they get it they go for it.

They played a really well defensive game obviously because they won 4-0, this series can go either way. Minnesota can keep playing in their style that got them here and Chicago has trouble scoring it can go either way.

Boston vs. Montreal: I have been following Montreal pretty much all year, and I’m impressed with their team their a very well rounded team this is what you need for a playoff. Goaltending is what cost them to win the playoffs and Carey Price is an awsome goaltender and he’s doing really well right now.

The Canadiens are catching the Bruins at a good time, the Bruins don’t seem to have the jump that they’ve been known to have at playoff time. They’re still playing physical, they’re still playing hard and the thing with Boston is they can turn it around real quick and get some quick goals on you.

The Canadiens if they want to win this series they have to play a full 60 minutes with the Bruins you can’t have a let down stretch on the ice because before you know it, they can put two or three on net pretty quick.

NY Rangers vs. Pittsburgh: The Rangers are the underdog in this series by far right now, the Penguins are such a well rounded team and when you got that team in front of you you can’t say their not going to be there at the end. The Rangers put up a fight and their playing a good game they just need to get the breaks.

The Rangers need those things to go their way and work out for them and their not getting the lucky bounces and before you know it the Penguins have put the puck in the net. The Rangers are not completely out of this but the Pens certainly look like the dominate team for this series.

The Rangers head to Pittsburgh for game five of the series and the Pens can wrap it up with one more win as the Pens lead the series 3-1.

Larry Leavitt does commentary on the NHL on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NBA Playoffs report: San Antonio not surprisingly the favorite in the second round

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by David Zizmor

San Antonio vs. Portand: Portland was not the team that everyone expected it to be and made it to the second round but they had a very strong series against Houston with the Trailblazers point guard Damian Lillard right out of Oakland having a fantastic series and scoring the game winner with no time left to clinch it for Portland.

That might be the high point for the Trailblazers because Houston in round one are a good team, still the Rockets haven’t developed much of an identity and their not a team with a lot of playoff experience or success in the past. Portland and Houston as far as overall talent were fairly well matched.

San Antonio is a whole other ball game, as the Warriors learned last year you really need to stick the dagger in these guys because San Antonio will just not die. They are a fantastic team, they had a few short struggles with Dallas in the first round but San Antonio ended up winning that one like everybody expected them too.

Oklahoma City vs. LA Clippers: This is an evenly matched contest this is the two seed (Thunder) vs. the three seed (L.A.) you have the NBA MVP Kevin Durant going against one of the runners up Blake Griffin. You just have teams that are really strong from top to bottom. You have these two teams who have been there to a certain extent.

The Thunder made to the finals and they have a lot of success in the post season, they have all their players healthy which was not the case last year in the post season. Last season everybody thought Oklahoma City was the team to beat and then Russell Westbrook got injured.

The Westbrook injury didn’t stop the Thunder right away but it definitely slowed them up enough that they didn’t have the fire power when they had to face San Antonio. OKC their on a mission they had a rough opening series against Memphis. It’s not likely that L.A. is as tough as tough of an oppnent as Memphis is.

Miami vs. Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Nets are an interesting team all year long and they got off to a really bad start back in November and December. They tried to turn it around since then and who knew what was going on. Brooklyn since the beginning of 2014 has done pretty good.

The Nets have been particularily good against Miami they were 4-0 in the regular season against the Heat, of course that meant nothing in the first game where Miami knocked them off and did a pretty solid job of putting the Nets in their place. Miami didn’t have to work that hard in the first round to beat the Bobcats.

That Charlotte series went as a sweep for Miami and they had a chance to rest and heal up and to give their crickety older players especially Dwayne Wade time to prepare themselves. Miami was chomping at the bit to get at Brooklyn. The one thing that Miami really got annoyed at Brooklyn and made it very well known they tanked a few of their final games so they could get a seed that would allow the Nets to face Miami in the second round rather than Indiana.

Indiana vs. Washington: Indiana is the number one seed and Washington is the number five, but if you look at how this post season has been going the Wizards are playing really well and the Pacers have been struggling. They barely made it out of the first round against Atlanta and the Hawks were a team that no body thought was a threat in any way shape or form.

Atlanta ended up forcing the Pacers to play seven games in the first round, let’s face it the Hawks are not a good team. They lost their best player Al Horford earlier this season and they have had good enough pieces to make themselves mediocre and in the Eastern Conference that’s good enough to make the eighth spot in the playoffs.

Atlanta was not a good team and if they were in the west they would have been far far out of the playoffs and Indiana looked completely befuddled at times and they look like they didn’t know what they were doing. The Hawks had some of the worst offense in the entire season in that game.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportstalk radio