Category: MLB

MLB The Show podcast with Daniel Dullum: Buyers remorse-Cubs regret $43M deal with Kimbrell; A’s Semien closing in on 200 hits; plus more

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photo from uk.movies.yahoo.com: New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone shows the location and how much a pitch call was squeezing his pitchers after he was ejected for the fifth time for this season on Saturday at Yankee Stadium by Umpire Joe West against the visiting Toronto Blue Jays

On the MLB The Show podcast with Daniel:

1 Craig Kimbrell blows another save now 0-4, 6.53 ERA, Cubs start to regret $43 million contract

2 A’s Marcus Semien reaches base six times against Texas, chasing 200 hits

3 Padres fire manager Andy Green after four seasons 274-366 won loss record.

4 Tampa Bay Rays keep rolling with third straight walk-off win

5 Umpire Joe West ejects Yankees skipper Aaron Boone a day after blowing a strike call

Join Daniel every Sunday for the MLB podcasts at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland A’s Saturday game wrap: It’s a laugher, A’s trounce Texas 12-3; A’s could sweep Rangers Sunday

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photo from sfgate.com: Oakland Athletics’ Marcus Semien (10) celebrates with Matt Olson, right, after hitting a home run against the Texas Rangers during the fifth inning of a baseball game Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019, in Oakland, Calif.

Texas: 3 | 8 | 2

Oakland: 12 | 14 | 0

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND — Before today, the only time the A’s had faced Brad Burke, tonight’s starter for the Rangers, was last week in Arlington on Friday 13th. It was an unlucky day for Texas, who lost the game, 14-9, and the left handed rookie, who was lifted after six innings of work with his team leading 7-6. In his brief stint on the mound, all of the six runs scored against him were earned, coming on six hits, three of which were home runs.

Nonetheless, Burke is a promising youngster. He came to Texas in the three way trade between the A’s, Rangers, and Rays that brought Jurickson Profar to Oakland this past off season. Before that, he had been in the Tampa Bay organization, where he was the 2018 pitcher of the year, with a combined record in advanced-A and double-A of 6-2, 3.08 ERA. It’s noteworthy that his numbers were better in the higher classification. His main pitch is the four-seam fastball, which he mixes with curves, sinkers, change ups, and the very occasional slider.

His opposite number tonight was Sean Manaea, whose long awaited return from shoulder surgery and its consequent rehab assignments he celebrated with a 2-0, 0.50 ERA record in his three starts. One of those was on the road against Texas, where he threw six innings of three hit shutout ball, chalking up three strike outs in the process. That was a week ago Sunday.

Manaea got off to a shaky start, but a timely double play and a running catch in right by Laureano with a runner on second got him out of trouble. Burke, on the other hand, had a nightmare of a first inning. Two-thirds of an inning, to be exact. The A’s batted around, with hits by Chapman, Olson, Laureano (a double) off Burke and by Phegley and Chapman off his replacement, Luke Farrell, bringing in seven runs, all charged to Burke. A wild throw to first by third baseman Danny Santana on what would have been a double play ground ball by Canha allowed runners to advance, but they would have scored any way. So, after one inning of play, Oakland was up by seven.

Manaea continued to be unsteady in the second frame, allowing two hits before the second out was made, but, once again he followed the Lefty Gomez plan for successful pitching, clean living (we assume) and a fast outfield, to escape unscathed.

There was no reason for Farrell, who had surrendered two hits and a walk in his one-third of an inning performance, to remain in the game, and he didn’t. Jonathan Hernández was didn’t fare any better. He gave up two hits and three walks and already had allowed two runs when he left with the bases loaded and two outs in the second. Adrian Sampson, the Rangers’ fourth pitcher in two innings, came in and struck out Chapman on a full count.

The Rangers’ third was notable for two spectacular defensive plays: Laureano’s diving, rolling over catch of Andrus’s fast falling foul in right and Chapman’s backhand grab in the shift of Willie Calhoun’s hard shot towards left and then his off balance throw to get him at first.

Sampson’s effective relief work restored a semblance of order, so when Shawn Kelliey replaced him to face the top of the A’s lineup in the bottom of the fifth, the score still was 9-0. That expectation lasted three pitches. On the fourth Semien blasted Kelley’s 80 mph offering into the left center field seats for his 35th home run of the year. Three men later, Canha made it 11-0 by going long for the twenty-sixth time of the season, slamming a 368-foot drive over the left field fence. Kelley finished the inning but gave way to Joe Palumbo, who pitched the home sixth without allowing anyone except Davis, who got to second on a throwing error by Odor, to reach base.

The top of the sixth finally saw the Rangers get on the board. Elvis Andrus led off with his 11th dinger, a no doubter to center. Danny Santana hit his 26th two outs later, a fly to left that narrowed the gap to 11-2. The long and short of it is that Rougned Odor then dropped a bunt down the third base line against the shift for a single, and JB Wendelken came in to relieve Manaea, who either was tiring or had lost his concentration. He had worked 5 2/3 innings, allowed two runs, both of which were earned, on six hits, two of them home runs. one walk, a wild pitch, and a hit batter. His ERA ballooned to 1.14. He would get the win.

Wendelken got his man, DeShields, out on a grounder to Neuse at second.

Joe Palumbo took care of the A’s with a scoreless bottom half of the sixth, and Jesús Luzardo answered the bell for the visitors’ seventh, punching out two of the four Rangers he faced. Of the remaining two, one walked, and the other flew out.

Ryan Bouchter took his turn on the mound for Oakland in the eighth and coughed up the Rangers’ third solo home run. It came from the bat of Nick Solak and ended up over the left field fence.

Jeffrey Springs was the last Texas pitcher the A’s had to face. They touched him for their 12th and final run, Phegley driving in Davis from third on a single to left.

Once Manaea had lost his touch, hitting was the story for the A’s. Semien went three for three; Chapman, two for four; Canha, two for four; and Neuse, three for four. Semien and Canha homered.

Daniel Mengden closed out the game, throwing a shut out ninth with the help of two splendiferous plays by Franklin Barreto at short.

Because Tampa Bay pulled another victory out of the jaws of defeat back in St. Petersberg, they stayed two games behind Oakland in the race for home field advantage. Cleveland’s loss to the Phillies dropped the tribe to a game behind the Rays in the battle for the second wild card slot. The A’s magic number dropped to six. The magic number to eliminate any threat from Cleveland now is five.

Tomorow will be September 22nd, an appropriate time for number 22 Ramón Laureano bobblehead day. Game time is 1:07 p.m.Tanner Roark will try continue the A’s winning ways, facing Lance Lynn, who will take the mound for the Rangers.

In a brief ceremony before tonight’s contest, the A’s inducted Rickey Henderson, Walter Hass, Campy Campanaris, Vida Blue, Mark McGwire, and Tony LaRussa into the team’s Hall of Fame.

Fried goes 5.1 innings in Braves’ 8-1 win

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photo from sfgate.com: Atlanta Braves starter Max Fried (54) delivers a pitch against the San Francisco Giants Saturday at Sun Trust Park in Cobb County GA

By Jeremy Kahn

With the National League East already clinched, the Atlanta Braves are still in the running for the best record in the National League.

After defeating the San Francisco Giants 8-1 at SunTrust Park, the Braves remain within distance of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the record in the NL and home field advantage if the two teams meet in the National League Championship Series.

Max Fried went 5.1 innings of scoreless ball, while Francisco Cervelli and Adam Duvall each hit two-run home runs.

Fried won his 17th game of the season, the most by a Braves pitcher since the 2010 season, when the Giants defeated the Braves in the National League Division Series on their way to their first World Series Championship since 1954.

Tim Hudson, who was a member of the 2014 Giants World Series Championship team was the last Braves player to win 17 games in a season in 2010.

Johnny Cueto made his third start since returning to the starting rotation from Tommy John surgery.

Cueto walked five batters, giving up four runs and two hits in just four innings of work and fell to 1-1 on the season.

Adeiny Hechavarria got the Braves going in the bottom of the second inning, as he hit a two-run double. Cueto walked three in the inning, and Billy Hamilton doubled in a run for the NL East Champion Braves.

Cristian Adames gave the Giants their first run of the weekend, as he drove in a run with a single in the top of the seventh inning.

Cervelli gave the Braves a 6-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning, as he slammed a two-run home run off of Dereck Rodriguez.

Sam Coonrod surrendered a two-run home run to Duvall in the bottom of the seventh inning.

NOTES: With the loss, the Giants will not finish above .500 for the third straight season and in manager Bruce Bochys 25th and final season as a major league manager. Bochy came to the Giants in 2007 after 12 seasons with the San Diego Padres.

UP NEXT: Rookie Logan Webb closes out the series and the 2019 road slate, as he takes the mound for the Giants on Sunday afternoon. The Braves will send Dallas Keuchel in their regular season home finale.

MLB The Show podcast with Matt Harrington: Braves get back-to-back division titles; Fiers lights out for A’s again; plus more

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Photo credit: talkingchop.com

On the MLB The Show podcast with Matt:

#1 The Atlanta Braves are for the second season in a row division winners in the NL East with a victory over the San Francisco Giants. Never an easy task to win a second division championship, but the Braves pulled it off.

#2 The Braves players celebrated after the game in the waterfall pool just beyond the outfield fence wrapping up the night. The players posed for a photo while standing in the pool.

#3 It was Oakland A’s Mike Fiers bobblehead night. Who threw a no-hitter on May 7 this season, Fiers on his pitch of the game gave up a hit to Texas Rangers lead-off hitter Shin-Soo Choo, but pitched a very controlled game afterwards threw eight innings of shutout ball.

#4 The New York Mets’ Pete Alonso was the second rookie to hit 50 home runs. Quite an accomplishment from Alonso, whose had a great year so far.

#5 The Washington Nationals got a big win over the Miami Marlins 6-4 to hang onto first place in the NL Wild Card. The Nats’ Trea Turner hit two home runs and Asdrubal Cabrera hit one in the win.

Matt Harrington does the MLB The Show podcast each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Braves clinch division with 6-0 victory over Giants

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Photo credit: @Braves

By Jeremy Kahn

When the Atlanta Braves were forced to switch divisions 25 years ago, the season before saw one of the greatest division races in the 25-year history of just two divisions per league.

Back then, the Braves won 104 games, while the San Francisco Giants won 103 and went home; because, there was no wild card.

Once again, the Braves are heading to the postseason after clinching their second consecutive National League Eastern Division championship with a 6-0 victory over the Giants at SunTrust Park.

Ronald Acuna, Jr., hit his 41st home run of the season, as the Braves officially eliminated the Giants from wild card contention in Bruce Bochys 25th and final season as a major-league manager.

Acuna was the star of the game, as he scored three runs and gave Mike Foltynewicz enough to pick up his eighth win of the season.

Foltynewicz went eight innings, as the Braves won their 19th division title, tying the New York Yankees for the most in major-league history since the MLB introduced division play in 1969.

Freddie Freeman got the Braves going in the bottom of the first inning, as he hit a sacrifice fly to give the Braves and Foltynewicz the only run that he would need. Ozzie Albies then added a run-scoring single to stretch the lead.

Acuna and Brian McCann each hit two-run home runs in the fourth and sixth innings respectively to finish off the scoring, and clinch the division for the Braves.

Tyler Beede was the hard luck, as he gave up seven hits on those six runs in six innings of work and he saw his record fell to 5-10 on the season.

Josh Tomlin came on in the top of the ninth inning, as he closed out the game for the Braves, who celebrated on the field after Acuna caught Alex Dickersons fly ball for the final out.

Mike Yastrzemski picked up three of the four Giants hits on the evening, as they fell to 74-80 on the season.

UP NEXT: Johnny Cueto continues his comeback from Tommy John surgery, as he looks for his second win for the season for the Giants. Cueto will be making his third start of the season.

Max Fried goes for his 17th win for the Braves on Saturday evening.

Fiers dominant in A’s 8-0 blow out win over the Rangers

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Photo credit: @Athletics

Texas: 0 | 2 | 1

Oakland: 8 | 8 | 0

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND — Major League Baseball players are a motivated group. They dedicate years in the minors to learning their craft in small towns and all-night bus riders until, when they reach the top, they report for what we call spring training, although the calendar insists it’s winter. They toil through 162 games, sometimes playing day games after night games, in what can be grueling weather, and travelling through three time zones (or more if they play in an overseas series) to face (or throw) a hard pellet at speeds of more than 95 mph. If their team qualifies, they play in a post season tournament that can last as long as twenty games. These men are driven. They’re also well paid at this level, which is a huge incentive for them to perform well in spite of the hardships and dangers they face. They also take a good deal of legitimate pride in their accomplishments.

When September rolls around a new layer of motivation is added. By Labor Day, the field of contending clubs in each of MLB’s six divisions narrows considerably, and the teams with a reasonable chance of making the playoffs push and shove, claw and gnaw to make the cut for postseason play and, once they’ve achieved that, to gain home field advantage throughout the remainder of play by having the best winning percentage of the lot.

But contenders aren’t the only teams who play with added intensity in the season’s waning days. They also have a chance to avenge five and a half months of being kicked around by spoiling the more successful teams’ bids for the different championships up for grabs in September. On the first of the month, the active rosters are expanded, and Spoiler Schadenfreude joins every non playoff team.

These are some of the reasons why stretch drive baseball can be so compelling even when the opponents are going in opposite directions. Not every game will provide as much drama, anticipated and realized, as the last three games of the 1951 National League season, which culminated with Bobby Thompson’s shot heard ‘round the world, or even the final game of 2012 when the A’s defeated the Rangers to occupy first place for the only time all season, which enabled them to advance to the playoffs.

Late season intensity wasn’t the only reason the teams had to be motivated for tonight’s contest. The stadium give away was a bobble head honoring the A’s starting pitcher, Mike Fiers (14-4, 4.09 ERA), who was coming off two dreadful starts. The statuette saluted him for his May 7 no-hitter against Cincinnati, but his bid to repeat that feat ended with his first pitch of the evening, which Shin-Soo Choo slapped into center field for a single. A double play and fly to left, however, set things straight. Fiers allowed only one more hit—and that was his only other base runner—in the rest of his eight inning stint. So you could say that he rose to the occasion.

His opposite number, Texas southpaw Mike Minor (13-9, 3.33 ERA) also had a bitter taste in his mouth from his most recent outing, in which he gave up seven earned runs in as many innings to the same A’s he was facing tonight. Just as Fiers’ recent bad experiences had been break in his pattern of success, Minor’s year had been a good one until recently. It included a spot on the AL roster for the All-Star Game, and brought a career-high 188 punch outs to the Coliseum mound tonight.

Minor’s troubles began later, but were more serious than the one Fiers had faced. With Laureano and Murphy on base and one down in the bottom of the second, the slumping Chad Pinder slammed a 94 mph four-seamer over the center field fence fore his 13th round tripper of the year, which gave the A’s an early 3-0 lead.

Oakland tacked on another run in the third on a walk to Chapman, who advanced to second on a ground out to first by Olson and scored on Canha’s two ball, two strike double to right. The A’s made it 5-0 in the fourth when Semien’s two-out two-bagger to left plated Sean Murphy, who had walked, advanced to second on Pinder’s single and to third on Neuse’s DP grounder to short. Canha’s lead off dinger to lead off the fifth brought his total to 25 and stretched the A’s advantage to 6-0.

After throwing five innings and 105 pitches (61 strikes) and allowing six runs, all earned, Minor’s exercise in frustration was over. He had surrendered six hits, giving his numbers a certain symmetry. He struck out only two, but this raised his year’s total to an impressive 190. He was replaced by Ariel Jurado, who set the side down in order before being replaced, in turn, by Yohander Méndez.

The A’s resumed their scoring ways once Méndez, like Minor a left handed hurler, entered the fray to pitch the seventh. With one out, Olson walked, as did Canha. Then Laureano doubled to right center, scoring the former and sending the later to third. A walk to Davis loaded the bases. This brought up Seth Brown, who had been brought in to pinch hit for Pinder when the Rangers switched pitchers from the left-handed, ineffective Minor to the right-handed, effective Jurado. Brown and Méndez went to a full count before the A’s rookie whiffed on a changeup, When Fiers got his first out in the eighth, a strike out of Nomar Mazaro, it was the deepest he’d gone in a game since August 9th, when he’d thrown seven innings of shutout ball in US Cellular Field. He finished tonight’s performance having thrown 95 pitches, striking out five Rangers, and allowing two hits and nothing else. He improved his record to 15-4, 3.91 ERA.

Taylor Guerrieri gave away the A’s final run with a wild pitch to Canha with Chapman on third. Canha eventually struck out.

Then Chris Bassitt set the Rangers down 1, 2, 3 in the ninth.

The loss went to Minor, who now is 13-10, 3.52 ERA.

The A’s hefty offensive was a relief after they had managed to score only three runs in their last two games, both of which they still managed to win. That the pitching, or at least Fiers and Bassitt didn’t let up in spite of a comfortable margin also was good news.

With Houston’s victory tonight, the A’s were mathematically eliminated from the AL West pennant race. Cleveland and Tampa Bay’s wins kept them tied with each other, two games behind Oakland in the struggle for first wild card honors.

Sean Manaea (2-0, 0.50 ERA) will go against Brock Burke (0-1, 5.19 ERA) in a battle of left-handers starting at 6:07 p.m. tomorrow evening and followed by a fireworks display celebrating the evolution of pop.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast: Pats can’t withstand keeping Brown; Pirates overwhelmed by Vazquez coverage; plus more

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@AB84 photo: Former New England Patriot Antonio Brown confers in practice photo with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick

On That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast:

#1 How surprised were you about the New England Patriots letting wide receiver Antonio Brown go on Friday. It looked like prosecutors were not going to go after him for the rape accusations made by his former trainer Britney Taylor.

#2 Baseball no doubt is in a state shock regarding Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez and his child solicitation charges can the Pirates shake this one off.

#3 Amaury talks about the A’s and how they are ahead of Tampa Bay in the wild card by two games. They’ve had to beat some of baseball’s best like the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees in recent weeks.

#4 The San Francisco Giants open a three-game series in Atlanta and the Braves need a win tonight to get back to back NL Eastern Division titles.

Amaury does the A’s Spanish play-by-play broadcasts on 1010 KIQI San Francisco and does News and Commentary each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

State of the A’s

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Photo credit: @MLBStats

By Lewis Rubman

Mark Canha’s walk off double, following Homer Bailey and the bullpen’s (yes, you read that right) 11-inning shutout win over the Royals has faded into recent history, and so has the euphoria it brought. The A’s have a day off, and we have a chance to take a dispassionate look, if baseball fans are allowed to use that adjective, at how things stand for the team.

First of all, no one now has even unspoken illusions about catching up with Houston in the regular season. The Astros hold an eight-game lead over Oakland with nine games to go for each team. Even if the A’s won all their remaining games, all Houston would need is one win to finish the season with a tie for the best record in the AL West. All that would get the A’s would be the chance to play the tie-breaker at the Coliseum.

The A’s outlook is brighter in the wild card race. Boston will be eliminated unless it wins every game left on its schedule and the team it trails loses all of its. Cleveland is on the ropes, which means that there’s a good chance that what’s left for Oakland is a battle by proxy with Tampa Bay for the right to be the home team in the one and done play-in round to determine the wild card team that will get the chance to battle Houston in the ALDS. The one-shot nature of the wild card game and the brevity of the best three out of five format for the ALDS accentuate the craps shoot nature of the whole process. The closest thing to a sure bet is that, if you care enough to read this column, your blood pressure will rise between now and at least October 2, when we’ll finally know–weather permitting–whether Oakland, Cleveland, or Tampa Bay will be on its way to Minute Maid Park to open the Division Series.

Let’s look first at the Indians, if only to take a guess at their chances of displacing the Rays as the A’s play-in opponent, although we shouldn’t forget that there is a possibility, however unlikely this morning, that Cleveland will overtake both Oakland and Tampa Bay and make one of those teams an also ran.

FanGraphs’ probability ratings make no claim to be infallible; their very name indicates that. But they are an extremely valuable tool for assessing a ball club’s chances. They give the Indians a mere 44% chance of making the play offs, which is our immediate concern, and, incidentally, a 42.8% of winning the division title, which would mean defeating Houston in the ALDS. The same source offers a probable season’s won-lost record of 94.5-67.5 for the Tribe. (That half a win points to the difference between a real season and a statistically analyzed one).

Still on the Indians’ schedule are a game against Detroit and a two game inter-league series against the Phillies, both at Progressive Park, né The Jake. Daniel Norris, who pitched well as an opener in the Bengals’ 3-1 September 8 loss, which was charged against him, will start for Detroit. Although the Tigers haven’t announced it, he most likely will be used in the same role today. His opponent, Mike Clevenger, is 11-3, 2.68 ERA, so don’t count on Cleveland’s elimination number dropping today.

Philadelphia, like Cleveland, is hanging on to the chance of a wild card spot, having an elimination number of eight in its division at this writing. Looking at the pitching match ups and the teams’ batting records, I think the Indians have the edge in the series, so Oakland shouldn’t count on getting help from the Phillies.

Like the A’s, the Tribe will finish its season on the road. They’ll start with a three game set on the south side of Chicago. Cleveland’s current 89-63 record is three games off from being a mirror images of the ChiSox’ 66-86, but that doesn’t mean that the Sox are a push over. The Indians are hitting only .239 against their pitching, albeit with a more respectible OPS of .711, and trail them 7-9 in the season series.

Washington will be Cleveland’s last opponent in the regular season. The Nats currently occupy second place in the NL East, where they have been eliminated from the division race and are in the first wild card position by a game and a half.

In short, it would be foolish to predict which series the Indians will win in what’s left to them in 2019 and which they’ll lose. But it seems more than reasonable to expect that they’ll lose at least as many as the A’s need them to, unless the green and gold has an unlikely melt down and need Cleveland to do the same.

That leaves the thorny problem of the Tampa Bay Rays. FanGraphs computes their probable record at the end of the season as 95-67, two games behind the A’s 97-65. If not a razor thin margin, it’s still a well-sharpened scissors thin one, one close enough for FanGraphs to give the Rays a 60% chance of a play off spot. They give the A’s a 96.3% shot at that, and they calculate each team’s chance of winning the wild card game as the same as their getting into it, that is, 60% and 96.3%, respectively. The team from St. Petersburg has the most challenging schedule of the three contenders for the two wild card berths. They’ll battle the Red Sox, the Green Monster, and Peskey’s Pole tomorrow through Sunday. That’s tough, but what’s awaiting them is tougher. They go to the Bronx, where the Yankees will be fighting for home field advantage, not just in the Division Series, which they already have qualified for, but in the rest of the postseason. A strong opponent with something worth fighting for is a formidable obstacle to fulfilling FanGraph’s computerized forecast, and the Bombers just might keep Tampa Bay from reaching the 95-win mark.

So there are grounds for reasonable, but guarded, optimism about the A’s chances as they take on , with Fiers, Manea, and Roark on the mound, the Rangers this weekend in Oakland.

Fiers has gotten rid of the nerve irritation that cut short his last start and also has gotten rid of his number six, lying on its back beard by cutting it off entirely, thereby restoring his facial equilibrium. He didn’t pitch well in his two starts at Texas this summer, but he’s been having an excellent season overall, including a no-hitter and a near record streak of starts without losing. Like most of the A’s rotation, he’s bullpen reliant. Manaea has looked great since coming off the IL, and Roark’s 3.83 ERA over 47 innings since joining the A’s at the trade deadline was inflated by two of the runners he’d left on base in his last start scoring after he’d been relieved. The Rangers haven’t yet announced their Sunday starter. Of the two they have announced, the choice for Friday, Mike Minor, is the one more likely to give the A’s trouble. He’s 13-9, 3.33 ERA, but only 5-4, 4.22 ERA at home.

Then it’s on to Anaheim for a pair of games against the Angels. The Halos are having an awful season and have been further weaken by the loss of Shohei Ohtani, but they’re always a menace when they play the A’s.

The A’s will close out the season with a four-game series against Seattle at T-Mobile Park, booking ending their opening and closing games of the 2019 season against the same team but in a different domed facility. My guess is that it will be then that they decide (or learn) if there’s life after game 162 for them. I think there will be, in spite of the problems that still hover over them. The bull pen remains is unpredictable. Khris Davis isn’t going to carry the team on his shoulders. (I suspect that he’s been playing hurt). Jurickson Profar isn’t throwing wildly, but he still looks awkward with his throws, and, though he has power batting left, it’s from the right side that his batting average is good. Since most pitchers are right-handed, this combination makes Profar’s somewhat of a weak spot in the batting order. Laureano’s legs aren’t 100% yet, and Piscotty’s on the IL. Chapman’s BA is slipping, but he’s still a joy to watch in the field. And Oakland counts with (if not yet on) some definite assets that were missing before September. Luzardo and Puk, though still relatively untested, have been all you could hope for. Manea has been (knock wood) lights out. Brown and Murphy are looking good and might find their way on to a post season roster, if there is one, with some judicious juggling of the injured list.

Another plus is Mark Canha’s stepping up to the role of every day center fielder. From high power, low average utility player, he has become a well-rounded batter whose defense has improved from good to excellent thanks to his playing consistently in one position. Not to mention Semien and Olson, both of whom, in addition to their prowess at the plate and their virtues in the field, help compensate for Profar’s throwing problems. Let’s hear it, too, for Liam Hendriks and Yusmeiro Petit.

The great comedy team of Bob and Ray, the voices of Harry and Bert Piels in a classic series of beer advertisements from the 1950s, used to sign off their radio show by saying, “Write if you get work and hang by your thumbs.” We’ll have to settle for hanging by our thumbs for a while.

Giants whiff on late rally, puts damper on otherwise-legendary series

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Photo credit: @NBCSGiants

By Jeremy Harness

The Giants lost in heart-sinking fashion on Thursday, 5-4, to the Boston Red Sox, after a ninth-inning rally that fell just shy that will almost certainly make the plane ride to Atlanta a little less pleasant.

But before sulking in that any deeper, let’s all take a moment to look back on all the good, legendary stuff that went down in these past three games.

First of all, the Giants took two of the three games at historic Fenway Park, a place where the Giants had not won since 1915.

Do the math. That’s 104 years, people!

Mike Yastrzemski, the grandson of Hall of Famer and Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski, made his Fenway debut Tuesday night and was given a standing ovation by the Boston faithful, and the magnitude was ramped up when young Yaz blasted one out of the ballpark later in the game.

To cap it all off, Bruce Bochy got the 2,000th win of his managerial career Wednesday night, a career that will land him into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

As we let that sink in for a little bit, fast-forward to Thursday afternoon.

Trailing by a pair in the ninth, the Giants began a rally against Red Sox closer Brandon Workman, which started when Brandon Belt reached base on a throwing error by second baseman Marco Hernandez, who made a nice sliding stop but watched as his routine throw to first pulled Brock Holt off the bag.

The Giants loaded the bases with nobody out, but Brandon Crawford struck out looking, a situation where simply making contact would likely bring in a run. Yastrzemski was then blown away by a Workman fastball, and the rally was suddenly in jeopardy.

Kevin Pillar kept the rally alive by drawing a walk and bringing in a run, and Evan Longoria was able to work a full count. However, Workman then threw perhaps his best pitch of the afternoon, a breaking ball that dove out of the strike zone and enticed Longoria to swing at air, ending the rally and the hope for a sweep.

“(Workman) found a way to get through it,” manager Bruce Bochy said. It’s a tough pitch to lay off for (Longoria), especially after seeing a couple of pretty good fastballs before that.

“We were close to getting a nice sweep here, but we just came up a little short.”

Although the numbers won’t necessarily reflect it, but Madison Bumgarner threw well on Thursday and gave his team a chance to win.

He went five innings and gave up five runs on nine hits, walking two and striking out seven. However, many of the decisive hits were not hit especially hard at all, but rather were bloopers off good pitches that found open spots in the Giants’ defense.

“It’s just unfortunate that that many fell in,” Bumgarner said. “In this case, I just keep making my pitches and trust that that’s not going to continue to happen. I felt that I threw the ball pretty good.”

Headline Sports podcast with Tony Renteria: Vazquez admits to solicitation charges with minor; Astros’ Cole K’s 300 batters in a season; plus more

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photo file from nytimes.com: Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez admitted to Pennsylvania Police that he had sexual relations with a 13 year girl. Vazquez’ admissions has sent shockwaves through the Pirates organization and MLB.

On Headline Sports with Tony Renteria:

Breaking: Antonio Brown will not be prosecuted for rape allegations from Florida ex-trainer Britney Taylor

#1 Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez admitted that he did have sexual relations with a 13 year old minor. The mother of the minor said she contacted police after finding photos that Vazquez sent to her daughter’s phone. Vazquez reportedly admitted to contacting the minor, who he met at a Pirates game when he was in the bullpen and got her contact information at the time.

#2 Houston Astros right-hander Gerrit Cole struck out 300 batters becoming the 18th pitcher in MLB history to do so. Cole is 18-5 with an ERA of 2.61. The Astros are having a great year and having pitching like this from Cole certainly has complimented the ball club.

#3 Just looking ahead to the postseason, the Oakland A’s are in first place in the AL wild card. They have dominated some of baseball’s best teams winning series from teams like the New York Yankees and Houston Astros. If the A’s can get past the wild card, the road to the World Series is past teams like the Astros and Yankees.

#4 After Sunday’s second quarter drubbing by the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oakland Raiders are regrouping and taking a look at their secondary, who took a bath when the Chiefs scored four touchdowns all the scoring they needed to upend Oakland 28-10.

#5 After the tough loss last Sunday at home, the Raiders have four away games in their next five games, which schedule wise can be considered their toughest challenge of the season.

Tony does Headline Sports each Thursday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com