Category: MLB

Blame The Rain: Hot Giants cooled by Metropolitans’ slightly warmer temps and rain, rescheduled DH for Tuesday

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By Morris Phillips

The lockout and the protracted negotiations that delayed the baseball season put the Giants in a worrisome spot: just one day off through April 27, and 19 games in 20 days to start the season.

But in stepped mother nature, and the Giants have a treasured day off today, after their opener at Citi Field in New York against the Mets was canceled due to rain and the timing of the storm.

The team will hole up in a cozy Manhattan hotel and prepare for a rare, doubleheader on Tuesday with a nice caveat: staff ace Logan Webb will pitch Tuesday’s second game. The Mets made the announcement at 4:00pm in New York as the expectation of two inches of rain came into focus. Tuesday’s doubleheader will start at 3:10pm in New York with the second game 30 minutes after the first.

Alex Cobb will face the Mets’ Taylor Megill in the opener. Although the other scheduled starter, Max Scherzer could move up and pitch the opener with no confirmation from the Mets at press time.

The Giants-Mets four-game set looms as one of the early season’s best matchups with the Giants 7-2 and the Mets 7-3.

San Francisco Giants podcast with Morris Phillips: Giants face evenly matched Mets tonight to open three game series

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San Francisco Giants second basemen Thairo Estrada, right, is congratulated by shortstop Brandon Crawford after sweeping the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field on Sun Apr 17, 2022 (AP News photo)

On the San Francisco Giants podcast with Morris Phillips:

#1 Morris, the Giants wind up getting a sweep on their first leg of this road trip against the Cleveland Guardians. Giants pitcher Alex Wood threw for over five innings giving up just four hits in the 8-1 win.

#2 Wood gave up just one run and had real good command of his pitches. In the third inning the Guardians had two runners on but Wood would get out of the inning and the Giants continued with the lead.

#3 Thairo Estrada supplied the offense in the second inning with a homer to left and with Wilmer Flores on second after hitting a double it was a 2-0 lead for San Francisco.

#4 Brandon Belt would homer in the seventh inning to extend San Francisco’s lead to 8-0. Belt would bring Austin Slater home from first.

#5 For tonight’s game opening up in New York, the Giants will start Alex Cobb (1-0 ERA 3.60) and for the New York Mets (7-2)Tyler Megill (2-0 ERA 0.00). First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 PM PDT at Citi Park in Flushing.

Road Relevant: A’s lose 4-3 in Toronto, fall short of winning road trip to begin season

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By Morris Phillips

The A’s weren’t going to be satisfied with a .500 road trip to start the season. But after a grueling 4-3 loss to the Blue Jays, that’s what they got.

Finishing a senses-jarring, first ten games of the season with a 5-5 record isn’t earth shattering, but it’s an incredible, initial statement for the new-look A’s.

“I couldn’t be happier with the club’s energy, effort level and fight through these 10 days,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “The record may not reflect, right now, how well I feel we played on this road trip.”

Alex Manoah went six innings against Oakland, and picked up the win. The replacement guy for Toronto limited the A’s to four hits and two walks, and departed with a two-run lead. Manoah appearances have a winning effect on his club, the Blue Jays have won his last 10 starts.

“I want those guys to know that I’m giving it my all every time,” Manoah said. “I think they kind of play off that energy.”

The A’s trailed 3-0 and 4-2, but got a sacrifice fly from Seth Brown in the eighth to climb within 4-3, but they could get any closer in the ninth, making for a lengthier flight home ahead of Monday’s home opener against the Orioles at 6:40pm.

Lourdes Gurriel led the hosts with a double, single and sacrifice fly to boost a lineup that saw Vladimir Guerrero Jr. go 0 for 4.

“It’s pretty big that he gets hot,” manager Charlie Montoyo said of Gurriel. “It’s been amazing what he’s doing right now.

“Right now, he’s doing the job to make sure Vladdy sees some pitches.”

Adam Oller was lifted in the second inning in his Major League debut last Tuesday. He responded on Sunday, allowing three runs and five hits before being lifted by Kotsay in the fourth.

The 27-year old cited lack of command with breaking pitches, but acknowledged his growth as well, this time he kept the A’s attached.

Stephen Vogt hit his first home run of the season and Sean Murphy’s sacrifice fly to center field scored Cristian Pache from third base for two A’s runs.

“They were down early. We fought back. We grinded out at-bats,” Kotsay continued. “The energy was still really good for the end of a 10-day road trip. You’d look for that day off tomorrow, but I think the energy will be there tomorrow with opening day and going home.”

San Francisco Sweeps Cleveland 8-1; Wood gives up only four hits and Estrada homers gets four RBIs

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San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Alex Wood pitches in the first inning to the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Sun Apr 17, 2022 (AP News photo)

San Francisco Sweeps Cleveland 8-1; Wood gives up only four hits and Estrada homers and gets four RBIs

By Barbara Mason

After taking the first two games in their series against the Cleveland Guardians (4-5) the San Francisco Giants (7-2) went for the sweep Sunday afternoon defeating the Guardians by seven runs 8-1.

It was a quiet first inning for San Francisco but the second inning was anything but quiet for the Giants. Thairo Estrada homered to left and with Wilmer Flores on second after hitting a double it was a 2-0 lead for San Francisco.

The Guardians would threaten in the third inning but Alex Wood would get out of a two runners on jam and the Giants held on to their two run lead.

San Francisco would strike again in the fourth inning. Thairo Estrada grounded into a fielder’s choice to shortstop and Joc Pederson would score. Brandon Crawford was just behind him off a throwing error by Owen Miller. The Giants now had a 4-0 lead.

In the sixth inning the Giants would add a couple more for a 6-0 lead. Peterson would score from second off a double by Estrada. Estrada would go on to score when Duggar hit an infield single.

Brandon Belt would homer in the seventh inning to extend San Francisco’s lead to 8-0. Belt would bring Austin Slater home from first.

The Guardians got up on the scoreboard in the bottom seventh inning when Amed Rosario scored off a single from Austin Hedges. Cleveland trailed by a heap of runs and everything pointed to a San Francisco sweep. The Guardians were not able to get much going in this game.

Monday the Giants will start a four-game series with the mighty New York Mets (7-3). Starting pitcher for the Giants will be Alex Cobb (1-0 ERA 3.60) and for New York Tyler Megill (2-0 ERA 0.00). First pitch is scheduled for 4:10 PM PDT at Citi Park in Flushing.

Giants win game two against Guardians 4-2 at Progressive

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The San Francisco Giants Brandon Belt connects for a fifth inning two RBI single against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Sat Apr 16, 2022 (AP News photo)

Giants Win Game Two Against Guardians 4-2

By Barbara Mason

After winning the first game against the Cleveland Guardians (4-3) Friday night the San Francisco Giants (5-2) continued their three game series Saturday. The Giants won Friday’s series opener handily 4-1 thanks to pitcher Carlos Rodon who allowed a single run through seven innings striking out nine and only giving up two hits.

That was the home opener for Cleveland at Progressive Field and not the debut as the Guardians that they were hoping for. The Giants won their second straight game in Cleveland with a 4-2 win on Saturday.

Cleveland was first on the scoreboard Saturday in the first inning. Jose Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly to allow Myles Straw to score for the early 1-0 lead.

The Giants would fight through four innings when in the fifth inning Brandon Belt singled to center and base runners Thairo Estrada and Mike Yastrzemski would both score giving San Francisco a 2-1 lead. Cleveland would score in the same inning to tie up this game. Myles Straw doubled to deep left and base runner Owen Miller scored for a 2-2 game.

Going into the eighth inning the game remained tied. With one out the Giants would load the bases and Wilmer Flores would ground into a fielders choice to second. Brandon Belt scored to break the tie and give the Giants a 3-2 lead.

San Francisco was not finished and with two outs Austin Slater would score on a wild pitch extending the Giants lead. The Giants would take the 4-2 lead into the ninth inning. In the bottom of the ninth Cleveland was looking at their last chance to salvage this game. Cleveland’s Josh Naylor would single and Owen Miller walked but they could not cash in and San Francisco held on for the win

Sunday the Giants will be going for the sweep. First pitch is scheduled for 10:40 AM PDT. Alex Wood (0-0 ERA 4.15) will take the mound for San Francisco and for Cleveland it will be Aaron Civale (0-0 ERA 5.40).

A’s Pache Continues Hot Start with 7-5 Saturday Win at Toronto

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The Oakland A’s Cristian Pache is thrilled after getting the game winning home run in the top of the ninth inning against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Sat Apr 16, 2022 (The Canadian Press via AP News)

A’s, Pache Continues Hot Start with 7-5 Saturday Win at Toronto

By Tony the Tiger Hayes

The no-name A’s continued their quick start to the 2022 season on Saturday by beating old friend Matt Chapman and the Toronto Blue Jays 7-5 on the road.

Spring time accusation Cristian Pache belted a go-ahead two-run long ball in the 9th to spear head the win to improve Oakland young season record to 5-4.

Catcher Sean Murphy also went deep for the A’s. The win went to righty reliever Danny Jimenez who pitched a perfect 8th. Lou Trivino notched his second save.

The win snapped Oakland’s six game losing streak to the Jays dating back to last season.

Hot prospect Pache was acquired during spring training in a trade from Atlanta that sent slugger Matt Olson Southbound.

With Oakland tied 5-5, Pache walloped a 1-0 Julian Merryweather fastball over the right field fence for his first Oakland round tripper to put Oakland up 7-5.

“I noticed that he was throwing a lot of breaking balls so I paid attention to that,” the exciting rookie said through an interpreter after the game. “I also saw that he was throwing a lot of curveballs so I made sure not to miss any of the fastballs and I went out there and I didn’t miss.”

Merryweather took the loss.

Earlier, Chapman whacked his second homer and Zack Collins sailed his first on consecutive pitches from A’s right-hander Domingo Acevedo in the 6th as the Blue Jays to over come a 5-2 deficit.

Oakland took a 3-1 lead in the 2nd when they strung four consecutive hits off Toronto starter Hyundai Jin Ryu to take a 3-1 lead.

Murphy, who doubled and scored in that frame, made it 5-1 with a two-run 451 poke to center field seats in the 4th.

Rodón strikes out nine, Giants use power to beat Guardians 4-1

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San Francisco Giants pitcher Carlos Rodon threw heat against the Cleveland Guardians seen here in the first inning at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Fri Apr 15, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Daniel Dullum
Friday, April 15, 2022

One year after throwing a no-hitter against Cleveland (4-3), Carlos Rodón turned in his second strong start of the season for San Francisco (5-2) on Friday, going seven innings in the Giants’ 4-1 victory over the Guardians at Progressive Field in Cleveland.

Rodón (1-0) – who no-hit Cleveland as a member of the Chicago White Sox on April 14, 2021 – needed only 47 pitches in the first five innings and threw 68 pitches through six. After working out of a seventh-inning jam, Rodón wound up surrendering one run on two hits with nine strikeouts and two walks.

Camilo Doval picked up his second save of the season with a scoreless ninth. Tyler Rogers was credited with his third hold, throwing a scoreless eighth.

The Gants provided Rodón with plenty of offensive support, as Brandon Crawford, Joc Peterson and Joey Bart all hit home runs. Crawford, playing his first career game in Cleveland, hit a blast to right for his first homer of the season. He’s homered in 24 different ballparks.

Peterson’s second home run as a Giant – No. 150 for his career – traveled 410 feet to right-center off Guardians starter Zach Plesac ()-1). Bart added a two-run shot in the eighth.

Rodón’s fastball reached a high speed of 99.3 mph, hitting 99 on the gun in his final two innings. His 21 punchouts lead the Majors, and Rodón is second on the franchise list for most strikeouts in his first two starts of a season. Cliff Melton holds the team record with 22 K’s in first two starts in 1937 for the New York Giants.

This was Cleveland’s first home game as the Guardians after being known as the Indians for over 100 years. It occurred on Jackie Robinson Day, marking the 75th anniversary of Robinson breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier.

In Saturday’s game, the Giants will go with Anthony Desclafani (0-1, 4.91), while the Guardians have Cal Quantrill (1-0, 3.60) on the hill. First pitch is at 2:10 PDT.

Oakland Drops Series Opener to Blue Jays 4-1

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Toronto Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr., right, thanks the Almighty for his solo home run in the first inning against the Oakland A’s at Rogers Centre in Toronto on Fri Apr 15, 2022 (Canadian Press via AP photo)

Oakland Drops Series Opener to Blue Jays 4-1

By Barbara Mason

The Oakland A’s (4-4) have been on a tear taking a series from the Tampa Bay Rays three games to one. The hits have been coming unlike the first few games where they failed to score in the early innings. Oakland has also been knocking the ball out of the park regularly with runners on base.

They opened the series with the Toronto Blue Jays (5-3) for three games at Rogers Centre Friday night with a 4-1 win. The A’s saw a familiar face in the Blue Jays lineup in this game. It was the first game that Oakland faced former A’s third baseman Matt Chapman.

Ross Stripling took the mound for Toronto and Daulton Jeffries Daulton got the nod for Oakland.

The Blue Jays got on the board with two runs in the early innings. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a home run for a 1-0 Toronto lead in the first inning. The Blue Jays would carry that momentum into the second inning with a Santiago Espinal double driving in Raimel Tapia for a 2-0 lead.

The A’s would make some noise in the sixth inning. With runners on first and second and one out Chad Pinder would single to center driving Tony Kemp home and getting the A’s on the scoreboard. Oakland would get one run on three hits to end the top of the sixth inning. They trailed the Blue Jays 2-1.

Jefferies would pitch through four innings before being relieved by Justin Grimm. Oakland’s Sam Moll would relieve Grimm in the middle of the sixth inning.

The Blue Jays would extend their lead in the bottom of the sixth inning when Zach Collins singled driving in Guerrero. Toronto took the lead 3-1 going into the seventh inning.

The Blue Jays really went to work in the seventh inning. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. doubled bringing George Springer home for a 4-1 lead. Adam Kolarek would relieve Zach Jackson with the bases loaded. He would strike out Bradley Zimmer and Santiago Espinal would ground out to Kolarek. The Oakland pitcher had minimized the damage with a single run.

Oakland had their last chance in the ninth inning. Christian Bethancourt and Stephen Vogt would both strike out and Seth Brown grounded out in a flat performance in this game. There would be no rally for Oakland this time.

Tomorrow the A’s will play the second game of this series at Rogers Centre in Toronto. Paul Blackburn will be taking the mound for the A’s and for the Blue Jays Hyun Ryu will get the nod. First pitch is schemed for 12:07.

Oakland A’s podcast with Jeremiah Salmonson: A’s score often and score early; Team shocks oddsmakers with 3 out 4 series win over Rays

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Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier loses sight of the ball hit by the Oakland Athletics Sean Murphy in the top of the third inning at Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay Thu Apr 14, 2022 (AP News photo)

Oakland A’s podcast with Jeremiah Salmonson:

#1 Jerermiah, No one would have predicted after the Oakland A’s (4-3) dealt Starling Marte, Mark Canha, Sean Manaea, Matt Olson, Chris Bassitt and Matt Chapman that they would open the season on the road winning four of their last seven games going 4-3.

#2 To open the season on the road the A’s lost their first two games to the Philadelphia Phillies and the critics were saying “here we go” as the oddsmakers had the A’s finishing in the bottom of the cellar but something sparked them as they now have won four of their last five games.

#3 In Tampa Bay (4-3) the A’s opened the four game series on Monday with a 13-2 win, on Tuesday they nearly won that contest but lost by a run 9-8, on Wednesday they got a three run homer out of catcher Sean Murphy and excellent pitching from Frankie Montas in a 4-2 win, and Thursday soundly beating the Rays 6-3 on some solid hitting.

#4 The A’s scored early and often on Thursday getting three runs in the second and a run in each of the third, fourth and fifth innings. Is this a matter of some smart sabermetrics or just some sound fundamental hitting from the A’s line up,

#5 The A’s will be starting Daulton Jefferies (1-0 ERA 0.00) going up against the Toronto Blue Jays (4-2) Ross Stripling (0-0 ERA 9.00) at Rogers Centre in Toronto tonight. The Blue Jays have been playing some good ball of late how do you see this match up tonight to open the series.

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

San Francisco Giants podcast with Daniel Dullum: An interesting newsworthy homestand this week for the Giants

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San Francisco Giants first base coach Antoan Richardson (left) and San Diego Padres third base coach Mike Schildt (right) address what Richardson said were racial overtones said to him by Schildt on Tue Apr 12th’s game. Schildt said that racial overtones was not his intent. (AP News photo)

On the Giants podcast with Daniel:

Daniel, on Tuesday night against the San Diego Padres the Giants were running away with the game 10-1 when all of a sudden it was announced that Giants first base coach Antoan Richardson was ejected from the game for instigation.

After the Giants had stole a base and bunted with the nine run lead things got hot as the Padres felt the Giants were piling on. Padres third base coach Mike Schildt too exception to the Giants extra handiwork and started trading words with the Giants dugout more specifically with Richardson when Schildt barked to Giants manager Gabe Kapler to “control this motherf—-er.”

Richardson then came out of the dugout and then was told by third base umpire Greg Gibson to back in the dugout when Richardson didn’t get back to the dugout he was thrown out of the game. Richardson said the words of Schildt had the undertones of racism.

The next day Wednesday Schildt wanted to clear up the misunderstanding with Richardson and the two spoke behind the batting cage and later both addressed the media. Schildt said it was not his intention to make Richardson feel what he said was racial in anyway.

Richardson said the impact of those words had racial undertones because how the words are perceived in the black community and that words can have an impact on a person of color and their community.

After the ejection of Richardson, Giants coach Alyssa Nakken took over coaching over first base for Richardson making Nakken the first woman first base coach in Major League history. Nakken was in the batting cage which is located downstairs behind the Giants dugout was asked to come coach first base.

Nakken said looking past the historical significance of being the first woman to coach in a big league game at first base saying, “Right now in this moment as I reflect back, I reflect back to somebody needed to go out, we needed a coach to coach first base, our first-base coach got thrown out. I’ve been in training as a first-base coach for the last few years and work alongside Antoan, so I stepped in to what I’ve been hired to do, is support this staff and this team,” 

Join Daniel for the Giants podcasts each Friday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com