Category: MLB

The Oakland A’s Matt Olson prepares to take his cuts in the cage as the Oakland A’s hold workouts at the Oakland Coliseum on Mon Sep 28, 2020 in preparation of the ALWC series against the visiting Chicago White Sox (AP News photo)

By Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–The 2020 American League playoffs start on Tuesday, September 29th. The Oakland A’ finished with a record of 36-24 to win the American League Western Division title. The A’s will be the second seed in the AL.

The Minnesota Twins also had the same record as the A’s. They will be the third seed as their intradivision play’s record was not as good as the A’s. The A’s will now play the seventh seed, the Chicago White Sox.

Had the A’s been the third seed, they would have been playing the Houston Astros. The Astros finished with a record of 29-31 and were 3-7 vs. the A’s this season. The A’s now face a team with a better record. Chicago was first in the Central Division on September 19th. The team went into a tailspin at the end of the regular season and was 1-7 in their final eight games. They finished with a record of 35-25.

It will be difficult to predict a winner in this best two out of three Wild Card series. The A’s lost the one-game Wild Card to New York in 2018. The Tampa Bay Rays sent the A’s home last year as they beat the A’s at the Coliseum.

A’s manager Bob Melvin will probably use lefty Sean Manaea in the first game, Chris Bassitt in the second, and Mike Fiers in the third game. All three have been pitching well lately. The A’s bullpen has been stellar all season. Melvin will have starters Frankie Montas and Jesus Luzardo available to pitch in relief.

He will call on Yusmeiro Petit, T.J.McFarland, Jake Diekman, Joakim Soria, Lou Trivino, and closer Liam Hendriks to shut down the Chicago offense. The A’s offense has been an area of concern for the team. They are hitting, as a team, a woeful .225. They are striking out too much. The A’s, in a short series, have to correct the hitting problems. If not, they will not be advancing to the AL Division Series.

The A’s pitching will be facing a team loaded with power hitters. The White Sox have two players that are in the running for the AL MVP trophy. Their big first baseman, Jose Abreu, is hitting .317, with 19 home runs and 60 RBI’s in 60 games.

Shortstop Tim Anderson’s numbers are .322, ten dingers, and 21 RBIs. Their power-hitting DH is the veteran Edwin Encarnacion. Carnarcion is not hitting for average, but he still can belt the ball out of the park. Nick Madrigal will play second, and Yoan Moncado will be at third.

Leftfielder Eloy Jimenez is hitting .296, with fourteen bombs and 41 ribbies. The young man from Cuba is living up to his potential. Former Texas Ranger, Nomar Mazara, will be in center-field, and rookie Luis Robert, also from Cuba, will be in right. Robert is hitting .233 and has eleven big flys and 31 RBIs.

Yasmani Grandal and James McCann will handle the catching chores for the Chisox. Grandal, a switch-hitter, will see most of the action.

The White Sox have announced that Lucas Giolito will start the Tuesday game. Giolito has never started a game in Oakland. A’s first baseman, Matt Olson, is four-for six with two home runs facing Giolito. Chad Pinder is 2-for 5.

Lefty Dallas Keuchel goes on Wednesday. Keuchel is 4-2 with a 3.47 ERA in the playoffs. Chisox relievers include Evan Marshall, Matt Foster, lefty Gio Gonzalez, Jace Fry, Codi Heuer, Jimmy Cordero, Aaron Bummer, Carlos Rodon, and closer Alex Colome.

It should be an exciting series. Will the A’s pitchers be able to shut down the potent White Sox Offense? Will the A’s bats come alive in the series? Whose bullpen will be better? The A’s hope to have the answers as they try to advance to the ALDS. The first game of the series will start at noon PDT on Tuesday.

The stage is set for Tuesday at the Oakland Coliseum as the Chicago White Sox face the Oakland A’s in the best of a three game wild card series (@whitesox image)

On That’s Amaury’s podcast:

#1 The Oakland A’s lost five of their last seven games not ideal to end the regular season but they ended the season on a winning note with a victory over the Seattle Mariners 6-2 on Sunday at the Oakland Coliseum.

#2 The A’s now host the Chicago White Sox for the best two out of three series which starts at the Coliseum on Tuesday this has to be a better wild card set up than the one and dones the A’s have had in past years.

#3 A’s manager Bob Melvin said that it’s been a difficult season on the players with the protocols and not being allowed to see your family and friends and just going from the park and to hotel each night.

#4 The White Sox come to the Coliseum ten games over .500 at 35-25 from the regular season and the A’s regular season record 36-24 have the home field advantage through the wild card series.

#5 The A’s have not announced a starting pitcher for Tuesday but it’s likely that Sean Manaea might get the call from Melvin. The White Sox have and are going with Lucas Giolito (0-0) whose making his first career appearance pitching at the Oakland Coliseum in his last start he threw 119 pitches 11 for strikeouts.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary podcasts each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland A’s starter Paul Blackburn (58) is lifted by A’s manager Bob Melvin (not pictured) in the third inning. Blackburn pitched just 2.1 innings giving up five hits and seven runs in the second game of a doubleheader against the Seattle Mariners at the Oakland Coliseum Sat Sep 26, 2020 (AP News photo)

Oakland 3 9 0

Seattle 12 12 1

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Robbie Grossman quickly took the sting out of the A’s extra inning loss in the first game of today’s doubleheader. Batting in the number two slot for the “visiting” Oakland Athletics in the second game, he blasted a 2-2 four seamer from the Seattle Mariners Justin Dunn and drove it 350 over the right field wall to give Oakland a 1-0 lead with one out in the first.

And that’s your A’s Highlight of the Game.

The Mariners scored eight runs in the third inning in the 12-3 laugher over the  A’s. Seven of them were charged to Paul Blackburn, making his first appearance of the season. He had been added to Oakland’s roster as the additional player allowed during double headers.

His stint lasted two and a third innings, during which he surrendered the aforementioned seven runs, all of them earned, on five hits and two walks. He also managed to strike out a couple of Mariners.

In the terrible third, Seattle sent thirteen batters to the plate (i.e., five came up once, and four made two appearances). Dee Strange-Gordon, possessor of the best big league moniker since Van Lingle Mungo, went two for two in the third, and Joseph Odon, JP Crawford, Kyle Seager, Ty France, Tim Lopes, Evan White, and Braden Bishop all connected for base hits.

Two of those safeties, White’s RBI infield single and Strange-Gordon’s second single (also a run producer) came off James Kaprielian, who relieved Blackburn and, after giving up those two hits and a walk, got the two final outs of the frame.

Yeah, the A’s got a run back in the fourth and Robbie Grossman slammed a homer to right in the fourth, but that upped the A’s total run production to three, where it stood until the game mercifully with Tommy La Stella hitting into, what else?, a double play.

Meanwhile, Seattle crossed the plate three more times, once in each the fourth and sixth and twice in the fifth, to bring their total to eleven. Oakland’s total hit count was a respectable nine, three of which were contributed by Robbie Grossman.

Every Mariner except José Marmolejos and Branden Bishop got at least one hit. Crawford, Lopes, and Strange-Gordon each got a pair, and Evan White went three for four to bring his average up to .180. It was that sort of an afternoon.

Both teams rested some of their best players, Semien and Laureano among them, so there’s little reason to fear that dropping today’s twin bill to the M’s will damage the Oakland team’s morale in any significant way.

Blackburn was, of course, charged with the loss. James Kaprilian, Jordan Weems, and TJ McFarland each contributed, and none of them failed to yield at least one run. The longest stint of any of the relievers was Karielian’s one and two-thirds innings; the others pitched an inning apiece.

The Mariners’ Justin Dunn pitched decently enough, allowing three earned runs on six hits in five innings. He now has four wins in set against his single loss. Walter Lockett gave up three hits but didn’t allow a run to score in his two innings of mop up relief.

Marco González (7-2, 3.06) will battle against Frankie Montás (3-5, 6.32) starting tomorrow at 12:10. When that game is over and the dust has settled around the rest of MLB, we’ll see who it is who’ll be coming to The Coliseum on Tuesday.

Unless, as has been known to happen this year, something new and completely different occurs.

The Seattle Mariners starter Justus Sheffield delivers in the first inning against the Oakland A’s at the Coliseum on Sat Sep 26, 2020 (AP News photo)

Seattle. 5. 7. 0

Oakland. 1. 6. 1

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Last night’s thrilling (and chilling) walk off victory of the A’s over the visiting Seattle Mariners may have seemed meaningless, but it wasn’t. Oakland already had clinched its berth in the wild card free for all; it even had a lock on home field advantage. But the question of who their opponent will be still was—and still is—an open one. Take a look at the records of the eight teams have qualified for the shoot out.

1) Tampa Bay (38-20, 6.55) 2) Oakland (34-22, .614) 3) Minnesota (35-23, 6.03) 4) Cleveland (34-24, 5.86) 5) New York (32-26, .553) 6) Houston (29-29, .500) 7) Chicago (34-24, .586) 8) Toronto (31-27, .534)

The top four will be the home teams, with the leading team, Tampa Bay, playing the team with the worst record of the eight, the second place team, the A’s, facing the team with the next worst record, the White Sox, and so on. Oakland, going into today’s games, had three more left to play, all against Seattle. Both Minnesota and Cleveland have two games left. That makes it mathematically possible for Oakland to be the fourth seed when tumult and the shouting have died down.

Regardless of who ends up coming to the East Bay for the best of three series scheduled to begin on Tuesday, the home field advantage, although reduced by the absence of paying fans, is real. The A’s know how to deal with the Coliseum’s spacious foul territory and treacherous wind currents. That counts for a lot.

Seattle sent Justus Sheffield to the mound to face the Athletics in the first of today’s two seven inning contests. The 24 year old southpaw is a formidable opponent. He was the Indians’ first round draft choice in 2014. He had gone 4-3, 3.75 this year with the M’s and has given up only five earned runs in his last 20 innings of work. He pitched a good game today.

Mike Minor was the A’s starter. The question was which Mike Minor would show up, the 2019 all-star or the 1-6, 5.92 version of 2020. Oakland’s share of that record was 1-1,6.61, which included a seven inning, two hit shutout against the Mariners at Safeco Field on September 14.

By the bottom of the second, the A’s were back to their tantalizing ways, loading the bases on back to back singles by Mark Canha and Matt Olson and a walk to Stephen Piscotty, with Khris Davis’s fly out to right interspersed. It was all for naught because Jake Lamb was called out on an infield fly to short and Jonah Heim flew out to right.

In the first three frames, La Stella erased Semien twice by grounding into DPs. They’re a good double play combination, but that’s not the type of twin killing the A’s are looking for in them.

Oakland finally broke through in the bottom of the fourth. Canha led off with a double to right. He moved on to third on Olson’s single to left and scored on Khris Davis’s sac fly to right. But the double play once more dashed Oakland’s hopes. Stephan Piscotty’s hard line drive went straight into first baseman Evan White’s glove. White whipped the pellet over to France, and that was it for Oakland in the fourth.

Number nine hitter Branden Bishop greeted Minor with a double to left to open the visitors’ sixth. Crawford’s single to left brought him home to tie the score. That was it for Minor, who finished his day’s work with a line of one run (earned) on four hits and no walks over five full innings. He struck out seven and 55 of his 80 pitches were strikes.

Minor’s replacement, Joakim Soria, had to deal with a hairy situation. Canha, the hero of last night’s fray, mishandled Crawford’s hit, an error that allowed him to advance to second. Sic transit gloria mundi.

France lined Soria’s first offering to the warning track in right center field, putting Crawford on third with only one out. But Soria kept barred the door to the Mariners by striking out Kyle Lewis and, after a declared walk to Kyle Seager, getting Luis Torrens to fly out to Laureano in center.

Liam Hendriks threw a 1,2,3 seventh, but couldn’t finish eighth. After Bishop sacrificed the emplaced pinch runner, Dee Strange-Gordon, Crawford drove him home with what proved to be the winning run by singling to center.

He then stole second and scored on France’s single to left. A rare losing performance by the mainstay of the Athletics’ bullpen. Lou Trivino came in to wipe up what was left of Seattle’s inning, but the wiper became the wipee when Kyle Seager took him deep to bring Crawford home, the Mariners’ fourth and fifth tallies.

Sheffield got the win. He’s now 5-3 with an ERA of 3.58. He gave up one run (earned) on five hits in five innings of work. He walked two and struck out one. His pitch count was 82, with 49 strikes.

It was a disappointing loss for the A’s. But they will have a chance to revenge it in about a half an hour in a make up of the game scheduled to have been played on the banks of the Puget Sound on September 3. Oakland, as the putative visitors, will bat first. And, as I mentioned at the start of this dispatch, there still is a lot to be decided in this short, action packed season.