Month: June 2014

Pinch Hitting Norris Propels A’s Victory Over Rangers 10-6

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Oakland Athletics' Josh Donaldson, left, congratulates Derek Norris, right, after Norris hit a three-run home run off off Texas Rangers' Shawn Tolleson in the sixth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 17, 2014, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
Oakland Athletics’ Josh Donaldson, left, congratulates Derek Norris, right, after Norris hit a three-run home run off off Texas Rangers’ Shawn Tolleson in the sixth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 17, 2014, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

By Kahlil Najar

OAKLAND – If the baseball world didn’t know that the A’s have a deep bench at the catcher position, they do now.

Derek Norris, Stephen Vogt and John Jaso went a combined 7 for 8 with 7 RBI and 7 hits to help propel the A’s (43-2) to a 10-6 victory over the Texas Rangers (35-36).

“It’s pretty amazing. It’s quiet a luxury. We have three guys that can start in a number of places,” said Melvin on the three catchers.

Norris, who came in for Jaso in the bottom of the sixth got his night started right when he launched a three run home run to left field off of Rangers pitcher Shawn Tolleson. Then in the eighth with Donaldson and Crisp aboard he hit a double that scored two more runs. Norris ended the night with two hits and five RBI off the bench.

Melvin praised Norris by saying, “He’s done it before coming off the bench. He has a knack. He’s ready for the situation. He knows how to pinch hit. You don’t play for a majority of the game and you end up with 5 RBI means you’re taking advantage of your opportunities.”

Texas pitch Yu Darvish (7-3) suffered his third loss of the year and is now 1-8 against the A’s lifetime.

“His stuff is so good and on top of that he has seven different pitches. We’ve been really fortunate, we’ve made him work and a few guys square him up and have some good numbers off of him. But he’s about as good as you get,” said Melvin.

Vogt, who went 3 for 3 off of Darvish said, “I saw him pretty well today, fortunately saw three pitches to hit and hit all three of them. He’s such a good pitcher and we’ve been fortunate enough to have success against him. I don’t have anything to explain that.”

On his night, Norris said “I’ve worked pretty hard on making my swing more consistent, just more level of a bat path, but ultimately trying to stay in the zone as long as I can with the bat. The longer you’re in the zone, the more chances you have of barreling the ball. So that’s my main goal, and I’ve worked hard on it. It’s paying off.”

Tommy Milone (5-3) who started the game for the A’s had a decent night as he went 5 2/3 innings with three strike outs and three runs. Milone’s nemesis has been the first inning this year and today was no different as he gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead off of a single from Adrian Beltre.

However in the bottom of the second the A’s had three runs cross the plate with two runs coming because of a single by Alberto Callaspo and single from Vogt. In the fourth, the A’s added to their lead when after two stolen bases by Eric Sogard, Coco Crisp was able to hit a sac fly to bring Sogard home and make it a 4-1 Oakland lead.

In the top of the fifth, the Rangers Rougned Odor hit his third homer of the year and brought the score to 4-2. The A’s responded in the bottom of the inning with another RBI from Vogt to make bring the lead back to three and a 5-2 score.

The Rangers added a run in the top of the sixth and bring the lead back to two but then in the bottom of the sixth is when Norris came in. Norris knocked his pinch hit homer  and made it a 8-3 game.

The Rangers tried to make it interesting as they added three runs in the top of the 7th but in the bottom of the 8th, Norris came up to the plate and hit his eleventh double of the year to make it a 10-6 final.

“D-No is such a good baseball player,” said Vogt. “He’s having an All-Star caliber year, and I hope that gets recognized. What he’s done off the bench, just what I’ve been fortunate enough to witness, it’s incredible the way he comes in, he doesn’t get big, he doesn’t try to do too much and comes through all the time.”

The A’s and Rangers close out the series tomorrow when Sonny Gray (6-3) goes against Nick Tepsch (2-2), game time 12:35 pm PST.

Different day, same result

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By Jeremy Kahn

After being swept over the weekend at home by the Colorado Rockies, maybe a road trip is what the San Francisco Giants needed to get out of this rut.

Unfortunately, that would not be the case, as Gordon Bekham and Dayan Viciedo each hit two-run home runs, while John Danks pitched a strong game and the Chicago White Sox defeated the Giants 8-2 on the South Side of Chicago.

Danks went six and one-thirds innings, allowing two runs on five hits, as the White Sox snapped a four-game losing streak, while the Giants lost for the fourth straight game.

It was a tough night for Matt Cain, who allowed eight runs on 10 hits in just five innings of work, as he fell to 1-5 on the season.

Hunter Pence went 2-for-4 at the plate, which included a first inning home run.

The White Sox trailed the Giants entering the bottom of the third inning, but after tying the game, that would not be score for long.

The White Sox took the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth inning, as Jose Abreu led off the inning with a single, then after an out, Alexei Ramirez and Viciedo singled to load the bases.

After another out, Tyler Flowers walked against Cain to score Abreu with what turned out to be the winning run, then Adam Eaton beat out an infield hit that scored Ramirez and Viciedo and on the play Brandon Crawford was charged with an error that allowed Viciedo score the second run.

Adam Dunn and Viciedo put the finishing touches on the scoring in the bottom of the fifth inning, as Dunn singled and then Viciedo hit a two-run home run.

Brewers Triple-A left-hander Brad Mills Traded To A’s For 4 Quarters

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Newly Acquired Brad Mills
Newly Acquired Brad Mills

By Kahlil Najar

OAKLAND – Yeah you read that right. The A’s picked up a new starter for their rotation for four quarters. 10 dimes. 100 pennies.

Left-Hander Brad Mills has experience in the majors when he was brought up by the Angels. His big league record is 3-3 with a 7.76 ERA.  This year in Triple-A he’s 4-2 with a 1.56 ERA, 0.92 WHIP and 77 strikeouts.

The $1 fee the the A’s had to give up was because in Mills’ Minor League Contract with the Brewers he had an out that if he was not in the Majors by June 15th the Brewers would be required to advertise Mills availability to the other teams in the majors. If a team was interested, the Brewers had to give him up.

Mills should be joining the starting lineup this Saturday against Boston.

 

Rangers Derail A’s Comeback, Rout Athletics 14-8

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By Matthew Harrington

OAKLAND, Calif. — When the Oakland Athletics and Texas Rangers last met at O.Co Coliseum for a three-game set April 21-23, the visitors scored 12 runs total en route to a sweep. The series marked a tightly-pitched affair after Rangers hurlers stifled the potent A’s offense to just seven runs and three-straight losses. The A’s welcomed Texas back to Alameda County Monday night in a game no one would confuse for a pitchers’ duel. Texas tallied 14 runs while the A’s scored eight runs, both surpassing the team totals from the April set at the Coliseum.

Rangers first baseman Donnie Murphy picked up three RBIs on a pair of home runs, his fourth career multi-homer game while Yoenis Cespedes went 1 for 3 with four runs batted in for the A’s. Brandon Moss also homered for Oakland, but four Texas long balls lifted the Rangers (35-35) passed the Green and Gold 14-8. The loss matches the second-largest margin of defeat the A’s (42-28) have suffered all season, with only last Friday’s 7-0 shutout at the hands of the Yankees marking a worse run differential.

Neither starting pitcher hurled a memorable game but Rangers righty Colby Lewis (5-4, 5.97 ERA) threw well enough to pick up the win. He went 5 1/3 innings allowing fives runs. Pomeranz (5-4, 2.91) struggled to complete 3 2/3 innings, serving up eight Texas runs (seven earned) on eight hits on start removed from a seven inning, one-run performance against the Los Angeles Angels.

“I wasn’t as sharp in the beginning,” said Pomeranz. “I actually felt really good up there. They were patient at the plate. I didn’t make some pitches, they just waited for some mistakes.”
The A’s bullpen yielded six runs, with Ryan Cook , Jeff Francis and Fernando Abad all guilty of surrendering two runs apiece. The A’s committed three errors.

After Pomeranz held the Rangers in check to open the first inning, Coco Crisp had the A’s running right out of the gate. Crisp ripped a 2-2 pitch to left-center for a double, then came around to score on John Jaso’s flare to shallow center. Jaso, one of three catchers in A’s manager Bob Melvin’s line-up, advanced to second base on the throw to the plate. Lewis gifted Jaso third base after bouncing a wild pitch to backstop Robinson Chirinos. The free base allowed Jaso to score easily after Cespedes lofted the 2-1 delivery to left fielder Michael Choice for the sacrifice fly.

“We had some opportunities early,” said Melvin. “We went ahead 2-0. We had some opportunities in the next inning and we didn’t come through. We didn’t play a great game after that. Even though in the later innings we came back and made a game of it, it was just not far enough.”

Adrian Beltre and Alex Rios reached base to open the second, then advanced into scoring position on a Donnie Murphy sacrifice bunt. Chirinos then wrapped a two-run base hit to tie the ballgame after battling Pomeranz in a full count.

Former A’s utility man Donnie Murphy provided the tie-shattering blast in the fourth inning, depositing a no-out, two-run home run over the wall in deep left center. The first basemen entered play amidst a 0-for-14 cold snap at the plate before emphatically turning around his fortunes. The Rangers tacked on four more runs in the inning, highlighted by a two-out, two-run double off the bat of former American League All-star Beltre for a comfortable 8-2 advantage.

Michael Choice, the Rangers haul for shipping Craig Gentry to Oakland in the offseason, burned his former parent club with a two-run shot of his own. The dinger snapped 16 at-bats without a hit for the right-hander, placing Choice amongst Chirinos (3), Beltre (3) and Murphy (3) for Rangers with two RBIs or more Monday night. Chirinos and Murphy would later hit back-to-back homers off Fernando Abad in the ninth inning, the first two extra-base hits the southpaw has allowed this season.

A’s clean-up hitter Brandon Moss lifted his 17th home run of the season to bring Oakland within seven runs. Moss now has 31 big flys since the 2013 All-Star Break, tied with Edwin Encarnacion for the second most in the Major Leagues during that time. The Lone Star sluggers answered back, scoring on a rare sacrifice fly to third base for their 11th run.

Oakland scratched out a run of its own in the bottom half of the inning after back-to-back doubles from Alberto Callaspo and Coco Crisp to chase Lewis after four runs. Callaspo, returning from paternity leave Monday night, went 4 for 5 while sporting a new uniform number. The A’s second basemen donned a “7” between his shoulder blades Monday night.

Cespedes added three runs on a towering shot later in the inning, his 13th homer of the season, to cut the deficit to 11-7. Callaspo chipped in a run-scoring base hit in the eighth.

Kyle Blanks, who entered the game as a pinch hitter for John Jaso in the sixth, came up to the plate in the eighth representing the tying run with Callaspo at second and Vogt at first. He worked a full count off Neal Cotts but froze on a fastball right at the knees for strike three. In total, the A’s stranded 12 runners.
The Rangers added three more runs over the final two innings while holding the A’s in check despite a two-hit ninth inning rally.

“We scored some runs tonight,” said Melvin. “We’re a club that leads the league in pitching. We’re used to holding teams under four runs. The last couple games we haven’t been able to do that.”

Submariner Ben Rowen finished off the win, coaxing a ground ball out from Blanks to wrap up game one of the series. Tuesday’s match-up won’t be any easier for the A’s, with Texas sending Yu Darvish and his 2.11 ERA to the mound to face Tommy Milone.

White Sox searching for consistency with the Giants on deck Tuesday

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By Morris Phillips

The Giants and White Sox have plans to occupy the same baseball diamond at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago on Tuesday night.

And that’s where the comparisons between the two ball clubs end.

While the Giants started the season well and saw things get considerably better from there, the White Sox have been stuck in the mud almost from day one on March 31. The South Siders won their first two games, then lost the next three.  They’ve been stuck exactly at .500 21 times then lost the following game on 14 of those occasions.   Having played 16 different opponents in 70 games thus far, with a postponement thrown in, the White Sox haven’t been able to find any consistency in 2014. 

And when they most recently hit .500 at 33-33, the White Sox lost four in row leaving them searching as the team with the best record in baseball comes to visit.

“It’s not necessarily us not being able to get over the hump,” infielder Gordon Beckham said.  “It’s just the way the season has gone that we just haven’t really broken through when we could have.  There is no real answer as to why we get to .500 and we dip back down.  Hopefully we’ll grind back to .500.”

If gaining traction is rooted in consistency of a team’s schedule, the White Sox haven’t had much.  Tuesday will mark the team’s 17th interleague game thus far and the number of different opponents is just a fact of the new, balanced, interleague-heavy schedule. After Wednesday’s matinee against the Giants, only two of the Sox’s final 90 games will be against National League opponents.  If pitching and defense weren’t such big issues, the break from interleague play might be the thing that propels the White Sox.

Chicago has committed an AL second-worst 53 errors and team ERA ranks 26th of 30 clubs at 4.37.  The lack of pitching and defense has minimized the impact of Cuban slugger Jose Abreu, who has 19 home runs thus far in an eye-opening rookie season.  Also, the Sox haven’t capitalized on bust out campaigns from Alexei Ramirez (.313) and former Giant Conor Gillaspie.

The 26-year old third baseman played 29 games for San Francisco in 2008, 2011 and 2012 without hitting a home run. But Gillaspie’s made himself a fixture in Chicago by hitting 13 homers last season and hitting .329 in 46 games this season.

Maybe the White Sox issues center around the disabled list which has seen Abreu, Gillaspie, Beckham, pitcher Chris Sale and outfielder Adam Eaton miss time with injuries.

The Giants send Matt Cain to the mound in Tuesday’s opener to face Chicago’s John Danks in a 5:10pm start.

FBI tries to Sting Montana

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By: Phillip Torres

The FBI sent an undercover agent to pose as a real estate investor to go and meet Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana and lure him into a sting. The agent set up a meeting to talk about a possible investment with the 49er icon about his panned hotel development that will be next to the new Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, said attorney James Brosnahan. 

“The agent presented himself as an honest businessman who wanted to invest in Montana;s hotel,” said Brosnahan.

Montana had no interest in taking a new a new partner and he did nothing illegal.

According to Brosnahan, the government backed off of the situation because “wasn’t going to be fund investments in a hotel.” The meeting with the 49er legend was part of a four investigation where the FBI pointed undercover agents to multiple targets.  

Man Convicted for Stabbing of All-Pro Linebacker

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By: Phillip Torres

SAN JOSE-Steven Barba, a 28-year-old man, is being convicted for the stabbing of San Francisco 49ers outside linebacker Aldon Smith. Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Charles Gillingham said Monday that Barba entered “No contest pleas to charges of assault with a deadly weapon and being a felon in possession of a gun during a court hearing last week.” 

The stabbing occurred in 2012 at Smith’s house party in San Jose. The party escalated and two people were shot that night, thus leading weapons charges against the pro bowl linebacker. 

The crimes that happened on November 3, 2012 occurred when Smith tried to disperse the crowd at the party. Barba stabbed Smith twice in the torso before leaving the scene. The injuries on the linebacker were not serious.

Thats Amaury’s News and Commentary: Jeter visit was pulverizing almost overshadowing A’s winning series

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–The New York Yankees who had trouble with the Oakland A’s in the last few years they won the first game of the three game series over the weekend 7-0 but the A’s came right back with wins on Saturday and Sunday at the Coliseum. It was a great weekend, Derek Jeter one of the greatest players that I’ve ever seen, 20 years imagine that with the same team with the Yankees.

When you talk about some of the great Yankees like in the circle of Babe Ruth, Lou Gerhig, Joe Dimaggio, Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, Yogi Berra, superstars like that and he’s the only Yankee with 3,000 or more hits. That is incredible. As everybody knows every American League team is giving Jeter a tribute when he visits their park the A’s gave Jeter some fancy wines from the Napa Valley and a check for his foundation for $10,002.

The two dollar part was in honor of his number two which will be retired and he was very happy and it was a very simple ceromony and Jeter is a humble man, he’s a simple man and the A’s did the right thing with him and he’s just a terrific person and forget his hits career he’s one of the best shortstops of all time.

For Jeter to play in New York for 20 years and never to have anything negative reported about him it’s incredible and he’s just a tremendous citizen of the United States and New York and I hate to say it the Pride of the Yankees like the movie that was dedicated to the late Lou Gerhig but he’s really the pride of the Yankees in this era.

A’s and Rangers three game series: The Texas Rangers are amazing as they came into the Coliseum 34-35 with eight games out of first place and there are three teams on top of them the A’s, Angels, and Mariners. Rangers manager Ron Washington as I always tell people you can have the best jockey in the world but if the horse is limping your not going to win the race.

With all respect to former A’s manager and the Arizona Diamondbacks Chief Baseball Officer Tony LaRussa he had some great teams in Oakland. You need the talent, talent is what wins in baseball it’s not the great manager. The manager could put in all the signals he wants and do all the strategy he wants and you still need to execute. This is a sport of execution of opportunity and the Rangers just lost Prince Fielder for the rest of the year .

Tribute to the late Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn 54: The Oakland A’s paid a tribute to former Padres slugger Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn at the Coliseum before Monday night’s game versus the Rangers with a moment of silence after the announcement of his passing on Monday morning. Gwynn was very dedicated to the game and with 3,141 all time hits. Gwynn left way too early at the age of 54.

His death was led by the cancer that spread after years and years of chewing smokeless tabacco and he took a leave of absence from San Diego State where he was head coach for a time and then stepped down to be assistant batting coach. He was Mr.Padre, he was the guy in San Diego and former Red Sox all time hitting great Ted Williams wanted to talk to him years ago.

There is a lot of good stuff about this man and he left us too early and it’s been a rough year so far with the passing of A’s former pitcher Bob Welch who supposed to be at the Coliseum on July 19th for the A’s 1989 reunion who won the earthquake World Series when they swept the Giants that season. Some of the great ones who have passed away this year, former Padre broadcaster Jerry Coleman, former Yankee coach Don Zimmer, former disc jockey Casey Kasem and former Sacramento TV sportscaster Ken Gimblin.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

NBA Championship Finals: Miami never had what it took to come back

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by David Zizmor

San Antonio (4) Miami (1): When San Antonio’s AT&T Center didn’t have cool air in game one of this series and it disabled the Heat to lose the first game of the series it almost set the tone for this match up. The Heat did come back and won game two and the way the Heat played it it looked like it would be a repeat of last season’s championship.

Last season’s finals was a lot closer with these same two teams but this year they traded body blows, and this series didn’t turn out that way. It was not going to be a complete loss for the Spurs as the Spurs took game three in Miami. After the Heat lost yet another game in game four the Spurs took a 3-1 advantage.

The Spurs really took it to Miami and it was the typical in the way that this series went. The Spurs flipped the script by winning game seven by a big margin. No one really believed Miami could come back, the Heat had a very good swarming defense. The Heat was not able to keep up with San Antonio’s passing. This is not the same Spurs team compared to last year.

The Spurs did have some ability to swing the ball out at the parimiter at a whole new level, last year they were able to swing at the parimiter but they were still a post up team. They would throw it down to the Spurs Tim Duncan and get it down to him whenever they had the chance and they would also throw it down to one of the bigger players like center Tiago Splitter.

This year there was none of that this year’s team is primarily a parimiter team they definitely worked some of those post up swings and the options were there but this Spurs team is all about making the extra passes. As good as the Heat defense is and let’s face it their one of the best in the league the Spurs were so good.

The Spurs passed the ball around and they had that extra guy to move the ball and the Heat just couldn’t keep up the Spurs were always one pass ahead of them and over the course of the series the Heat just couldn’t hang with the Spurs speed on passing and working the ball outside the arc. The Heat were just not deep enough.

Miami just could not keep up in this series, they don’t have back court guys like the Spurs have, the problem is everybody thinks that Miami is all about the Big Three but the fact of the matter is that Dwayne Wade has really fallen off. He got a lot of rest this season, this is not the same guy who lead the Heat to the finals in game six over Dallas.

Wade has had knee injuries, he is just simply sapped, he doens’t have the speed to run the parimiter and he doesn’t have the agility anymore to hang with some of the top players and at times he became a liability for the Heat. LeBron James and Chris Bosh played well but Wade definitely took a step back.

David Zizmor covered the NBA for the 2013-14 season for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

A’s play rude hosts to Jeter and the Yankees for the second straight day

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By Morris Phillips

The A’s may officially be baseball’s second-best team, but on days like Sunday, they look the best by a wide margin. Just ask the Yankees, who fell to the A’s 10-5 after falling behind 10-0 after just four innings.

The win was the A’s second straight over New York after Friday’s humbling 7-0 loss and allowed the A’s to extend their lead in the AL West to 4 ½ games after the Angels fell in Atlanta on Sunday night. But what continues to standout about this club, is their statistical dominance which at least argumentatively places them above all 29 other clubs. After 69 games, the A’s have allowed the fewest runs in baseball while scoring the second-most. In terms of runs differential, no one’s close to Oakland with that number standing at +132 after Sunday’s blowout.

“What is says that we are able to get starters out of the game early like we did today and get into parts of the bullpen that aren’t as significant as the back end of it,” manager Bob Melvin said.

The A’s used the long ball to dispatch the Yankees on Sunday starting in the first inning when Derek Norris connected for a three-run shot off New York starter Vidal Nuno. Coco Crisp hit his fifth homer of the season in the second inning—also with two runners aboard—and the A’s had a quick 6-0 lead.

Starter Jesse Chavez took the ball from there, going six innings allowing just five hits and a run. Melvin then pulled the plug on Chavez who at the age of 30 has never thrown more than 100 innings at the major league level. Chavez threw 89 pitches, but it was quality over quantity, according to Melvin.

“You could tell right away he was on it pretty good,” Melvin said. “Cutter to both sides to the plate, good curveball to create a gap between the hard stuff and the off-speed stuff. Threw a few good changeups; the first 60 pitches were really good.”

For New York, Nuno was gone two batters into the fourth inning, allowing eight runs on eight hits. Nuno saw his record fall to 1-3 while Chavez improved to 6-4.

Derek Jeter was honored before the game by the A’s in his last regular season game at the Coliseum. Jeter finished the game 1 for 3 with a sacrifice fly in the seventh inning that trimmed the A’s lead to 10-3. Jeter’s decision to return to baseball for one more year after his injury-marred 2013 season has paid off so far with the shortstop hitting .271 on the season.

A’s third baseman Josh Donaldson was dropped to sixth in the lineup due to his prolonged slump, but he came up with an RBI single in the fourth that put the A’s up 10-0.   The A’s managed 12 hits on the afternoon with all but Jed Lowrie and Brandon Moss producing at least one hit in their starting lineup.

On Monday, the A’s continue their 10-game homestand with three games against Texas. The Rangers’ Colby Lewis will face Oakland’s Drew Pomeranz in the 7:05pm contest.