Month: September 2023

Padres Return Favor Beating Giants 7-3

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San Diego Padres’ Juan Soto, right, celebrates with third base coach Matt Williams after hitting a home run during the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park in San Diego on Fri Sep 1, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

The San Diego Padres (63-73) turned the tables on the San Francisco Giants (70-65) with a 7-3 win on Friday night at Petco Park in San Diego. The Giants clobbered the Padres on Thursday night 7-2 in game one of the series.

The Giants were the first team up on the scoreboard when Wilmer Flores hit a solo home run in the first inning for a 1-0 lead.

The Padres answered in not only the bottom of the first inning but in the second and third innings. Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a two-run home run followed by a Juan Soto solo home run in the first inning taking a 3-1 lead and San Diego was off and running.

The Padres added another run in the second inning taking a 4-1 lead. Trent Grisham singled Luis Campusano home. San Diego did not take their foot off the pedal scoring a couple more runs in the third inning extending their lead to 6-1.

San Francisco started to make a bit of noise scoring one run in the fourth inning when Brandon Crawford sacrificed and Patrick Bailey scored. The score now stood at 6-2 and the Giants were hoping to get their offense in this game going.

Through six innings they had six hits and they did load the bases in the sixth inning with 2 outs and were looking at a golden opportunity to tighten up this game. The Giants were unable to take advantage and add a few more runs to the score and the 6-2 score remained going into the bottom of the sixth. Leaving these runners stranded in the sixth could possibly have a lot to do with the outcome of this game.

San Diego added another run in the bottom of the sixth when Thairo Estrada had a fielding error and Tatis Jr. scored from third base. The Padres now led 7-2.

San Francisco was struggling on the mound from the start. Tristan Beck went 2.2 innings and gave up nine hits (two of them home runs) and six runs with no strikeouts. Alex Wood would relieve Beck in the third inning allowing 3 hits and no runs. He had at least stopped the bleeding through the next three innings.

This game would go into the eighth inning with San Diego still leading 7-2 and San Francisco was down to two innings left to make a move in this game. They were running out of time.

The Giants got something going in the ninth inning. Estrada singled followed by a Crawford single and San Francisco had two runners on base with no outs. Pinch hitter Blake Sabol was hit by a pitch and once again the Giants had the bases loaded.

The next at bat LaMonte Wade Jr. was also hit and the Padres walked in a run. San Diego was having a heck of a time closing out this game. After the walk-in run, the Padres pulled a double play and finished off this game 7-3

Giants post game notes: Thursday night the Giants decisively beat the Padres by the score of 7-2. San Francisco led 7-0 going into the bottom of the eighth inning. The Giants put out a great offensive effort and couldn’t get anymore of that same run production as they had in Thursday’s game in Friday night’s game two. The Padres on the other hand were looking for some payback and it was looking much like Thursday night’s game, the only caveat was that it was the Padres this time who took the early lead and after three innings had a 6-1 lead.

In Saturday’s game three the Giants will have two left-handers going at each other. Kyle Harrison will take the mound for San Francisco after a solid game in his debut at Oracle last Monday night. He was dominant in that game striking out the first five batters he faced. He’s 1-0 and ERA is 1.86. The Padres are going with Blake Snell with a 11-9 win/loss record and a 2.60 ERA. First pitch is scheduled for 5:40 PM.

A’s kick off home series against Angels with offensive explosion 9-2

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Photo courtesy of Oakland Athletics Twitter. Ruiz, Butler, and Rooker celebrate in center field their victory over the Angels.

By Titus Wilkinson (@TitusWisme)

OAKLAND- The A’s started their three-game home series against the Angels on a great note with a 9-2 win.

Tonight for the A’s was Glen Burke pride night at the coliseum and the attendance was 12,073.

Getting the start for the A’s was J.P. Sears who heading into this game had a 2-11 record and 4.73 era. While the Angels had Patrick Sandoval get the start who coming had a 7-10 record with a 3.89 era.

Making his major league debut tonight for the Angels at shortstop was 21 year-old Kyren Paris. He was drafted in 2019 and was picked in the second round at 55th overall.

The first went by smoothly for Sandoval while Sears had some troubles as he gave up a double and walked one but was able to get out of the inning allowing no runs.

Quickly though Sandoval found his pitch count getting high as by the end of the third inning he had already thrown 63 pitches. That pitch count was indicative of a lot of early at bats that consistently went to full counts and occasionally resulted in walks given up.

The defense for the A’s was clicking early as they turned two double plays before the fifth inning had even occurred.

The fourth saw Oaklands offense come alive as Brent Rooker lead things off with a double. Jordan Diaz followed that up with a single putting runners on the corners with only one out. The other DÍaz got a double bringing home Rooker and getting the A’s on the board. The momentum didn’t stop there as Nick Allen got another run in on a sac fly and Esteury Ruiz singled putting runners on the corners once again.

After the hit by Ruiz that ended the night for Sandoval who was replaced by Jimmy Herget. The stat-line for Sandoval is probably one he’ll want to forget as he only went 3.2 innings giving up five hits, five earned runs, and three walks.

Herget wasn’t able to stop the bleeding as Zack Gelof kept the lineup moving with a two-run double making it 5-0. Trying to keep adding on Ryan Noda came in to pinch hit for Carlos Pérez but he ended up lining out to end the fourth. Noda would stay in taking Pérez’s spot at first base.

The Angels in the sixth made another pitching change as Gerardo Reyes came in to replace Herget who was only making his sixth appearance of the season.

In the following inning the A’s made a change on the mound as well as Lucas Erceg came in making his 41st appearance. Unlike Sandoval, Sears had a stellar outing pitching six innings, giving up no earned runs, and striking out three. Erceg also got some help from the defense as they turned another double play their third of the game.

Looking for insurance the A’s got another run from Jordan Diaz who made it 6-0 with a double. The run came in the seventh with Jamie Barria pitching now for the Halos.

The eighth would see another new pitcher as Sean Newcomb came in to pitch for the A’s who was making only his fourth appearance of the season.

Newcomb would run into some trouble as Shohei Ohtani reached on a pitch-clock violation and then Brandon Drury got a double making it 6-1.

With Barria still on the mound for the Angels Allen got a single and then Ruiz absolutely crushed a 2-0 pitch to left field making it 8-1. It was Ruiz’s third home run of the season and exited the field at 104.1 mph. A Gelof double kept things going and Noda followed it up with a double of his own extending their lead to 9-1.

To close things out the A’s called on Spencer Patton and the first batter he faced took him deep to left field as Tyler O’Hoppe got his sixth home run of the season. Patton was able to fight through the early mistake and closed the inning out giving up only the one run.

Of note tonight was Jordan Diaz who went 3-4 with an rbi and Ruiz who went 3-5 with two rbis and a home run. Getting the win was J.P. Sears which improves his record to 3-11 and Sandoval took the loss bringing his record to 7-11.

The second game of this home series against the Angels happens tomorrow at 1:07 p.m.

Oakland A’s podcast with Daniel Dullum: Oakland Mayor wants to keep A’s name and wants an expansion team in exchange for lease extension

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Oakland Coliseum could be the home of the Oakland A’s from 2025-2027 if they can’t land either at Oracle Park in San Francisco or at the Las Vegas Ballpark while their new park at the Tropicana on the Las Vegas strip is under construction (AP file photo)

On the A’s podcast with Daniel:

#1 Daniel, the Oakland A’s will still be at the Oakland Coliseum next season, the Nevada Independent reported that the A’s could make an early leap for Las Vegas but that has not been determined yet. The A’s are considering many venue options one of them is using their minor league facility in Vegas which the Aviators are using. A’s president David Kaval that there needs to be upgrades and the A’s might re-think using the Aviators 10,000 seat facility.

#2 The A’s reportedly have explored playing at the Oakland Coliseum until their new ballpark at the Tropicana on the strip is ready. There in lies the problem as Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao wants some concessions before the A’s get committed to the Coliseum as a lame duck team, one is the city of Oakland keeps the team name A’s and MLB commits to expanding to Oakland when expansion opens up.

#3 Kaval said that the decision of where the A’s will play after 2024 is totally up to MLB Commissioner and Rob Manfred. Kaval did say that the A’s have looked at three locations Oracle Park in San Francisco and share the park with the Giants, Aviators Park/Las Vegas ballpark in Vegas, and the Oakland Coliseum.

#4 Some have said that it’s a bad idea for the A’s to play at Aviators park because it becomes a spoiler to the A’s 2028 arrival and it kind of blows the hype of the team after being there for three years in the making and sharing the ballpark with the Giants might not be a good idea because that’s a lot of wear on the turf for 162 games.

#5 Staying at the Oakland Coliseum from 2025-2027 might be the best place and they might as well finish up what they started and visiting teams have said they want to play in Major League facility rather than playing in a minor league facility like Las Vegas.

Join Daniel Dullum for the Oakland A’s podcasts Fridays at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland A’s podcast with Jeremiah Salmonson: A’s open series with Ohtani and Angels tonight at Coliseum

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Shohei Ohtani returns with the Los Angeles Angels to face the Oakland A’s at the Oakland Coliseum beginning Fri Sep 1, 2023 (AP News photo)

On the A’s podcast with Jeremiah:

#1 The Oakland A’s returned home from a seven-game road trip to Chicago and Seattle. The A’s won three and lost four. 

#2 The A’s split the four-game set with a Chicago White Sox team in turmoil. The Sox fired their team’s president and general manager. There were two women who were shot on Friday when the A’s opened the series in Chicago, one got hit in the abdomen and the other shot in the leg neither suffered life threatening injuries.

#3 The A’s lost two games to the red-hot Seattle Mariners. Two of the games were very competitive. The A’s won 3-1 on Tuesday and lost 5-4 on Wednesday. The M’s took game three by a run it was a close contest but the M’s as they always do held off the A’s to take the series.

#4 Up next for the A’s is the visiting Los Angeles Angels tonight at the Oakland Coliseum. The Angels had high hopes at the start of the season. Their roster includes two superstars, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. Trout, a three-time AL MVP, has lost playing time the last couple of years due to injury. Trout, again his year, has been hit with another injury.

#5 The Angels will send Patrick Sandoval to the mound Friday night to face the A’s. Sandoval is 7-10 with a 3.95 ERA. The A’s will counter with J.P.Sears. Sears is having a tough season. His record is 2-11 and a 4.80 ERA a 6:40pm PT first pitch.

Join Jeremiah Salmonson each Friday for the Oakland A’s podcast at http://www.sportsradioservice.com