Month: July 2019

Headline Sports podcast with Tony Renteria: Russell’s value for Golden State; How Cousins fits at the Lakers; plus more

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On Headline Sports with Tony Renteria:

#1. How much will the acquisition of DeAngelo Russell & Willie Cauley-Stein mean for Golden State?

#2 The Lakers are happy in picking up DeMarcus Cousins how much of a big piece of the puzzle and how much does he look forward to working with LeBron?

#3 The Miami Heat are rumored to picking up Russell Westbrook from the OKC Thunder. How badly does Westbrook want to go to Miami?

#4 Tony talks about the Oakland Raiders picking up running back Josh Jacobs and linebacker Te’Von Coney.

#5 How serious will the San Francisco Giants be about dealing pitcher Madison Bumgarner and reliever Will Smith  before the trade deadline?

#6 Kahwi Leonard signed a three-year, $103 million deal with the Clippers and the contract calls for a player option in his third year.

Tony Renteria does Headline Sports podcasts each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sorry offense has Giants in the pits

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Photo credit: @NBCSGiants

By Jeremy Harness

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred has said that the baseballs that are being used in games are not juiced, despite the high number of home runs being his this season.

There is direct proof of this statement: Just watch the San Francisco Giants hit on a nightly basis.

After spending most of the season ranking dead last in home runs hit, the Giants are now 27th out of 30 teams in the majors with only 88 balls going out of the ballpark in the season’s first three months.

They do, however, have the worst batting average in baseball with a team mark of .230, and they rank in the bottom five in every offensive category, with the exception of doubles and triples (they rank near the middle of the majors).

To give you an idea, Kevin Pillar currently leads the Giants with a .256 batting average with 47 RBI. Meanwhile, Evan Longoria leads the team with only 12 home runs, which is not a lot of return for the $14.5 million he is getting paid this year.

That lack of offense has had a direct effect on their overall performance on the field, in what will be Bruce Bochy’s last season as a major-league manager. They have a 41-48 record as they enter the second half of the season, which puts them firmly in the National League cellar and qualifies as the league’s third-worst record, trailing only Miami and the New York Mets.

The NL, however, remains fairly open, and amazingly, the Giants are actually in the hunt for a wild-card spot, as they currently sit only five-and-a-half games out of the wild card. The wild-card leaders, Washington and Philadelphia, are barely sitting over .500 at press time.

This, however, may very well turn out to be fool’s gold, considering the fact that the Giants are expected to be sellers at this year’s trade deadline (more on that tomorrow).

A’s start the race to the playoffs on Friday

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By Jerry Feitelberg

Oakland- The A’s start the second half of the season with a record of 50-41. The A’s have played 91 and have 71 games left to play. As fans know, it’s not how you start, it’s where you finish.

The A’s won 97 games last year with a so-so starting rotation, but, had a bullpen that was lights out. They lost second baseman Jed Lowrie to free agency. Lowry had a career-high 99 RBIs last year, and the team had to fill the hole. They traded for Jurickson Profar, and the young man has yet to show that he can play every day. The A’s have brought up Franklin Barreto to see if he can do the job, and the jury is still out on him.

The A’s starting rotation has surprised the pundits so far this year. Mike Fiers started slowly, but he has pitched well since May. Brett Anderson is healthy, and he has done the job. Chris Bassitt has thrown well, and Daniel Mengden has won a couple of games since being recalled. The fifth starter is a work in progress. Tanner Anderson is 0-3 and has yet to show that he can stay in the rotation. The A’s are hoping that Sean Manaea will be back in the rotation in early August. The A’s relievers Lou Trivino and Blake Treinen have not performed as well as they did last year. Trivino started well but has been rocked lately. Treinen has not had his control. He does have 16 saves, but he has walked too many hitters when he comes in to close. Yusmeiro Petit and Joakim Soria have pitched well all year. The big surprise is Liam Hendriks. Hendriks was designated for assignment last year. No one signed him, and he went back to Triple-A. This year, things have turned completely around. Hendriks was named to the AL All-Star squad, and he has done the job when called upon.

The A’s offense has power hitters all through the lineup. Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, Khris Davis, Stephen Piscotty, Ramon Laureano, Marcus Semien, and Profar all can send the ball into the seats. Catchers Josh Phegley, Chris Herrman, and Nick Hundley can also blast a baseball into the stands. The A’s defense has been superb.

The A’s have put together a team that could possibly go deep into the playoffs. They need to improve the starting rotation. Will the A’s make a trade for a starter? No one knows what Billy Beane or David Forst will do. They have not hesitated to pull the trigger on a deal if they think that it will improve the team. They don’t want to give up any of their key players as Beane or Forst remember what happened in 2014 when they sent Yoenis Cespedes to Boston for John Lester. The team went into a spiral and barely made the playoffs that year. The A’s may feel that the players coming off the Il will be sufficient to get them there. Manaea and Jharel Cotton should be back soon.

The A’s lost starting pitcher Frankie Montas for 80 games due to using of an illegal substance. Montas may make it back in late September, but he is not eligible to play in the postseason.

The ingredients are there. They have pitching, offense, and defense. They start the second half at home with three against the Chicago White Sox, and two against the Seattle Mariners. Following that, they go on the road for four with the Minnesota Twins and three with the Houston Astros. The A’s took two out of three from the Twins last week in Oakland. The Twins, in first place in the AL Central, played well against the A’s and they will give the A’s a tussle when they meet next week. The A’s then have to play the Astros in Houston. The Astros have one of the best teams in baseball. The Astros won the World Series two years ago and want to win another. They also have a potent lineup. They have two terrific starters, Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole. The A’s have not had success against Houston so far this year.

The A’s will have quite a race to the finish line. The Cleveland Indians, Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox are teams that will be competing for the second Wild Card slot in the American League. It should be fun.

Headline Sports podcast with London Marq: All-Star Game? A’s Hendriks and Giants’ Smith both give up the home run ball in relief; A’s Chapman scores on DP ball

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On the Headline Sports podcast with London:

#1 After all the talk about the home run ball and plenty of them, the All-Star Game in Cleveland was a low scoring affair before the American League scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to make it 4-1. Earlier, the American League scored a single run in the second and fifth innings and the American League got two runs in the top of the sixth. The National League tried to make a come back with two runs in the top of the eight but just couldn’t pass the AL in the 4-3 one run AL win.

#2 Representing the San Francisco Giants at the All-Star Game was reliever Will Smith, who got his 23rd save on Wednesday night against the San Diego Padres, which translate to a great first half, despite the Giants struggling in last place in the NL West. At the All-Star Game, Smith gave up a home run in the seventh.

#3 Representing the Oakland A’s were A’s third baseman Matt Chapman, who hit .265, 90 RBIs and 21 home runs, and relief pitcher Liam Hendriks, who is 3-0 with a 1.27 ERA.

#4 For Hendriks, he has saved 23 straight games without a blown save. The A’s are in the hunt for a wild card and are just seven games behind first place Houston and Hendriks closing games will be crucial in the home stretch. Hendriks — in the All-Star Game — gave up a home run for an earned run and struck out three batters.

#5 Meanwhile, the A’s Matt Chapman had some better luck scoring a run from third when the Boston Red Sox Xander Bogaerts grounded into a double play.

London Marq does Headline Sports each Wednesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Aces win in Indianapolis, push their way to the top the WNBA standings

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By Morris Phillips

INDIANAPOLIS — Aces’ head coach Bill Laimbeer might be losing sleep, fretting about his team’s slow starts, overall intensity and perimeter scoring, but at least tonight, he’ll experience his insomnia at the top of the WNBA standings.

The Aces pushed their win streak to four by outlasting the Indiana Fever, 74-71, on Wednesday afternoon at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The Fever were limited to ten, fourth quarter points, and A’ja Wilson made a pair of free throws with seven seconds remaining to give the Aces their final cushion. Las Vegas got the win despite trailing by five after three quarters, and shooting just 36.5 percent from the floor.

“We didn’t play well, but we got the win,” Laimbeer said. “That’s the sign of a good team.”

The Aces fell behind 8-0, failing to score in the game’s first four minutes, then with a slim, 53-50 lead late in the third quarter, they surrendered an 11-1 run to the Fever, in which they suffered their biggest deficit of the afternoon (61-54 with four seconds remaining). While Wilson and Cambage were effective scorers from the free throw line in, the Las Vegas perimeter trio of Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young and Sugar Rodgers combined to miss 14 of their 21 shots.

Those issues touched on all of Laimbeer’s reoccurring fears that threaten to prevent the Aces from morphing into a WNBA title contender, but on Wednesday, they didn’t prevent the club from snatching a victory.  In the final quarter, the defense stiffened, forcing the Fever to miss 13 of their final 17 shots. Rodgers came up with a big three to start the fourth, and Wilson and Cambage provided all the offense down the stretch.

The Fevers’ Candice Dupree had a chance to tie the game in the final 10 seconds, but missed the second of two free throws, and Wilson was fouled after grabbing the rebound. After sinking both free throws, Wilson and the Aces survived when Kelsey Mitchell’s jumper bounced off the rim with a second remaining.

“I thought the defense was solid enough, but we didn’t put ourselves in position to win the basketball game,” Indiana coach Pokey Chatman conceded.

Jake Schuman, a 4-year old from suburban Indianapolis, sang the national anthem, all part of a youthful, matinee crowd announced at 9,247 that may not have been basketball savvy, but was plenty loud. The Fever opened a three-game home stand hoping to capture their biggest win of the season, but came up three points short.

The Aces have won 8 of 10 after a 2-3 start, and in ascending to the top of the league standings, benefitted from the suspension of their home game against the Mystics, in which they trailed by double digits at the half. The remainder of that game has yet to be rescheduled, but in its absence, the Aces, at least for now, are on top.

“It’s been a really, long time since we’ve been in first place in anything,” Kayla McBride said. “But I feel like we’re really jelling as a team.”

San Jose Earthquakes podcast with Marko Ukalovic filling in for Ana Kieu: Hoesen was an unforeseen hero against Real Salt Lake

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On the San Jose Earthquakes podcast with Marko:

1. The Quakes lost to Minnesota United 3-1 at Allianz Field last Wednesday.

2. Danny Hoesen lifted the Quakes to a 1-0 shutout over Real Salt Lake at Avaya Stadium last Saturday.

3. US Men’s Soccer lost to Mexico 1-0 in the CONCACAF Gold Cup Final at Soldier Field on Sunday.

4. Quakes goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski and Reno 1868 FC midfielder Seth Casiple were named to the USL Championship Team of the Week for Week 17.

5. With the Quakes’ newfound success, how much of an impact does Matias Almeyda have on his team?

6. The Quakes head to L.A. to face the Galaxy always a battle when both of these teams meet up they faced each other last in June at Stanford Stadium.

Marko Ukalovic is a Quakes beat writer and catch Ana Kieu on the San Jose Earthquakes podcasts each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Seventh Heaven: AL pitching dominates in 4-3 All-Star Game win over the NL

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By Morris Phillips

CLEVELAND — For the American League and the Indians’ Shane Bieber, the 90th All-Star Game was everything it was cracked up to be.

The AL scratched together some early offense, then pitched with dominance on their way to a 4-3 win, their seventh win in a row in the Midsummers Classic. Bieber, pitching in front of his fanbase and his pride-filled manager, Terry Francona, struck out the side in the fifth to preserve a 1-0 lead, a feat that earned the 24-year old the game’s MVP, the first time a player from the host team has won the award since 1999.

“It’s an incredible feeling now, now that it’s kind of sinking in,” Bieber said. “Just to be able to do it in front of the home crowd, and my first All-Star Game is definitely not something that I expected, especially being added to the game five days ago, four or five days ago.”

Nine American League pitchers got one inning of work each, with AL starter Justin Verlander setting the tone with a two-strikeout first inning. By the time the NL got on the scoreboard for the first time in the sixth, they had just two hits while striking out 11 times.

Bieber and Oakland’s Liam Hendriks combined to fan Willson Contreras, Ketel Marte, Ronald Acuna Jr., Kris Bryant and Trevor Story consecutively before Charlie Blackmon homered off Hendriks to cut the AL lead to 2-1. In all, NL hitters struck out 16 times, and managed to hit just seven balls beyond the infield.

In contrast to last year’s showcase in Washington D.C., and juxtaposed against the homer-happy, first half to the 2019 season, the NL was completely out of step. Last year at Nationals Park, National League hitters clubbed five home runs–one each from Contreras and Story–while striking out 12 times and drawing five walks. In Cleveland, with seven hitters back in the lineup from D.C., they struggled to create a rally outside the eighth inning, when they struck for two runs off Cleveland’s Brad Hand.

“A lot of hard throwers and great pitchers over there,” Bryant said. “Unless you’ve seen them before, it’s a difficult matchup.”

While the NL offense appeared to hit the snooze button, the American Leaguers proved resourceful and scrappy, using infield singles to set up both of their initial runs. First, the Astros’ Alex Bregman legged out a chopper to third, and scored on Michael Brantley’s double. Then in the fifth, Gary Sanchez of the Yankees doubled, then moved to third on a ground out, and scored on Jorge Polanco’s infield hit.

The AL kept stitching it together in the seventh, when Oakland’s Matt Chapman drew a leadoff walk off Milwaukee’s Brandon Woodruff. Then with runners at the corners and no out, Xander Bogaerts of the Red Sox hit into a double play, but Chapman scored on the play. Down 3-1, manager Dave Roberts summoned the Giants’ Will Smith to pitch to Joey Gallo, but the Rangers’ slugger spoiled that plan with a loud home run on Smith’s first pitch.

“I really didn’t understand the magnitude of it; I just hit a home run in the All-Star Game,” said an excited Gallo. “Watching this game growing up, and now I hit a home run in it. It’s pretty special. I think I have to take a step back. Everything happened so quick.”

Gallo’s homer was thumped, the loud crack of the bat inside the ballpark confirmed that. But the numbers did too. Gallo’s blast exited Progressive Field at 111 mph, the fastest in an All-Star Game since exit velocities were first tracked in 2015.

Gallo’s moment was Smith’s as well, and another humbling All-Star experience for Giants’ pitchers. Smith figures to be hot on the trade market in the coming weeks given his 1.98 ERA and 23 saves, but leaving a fat pitch over the plate to a left-handed slugger won’t enhance his value. But clubs will no doubt take note of the fact that Smith’s only allowed home runs to left-handed batters twice in the last three seasons.

The All-Star Game had a couple of feel-good moments with 19-year veteran C.C. Sabathia summoning closer Aroldis Chapman from the bullpen in the ninth, and getting a rousing welcome from Cleveland fans, who supported him over the first 7 1/2 seasons of his career. Sabathia has announced his retirement after the season, and his appearance organized by MLB was an acknowledgment of the extraordinary nature of his career.

Carlos Carrasco, recently diagnosed with leukemia, also made an appearance, with four of his Indians’ teammates and Francona. All five held placards across their chests saying “I Stand for Cookie (Carrasco’s nickname).” Carrasco stood in the middle, and his placard simply said, “I Stand.”

“He’s one of our teammates and one of the big guys in the clubhouse. You don’t wish that upon anybody. We just got to support him in any way we can,” said Brad Hand, one of Carrasco’s teammates on the field during the emotional moment.

Headline Sports podcast with Barbara Mason: Important win for US women’s team; Verlander says the ball is juiced 100%; plus more from the All Star Game

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On Headline Sports podcast with Barbara:

#1 How important was this win in the World Cup women’s soccer final for the U.S. team?

#2 The television ratings for the finals were through the roof with 14.3 million viewers watching the US vs. the Netherlands in a 2-0 shutout.

#3 In Major League Baseball Houston Astros pitcher Justin Verlander says he blames baseball for the juiced ball and that it could travel as far as it could and it hurts pitchers.

#4 Verlander at the MLB All Star Game this week said that the balls are 100% juiced and a testimony of that is Verlander whose one of the big leagues best pitchers has given up 26 home runs this season.

#5 St Louis Cardinal catcher Yadier Molina dropped a few words that can’t be used here in regards to Angels catcher Jonathan Lucroy who got hammered at the plate by Houston Astros runner Jake Marisnick who laid Lucroy out after knocking him over on a bang bang play at the plate. Molina basically said something needs to be done about runners taking out the catcher.

Barbara Mason is a writer for Spanish Newspaper Area Grande and does Headline Sports each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast: MLB Hispanic Museum honoring players at All-Star Game; Guerrero sets Home Run Derby record; plus more

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Photo credit: @Ron_Clements

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast:

#1 Amaury talks about the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum being in Cleveland. This has got to be a special being able to show the fans what’s the Museum is all about.

#2 The Museum will be honoring former Cleveland second baseman Robby Alomar, Alomar had quite a career in Cleveland and looked forward to the honor by the museum.

#3 The Toronto Blue Jays’ Vlad Guerrero Jr. went deep enough times in the first round to set a Home Run Derby record for first round home runs.

#4 Fans are waiting for the All-Star Break to end and to get the second half started. Amaury talks about what to look forward to in the second half.

#5 In the second half of the season, the Oakland A’s have shown that they can put it together from the first half. What is to be expected from the A’s in the second half?

Amaury Pi-Gonzalez is the vice president of the Major League Baseball Hispanic Heritage Museum, the Spanish play-by-play announcer for the Oakland A’s and does News and Commentary each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland A’s podcast with Charlie O: Hendriks and Chapman thrilled to be at All-Star Game in Cleveland

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On the A’s podcast with Charlie O:

#1 How thrilled must A’s pitcher Liam Hendriks and A’s third baseman Matt Chapman have to be about being selected for the 2019 All-Star Game?

#2 Hendriks has put up some great numbers in the first half of the season with 23 straight saves.

#3 It’s got to be monumental that Hendriks has pitched that long without a blown save.

#4 Chapman is hitting .265, with 90 hits and 21 home runs. He had a great offensive first half.

#5 A lot is on the line to win the derby; $1 million to win it at the All-Star Game.

Charlie O does the A’s podcasts each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com