Category: MLB

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.

The Seattle Mariners Joseph Odom gave it a ride but Oakland A’s outfielder Robbie Grossman was ready to take a jump and reach up for the catch for the out in the eighth inning of Fri Sep 25 2020 game at the Oakland Coliseum (AP News photo)

Seattle 1 5 1

Oakland 3 9 0 (10 innings)

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–The Athletics’ poor showing at the plate last night in Los Angeles left a few people wondering whether Houston has a monopoly on sign stealing. That’s one means, and not, perhaps, the most fruitful— of coming to terms with what probably is the team’s most glaring weakness. Another way is to take the historical approach.

The 1906 Chicago White Sox, the fabled Hitless Wonders, had a team batting average of .230 and went on to win the World Series. Oakland’s collective BA going into tonight’s game against the Mariners was .222.

The original Hitless Wonders didn’t have the designated hitter rule to boost their numbers, so let’s just call the two squads even and, as WC Fields said, take the bull firmly by the tail and look the situation squarely in the face. . . and get on with the business at hand.

The first time Seattle’s Yüsei Kikuchi (菊池 雄星,2-4, 5.93) faced the .the Athletics was in the lefty’s major league debut, on March 21, 2019. It was the first time a player born in Japan began his MLB career in his native land, but that was not the big story of the day.

What garnered headlines over the entire world of baseball wasn’t an entry but an exit. That night, Kikuchi started a game, but Ichiro Suzuki ended a career that will put him in two Hall of Fame, in Tokyo and Cooperstown.

Kikuchi pitched well that evening, throwing 91 pitches over 4- 2/3 innings and giving up two runs, only one earned, while striking out three while walking only one. The rest of his season wasn’t that impressive.

His record for the year was 6-11,5.46 with a WHIP of 1.52. His record for tonight was very impressive. He went six innings without surrendering a run, allowing four hits, striking out five and walkling three. He threw 99 pitches, of which 40 were balls.

Opposing Kikuchi’s was the A’s most reliable hurler of 2020, Chris Bassitt (5-2,2.57). He went seven frames, in which he shut out Seattle on five hits while striking out six without issuing a single base on balls. Of his 81 offerings, 56 were strikes.

Tonight’s contest was, it goes without saying, a pitchers’ duel. But that doesn’t mean it was dull.

Oakland threatened in the bottom of the second when Matt Olson’s ground ball to to shallow right bounced off the glove of second baseman Ty France, playing in the shift, and Khris Davis followed with a slicing double off the right field wall that sent Olson to third.

But Stephen Piscotty struck out on a three and two pitch, and Jake Lamb popped out to short to end the threat. In the fourth, Marcus Semien’s double to right center again put a man in scoring position with one out. But he was thrown out trying to steal third. In fifth, Mark Canha led off with a two bagger to right center, only to be stranded on third after Olson walked and Davis hit into an around the horn double play. Then Piscotty grounded out to first.

In the sixth, it was Seattle’s turn to be frustrated. Joseph Odom’s sharp single to right and JP Crawford’s Texas League safety to left put runners on first and second with one down. Bassitt left them there by striking out Kyle Lewis and Kyle Seager.

Manager Scott Servais pulled Kikuchi after six frames. His line was.

After Kikuchi’s replacement, Yohan Ramírez, helped by another Oakland baserunning error (Robbie Grossman was picked off first), wriggled out of some trouble of his own, Yusmeiro Petit took over mound duties for the A’s in the top of the eighth. He set the Mariners down, 1,2,3.

Seattle brought in Anthony Misiewicz to pitch the bottom of the inning. He, too, tred a perilous path. After Tommy La Stella popped out, Ramón Laureano slammed a first pitch cutter to left for a double.

The ensuing intentional walk to Canha was a smart move, but it backfired when Misiewicz unleashed a wild pitch that moved both runners up a base. But Olson struck out, and Tony Kemp, pinch hitting for Davis, hit a hard liner to left that was snared in an excellent play by Tim Lopes.

Liam Hendricks (whom else did you expect?) struck out all three batters he faced in the Seattle ninth (what else did you expect), although he needed to come back from a 3-0 count on Seager to do so.

Erik Swanson set the A’sdown in order in the ninth, and so Jake Diekman started the tenth. Pinch runner Dee Strange-Gordon, emplaced on second by the 2020 extra inning rule, advanced to third when pinch hitter Luis Torres flew out to right and scored on a passed ball.

The A’s now found themselves pretty near where they wanted to be, one run behind in the bottom of the tenth. Joey Gerber was on the mound for Seattle, and he retired the first two men he faced, Semien and La Stella.

Now, with pinch runner Nate Orf on second, again thanks to this season’s extra inning rule, the Green and Gold were exacctly where they wanted to be, down to their last out. Laureano brought Orf home by blasting an 0-1, 91 mph slider to deep left. With Laureano on second, Canha took a ball, swung and missed on a four seam fast ball, and then socked a 93 mph sinker over the fence in right center field.

Diekman, who now is 2-0, got the win and lowered his ERA to a mind boggling 0.44. Gerber suffered his first loss of the season, balancing his record at one win, one loss, and one save. His ERA squirted up to 4.30.

Tomorrow at 1:10, the teams will once more take the field, with Mike Minor (1-6, 5.92) performing mound duties for the A’s and Justus Sheffeld (4-3, 3.75) hurling for the M’s. That seven inning contest will be followed by another, in which they will make up the postponed game of September 3. Paul Blackburn will make his season debut for Oakland and Justin Dunn ((3-1, 4.20) will be on the mound for Seattle.

I’ll be there, bleary eyed and bushed.

Walker Buehler Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher gets the win against the visiting Oakland A’s at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles on Thu Sep 24, 2020 (AP News photo)

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Los Angeles Dodgers won the three-game series’s rubber game as they beat the A’s 5-1 Thursday night at Dodger Stadium. The Dodgers used six pitchers in the game, and they shut down the A’s offense.

The A’s offense produced three hits and one run. Dodger righty, Walker Buehler, making his first start since coming off the 10-day IL, was fantastic. He faced 13 batters in his four innings of work and allowed just one hit and one walk.

The Dodgers used five relievers, and they held the A’s to just two hits. The A’s scored their only run in the eighth when Sean Murphy blasted his seventh home run of the year.

The Dodgers put one on the board in the first inning. Dodger right-fielder, Mookie Betts, singled to start the inning. Third baseman Justin Turner singled to send Betts to second. Fiers retired the dangerous Max Muncy for the second out. Dodger Catcher Will Smith to drive in Betts to give the Dodgers an early 1-0 advantage.

The Dodgers extended the lead to 2-0 in the third. Dodger shortstop, Corey Seager, sent Mile Fiers’ first pitch over the wall in center-field. It was Seager’s fifteenth of the year. The Dodgers lead 2-0. They did not have to score again to win, but they did.

Mike Fiers’s evening ended after five innings of work. He gave up three runs and allowed five hits. A’s manager, Bob Melvin, brought in lefty Jesus Luzardo to pitch the sixth. Things did not go well for Luzardo.

Eight players hit for the Dodgers in the inning. Will Smith started the rally with a double. Smith stopped at third when Cody Bellinger doubled. Luzardo walked A.J.Pollock to load the bases with no out.

Kike Hernandez singled to drive in Smith. Chris Taylor walked to force in Bellinger with the second run of the inning. The bases were still loaded with no out. Luzardo retired Betts for the first out. Seager drove in the third run with a sacrifice fly to deep center-field. Luzardo retired Turner to end the inning. LA leads 5-0.

The A’s scored their only run in the eighth. Sean Murphy hit his seventh of the year off Jake McGee to put one on the board. The A’s trail 5-1. The Dodgers brought in closer Kenley Jansen to finish the game. He set the A’s down 1-2-3 to end the game. LA wins 5-1.

Game Notes- The A’s offense continued to struggle. The A’s managed only fourteen hits in the three-game series. They struck out thirteen times Monday night, and a season-high sixteen times Thursday night.

Robbie Grossman, Matt Olson, and Stephen Piscotty each whiffed three times Thursday night. The A’s had seven players hitting under .240. Piscotty started the game hitting .242. Tommy La Stella is the only A’s player with a batting average over .270.

If the A’s are to advance deep in the playoffs, they will have to start hitting. Should they will it all, they will join the 1906 Chicago White Sox team known as the hitless wonders.

With the loss, the A’s are now 34-22. The Dodgers improved to 40-17. The A’s line was one run, three hits, and no errors. The Dodgers’ line was five runs, eight hits, and no errors.

The A’s return home to face the Seattle Mariners for four games starting Friday night. They will play a doubleheader on Saturday. The regular season end on Sunday.