Category: MLB

Oakland Athletics pitcher Sean Manaea works against the Arizona Diamondbacks in the first inning of a baseball game Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020, in Oakland, Calif.Ben Margot/AP

Arizona 1-6-0

Oakland 5-8-0

August 20, 2020

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Baseball lore is filled with curses, the Curse of the Bambino, of the Billy Goat, of Rocky Colavito, fanciful constructions used to mask the disappointment of generations of ironic fans not quite resigned to failure and frustration. But there is another sort of baseball curse, one that is not a rhetorical consolation for loss, but rooted in the nature of competition and the drive to excel.

I call it the Curse of Unrelenting Expectations. Think of Joe DiMaggio in the last weeks of his streak, of Roger Maris as he approached his 60th home run of 1961, of Henry Aaron as he closed in on Babe Ruth’s 714. That sort of curse can end, or at least be abated, when the player who suffers it either falls short of or reaches his goal.

He falls off the cover of Sports Illustrated. and his curse is lifted. But there is another version of the curse. A young player shows great promise and constantly is expected to live up to it. When Dallas Braden recorded the final out of his perfect game, I said to my wife, “Here’s where his troubles start.” We ask a lot of young men who, like Jesús Luzardo, seem able to lift a team from contender to champion but still haven’t established themselves as reliable stoppers. For every Sandy Koufax, there’s a dozen Tod Van Poppels.

Sean Manaea no-hit the Red Sox on April 21, 2018. By August, he was on the disabled list. 2019 was a series of false starts, stops, and restarts, but he looked strong enough to start the wild card game against Tampa Bay. He lasted two innings and gave up four of the five runs the Rays scored to eliminate the A’s.

This year, arm trouble and the Corona virus have interfered with the talented southpaw’s attempts to re-establish himself as a front line starter. He’s had trouble getting past the third, or even the second, time around his opponent’s batting order, and his fast ball has seemed to lose much of its zip. . Tonight he took the mound, hoping to salvage a split in the series with the D-backs and put some more distance between the Ahtletics and the second place Astros. He succeeded.

Facing him was Arizona’s Alex Young, like Manaea, a lefty. He brought a 1-0, 3.86 record to the game, following a rookie year in which he went 8-5 with an ERA of 3.61.

Young blinked first. After Manaea had set the Diamondbacks down in the first with the help of a nifty Semien to Pinder to Olson double play, Matt Chapman, batting in Oakland’s third slot, took a 92 mph fast ball 434 feet into left field depths to give the A’s an early one run lead. It was his seventh round tripper of the season.

They Diamond backs fell victims to another diamond curse in their half of the fourth, the Curse of the Lead Off Double, when Ketel Marte was stranded at second after opening the frame with two bagger to deep center field.

In the bottom half of that frame, the A’s added a pair of runs to their lead when Matt Olson blasted his ninth homer of the season, scoring Canha, who singled and stole second, in front of him. They were 17th and 18th runs batted in.

Young managed to escape further harm in spite of a double by Khris Davis, his second hit of the evening, and Pinder’s fly that reached the center field warning track.That was the last pitch for Young, who didn’t answer the bell in the bottom of the fifth, when Stefan Circhtonr relieved him. Young had thrown 86 pitches (52 strikes) in his four inning stint, allowing three earned runs on four hits and a walk. He struck out four and would be charged with the loss.

Half way through his second time through the Diamondbacks’ order, Manaea gave up his first run, a 390 foot dinger to left on a 75mph curve ball to Eduardo Escobar. But the Throwin’ Samoan finished off the inning by getting the next three men out on a grounder and two Ks.

Manaea still was looking good in the top of the sixth, but he was in his danger zone. So, when Ketel Marte singled with one out, bringing the potential tying run to the plate, Melvin called on JB Wendelkin to dispose of the rest of the inning. He did that succesfully in spite of David Peralta’s Texas League single to left that sent the runner to third.

Manaea’s performance, though curtailed, was encouraging. His line of five and a third innings pitched included just that one run on Escobar’s long ball and four other hits. He struck out four and didn’t walk any one. 47 of his 74 pitches were strikes. He deserved the win, and he got it.

Wendelkin, Yusmeiro Petit, and Jake Diekman blanked the Diamondbacks through the eighth.

Meanwhile Chapman’s second home run of the night, a 42o foot blast to left off Yoán López with Laureano on base, put the game on ice for the green and gold.

Liam Hendricks closed it out with a 1-2-3 top of the ninth.

The A’s maintained their two and a half-game lead over Houston, who defeated the Astros, 10-8.

The Angels come to town tomorrow in a game that will pit lefty Andrew Heaney (1-1,4.74) againstk rioht hander Mike Fiers O2-1,5.96). Game time is 6:40.

Oakland Athletics’ Mark Canha, right, celebrates with Matt Chapman (26) after hitting a two run homerun off Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Merrill Kelly in the third inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot

Arizona 1-6-0

Oakland. 4-6- 0

Wed Aug 19, 2020

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–In spite of their heart breaking failure to gain another last minute victory over Arizona on Sunday and the horrendous drubbing they received from the Diamondbacks last night, the A’s began today at 16-8, leading the second place Houston Astros by two and a half games in the abbreviated race for the American League Western Division crown.

Returning to the Coliseum from their ill-starred visit to Phoenix, Athletics still had to attend to some unfinished business with the Arizona club; the two teams were scheduled to complete their four game, home and home series this evening,

The visitors, riding high on a six game winning streak, came into the game in third place in the NL West, four and a half games behind the division and MLB leading Dodgers.

Frankie Montás, AL player of the week for August 2-9, was charged with nine of the D-backs’ ten runs in yesterday’s debacle in Phoenix. Tonight’s starter for Oakland, Jesús Luzardo, another deservedly highly rated pitching prospect, was coming off a disappointing performance in his previous appearance.

Luzardo’s lackluster outing against the Giants last Friday—six earned runs in three and a third innings—wasn’t the disaster that the shellacking of Montás was, but it raised the young lefty’s ERA from 2.60 to 4.79.

The entire Athletic squad looked flat in their 10-1 loss in Phoenix. Perhaps it was the effect of playing a day game after a night game. In any case, the home team took the field needing to reverse what threatened to become some disturbing trends.

Arizona’s starting pitcher, right hander Merrill Kelly, went 13-14, 4.42 with the D-backs last year, his rookie season. But he was far from an inexperienced youth. He had arrived in Phoenix with ten years of professional baseball under his belt, starting in 2010 including five years of minor league ball, from lower class A to triple A, a season in the Dominican Winter League, and four years in Korea, where he added five to seven mph to his fast ball . He features a four seamer in the mid 90s, a slider and cutter in the low 90s, a curve about 10 mph slower than that , and an occasional change up in the high 80s.

Kelly had been very effective in his previous starts this year, going at least six innings in all of them, which would not have been notable in normal circumstances (in spite of the arbitrary definition of “quality starts”) but in 2020 is, indeed, worthy of note. He took a record of 3-1, 1.71, with an opponents batting average .212 and a WHIP 0.91 into the game with him.

Luzardo started out well, striking out lead off batter Tim Locastro on an 0-2 slider before surrendering a clean single to center by Kevin Marte. Starling Marte-no relation- eliminated him with an around the horn, inning ending double play two pitches later.

Kelly had more trouble. Marcus Semien led off for Oakland by beating the shift with a single to center. After Ramón Laureano flew out to center and Matt Olson forced Semien out at second, it looked as if Kelly had the situation under control. But he walked Matt Chapman and hit Mark Canha with a pitch.

Robbie Grossman then hit a fly to right that bounced in fair territory a few feet short of the warning track and landed the seats a few feet to the right of the foul pole, an automatic double double that plated the two Matts and put the A’s up, 2-0.

Arizona threatened in the third, when Nick Ahmed, who had hit the walk off single that undid the A’s on Monday, opened the frame with a single to right, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and, after Luzardo got Kevin Cron to take a called third strike, advanced to third on a balk. Luzardo rose to the occasion and retired Carson Kelly and Locastro on fly outs to escape unscathed.

The A’s did more than threaten in their half of the inning. With one out, Chapman doubled down the left field line. Canha then drove a 91 mph four seamer from Kelly into the Mechanics Bank advertisment on top of the auxillary scoreboard in left field for a home run that doubled Oakland’s lead.

Kelly got through two more innings without any difficulties other than the double that Sean Murphy blasted against the top of the Kaiser Permanente advertisement in the fourth. The D-Backs had Kevin Ginkel warming up in the bullpen during the fifth, and he took over mound duties for them in sixth. Kelly’s line for his five innings of work was fourl runs, all earned, on five hits and two walks. He struck out seven and threw 99 pitches, of which 37 were balls.

Oakland missed a chance to pad its advantage in Ginkel´s one frame on the mound. With no one out and Grossman and Piscotty occupying second and third, respectively, Tony Kemp hit a sharp grounder to second that Ketel Martel fielded cleanly and through home to nail Grossman at the plate. Murphy´s infield fly to first and a called third strike to Semien ended the episode.

Bob Melvin kept Luzardo in the game for one out in the top of the seventh. But, when the youngster allowed a single to Calhoun, the Á’s skipper called on Yusmeiro Petit to relieve him. The veteran allowed a single to Almond and then retired Cron and pinch hitter David Peralta on a strike out and a fly to left center.

Luzardo certainly removed any misgivings that might have lingered after his poor showing in San Francisco. The youngster threw six and third inings of shut out ball, holding the Diamondbacks to four hits and two walks, while thowing one wild pitch and committing one balk. Of his 92. pitches, 34 were called balls. He left the game having lowered his ERA to 3.67.

Arizona finally broke through to score their lone tally in the eighth off another veteran, Joakim Soria, who gave it up on a lead off single by Locastro, followed by flies to deep center by the Martes, each of which moved the runner up a base.

Liam Hendricks was lights out in the ninth to save the game for Oakland. It was the eighth time he’s done it this year.

The win went to Luzardo, who’s now 2-1. Kelly took the loss. His record stands at 3-2 with. an ERA of 2.59. In addition to Kelly and Ginkel, TaylorÑClarke contributed two innings of shut out relief to the losing Diamondbacks.

With the victory, Oakland maintained its two and a half game lead over the Astros.

Before the game, the A’s announced that they had recalled right handed pitcher Paul Blackburn from their alternative site in San José. To make room for him, they optioned James Kaprielian to that facility.

The probable starters for tomorrow´s 6:40 contest are two lefties, Alex Young (1-0, 3.86) and Sean Manaea (0-2,7.65).

Arizona Diamondbacks’ Christian Walker and Nick Ahmed congratulate each other after Ahmed’s three-run home run against the Oakland Athletics’ during the first inning of a baseball game Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb)

By Daniel Dullum

Sports Radio Service

Tuesday, August 18, 2020

The Arizona Diamondbacks enjoyed a big night at the plate from shortstop Nick Ahmed, as the D-Backs stretched their winning streak to six games with a 10-1 thumping of the Oakland Athletics Tuesday in downtown Phoenix.

Ahmed homered and drove in five of Arizona’s runs. He cranked a three-run home run off A’s starter Frankie Montas (2-2) in the first inning and added a two-run base hit in the second. Montas also surrendered a home run to Kole Calhoun.

The Diamondbacks batted around in each of the first two innings.

Arizona starter Luke Weaver (1-4) picked up his first win, surrendering one run on three hits while retiring the last 10 hitters he faced before turning things over to the bullpen.

Diamondbacks relievers held the Athletics to four hits and logged 13 strikeouts.

Montas had not pitched since his Aug. 8 against Houston. He was scratched from his last scheduled start last Friday against San Francisco.

Montas, who allowed nine runs on six hits, gave up the game’s first run on a wild pitch, and was pulled after his fourth walk loaded the bases for Arizona with two out. Lou Trivino took over and Ahmed greeted him with a two-run single, giving the D-Backs an 8-1 lead.

TRAINING ROOM UPDATE Oakland LHP A.J. Puk may need a couple more bullpen sessions as he attempts to return from a shoulder injury. Puk threw 30 pitches at the A’s alternate site Monday and is expected to throw again on Wednesday.

ON DECK The Athletics return home to host the Diamondbacks on Wednesday. Lefthander Jesus Luzardo (1-0, 4.79) is on the mound for Oakland, facing the D-Backs’ righthander Merrill Kelly (3-1, 1.71).