Month: August 2014

FC Dallas Embarrasses San Jose at Home With 5-0 Shutout; Ends Earthquakes’ Point Streak at Four Games

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Photo Credit: mlssoccer.com
Photo Credit: mlssoccer.com

By: Joe Lami

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–

Saturday night was something out of a nightmare for the San Jose Earthquakes as they were absolutely dominated by FC Dallas in a 5-0 shutout. Star rookie, Tesho Akindele, stole the show for Dallas recording his first career hat trick. Fabian Castillo was also a major factor for Dallas as he contributed two goals and an assist.

The nightmare began in the 11th minute for San Jose, when defender, Shaun Francis pulled up short due to an apparent hamstring injury. He would walk off the field for a few moments to get a breather before deciding to go back into play. He would play for just over a minute, but was too injured to continue, as Earthquakes’ coach, Mark Watson, had to burn his first substitution in the 13th minute. Brandon Barklage came in for the injured Francis.

The Earthquakes had some chances early in the first half, forcing Dallas goalkeeper, Raul Fernandez, to earn his shutout. In the 29th minute, Sam Cronin, hit a skipping shot from the right side just outside of the box, forcing Fernandez to make the diving save to his right.  Fernandez had five saves in the win. Just a minute later, Castillo found his first of the evening with a great individual effort, making Jason Hernandez look silly along the way to give Dallas the 1-0 lead.

In the 43rd minute Dallas would take a 2-0 advantage when Akindele got his first of three when a shot from outside the box took a tricky bounce off of an Earthquakes’ defender before it made its way past Jon Busch.

The Earthquakes best chance came in the 45th minute when they were awarded a penalty kick. Matias Perez Garcia was taken down in the penalty box to give Chris Wondolowski a chance. Wondolowski fired a bullet that just missed the top left corner to end the half.

FC Dallas tacked on three more goals in the second half to propel them to victory. Castillo’s two goals on Saturday night gives him the team lead with eight on the season. “We couldn’t handle him, he has a ton of pace and incredible individual effort,” commented Watson. “He caused a lot of problems with his pace,” added Busch.

Akindele’s three goals now gives him seven on the season, making him the honor of being the highest scoring rookie in FC Dallas history. Aleksey Korol previously held the honor for his five tallies he scored in 2000.

FC Dallas extends their unbeaten streak to nine with the victory. It also marks the first time that Dallas coach, Oscar Pareja, has beaten San Jose in his ninth attempt.

San Jose had their unbeaten streak snapped at four games with the loss. “There was a good feeling about the team. We finally got something going, and then this loss. It’s really deflating,” commented Watson.

The Earthquakes will try to recover on Wednesday when they host division leading, Seattle.

Blanco caps comeback

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By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-After falling behind the Philadelphia Phillies early in the game, the San Francisco Giants made a dramatic comeback.

Gregor Blanco capped that comeback, as he singled in Joe Panik in the bottom of the eighth inning and the Giants came back from a 5-1 deficit to defeat the Phillies 6-5 at AT&T Park.

Michael Morse picked up three hits, as he doubled twice and tripled, as the Giants won for the second time in the last three games after losing five in a row.

Jeremy Affeldt pitched one and one-third innings to pickup his third win of the season, while Sergio Romo came on to get the final two outs for his 23rd save of the season.

Things looked bleak for the Giants in the early going, as the Phillies took a 5-1 lead in the top of the fifth inning after they scored three runs to chase Giants starter Tim Hudson, who lasted just four innings, allowing five runs and eight hits.

Ryan Howard picked up three hits and drove in three runs for the Phillies, while leadoff man Ben Revere went four-for-five in the heartbreaking defeat.

After picking up three more hits versus Hudson, Howard raised his career batting average against up to .343 (24-for-70).

Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick lasted five innings, giving up four runs and allowing eight hits.

Panik led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a triple, and then Blanco singled in the eventual winning run.

Five Giants relievers combined to not allow a run over the final five innings.

The Giants began their rally in the bottom of the sixth inning, as Buster Posey to get the rally started, then Pablo Sandoval singled and then a morse doubled in Posey and Adam Duvall walked.

After the Duvall walk, Panik and Blanco both singled in runs and then Angel Pagan tied up the game with a sacrifice fly to score Duvall.

A’s and Giants commentary: Panda picks up the pace with improved average but may not be back next year

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by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–It’s unlikely that we will see Pablo Sandoval back in a Giants uniform not becuase they don’t want him back next season but because they will choose not to pay market rates for him. Giants general manager Brian Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy are satisfied with what they see in Sandoval he hit.185 in the first five weeks of the season and has hit .320 since then how can you not be satisfied with that?

In spite of all that the Giants would like to have him but they can’t afford Sandoval, here’s what it comes down to he was asking for three years for $40 million which is $14 million a year that’s not terribly dis-similar from the numbers that were being thrown around from Hunter Pence’s numbers from the beginning of last year.

Pence closed with an explosion in September wound up getting a deal worth $18 million a year that’s five years for $90 million. Pence has played himself into that territory even though five years is a gamble with his size and that’s not to demean his condition and his weight we’re just talking about his body type. He has a shorter squatty body, he may lose his ability to react to the ball.

There is no question about it Bochy said the first three months of the season Panda was gone as soon as he was hitting in games in the seventh inning or later. He replaced Joauquin Arias at third base for defense, now I don’t think there is anybody in the National League you would use to replace him and the Panda is as good a defender as anyone out there.

Oakland A’s update: The Braves are becoming another team that’s an anigma with the highest runs scored in baseball. They traded away one player that wasn’t having that good of a year he was having his worst year in a Brave uniform and suddenly you have a team that can’t score runs. The Angels have been giving the A’s an opportunity to pull away their not taking advantage of it as they lost to Braves on Friday.

The A’s lost three out of four in Kansas City and now their in Atlanta facing a team that has to put out an all points bulletin to find out anything about them. Nobody knows anything about the Braves because they looked like they moved out of Turner Stadium. The A’s come to town and the Braves are below .500 and yet they got blown out on Friday night 7-2.

The Braves haven’t scored seven runs in a game in a week or two, the Braves have Justin Upton .210, Freddie Freeman.294, and Jason Heywood is swinging .269. You could have six guys in a row hitting .279 and how did they score on the A’s? On a single, walk, and a run. They didn’t score putting together rallies they put together hits when they needed to.

The Braves got some big contributions or they get nothing at all, the other six guys in that line up including the pitcher have to hit in order for that line up to win. The Washington Nationals are the class of the NL East and the Nats are going to end up running away with that division. and they’ll win it by double digits by the end of the season.

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

Bumgarner’s Gem Ruined in Late Innings as Giants Drop Another Game at Home

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Photo Credit: SF Gate
Photo Credit: SF Gate

By: Joe Lami

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.–The struggles for the Giants continue as they were defeated Friday night 5-3 in ten innings by the slumping Philadelphia Phillies. The Giants entered the night looking to get two consecutive wins at home for the first time since they went on a five-game winning streak to begin June. San Francisco has lost six of their last seven and 14 of their last 20 games, while Philadelphia was coming into the contest losing five of their last six.

The Giants had high hopes early on, as Madison Bumgarner started the game hot, striking out four of the first six batters. Bumgarner had a perfect game into the fourth inning, until Jimmy Rollins broke it up with a bloop single right over the head of Joe Panik, whose diving attempt wasn’t good enough, as it tipped off of his glove. Bumgarner would be able to get out of the inning fairly quickly after a controversial call at 3rd when Rollins broke for 3rd, but Bumgarner picked him off. Review would confirm the call.

Cole Hamels was the starting pitcher on the other side, and he came into the contest being one of the hottest pitchers in all of baseball, coming into the contest throwing 7 or more innings while only giving up one earned run over his last five starts. He gave up three hits in the first three innings, but the Giants weren’t able to do anything about it.

It wasn’t until the fourth inning when the Giants got on the scoreboard. Buster Posey started off the inning with a single. He would be moved to third when Pablo Sandoval hit a ground rule double to left-center field. This would bring up Michael Morse, who in his first at-bat stroke one 400 ft to right, but it was to the deepest part of the ballpark. Morse would get a hold of another one, as he sent a moon shot to left that landed ten rows up the bleachers over the 382 mark. Giants’ Manager, Bruce Bochy praised Morse “He had some great At-Bats for us tonight”. The Giants were up 3-0 at the end of the 4th.

Bumgarner’s only hiccup out his outing came in the fifth inning, when the very first batter, Maron Byrd, would get one back for the Phillies on a solo shot to left field bringing the Giants’ lead to 3-1. It was Byrd’s 23rd home run of the year, leading the Phillies and is third in the National League. Bumgarner would buckle down not allowing another run the rest of his outing. Bumgarner had a line of seven innings pitched, surrendering one run on four hits while striking out nine. Eight of the nine strikeouts were earned from swinging strikes. He earned just his third quality start of the season at home and the first since June 10. “It feels nice to throw good at home, it’s been a while,” commented Bumgarner. Bochy added “Bum, what a great job”.

The Giants had a couple of chances to add to their lead, their most promising was in the sixth inning, when Brandon Crawford was up with Gregor Blanco on third. San Francisco tried to play a safety squeeze that went wrong. A bad bunt from Crawford plus bad base running from Blanco took away their chance. Blanco read the play wrong and tried to break for the plate, when he relalized that he wouldn’t make it, he tried to get back to third where he was thrown out by Hamel. “ There needs to be a fine line between being aggressive and being smart,” said Bochy.

 

The Phillies took advantage of the two-time all star leaving the game, as they tied the game up in the eighth inning. Jeremy Affeldt gave up a base hit to Darin Ruf to start the inning, and Cody Asche followed up by hitting his first home run of his career at AT&T Park driving it just over the right field wall to the first row of the arcade. Bumgarner mentioned that “It looked like his foot slipped on that pitch”, to which he added “it would have affected me”. For Affeldt, it was the first home run he’s given up in over a calendar year (June 28, 2013 vs. San Diego) and the first one to a left-handed batter since April 24, 2011.

 

The score was tied heading into the eighth where the Giants had yet another chance. This time with two outs and Sandoval on second base. Panik lined one to right field for the base hit, but the Giants took the chance to bring home Sandoval, where he was embarrassingly thrown out by ten feet. “We haven’t been scoring that much lately, so we took the chance, and he (Byrd) made a perfect throw,” added Bochy.

 

The Giants wouldn’t receive another great scoring chance, as the Phillies took the lead in the tenth inning when Chase Utley was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to give the Phillies the lead. Ryan Howard would extend the lead to 5-3 on a sacrifice fly that went to the warning track in left field.

 

The Giants hope to turn this terrible streak at home around, where they have gone 8-23 in the last 31 home games. This compares to their 22-9 record at home for their first 31 game at home. Even with Friday night’s loss the Giants didn’t lose any ground in the playoff race, as both the Dodgers (5.5 back of NL West) and Pirates (0.5 back of 2nd Wild Card) lost.

 

Tomorrow the Giants will try to get revenge on the Phillies in the second game of the three game set, where Tim Hudson will take the bump facing off against Kyle Kendrick.

 

 

The Butler did it in the end

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By Jeremy Kahn

OAKLAND-After a lackluster showing in the preseason opener against the Minnesota Vikings, the Oakland Raiders looked a lot better in their second preseason game.

Matt McGloin found Brice Butler wide open in the end zone with just six seconds remaining in the game, as the Raiders came back from two different 13-point deficits to defeat the Detroit Lions 27-26 at the Coliseum.

McGloin was forced into the game on the Raiders final drive of the game after Carr was hit, and suffered a concussion.

Matt Schaub went eight-for-13 for 87 yards and an interception before giving way to rookie Derek Carr.

On the other side of things, Matthew Stafford was fantastic, as he went nine-for-10 for 88 yards passing and a touchdown.

James Ihedigbo intercepted the Schaub pass at the Lions 26-yard line and returned it to the Raiders 36-yard line, for a 38-yard return.

After an eight-yard gain by Reggie Bush, Stafford found Golden Tate for a 28-yard touchdown pass to give the Lions the lead just 45 seconds after the interception.

Since the new rule that the point after touchdown was moved back to the 15-yard line, which is essentially a 33-yard field goal, Nate Freese missed the extra point.

The Raiders then went three-and-out on their next drive, and then Stafford threw his second touchdown pass of the evening, when he found Kris Durham for a four-yard touchdown pass to give the Lions a 13-0 lead.

King then punted again for the second time in the quarter; however the Lions were not able to cash in on the latest punt, as Sam Martin was forced to punt for the visitors from the MotorCity.

Schaub and former DeLaSalle star Maurice Jones-Drew came up with the big play on the Raiders ensuing drive, as Schaub found Jones-Drew for a 21-yard pass and just three plays later, Darren McFadden got the Raiders on the board, as he scored over right guard from one-yard out to narrow the Lions lead down to six.

After another three-and-out forced by the Raiders defense, Sebastian Jankowski kicked a 28-yard field to cut the lead down to just three.

On his second drive of the game, Dan Orlovsky drove the Lions down the field, and Freese kicked a 55-yard field goal with 13 seconds remaining in the first half.

George Winn gave the Lions a 13-point lead on their first possession of the third quarter, as he took the ball across the goal line from one yard after the Lions went 83 yards in 17 plays.

After the Raiders and the Lions were unable to get any points on the board, and punting the ball away, the Raiders were able to get the lead down to six points.

Derek Carr found tight end Jake Murphy for a three-yard touchdown pass for his first touchdown of the preseason.

Janikowski then got the Raiders within three, as he kicked a 36-yard field goal just under a minute into the fourth quarter.

McGloin found Scott Simonson over the middle; however Simonson was hit by DeJon Gomes and Simonson fumbled the ball and Brandon Hepburn recovered the ball in the end zone. Gomes suffered a neck injury on the Simonson hit and fumble.

After the Lions were unable to closeout the game, the Raiders got the ball back with 2:32 remaining in the game and the combination of Carr, who left with that concussion and McGloin led the Raiders to victory.

A’s fall 7-2

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Photo credit: AP Photo/David Tulis

By Pearl Allison Lo

The Major League-leading team, Oakland, went down in order in six innings, never putting a runner on base after they scored, as the Atlanta Braves homered their way to victory Friday.

Though Braves’ starter Alex Wood gave up at least three walks for the third game in a row, he has only given up a combined five earned runs his last four outings. Wood pitched six innings, giving up four hits while walking three and striking out one as Atlanta managed to stay above a .500 record. It was the second time this month the the Braves have scored seven runs in a game. They also had four home runs on August 8.

The last time A’s starter Jason Hammel gave up three home runs in a game was April 9. Hammel only pitched three innings, while giving up six hits, five earned runs, one walk and striking out one. It was his third outing against the Braves  in the last three years and his first bad start against them. “”Otherwise I felt great,” said Hammel. My body hasn’t felt that good in a while.”

It was Oakland’s third loss in a row.

The A’s had an early chance with two runners on due to walks with one out. However, Jonny Gomes was picked off after an earlier safe call challenge was overturned.

Atlanta struck first in the bottom of the second. Justin Upton, who was day to day, had a leadoff home run and one out later, Evan Gattis homered to make it 2-0.

In the consecutive inning, the Braves made it 5-0. With one out, Jason Heyward and Phil Gosselin singled and Freddie Freeman had Atlanta’s third homer of the night. Hammel wasn’t out of the woods yet though. A double after one more out,a hit batter and a passed ball by his catcher Derek Norris loaded the bases. After that, Hammel got Tommy La Stella to fly out.

Norris responded with a leadoff double in the fourth. Teammate Nate Freiman then homered to bring home some run support for Hammel.

The Braves got two more runs, one due to an error, in the bottom of the sixth. Oakland had two outs, but Heyward got on base due to a fielding miscue. Gosselin then responded with the long ball to make it 7-2.

Game notes: David Carpenter, one of Woods’ three relievers, struck out two of the batters he faced.The series continues Saturday at 4:10pm PST.

 

Kings sign big, big man

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by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings Kings have signed 7-foot-5, 360-pound center Sim Bhullar to a contract. Per team policy, the details of the contract were not made public.

Bhullar, who was born in Toronto, Ontario, is the first player of Indian descent to sign a NBA contract. Bhullar played for the Kings summer league team that won the championship in Las Vegas.

Sim Bhullar played two seasons at New Mexico State University. He averaged 10.2 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 2.9 blocks and 25.3 minutes per game for the Aggies. Bhullar was a two-time Western Athletic Conference Tournament MVP.

“I’ve long believed that India is the next great frontier for the NBA, and adding a talented player like Sim only underscores the exponential growth basketball has experienced in that nation,” said Kings Owner Vivek Ranadivé. “While Sim is the first player of Indian descent to sign with an NBA franchise, he represents one of many that will emerge from that region as the game continues to garner more attention and generate ever-increasing passion among a new generation of Indian fans.”    

The Kings have been working with the NBA to promote basketball in India. The game is now India’s fastest growing sport. The Kings televised 20 games in the country last season. The team has established a website in Hindi and has sent players as well as the dance team to India.

Warriors Unveil Preliminary Plans for New Arena

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The Golden State Warriors met with the Mission Bay Citizens Advisory Committee Thursday evening August 14th to discuss the preliminary site design concept for their new arena. The meeting lasted ninety minutes and over one hundred people jammed the meeting room to find out about the plans for the arena and to ask questions about the project.

The Warriors bought parcels 29,30,31 and 32 in Mission Bay. The parcels are bounded on the North by South St(no pun intended), Terry Francois Boulevard on the east, Third St on the west and 16th st on the south. The plan is to build an 18,000 seat arena slightly off-center with a height of 135 feet. 500,000 square feet of office space will also be built along with 55,000 to 90,000 square feet available for retail. The Warriors are setting aside a 3.2 acres plaza as public space. In addition, an underground garage will be built for 700 spaces. Truck deliveries will be made via entry into the underground parking facility.

The Arena is being funded entirely by the Warriors and no public funds will be used to build the arena, The W’s, in order to finance the project, are making the arena available about 55 family shows a year as well as 41 Warrior games, 31 other rentals, concerts, other sporting events and pre-season Warrior games.

The plan is hoping to energize and activate Bayfront Park. The Warriors claim that there are plentiful transit options within a short walking distance. For example, the Caltrain station is just a short 10 to 15 minute walk from 4th and King. There is also excellent pedestrian and bike access. People can take Muni and the Warriors announced that the Central Subway project should begin operating in 2019 and that should help with some of the transit issues. The Warriors expect to start play at the start of the 2018-2019 season.

After the presentation, questions were fielded by the staff to answer the concerns of the neighborhood. Many of the people that live in the neighborhood told horror stories of traffic congestion and trash in the neighborhood following a Giants ‘game. It seemed to be worse especially after a day game as people who work in the area could not leave to go home or had to let their employees leave 2 to 3 hours early.

The Warriors staff reminded the people that the Warrior games start at 7:30 and an end time of the game is much more predicable than a baseball game. They also said that the crowd was just about 40% of what the Giant crowd is and that they have made plans for traffic control in the area so that people will not, hopefully, have too many problems leaving the arena.

There was concern that the 700 parking spaces under the arena was not sufficient to handle the demand . In addition, there is concern that there will be more development in the area and that parking will be at a premium. The Warriors could not answer all the questions but are optimistic that the plan will be a success. The Warriors will present a transportation management plan and pre and post event management strategies at the meetings in October.



Giants slipping further away

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By Jeremy Harness

The Giants desperately need to get some kind of momentum, and they really need to get it pretty quickly. They are losing ground in the National League West in trying to catch up to a team that surpasses them in talent, not to mention payroll.

Lo and behold, here come the Philadelphia Phillies, the team that sits in last place in the NL East, and who will pay a visit to AT&T Park for a three-game series that will either give the Giants a real chance to get back into the division race or sink them further into the abyss.

As it stands right now, the Giants are 5½ games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, who kick of a three-game home series of their own on Friday against Milwaukee, a team that certainly has something to play for, since they are on top of their division, the NL Central.

In other words, if there is a chance for the Giants to make up some real ground in the NL West race, this is it.

They will have the right guy to start things off, for sure. The Giants will send lefty Madison Bumgarner (13-9) to the mound to face Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels (6-6).

However, the Giants may be catching Hamels at the wrong time, as the lefty has not surrendered a single run in any of his last five starts, while going at least seven innings in each of them. Overall, he has a 2.37 earned-run average.

In addition, Bumgarner has not been his normal self at home. In the last two months, he sports a 1-3 record with a 6.99 ERA at AT&T Park. The Giants will need to have him put those struggles to an end very quickly, or they could get those “here we go again” feelings, which is something to avoid at a time like this, particularly in a division race that is quickly getting away from them.

A’s run into surging Royals, lose 7-3

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By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Thursday, August 14, 2014

It’s too soon to tell if this is a potential playoff matchup, but if the red-hot Kansas City Royals should meet the Oakland Athletics again, it could be a most entertaining series.

On Thursday, the Royals won the 18th of their last 22 games, defeating the visiting A’s 7-3 in Kansas City and surging into first place by ½ game over Detroit in the American League Central.

The Athletics, meanwhile, still hold a 2-game lead over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and a 7.5-game edge over Seattle in the AL West.

Kansas City is 12 games over .500 for the first time since July 2003. The Royals took the season series from Oakland 5 games to 2.

Jarrod Dyson drove in the game-tying run to cap a five-run Royals seventh, while Nori Aoki and Billy Butler each drove in a pair of runs to put Kansas City ahead to stay.

Alberto Callaspo drove in two of Oakland’s runs with a single and a sacrifice fly.

Aaron Crow (6-1) picked up the win in relief, while A’s starter Jeff Samardzija (3-2) took the loss. Greg Holland racked up save No. 36 for Kansas City.

A’s ACORNS: Oakland SS Jed Lowrie was placed on the disabled list after the game because of a broken right index finger. To replace Lowrie, the Athletics recalled INF Andy Parrino from Triple-A Sacramento. … RHP Jason Hammel will start for Oakland Friday in the opening game of a three-game set at Atlanta. Oakland last played in Atlanta in 2008. … Kansas City plays its next nine games on the road against three last-place clubs – Minnesota, Colorado and Texas.