Month: August 2014

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.

By Jeremy Harness

Things are starting to get better for the Giants. Much better.

The Giants took the second of a three-game series from the Milwaukee Brewers Wednesday night in an offensive explosion that they are not used to experiencing. The team has had a very successful road trip that has them within striking distance of the division-leading Dodgers, something that was in serious doubt as recent as two weeks ago.

Their fortunes may be about to turn around even more.

That’s because center fielder Angel Pagan is set to make his return to the lineup for Thursday’s game. Pagan is considered the catalyst of this offense, and he was sorely missed, particularly for the better part of the past two months that saw the Giants fall dramatically from their perch atop the National League West.

Pagan had been out with a nagging back injury, a year after he missed most of the second half of the 2013 season with a hamstring ailment.

Hunter Pence, who went 2-for-6 Wednesday, has done an admirable job filling in at the stop of the lineup after the experiment with Gregor Blanco didn’t exactly work out. Pagan is expected to make a significant impact, barring any further setbacks.

As for the rest of the team, starter Ryan Vogelsong got plenty of run support in Wednesday’s 7-3 win over the Brewers, something that he hasn’t been accustomed to lately. Pablo Sandoval and Michael Morse each drove in three runs, with Sandoval nailing a crucial two-run homer in the top of the eighth inning to give Giants enough cushion to cruise the rest of the way to victory.

Vogelsong wasn’t too bad himself. He went six strong innings and gave up only a run on seven hits, walking one and striking out three in lowering his ERA to 3.77.

Juan Gutierrez, however, gave up a pair of runs in the seventh inning without retiring a single batter and allowed the Brewers to climb back into the game. Thankfully, the other relievers were able to pick up the slack, as Jeremy Affeldt, Sergio Romo and closer Santiago Casilla each pitched scoreless innings in closing out Milwaukee.

BY PAUL GACKLE

OAKLAND — Sonny Gray’s campaign for a third American League Pitcher of the Month award is getting off to a choppy start.

Gray, who was named the American League’s Pitcher of the Month earlier this week, lasted only 4 1/3 innings on Wednesday — his shortest big-league start — as the Tampa Bay Rays thumped the Oakland A’s 7-3 at the O.co Coliseum.

“We probably haven’t seen a game out of [Gray] like this,” A’s Manager Bob Melvin said.

By giving up six earned runs, Gray (12-5) snapped a streak in which he’d allowed one earned run or fewer while tossing six or more innings in six straight starts.

Gray, who went 5-0 with a 1.03 ERA in July, is now 0-2 with a 5.56 ERA in two August starts. He lost his first start of the month last Friday, despite allowing only three hits to the Kansas City Royals over seven innings of work.

The 24-year-old right-hander ran into trouble early, putting two runners on base in the first, two in the second and he walked the bases loaded in the third.

“He was just erratic with his fastball today,” Melvin said.

But Gray, who was also the American League’s Pitcher of the Month in April, escaped the first three innings relatively unscathed. He left six runners on base while surrendering only one run.

But the floodgates collapsed in the fourth.

Kevin Kiermai

er stretched the Rays lead to 3-0 by hitting his ninth home run of the season with Jose Molina aboard. The Rays added another run later in the inning when Evan Longoria singled in Ben Zobrist.

Gray left the game in the fifth after the Rays scored three more runs thanks to a hit by pitch and an Eric Sogard error on a potential double play ball.

“I thought I was close,” Gray said, referring to his fastball. “It just didn’t have that extra life today.”

As Gray struggled to find his location, the A’s bats continued to slump.

Rays starter Jeremy Hellickson was perfect through three innings and he retired 16 of the first 17 batters he faced before Sogard put the A’s on the board with his first home run of the season in the sixth.

“When you put your team in a hole like that, it puts a lot more pressure on the offense and it’s kind of hard to climb out of,” Gray said.

The A’s have struggled to score runs since they traded Yoenis Cespedes to the Boston Red Sox last week.

Melvin said the pitching needs to pick up the bats.

“It’s going to happen over the course of a season — that’s where you have to be better on the defensive end and hold them down and, like last night’s game, score just enough to win,” he said. “We certainly have the pitching to do that.”

By:Phillip Torres

SANTA CLARA- With a new billion dollar stadium comes a lot of traffic. The San Francisco 49ers new facility looks like it will bring more traffic towards the parking lot of Great America, then it did to Hunters Point in San Francisco.

Levis Stadium will seat more than 70 thousand fans during each game. All 8 home season games are already sold out and there are still tickets being sold for standing room only.

Getting to and from the new facility will be accessible as they VTA lightrail stops just short of the entrance to the stadium. More Public transportation such as busses also run to Santa Clara and close to the ball park. All of this is extra as they have opened up parking lots all around the stadium.

Only problem is, that with many ways to get to Levis, brings the traffic. Getting to and from the ballpark early is highly advised. Plan to get to the game a couple hours early so that none of the event is missed.

Leaving the facility will be the most hectic of them all. Waiting for the lightrail or leaving the parking lots will accumulate a couple of extra hours.

The 49ers will see how this works whwn they host their firat game next week against the Denver Broncos in their preseason home opener.