Month: August 2014

A’s and Giants commentary: BoMel and his record setting A’s; Ball rings Belt’s bell out with concussion

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by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–The game between the Oakland A’s and Minnesota Twins was a nail biter right down to the end and the A’s got contriubtions up and down the line up. The A’s won two straight and A’s pitchers Luke Gregerson has given up only one run in his first game and Sean Doolittle everytime he’s come out he has produced some ridiculous numbers his ERA is at 2.33.

Doolittle has an A’s record for saves by a lefthander at 18 and Friday night set a franchise record for consecutive scoreless innings at 28 2/3 innings the previous record was at 27 2/3 set in June 1998. The A’s improved their lead in the American League West at 3 1/2 games.

One thing that surprised me after A’s manager Bob Melvin picked up his 800th career win on Friday night was that they did not hire a clown to celebrate the win knowing how much Melvin has a fear of clowns and that no one came in with a big red nose and got up and came in and congratulated Melvin. As Melvin said himself after the game it was just another round number after 799.

When you think of how many baseball games have been played and how many managers that have achieved 800 it’s not a bad thing to be in the top 100 manager in wins, “each and every year. I thnk you take a little bit of stock in what you need to do to get better and how to relate to the players, kind of change with the times, more than anything else.” said Melvin

Giants update: The Kansas City Royals who have won five straight and have won 13 of their last 16 games and are 2 1/2 games behind the Detroit Tigers in the A.L. Central. Which means their challenging the Angels, A’s and Tigers for a spot in the playoffs and the Royals are also bidding for 66-77 wins in that range. They have 61 wins as of Saturday.

The Royals are a very good ball club and in particular everybody in the San Francisco knows how good the Giants pitching is and everybody in the Oakland knows how great the A’s bull pen has been well either team can hold a candle to Kansas City. The Royals might be the best yet that I’ve ever seen, they’ve got seven, eight, nine, inning guys average throwing 90 MPH.

They’ve got pitching from guys who can rush it up there at 102 MPH and they can throw a diving two seam sinker at 95 MPH and they can throw a wicked change up besides. The Royals pitcher Wade Davis a reliever has an ERA going into Saturday’s game of 0.95 and is 6-2. Then the Royals closer has off the charts numbers 1-2 with an wicked ERA of 1.81. So if your behind the Royals you are in deep, deep trouble and the Giants made a mistake of getting behind in the seventh inning on Friday night in their loss to the Royals 4-2 coughing up two runs.

Brandon Belt concussion update: Belt seems to be directly in the spotlight of the most star crossed player in baseball this year. Were talking about a player who suffers a fracture and then rehabs and getting ready to come back and was taking extra infield and had a player throw a ball to him at the same time a coach hit a ball to him and the batted ball bounced up to him and hit him in the face and rang his bell.

Belt tried to make a comeback on Wednesday night in Milwaukee but struck out four times and was reshelved again. He was diognoised with post concussion syndrome by Dr.Anthony Saglimbeni who tested Belt for concussion syndrome and Belt failed each of the tests administered and was flown back to San Francisco.

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

Quakes’ efficiency enough

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Photo credit: Russ Isabella – USA Today

By Pearl Allison Lo

CARSON, CA– It was another game in Los Angeles Galaxy’ Landon Donovan’s most memorable MLS moment, the California Clasico, as San Jose made their two chances count for a 2-2 draw Friday.

The Galaxy dominated but couldn’t find the edge they needed for a win. They had 24-3 attempts on goal, 10-2 in the first half.

The Quakes’ Chris Wondolowski scored first. After a blocked shot, Sam Cronin got the ball to Shea Salinas who ran it to Wondo. Wondo then used three touches to position himself and hit his mark straight into the right corner of the net in the 18th minute.

Los Angeles’ Gyasi Zardes finally got a ball through the net when he got a rebound off a San Jose defender in the 29th minute. Zardes’ goal was preceded by a Donovan pass to Robbie Keane. It was Zardes’ third straight goal in as many games. He had a missed header in the 28th minute and was constantly buzzing around the net .

The Quakes didn’t waste long to get back ahead. It started with a giveaway from Donovan. The ball then went to Atiba Harris, Wondolowski and the newcomer. Matias Perez Garcia’s shot hit goalie Jaime Penedo and bounced in in the 31st minute, for his first goal. Perez Garcia side slid in celebration and later seemed to be wiping away tears. Wondo now has an assist in three straight games for the first time in his career.

After the game regarding his goal, Perez Garcia said, “There was a good ball played into the middle and I didn’t have any doubts when it came to me and I just focused and hit it.” Wondolowski responded about his three assists, “”I always try to do whatever I can to help the team win, whether that is scoring goals, trying to set up goals or find the open guy. To be honest, all three of the goals that came from my assists were great finishes. I just made the pass to the open guy and my teammates did most of the work.”

It would have been a giveaway and another Zardes goal in the 41st minute, but he was offsides.

In the 49th minute, Galaxy Omar Gonzalez got a header off a corner from Stefan Ishizaki and bounced it in even again and made the score 2-2.

San Jose’s Victor Bernardez suffered a blow when he collided with a teammate in the 67th minute. He was down for awhile and ended up being subbed out for Ty Harden.

The Quakes got lucky again in the 92nd minute. It looked like Keane scored what could be the very last go-ahead goal, but it was called back by a foul.

Game notes: It was Perez Garcia’s debut as he was signed July 31st.  He ended up playing 83 minutes and  replaced Yannick Djalo, who could be out up to a month, after suffering a quad strain in the last game against Seattle.  It was both Donovan’s first game since he announced retirement and his 300th career start.  San Jose will host FC Dallas on Saturday the 16th at 7:30pm.

Sloppy Play Dooms the Giants

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The San Francisco Giants lost 4-2 to the Kansas City Royals Friday night in Kansas City. The game was a battle of left-handed pitchers. The Giants sent out their ace, Madison Bumgarner, to face the Royals who were trying to win their fifth straight game. Jason Vargas was on the hill for Kansas City.

It would not be easy task for the Giants to beat the Royals. The Royals had won four straight coming into Friday’s game and they had won 2 out of 3 from the A’s last weekend. The Royals are just 2 1/2 games behind Detroit for the AL Central lead.

The Royals took a 2-0 lead in the first inning. With one out, Omar Infante doubled and that was followed by a blast off the bat of Billy Butler into the seats in left field.Bumgarner really labored in the first inning throwing 29 pitches. The Giants tied the game in the third. Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval had back to back singles but Pence was called out at third on a very strange play. The play was called safe but Royals Manager Ned Yost asked for a replay. On the replay, it showed that Pence’s hand appeared to come off the bag while the third baseman still had the tag applied. The call was overturned and that hurt the Giants as first baseman Michael Morse singled and that was followed by a Joaquin Arias double that allowed Sandoval to score with the Giants’ first run of the game. Second baseman Matt Duffy singled to score Morse but Aoki’s throw from right field nailed Arias at the plate for the final out of the inning, Aoki tied a club record with two assists in one inning on throws from the outfield.

The Royals scored twice in the sixth inning to take a 4-2 lead. The Giants made two throwing errors on the same play that allowed the Royals to take the lead for good. Omar Infante singled with one out. Royals catcher Salvador Perez lined a shot to first baseman Michael Morse. Morse’s throw to Duffy at second was offline and Duffy’s throw back to Morse, in an attempt to get Perez, sailed over Morse’s head and both runners were safe. Billy Butler singled to drive in his third run of the game. Royals Left fielder Alex Gordon doubled to drive in the Perez with the second run of the inning.

The outstanding bullpen of the Royals took over. Kelvin Herrera in the 7th, Wade Davis in the 8th and closer Greg Holland in the 9th sealed the win for Kansas City.

Madison Bumgarner took the loss and he is 13-9 for the season. After the game manager Bruce Bochy said “I thought he did a great job.After the first inning, he pitched great. He gave us all he had out there. He gave us a chance to win.” Bumgarner went eight innings and threw 123 pitches.

Game two of the series will be Saturday August Ninth at 4:10pm PDT

A’s Pull Out Victory On Record Setting Night, Beat Twins 6-5

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OAKLAND, CA - AUGUST 08: Coco Crisp #4 of the Oakland Athletics is congratulated by third base coach Mike Gallego #2 after Crisp his a three-run triple with the bases loaded against the Minnesota Twins in the bottom of the fifth inning at O.co Coliseum on August 8, 2014 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
OAKLAND, CA – AUGUST 08: Coco Crisp #4 of the Oakland Athletics is congratulated by third base coach Mike Gallego #2 after Crisp his a three-run triple with the bases loaded against the Minnesota Twins in the bottom of the fifth inning at O.co Coliseum on August 8, 2014 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

By Kahlil Najar

OAKLAND – It’s fitting that the A’s would win by one run tonight. It was Bob Melvin’s 801st win, the A’s have beaten the Twins 11 straight times and the A’s now have 71 wins on the season.

Scott Kazmir threw a beauty of a game tonight except for a gut wrenching 5-run seventh inning that had the Coliseum in a collective gasp. Also a Sean Doolittle misstep in the bottom of the ninth that Josh Willingham took to deep left field that could have put the Twins in the lead missed just left of the foul pole.

With the win tonight the A’s (71-44) are now a season high 27 games over .500 and have won 15 of their last 20 games at home.

When Kazmir left in the fifth, the A’s bullpen of Cook, Gregerson and Doolittle came in to close the game and set an Oakland record of 28 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.

“That’s good right?” said Bob Melvin. “They’ve been on a roll, no doubt about it. Since we figured out where the roles were, they can prepare a little bit better. We have a lot of quality and depth down there. It’s quite a feat.”

On Kazmir tonight, Melvin praised the starting pitcher.

“He was on a roll. It looked like he may finish the game. He made some decent pitches but maybe just got some balls up in that inning. It was a little bit of a surprise to see him give up those hits.”

The A’s got on the board in the bottom of the fifth when after a Vogt walk, Sam Fuld dragged a bunt that landed him safely at first. However on a catching error by the Minnesota first baseman, it moved Fuld to second and Vogt to third. Sogard was up next and walked after five pitches to load the bases.

On the seventh pitch of his at bat Coco Crisp hit a deep triple to right center field that brought everyone home for the first runs of the night and give the A’s a 3-0 lead. While pitching to Moss later in the inning, The Twins Gibson threw the ball in the dirt that squirted pass the catcher and brought Crisp in from third and moved Donaldson to second and make it a 4-0 Oakland lead.

In the bottom of the sixth Josh Reddick started off with a four pitch walk and Vogt followed with a single to give the A’s men on first and second. The reliable Sam Fuld hit a slow grounder to first that moved Reddick and Vogt over. Eric Sogard then hit a 94-mph 2 seam fastball into right field that ended up at the wall and scored Reddick and Vogt to give the A’s a 6-0 lead.

Minnesota got on the board in the top of the seventh when Plouffe hit a hard single past Donaldson into left field that scored Danny Santana who was on third after leading off the inning with a single. After a Vargas strike out, Oswaldo Arcia smacked a single to center field that scored Dozier who was on second to give the Twins a pair of runs in the inning.

These runs snapped a 19 inning scoreless streak for the Twins. The Twins weren’t done.

Chris Parmlee hit a double into deep left field that escaped Moss and drove in two runs to make it a 6-4 Oakland lead.

Even with Ryan Cook coming in to relieve Kazmir, he gave up a double to Nunez who scored Parmlee to make it a 6-5 game.

Gregerson came in to relive Cook and then after a perfect inning, Sean Doolittle same in to close the came.

He gave up a single to the first Twin batter which made the entire O.Co Coliseum nervous. Doolittle calmed down and struck out the next batter then coerced the next Twin to fly to center field. Josh Willingham came in to pitch hit as the Twins last batter and after a monster shot that if foul would have been a home run was struck out by Doolittle who now holds the Oakland record for saves in a season by a left handed pitcher with 18.

The A’s and Twins face-off again tomorrow when the Twins send Trevor May vs. The Shark Jeff Samardzija, game time 6:05 pm.

Raiders fall in preseason opener

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By Jeremy Kahn

After just one preseason game, the Oakland Raiders have to regroup on both sides of the ball prior to their next exhibition tilt.

In his first exhibition game as a member of the Raiders, Matt Schaub finished 3-for-7 with just 21 yards passing.

Schaub played the first three series for the Raiders, all three drives ended via three and outs and the Minnesota Vikings defeated the Raiders 10-6 at TCF Bank Stadium.

Derek Carr, who the Raiders took in the second round out of Fresno State replaced Schaub in the second quarter and went 10-for-16 for 74 yards and an interception.

Last year’s starting quarterback Matt McGloin got the Raiders on the board with under two minutes remaining in the game, as he scored on a 10-yard run.

Other than the McGloin touchdown run, Darren McFadden showed progress, as he looked promising on a 23-yard run, the best highlight by the Raiders first string offense on the evening.

Matt Asiata ended the Vikings first drive of the preseason with a one-yard touchdown that gave the Vikings a 7-0 lead.

Rookie Teddy Bridgewater took the field for the first time as a professional, and Bridgewater led the Vikings down the field and ended with a 30-yard field goal by Blair Walsh.

Kings and Knicks trade players and a pick

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by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings have completed a trade with the New York Knicks. Coming to Sacramento are forward/center Jeremy Tyler and guard Wayne Ellington (pictured). The Kings also received the Knicks 2016 second-round draft selection. Going to the Knicks are forwards Travis Outlaw and Quincy Acy.

Ellington averages 6.4 points per game with a 41.8 – field goal and a 38.6 – percent 3-point shooting percentage. He has played 312 games in the NBA with Minnesota, Memphis, Cleveland, Dallas and New York.

Tyler averages 3.8 points and 2.7 rebounds per contest. He has played for Golden State, Atlanta and New York over the past three seasons.

Outlaw averages 8.5 points per game and had been with the Kings since 2011. Acy came to Sacramento last season in a trade with Toronto.

49ers undermanned and outplayed in pre-season debut against the Ravens

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By Morris Phillips

For a team that has Super Bowl aspirations, the 49ers simply looked like they have a lot of work to do on Thursday night.

The 49ers opened the pre-season with a dud of performance as they got pushed around by the Ravens from start to finish in a 23-3 loss. The Ravens amassed 237 yards rushing with an attack that was afforded 48 carries, and quarterback Joe Flacco spread the ball around in the pass game in his only series, which resulted in a touchdown.

Meanwhile, the 49ers did little offensively save Colin Kaepernick’s lengthy opening drive which resulted in a field goal. In a game where individual performances trump the final score in most cases, backup quarterback Blaine Gabbert’s 49er debut left plenty of room for growth as the former Jaguar went 3 of 11 for 20 yards, one interception and one sack.

Four San Francisco quarterbacks saw action as Kaepernick played the opening series, followed by Gabbert, who played into the second quarter, followed by the reacquired Josh Johnson and McLeod Bethel-Thompson. The combined results of the four were poor as the 49ers totaled 187 yards in offense and had just two rushing first downs.

The Ravens played Flacco in the opening series which lasted 10 plays and culminated with Bernard Pierce’s 2-yard touchdown run. Returning backup Tyrod Taylor went the rest of the way for Baltimore and threw for 116 yards on 13 of 21 passing. Taylor made a bigger impact with his feet, picking up 59 yards on 5 five carries.

The third meeting of the Harbaugh brothers along the sidelines went again to older brother John as did Super Bowl XLVII and the regular season meeting on Thanksgiving 2011. The 49ers planned to show little as they have in previous exhibitions under Jim Harbaugh, and that was even more expected given the rash of injuries the team has suffered in training camp thus far.

For the 49ers, Frank Gore, Michael Crabtree, Patrick Willis and Brandon Lloyd were among the healthy scratches. In Gore’s absence, rookie, second-round pick Carlos Hyde had some big moments in a stint that saw him carry 5 times for 39 yards.
Jonathan Martin, the former Dolphin embroiled in the hazing controversy in Miami in 2014, started for the 49ers at right tackle in place of the injured Anthony Davis. Martin played most of the first half.

The 49ers suffered through a huge disparity in time of possession and total number of plays, as the Ravens held the ball for more than 39 minutes and ran 77 plays to the 49ers’ 46.

The defense, most notably without Pro Bowl linebacker NaVorro Bowman, caught the attention of Harbaugh with their lack of physicality and shortcomings at the point of attack where the team appeared to miss the presence of injured nose tackle Glen Dorsey.

“We got pushed around a little bit,” Harbaugh noted.

The 49ers continue the pre-season next Sunday in the football debut of Levi’s Stadium as the Denver Broncos visit Santa Clara.

Lester wins second A’s start, blanks Twins

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By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Saturday, June 7, 2014

Jon Lester continues to pay immediate dividends for Oakland since he was acquired from Boston at the non-waiver trade deadline. The All-Star lefthander threw his fourth career shutout Thursday, blanking Minnesota 3-0 at the Coliseum.

In the process, the Athletics became the first team this season to reach the 70-win mark, while the Twins lost game No. 82, assuring that Minnesota cannot finish at least .500 on the season.

Lester (12-7) fanned eight, issued two walks and only allowed two Twins baserunners to advance past first base while tossing his 11th career shutout. The only potential trouble Lester encountered was working out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth.

The former Red Sox ace had a perfect game going until former A’s catcher Kurt Suzuki singled to lead off the Twins’ sixth. Lester is 6-0 with a 1.21 ERA in his last six starts.

Oakland took a 2-0 lead in the third inning when Stephen Vogt snapped an 0-for-23 skid with his sixth home run of the year, a two-run shot off losing pitcher Yohan Pino (1-4). The A’s tacked on another run in the fourth when Brandon Moss and Derek Norris cracked back-to-back doubles.

From there, Lester did the rest.

In Friday’s game, Kyle Gibson (10-8) is on the mound for Minnesota, facing Oakland lefthander Scott Kasmir (12-4).

Giants falter in Pagan’s return

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By Jeremy Harness

The good news that came out of Thursday’s game against the Milwaukee Brewers is that center fielder Angel Pagan made his return to the lineup and looked good doing it.

The leadoff man collected two hits, including a bloop single into shallow right to start the game, as well as making a very nice sliding catch on the warning track in right center.

Not too shabby for a guy who has missed a total of 44 games this season because of a back injury.

Now with the bad news; the Giants dropped the rubber match of a three-game series by virtue of a 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Brewers at Miller Park, while the division-leading Dodgers added one more game to their advantage over the second-place Giants.

As he did last week in New York, starter Jake Peavy pitched brilliantly but got no run support from his teammates (the one run the Giants mustered was scored by Peavy himself).

In the end, Peavy remained winless as a Giant and saw his overall season mark go to 1-12. That’s the type of thing that can happen when you have the worst run support in the majors, which Peavy has. He surrendered three runs on nine hits, walking three and striking out another three.

The Brewers got on the board first in the bottom of the first, when admitted PED user Ryan Braun doubled into the gap in right-center to score Jonathan Lucroy.

After the Giants tied the game at 1-1 in the fifth, Milwaukee scored two runs in the sixth, as Khris Davis and Mark Reynolds each drove in runs to effectively put the game away.

The Giants could not get anything going against Brewers starter Wily Peralta (14-6), which didn’t bode well for Peavy at all.

The Giants will head to Kansas City for a three-game series against the Royals, who are now in the hunt for the American League Central crown, something that has been completely out of the picture for decades until now.

Madison Bumgarner will attempt to get the Giants back on the right track when he takes the ball Friday against Kansas City lefty Jason Vargas.

A’s and Twins representing the American League

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By Jeremy Kahn

OAKLAND-If you want to go back to the late 1980s and early 1990s to find the American League Champions, look no further than the two teams playing at the Coliseum this weekend.

The Minnesota Twins and the Oakland A’s represented the American League in five consecutive World Series with the Twins and A’s combining to win three of those five World Series.

Beginning in 1987, the Twins played the St. Louis Cardinals with the Twins winning their first World Series since they were known as the Washington Senators back in 1924 when they defeated the New York Giants.

Led by Frank Viola, Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek and Gary Gaetti, the Twins defeated the Cardinals in a thrilling seven-game series with the home team winning all the games.

One year later, the A’s who swept the Boston Red Sox to get to their first World Series since 1974 faced the upstart Los Angeles Dodgers, who stunned the New York Mets in seven games to return to their first Fall Classic since winning it all in 1981 against the New York Yankees.

All things pointed towards the A’s defeating the Dodgers and bringing a fourth World Championship to the City of Oakland, and first since 1974, when the A’s defeated the Dodgers in five games.

Unfortunately, somebody forgot to tell the Dodgers that they were supposed to lie for the A’s.

Eventual American League Most Valuable Player Jose Canseco gave the A’s a 4-2 lead in the top of the second inning, as he hit a Grand Slam off of Dodgers pitcher and former farmhand Tim Belcher to straightaway centerfield.

After the Dodgers trimmed the A’s lead down to 4-3, A’s manager Tony LaRussa summoned closer extraordinaire Dennis Eckersley in from for the bottom of the ninth inning.

Eckersley got the first two outs of the inning, and all that was standing in his way was former A’s outfielder Mike Davis, who walked.

Kirk Gibson, who was unable to go when the game started came off the bench and hit the most dramatic home run in World Series history, as he hit a 3-2 backdoor slider into the right field bleachers to give the Dodgers an amazing 5-4 victory.

That home run by Gibson was all that the Dodgers need for momentum, as they would go on to defeat the A’s in five games.

One year later, the A’s would return to the World Series to face their cross bay rivals, the San Francisco Giants.

After winning the first two games in Oakland, the scene switched to CandlestickPark on Tuesday October 17.

Less than a half hour to the game, the San Francisco Bay Area was hit with the most powerful earthquake since the 1906 Earthquake.

Commissioner Faye Vincent, who became the commissioner just a month before after the sudden death of Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, decided along with other personnel to postpone the World Series until October 27.

Despite the long layoff, it did not faze the A’s at all, as they won the next two games to sweep the Giants and win their first World Series in 15 seasons.

After winning in 1989, all things pointed to the A’s becoming the first team since the 1977 and 1978 New York Yankees to win back-to-back World Series.

Just like in 1988, when the Dodgers stunned the baseball world by defeating the A’s in five games, the Cincinnati Reds did something that was last seen in a World Series in 1976, when they swept the Yankees in four straight games.

The Barry Larkin, Jose Rijo, Chris Sabo and the Nasty Boys of Rob Dibble, Norm Charlton and Randy Myers led Reds swept the A’s in four straight games and that was the last time that the A’s have made it to the World Series.

After finishing in last place in the American League West in 1990, very few people would think that the Twins would make it to the World Series for the second time in five seasons.

The Twins did just that, as they defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series and they would face the Atlanta Braves, who finished in last place in the National League West in 1990.

Just like in 1987, when the home team won all seven games, it happened again, as the Twins defeated the Braves in one of the greatest World Series ever, as Gene Larkin hit a bases loaded single in the bottom of the 10th inning to give the Twins a 1-0 victory.

One night earlier, the Twins won in extra innings, as Puckett hit a Charlie Leibrandt pitch over the left-center wall to send the series to a seventh game.