Month: July 2014

SaberCats Snap 5-Game Win Streak, Lose To Philly 42-20

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The SaberCats Snapped Their 4 Game Win Streak With A Loss Against Philadelphia
The SaberCats Snapped Their 5 Game Win Streak With A Loss Against Philadelphia

By Kahlil Najar

PHILADELPHIA – The San Jose SaberCats (12-5) snapped their five-game winning streak as they lost to the Philadelphia Soul (9-8), 42-20.

San Jose Quarterback Nathan Stanely completed less than half his passes and threw for only 192 yards and only one touchdown. He also threw three interceptions that doomed the Cats.

The shining star offensively for the SaberCats was Odie Armstrong who had two touchdowns on only nine yards rushing. The receiving core was pretty active with over five players hauling in passes but only Dominique Curry was able to get a touchdown.

The Cats looked good out the gate as they were able to score a touchdown in the first and not allow a scoring touchdown by the Soul. However in the second, Philadelphia scored three unanswered touchdowns. Soul quaterback Dan Raudabaugh connected with Markee White and Derrick Ross for a pair of touchdowns and Derrick Ross contributed with a touchdown on the ground. San Jose answered back with 16 seconds left in the half on a 6-yard pass to Curry to make it a 21-13 lead at halftime for Philadelphia.

After the half, Armstrong scored for San Jose and made it only a one point lead for Philadelphia.

Unfortunately for the SaberCats the Soul would score another three unanswered times with touchdowns from Ross, White and Ross again. Ross finished the night with 5 touchdowns with three on the ground and two in the air.

San Jose now heads to the Iowa Barnstormers this Saturday to close out the season and get ready for the playoffs, game time 5:05 pm PST.

Kings of the blowout: A’s dump Baltimore 10-2

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By Morris Phillips

If any one thing personifies the 2014 Oakland A’s it’s the blowout victory. And in keeping with that theme, if one statistical measure highlights the team’s meteoric rise, it’s run differential.

The A’s were in character again on Sunday, unloading on the Orioles in a 10-2 win on Sunday, with super second-year starter Sonny Gray winning his 11th game of the season. The lopsided affair marked the 22nd time this season the A’s have won a game by at least five runs. And as manager Bob Melvin touched on in the post-game press conference, there’s an art to the blowout.

“We had a good approach today, made a tough pitcher who pitched well against us last time work, and that’s usually when we’re at our best. You make a guy work, make him a little more predictable, get in some better counts, then you pass the baton on to the next guy,” Melvin explained.

That normally tough pitcher, Kevin Gausman defeated the A’s on June 7 in Baltimore. That day the A’s fell 6-3 and Gray took the loss. This time Gausman didn’t survive the fifth inning as the A’s picked their spots and attacked him with great success. If the approach sounds familiar, it’s only because it’s one of the hallmarks of Billy Beane’s Moneyball: the ability to successfully hit deep in pitch counts.

“They pick their spots to ambush,” Gausman said. “I think they were pretty patient today and they took a lot of good pitches. They took pitches that were just a couple of inches off that I wasn’t getting called strikes.”

The A’s scored twice in the first, once each in the third and fourth and three times in the fifth to build a 7-1 lead. John Jaso was the most frequent offender with an RBI triple in the first and a RBI single in the fourth. While catcher Derek Norris took a well-deserved day off on the heels of his lengthy stint in the All-Star game and starts in the first two games of the series, backup catcher Jaso and catcher turned jack-of-all-trades Stephen Vogt took over. The duo went 5 for 9 with three RBI on Sunday.

The win ended a stretch of 17 games in which the A’s played five opponents that are also in position to play in the post-season with the disclaimer that the Blue Jays fell slightly off pace after being swept by the A’s last week. After losing the first three games of the stretch to the Tigers, the A’s responded with wins in 10 of the final 14.

Now the A’s get 16 of their next 19 games against teams with losing records. And if bad opponents translate into occasional blowouts, the A’s could be on a historical pace. Already the A’s have reached the All-Star break with the 14th best run differential (+145) in the history of the game. That number—the difference between total runs scored and total runs allowed—hadn’t been achieved at the break since the 2001 Mariners were embarrassing opponents on the way to 116 regular season wins.

Those Mariners—led offensively by rookie Ichiro Suzuki and mysteriously pumped-up Bret Boone–ended that season +300 in run differential. With 64 games remaining, the A’s stand at +150.

In keeping with the theme of clicking offensively and defensively, what sets the A’s 22 blowouts apart is the quality of pitching in those games. In 20 of the 22 blowouts, the A’s have allowed three runs or less. On Sunday, Gray was at the top of his game, allowing just two hits and a run while striking out eight.

“He’s one of the best pitchers in the American League right now,” Orioles’ manager Buck Showalter said of Gray. “Real good angle on his slider, command. It’s not like he’s picking on us. He’s been doing it most all year.”

The A’s get a day off Monday before welcoming the youthful, but suddenly respectable Astros to the O.co Coliseum on Tuesday. Scott Kazmir will take the mound for the A’s with Brett Oberholtzer going for the Astros in a 7:05pm start.

Tough loss in series finale

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By Jeremy Kahn

MIAMI-Tim Lincecum pitched a great game, but unfortunately he threw one pitch that got by Hector Sanchez behind the plate.

Adeiny Hechavarria scored the eventual game-winning run on a Lincecum wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning, as the Marlins salvaged the final game of the series with a 3-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants before a crowd of 25,221 at MarlinsPark.

“Very tough way to lose a ballgame, Timmy threw great,” said Bruce Bochy.

Brad Hand went seven innings, allowing two runs on six hits, walking just one and striking out four, as he left with the lead after being pinch hit for by Johnson.

Casey McGehee put the Marlins on the board in the first inning, as he planted a Lincecum pitch deep into the left field seats for just his second home run of the season.

“Threw a changeup there that slipped of his hand,” said Bochy.

Brandon Belt will go back on the disabled list after it was confirmed that he suffered a concussion when he took a throw off the face during batting practice prior to Saturday’s game.

As of now, it has yet to be determined if Belt will go either on the seven-day or the 15-day disabled list.

“Belt’s got a concussion, he’s going on the DL, that’s a bad break; because he is just coming off the DL.”

All signs show that Adam Duvall will join the team tomorrow night in Philadelphia, where the Giants will open a four-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night.

The Marlins gave away three runs in the second and third innings, as they committed cardinal base running errors, as they attempted to advance to third base , but were thrown out on all three occasions.

Following a leadoff single and then stealing second base in the bottom of the second inning, Marcell Ozuna was caught in a rundown and tagged out by Pablo Sandoval on a ground ball hit by Hechavarria.

After advancing to second on the fielders’ choice, Hechavarria himself was thrown out at third base by Joaquin Arias, as he tried to advance an additional 90 feet on what turned out to be a Jeff Mathis fielders’ choice.

Giancarlo Stanton doubled off of Lincecum in the bottom of the third with two outs, but was thrown at third base to end the threat and the inning for the Marlins.

That would be huge for the Giants, as they tied up the game in the top of third inning, as Hunter Pence and Marco Scutaro each scored on a two-run double by Buster Posey.

The single by Scutaro was his first hit of the season in five at-bats after missing the first 93 games of the season with a lower back strain.

“I am not too concerned with production, the main thing is starting to feel good and today was a good day,” said Scutaro.

Scutaro missed the first two games of this series after tweaking his neck over the All-Star break.

Lincecum got into a jam in the bottom of the fifth inning, as he gave up a single to Jordany Valdespin, then after striking out Stanton and getting McGehee to fly out to center field, he walked Garrett Jones.

With Ozuna at the plate, Lincecum committed his first balk of the season and his first since August 19, 2013 against the Boston Red Sox at AT&TPark, according to Retrosheet.

Posey nearly extended the top of the eighth inning, as he narrowly thrown out at first base on a ground ball hit to McGehee; however after a 78 second (1:18) review, the play stood.

Hammel’s first start at the Coliseum ends quickly

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By Morris Phillips

With the Baltimore Orioles and home runs these days, it’s simply whatever you can do, we can do better.

On Friday, the A’s opened with their “death in six simple pitches,” a short play in which Baltimore closer Zach Britton is executed by protagonist Josh Donaldson and his blast over the center field wall. The high point of the three-minute long production: Britton—caught completely unaware—surrenders the game-winning home run just six pitches into his appearance on stage. The hero, Donaldson, is then feted in grand style–whipped cream included–as is the custom in the kingdom of Oakland.

On Saturday, the O’s responded with their “bombs away” production in which the initial execution takes just 13 pitches. Once again, the helpless pitcher, in this case the A’s newly acquired starter Jason Hammel, is victimized before the audience can even settle into their seats. But that’s just the start of the horrific acts. First Hammel is felled by former teammate Adam Jones, and just minutes later, another familiar face with whom Hammel had established trust, J.J. Hardy viciously kicks the pitcher with his solo shot.

And in the play’s final act, unpopular character Jim Johnson is thrown to wolves as Chris Davis as wields his mighty sword. Like Hammel, Johnson is quite familiar with the perpetrator who violently betrays him.

Two pretty good dramas, but in this case, Baltimore’s production had a little more oomph. The Orioles got the best of the A’s Saturday, riding their early offensive outburst to an 8-4 win over the A’s to even the three-game series. The three home runs hit by the Orioles on the evening continues a theme of summertime pop as Baltimore has a major league-best 65 round trippers in 42 games since June 1, a total that dwarfs the next-closest total of 44 in that span achieved by the Tigers, Indians and Astros.

In this case it may have been Orioles’ familiarity with Hammel that led to barrage with the 31-year old right hander spending the 2012 and 2013 seasons in Baltimore. Jones, who also chopped a seeing-eye single through the infield to knock in a pair of runs, felt as much.

“I faced him a couple of years back when he was with the Rays,” Jones said of Hammel. “Playing behind him for two years, I think we had a solid scouting report on him and what he’s done. And it was only last year when had him so it’s not like he’s a couple of years removed.”

Hammel lasted just two innings in his first start as an Athletic in Oakland, allowing the two homers, six hits in total and two walks. His troubles started almost immediately as leadoff hitter Nick Markakis escaped a 0-2 hole and singled solidly to right field.

“I played with those guys for two years so they know me pretty well and I know them,” Hammel said. “It just comes down to bad execution on my part. Markakis is a good guy to know the zone with. He’s got a good idea of where the strike zone is.”

The next batter, Steve Pearce, drew a walk. And then three pitches later, Jones redirected Hammel’s offering and the Orioles led 3-0. Hammel’s pitch was up but off the plate but Jones simply didn’t miss, depositing the ball into the left center field bleachers.

Down 5-0 the A’s fought back, scoring once in the third, and twice in the fourth. But Baltimore struck as well in the third, chasing Hammel after the first three batters reached, and then rudely welcoming reliever Dan Otero, who had a rare, poor outing.

The A’s did receive some good news when the Angels fell, 3-2 in 12 innings in Anaheim. The loss allowed Oakland to maintain its 1 ½ game lead in the West as well as the best record in majors for the 27th consecutive day.

On Sunday, the A’s Sonny Gray takes the mound in search of his 11th win. Gray will be opposed by the Orioles’ Kevin Gausman in a 1:05pm start.

Sharks Keep Demers and Doherty in the Fold

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By Mary Walsh

Tuesday, the San Jose Sharks announced the resigning of defensemen Jason Demers and Taylor Doherty. The team gave Demers a two year contract and Doherty one year. The moves solidified the team’s current blue line and add some depth for the future. It might not be enough to improve their offseason PuckDaddy grade from an F, but it is a start.

Last season was a bounce-back season for Demers, who performed below expectations the two seasons prior. Those seasons were marred by injury but also found him often benched as a healthy scratch. His improvement this past season could be attributed to better health and the changes on the coaching staff that occurred before the last lockout season. All of the team’s young defensemen have shown improvement since Larry Robinson and Jim Johnson joined the team.

Demers’ career path could be considered a cautionary tale about why you do not want to rush players, especially defensemen, into the NHL. He started playing in San Jose when he was just 21 years old, one season after being drafted. He got off to a great start with the team, posting 21 and 24 points his first two seasons, then bottomed out with 13 in his third season and just three in the fourth. Perhaps his sophomore slump came late, and he took a lot of heat in those two poor seasons for not repeating earlier success. Nevertheless, the Sharks’ coaches have shown slowly increasing faith in him and his performance has improved accordingly. His 34 points last season were a reminder of why expectations were so high for him.

Demers’ role as an offensively-minded defenseman will always make him prone to risk-taking. Much as fans would like to see all the players, forwards and defensemen alike, play a diligent defensive game, playing well at both ends of the ice is harder than it sounds. Well, obviously it sounds pretty hard, barring teleportation powers. Additionally, fans don’t actually enjoy perfect defensive games– those tend to be low-scoring and uneventful. So that’s the cake- eat it or leave it. If Jason Demers is supposed to keep an eye out for scoring chances and even create some, his defensive game might on occasion leave something to be desired.

His contract is eminently reasonable. Looking at the defensemen around Demers in the standings, his salary is lower than most players of equivalent value to their teams. Whether measuring by points or time on ice or age, his $3.4 million per year is a good deal for San Jose. It is such a good deal that one wonders if it isn’t a setup for a trade. The last Shark to file for arbitration (TJ Galiardi) only got one year out of the team, but he was not signed and traded either. For the sake of San Jose, we can hope the Demers contract is not just a set up to move him out.

Taylor Doherty was drafted by the Sharks in the second round in 2009. This year, he will enter his third full season with the AHL’s Worcester Sharks. Last season saw him miss a number of games due to injury, and he has yet to play in the NHL. There was a little more buzz around his name a season ago, but the Sharks obviously think he is worth another look.  Just 23 years old, 6’7″, he has not been heating up the score sheet but last season showed some improvement over the season before. With a little down tick in the +/- column (from +2 to -2), he improved his points total from 6 to 10, playing 23 fewer games. He has a strong shot that he could probably use more often.

Doherty, like Demers… and Braun, and Burns, is a right-handed shot. That is worth noting as such defensemen seem to be in short supply elsewhere.

The Sharks’ offseason is looking like a long slow one, but that is what Doug Wilson promised at the end of last season. If Wilson is serious about not wanting to bring any veteran player in who may supplant younger players, that remaining cap space ($6.145 million, per CapGeek.com) will continue to sit there and taunt those who had hoped for any exciting new additions.

Lenhart gets even

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By Pearl Allison Lo

A game that involved a penalty goal by his own hand, Steven turned it around in a 1-1 draw between his San Jose Earthquake and the New York Red Bulls Sunday.

It was New York’s fourth draw in their last seven games.

The Quakes experienced deja vu in the 31st and 32nd minutes from the last game. Another team member, this time Lenhart, was called for a handball in the penalty box and Brandon Wright-Phillips got Jon Busch to react first. Wright-Phillips scored on the penalty kick to put the Red Bulls on the board first. It was Wright-Phillips’ 17th goal of the season.

In between the call and the kick, San Jose’s Chris Wondolowski received a yellow for arguing.

Lenhart got a yellow card in the 64th minute after numbering the amount of times he was fouled during the game, but nothing was done.

Things looked rather hopeless for the Quakes until Lenhart got some goonie magic going with an 85th minute goal to level the score. It was scored on his second touch in a row and was his first goal of the season.

Wondolowski and Phillips got the first four shots of the game.

In the 4th and the 7th minutes, Wondolowski’s chances started from the right side, originating from teammate Shea Salinas.

Wright-Phillips’ contributions came a bit later, with the first in the 23rd minute and the second in the 28th minute.

The Quakes’ Jason Hernandez had a perfect header to prevent a goal in the 31st minute as Busch was caught near the post defending as well.

Game notes: New York had 21 to San Jose’s seven fouls and the Quakes won duels 61 to the Red Bulls’ 42. San Jose returns home Wednesday at 7:30pm to host the Chicago Fire.

 

Hudson with the big win

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By Jeremy Kahn

MIAMI-Tim Hudson wanted to definitely rebound from his final start before the All-Star break, and he bounced back in a big way for the San Francisco Giants.

Hudson drove in an important run in the top of the fourth inning; as he walked against relief pitcher Sam Dyson to score Pablo Sandoval after the third baseman singled and the Giants would go on to defeat the Miami Marlins 5-3 before an announced crowd of 24,882 at MarlinsPark.

“He had a great first half, and made the All-Star team and I am going to look at that last start as he was tired,” said Bruce Bochy.

The run batted in by Hudson was his first as a member of the Giants, and his first run batted in since April 30, 2013, when Hudson, a member of the Atlanta Braves, hit a home run against Gio Gonzalez of the Washington Nationals at Turner Field.

Hunter Pence then singled to right field to score Brandon Belt, and after a fielding error by Giancarlo Stanton in right field, Gregor Blanco scored right after Hudson scored easily.

Hudson pitched seven and one-third strong innings, allowing just one run on eight hits, not walking a batter and striking out three, as he raised his record to 8-6 on the season.

“This time of year extra rest is usually welcome, but I felt okay,” said Hudson.

Marlins starting pitcher Henderson Alvarez was forced to leave the game with a left ankle contusion after taking a shot to the leg off a ball hit by Joe Panik.

Prior to leaving the game, Alvarez lasted just two and two-thirds innings, allowing two runs on three hits and striking out one, as he lost for the fifth time against six wins on the season.

Sandoval picked up three hits in his first three at-bats, after going 2-for-5 in the 9-1 opening night victory over the Marlins on Friday night.

“It is very tough, it’s very challenging, he is a great ball hitter, as a pitcher that will fall out of your hand,” said Hudson.

Pablo Ozuna tripled off of Hudson in the bottom of the seventh inning with two outs, but was stranded at third base after Hudson struck out Jared Saltalamacchia to end the inning.

Brandon Belt drove in the Giants first run of the evening, as he doubled in Sandoval, who led off the top of the second inning with a double against Alvarez.

Belt then scored the eventual game-winning run late in that frame, as he advanced to third on a Saltalamacchia’s passed ball and then scored when Saltalamacchia’s throw down to Casey McGehee sailed into left field.

Unfortunately, Belt was forced to leave the game with dizziness when the Giants took the field in the bottom of the third inning and was replaced by Michael Morse, while Tyler Colvin went into left field.

“Belt got hit in bp from a throw and he started complaining of dizziness, headache, so we are going to give him a concussion tests,” said Bochy.

With Tim Lincecum pitching tomorrow, Buster Posey will play first base and Hector Sanchez will be behind the plate, catching Lincecum.

Trailing 5-1 entering the bottom of the ninth inning, Sergio Romo came on to face Giancarlo Stanton and on the first pitch he saw from Romo, he put it into the left field seats for his second home run of the series and his 23rd of the season.

Ozuna doubled off of Romo, and then Santiago Casilla came on to close the game and promptly threw a wild pitch that sent Ozuna to third.

Following the Casilla wild pitch, Saltalamacchia singled in Ozuna to cut the Giants lead down to just two at 5-3; however Casilla was able to regroup and get Adieny Hechavarria to fly out to Pence in right field to secure the victory

A’s and Giants commentary: Jose wants to say he’s sorry about writing the book however he did tell the truth:Buster’s second half is going to be explosive

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by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–Former Athletic Mark McGwire missed out on the 1989 A’s reunion as he was coaching the hitting of the Los Angeles Dodgers who lost 3-2 to McGwire’s other former team the St.Louis Cardinals. McGwire’s former A’s Bash Brother Jose Canseco was at the Coliseum on Friday night and said he regretted writing his books about steriods which told of McGwire and other players who were involved in steroid use. The book helped indict some of the players who were at the Congressional hearings.

Canseco has a engaging and charming personality that he might be able to get away with it and he’s like Jim Bouton the former Yankees pitcher who wrote the book Ball Four who talked about his years with the Yankees, Pilots, Braves and Astros. Canseco committed the cardinal sin he told the truth. The book was a marketing fantasy and people were paying a lot of money which is taken away from the everyday world and put into a place where they have modern day gladiators going into this sort of combat and coming out with sort of a victory.

If you go back to the curtain you’ll see that the wizard has worts and thists and if your the wizard that’s real unpopular. So I don’t know how successful Canseco is going to be at getting accepted into the fold. It took Bouton a long, long time. Jose shouldn’t regret writing the book the book told the truth, and there might have been some issues of choice or style that he could have been made in the book that he might regret but the writing of the itself was the tipping point in getting baseball to a place where it decided that it had a real problem.

A’s Josh Donalson launching some gamers: I have had the privledge of being down on the field right behind the backstop when the A’s Josh Donaldson hit his prior game winning shot back in the month of May and it was pretty majestic and your first thought was are they going to be able to rule this fair as it was about ready to go over the foul pole. Major Leauge Baseball has a system that can measure the flight of the ball and in a couple of years they will have the ability to tell how far a ball is hit and how far it took someone to get it.

This technology has the ability to measure some of these balls and Donaldson has hit some balls that have gone 100 feet high that’s just astonishing, Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow’s phrase is it’s trying to leave earth and if you could get a baseball 150 feet up in the air that is almost like being able to start a cloud burst and shows that Donaldson has the ability to hit one deep.

Giants update: The Miami Marlins have two players who must have some the longest names in baseball maybe standing next to the A’s pitcher Jeff Samrdzija, the equipment manager of the Marlins would have to put some work in stitching the names of the Marlins Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Adeiny Hechavarria who are two key players in the Marlins line up. They certainly will take up the equipment manager’s vowel supply.

Hechavarria is going to help the Marlins and he’s a good enough shortstop who is good enough to be the answer to Hanley Ramirez. The Marlins are looking for great things from Hechavarria. In the meantime great things have stopped happening for the Marlins for this series with the Giants, as Buster Posey is hiting the ball well, he awoke from his three week slumber with a grand slam on Sunday against the Diamondbacks at AT&T.

Buster’s shot ended a 2-2 deadlock that ended the first half of the season at the 90th game of the season. Posey picked up right off where he left off and had three big hits on Friday night in Miami and scored two runs and had a couple of RBIs. If Posey heats up look out. His platooning at first base is something that manager Bruce Bochy is doing to keep him rested a game or two but Posey doesn’t want to do anything else but catch.

Michael Duca does A’s and Giants commentary weekly for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Donaldson’s Dramatics: 3-Run Homer In Ninth Beats Baltimore 5-4

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Oakland Athletics' Josh Donaldson (20) is welcomed after hitting the game-winning three-run home run off Baltimore Orioles' Zach Britton in the ninth inning of a baseball game Friday, July 18, 2014, in Oakland, Calif. Oakland won 5-4. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
Oakland Athletics’ Josh Donaldson (20) is welcomed after hitting the game-winning three-run home run off Baltimore Orioles’ Zach Britton in the ninth inning of a baseball game Friday, July 18, 2014, in Oakland, Calif. Oakland won 5-4. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

By Kahlil Najar

OAKLAND – The fireworks weren’t over after the All-Star game for the A’s. Josh Donaldson cranked a three-run shot to deep right-center field in the bottom of the ninth to give the A’s (60-36) a 5-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles (52-43).

“It was an amazing game all around,” said Bob Melvin. “Being able to put up a three spot in the ninth against a really good closer without an out. We’re going to play all 27 outs.”The game played out like a heavyweight boxing match. The hated Manny Machado and the Baltimore Orioles were coming to town six weeks after Machado and Donaldson had some words at third base and the teams matched each other with beaning each others players.

The A’s were able to get on the board first in the bottom of the third inning when Coco Crisp was able to cross home plate. Crisp hit a single to get on base then advanced to second on a wild pitch by Baltimore starting pitcher Chris Tillman. With Crisp on second John Jaso hit his 15th double of the year to center field and scored Crisp easily to give the A’s a 1-0 lead.

Baltimore waited until the fifth inning to strike and take the lead from Oakland. J.J. Hardy was beaned by Samardzija to start the inning and was moved to third after a single by Machado and ground out by the Orioles. Schoop then came up and hit his seventh home run of the year to left field and make it a 2-1 game.

Oakland didn’t take long to respond as Derek Norris came up in the bottom of the inning and hit a line shot over to left field that missed hitting the net in the Overstock.com “O” and tied the game at two a piece.

In the seventh, after hearing boos all night Manny Machado hit his 10th home run of the season over the out of town scoreboard with Hardy on base to give the Orioles a 4-2 lead. The homer was a slap in the face of all 27,000 Oakland fans that were in attendance as they could feel this one slipping away.

That was until the bottom of the ninth.

The Orioles put in their reliable closer Zach Britton to close the game. Back to Back Home Run Derby champion Yoenis Cespedes was up to bat first. The crowd was anxious in anticipation on a homer from Yo but he did the exact opposite. Cespedes hit a slow roller to third base that Machado wasn’t ready for so Cespedes was able to make it to first safely. Brandon Moss was next and he hit a nice bloop single to right field that landed him at first and the speedy Cespedes made it to third. Donaldson, who had been without a hit tonight, came up to the plate representing the winning run. On a first pitch two-seam fastball down the middle of the plate, Donaldson launched his 21st home run of the year into the back of the Coliseum and sent everyone home with a 5-4 Oakland victory.

The battle between Machado and Donaldson was not lost on crowd tonight or on Bob Melvin. Nor were the lead changing home runs by each player.

“Certainly there’s a little of irony involved in the whole thing,” said Melvin. “Our fans came out and there was some heckling. I think Machado handled it pretty well and he had a huge at bat and hit a big home run. Then to see JD come up in the ninth and you think ‘Really? Could this happen?’ and it did. We’ve seen JD come up big for us in those big at bats.”

The A’s and Orioles head back at it tomorrow night when Jason Hammel takes on Wei-Yin Chen, game time 6:05 pm.

Offense breaks out in win

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By Jeremy Kahn

MIAMI-Maybe the four-day All-Star break from baseball was helpful for the San Francisco Giants and their bats.

After limping to the finish line at the end of the first half one game behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Giants bats awoke in a big way in the opener of their three-game series against the Miami Marlins, as they defeated the Marlins 9-1 before only 23,017 at Marlins Park.

“They came out and played well this first game, this is a great sign and off a tough pitcher, Eovaldi has great stuff,” said Bruce Bochy.

With the victory, coupled with the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Busch Stadium, the Giants are once again in sole possession of first place by mere percentage points in the National League West.

This was the Giants 39th win of the season when they score the first run of the game, and are now 39-15 when they hit a home run.

Their .722 winning percentage when hitting a home run in a game is the highest in the National League.

Brandon Crawford got the Giants on the board in the top of the second inning, as he took a Nathan Eovaldi offering over the right field wall for his eighth home run of the season.

“With him you have to, he does have four good pitches,” said Crawford.

It was an 11 pitch at-bat for Crawford against Eovaldi.

“Great at-bat, and he did a nice job,” said Bochy.

Buster Posey got in on the act in the top of the third inning, as he singled in Hunter Pence, who walked with one out in the inning.

After Pablo Sandoval doubled Posey to third base, Michael Morse singled in Posey for the Giants second run of the inning and their fourth of the evening.

The Giants blew the game wide open in the top of the fifth inning, as they scored five runs, as Posey drove in his second run of the game with a single that scored Pence, after he led off the inning with a double.

Following Posey’s second single and second run batted in of the game, Sandoval took an Eovaldi pitch and put it into the right field seats for his 12th home run of the season.

Crawford rounded out the scoring for the Giants in both the inning and the game, as he hit a sacrifice fly Marcell Ozuna in centerfield to score Morse, who doubled with one out.

This was the fifth time this season that the Giants have scored five or more runs in an inning, and the fourth time on the road.

Madison Bumgarner pitched a great game, as he went six innings, allowing one run, while scattering four hits, walking two and struck out, as he upped his record to 11-7 on the season.

“Good to see everybody playing like that, good to see, I guess everybody had a good All-Star break,” said Bumgarner.

Bumgarner raised his record to 7-2 with a 1.94 earned run average in 11 road starts this season.

Before being taken out of the game and being replaced by Hector Sanchez, Posey went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two runs batted in.

Posey was not only the Giants player to pickup three hits on the night, as Morse also went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and a run batted in.

The Giants 1-6 batters went 11-for-22 with eight runs scored and six runs batted in.

Crawford was the only batter out of the 7-8-9 hitters to get a hit, score a run and drive in any runs, as he drove in three on the evening.

As a team, the Giants went 6-for-11 with runners in scoring position.

Second baseman Joe Panik went 2-for-5 at the plate, and it was the fifth time since being recalled from Fresno on June 20 that he had two hits in the same game.

This was the fifth three-hit game of the season for Morse, his first since June 12 at home versus the Washington Nationals.

It was an off night for Eovaldi, who lasted just four innings, allowing eight runs on nine hits, walking one and striking out five and allowing those two home runs and fell to 5-5 on the season.

Yusmeiro Petit replaced Bumgarner in the bottom of the seventh inning, and he pitched one inning, allowing one hit and striking out one.

Javier Lopez came on in the bottom of the eighth inning, and retired Christian Yelich, but then gave up a single to Ed Lucas before being replaced by Juan Gutierrez.

The right-hander threw two-thirds of an inning, allowing one hit.

The Giants fourth reliever Jean Machi finished the game, as he pitched a perfect inning with one strikeout and the Giants raised their record on the season to 53-43.

“Some guys in the pen could use work,” said Bochy.

On the other side of things, Marlins manager Mike Redmond used four different relievers before the night was done, as Dan Jennings, Chris Hatcher, Mike Dunn, Bryan Morris and Steve Cishek finished the final five innings for the Marlins, who fall to 44-51 on the season.

Giancarlo Stanton drove in the only Marlins run of the evening, as he took a Bumgarner pitch and planted it into the fixture in left-center field and according to ESPN Stats Info, it was measured at 466 feet.

It was the 139th career home run for Stanton, moving him into fourth place on the Marlins all-time home run list, passing Miguel Cabrera,

Stanton trails Dan Uggla by 15 (154) home runs for the most in team history, then it is Hanley Ramirez with 148 and Mike Lowell with 143.

Christian Yelich extended his hitting streak up to 11 games, as he went 1-for-4.