Category: Oakland Athletics

White Sox win first game of four-game set with A’s 5-2

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Former Oakland A’s and now Chicago White Sox closer Liam Hendricks gets into the double fist pump mode after closing the door on his former team on Mon Aug 16, 2021 in Chicago (AP News photo)

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s met the Chicago White Sox for the first time this season Monday at Guaranteed Rate Field on the Southside of Chicago. The teams entered the game with identical records of 68-50. The A’s sent Frankie Montas to the hill Monday night.

Montas had pitched well in his last several starts. The White Sox countered with the veteran lefty, Dallas Keuchel. Montas had to be on the top of his game as the White Sox lineup is loaded with tough outs. Two outstanding Chicago players returned to action after missing most of the season with injuries. Eloy Jiminez was back in the lineup, hitting behind last year’s MVP Jose Abreu. Luis Robert returned to his spot in center field after being on the 60-day IL.

The A’s knew they had to put runs on the board to beat Keuchel. Oakland put two on the board in the top of the second. Matt Chapman, with one out, blasted his 18th home run of the year. The home run was Chappie’s fourth blast in the last three games. Keuchel then hit Josh Harrison with a pitch.

He walked Stephen Piscotty and Vimael Machin to load the bases. Mark Canha singled to drive in Harrison with the A’s second run. Keuchel settled down and retired the next two A’s hitters to end the threat. The A’s didn’t know it at the time that they were done for the night.

Chicago added single runs in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. Montas left the game after the fifth inning, trailing 3-2. Frankie gave up three runs and allowed eight hits, all singles. He threw 99 pitches in his five innings of work. The White Sox added another run in the bottom of the eighth. Luis Robert led off the frame with his third home run of the year. 

The White Sox bullpen held the A’s offense at bay after Keuchel left after five innings of work. The A’s only hit after the fourth inning came in the eight when Jed Lowrie doubled. Former A’s closer Liam Hendriks struck out the side in the ninth to record his 27th save of the year. Chicago wins 5-2.

Game Notes and Stats: With the loss, the A’s record stands at 68-51. The A’s trail the Houston Astros by two and 1/2 games in the race for first place in the AL West. The A’s drop 1/2 game behind the Boston Red Sox to be the number one Wild Card. The New Yankees downed the LA Angels to move with one and 1/2 games behind the second AL Wild card.

The line for Oakland was two runs, six hits, and one error. The A’s had two extra-base hits. Matt Chapman’s homer and Jed Lowrie’s double.

The line for the White Sox was five runs, ten hits, and no error. Luis Robert paced the Sox’ attack with three hits, two singles, and a home run. Chisox manager Tony LaRussa played small ball in the bottom of the sixth. Robert led off the inning with a single.

Robert then stole second. He was called out on the throw from Yan Gomes to Machin. The Sox won the challenge, and Robert was credited with a stolen base. Robert went to third on Brian Goodwin’s ground out. Sox catcher Zeby Zavala, who had two singles earlier in the game, laid down a perfect suicide squeeze bunt to drive in Robert with Chicago’s fourth run of the night.

Chris Bassitt will pitch for the A’s Tuesday night. Bassitt is 12-3, and his ERA is 3.06. Chicago will counter with Reynaldo Lopez. Lopez is 1-0, and his era is 1.35

Oakland A’s podcast with Barbara Mason: Peters with two HRs helps Rangers defeat A’s; A’s open up three game series in Chicago tonight

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Oakland A’s pitcher Sean Manaea gives up the big fly a two run homer to the Texas Rangers DJ in the first inning at Globe Life Field in Arlington (AP News photo)

On the A’s podcast with Barbara:

#1 Barbara a tough series in Arlington again the Oakland A’s lost two out of three the A’s are now three games out of first place in their chase of the Houston Astros.

#2 The A’s starting pitcher Sean Manaea gave up three runs in the first inning to the Rangers who jumped all over the A’s for seven runs and seven hits five innings.

#3 The DJ Peters hit two homers for the Rangers, Peters hit the fourth longest home run against the A’s at Globe Life Field that went into the second deck in left center field.

#4 Manaea has been struggling now 8-8 allowed 15 runs in his last 11 innings in his last three games.

#5 The A’s open up a four game series in Chicago against the White Sox on Monday night, the A’s will start Frankie Montas (9-8 ERA 3.98) and for the White Sox Dallas Keuchel (7-6 ERA 4.51) 5:10 pm first pitch.

Barbara does the A’s podcasts each Monday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

A’s, Manaea roughed up in 7-4 loss to the Rangers

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By Morris Phillips

The look on Sean Manaea’s face? Not good.

After allowing a second home run on Sunday afternoon to Texas’ DJ Peters–or better yet, assisting Peters–Manaea looked up at the Globe Life Field retractable roof, and without saying anything, and just looking at his eyes, appeared to be saying, “What am I doing?”

In the grandest circuit of professional baseball anywhere in the world, you won’t see two, more majestically struck baseballs. Peters deserves credit, but Manaea would admit, he was more than helpful.

It’s been one of those seasons for Manaea: sometimes spectacular, sometimes awful, the A’s top line starter can’t find a groove from start to start. Manaea allowed seven earned runs in Sunday’s 7-1 loss, the second time he allowed as many runs this season. He also allowed five earned runs in a loss at the Coliseum two weeks ago to the Padres.

But in 12 of his 25 starts this season, Manaea’s been splendid, allowing zero or one earned run. In one stretch of five starts spanning June and July, Manaea strung together five such starts, including his four-hit, complete game shutout at Seattle on June 2. None of the last three starts for Manaea have fallen into the splendid category. With the season on the line, he needs to get back to winning.

“Giving up home runs, so, yeah,” Manaea said when asked what needs to change. “I guess, throwing stuff down the middle, I guess that counts as better command.”

“It was just some long balls that got him today,” manager Bob Melvin said of Manaea. “This is a tough stretch for him. A lot of guys go through tough stretches. You’ve got to pitch your way out.”

Manaea was both good and bad within Sunday’s start. He walked just one batter, struck out five, but five extra-base hits–three homers and two doubles– each chased home at least one run. None were cheap, especially the two hit by Peters. The 460-foot home run he tagged in the first inning was one of the longest hit in the short history of the new Arlington ballpark, and could be seen picking up passengers in flight.

“I just want to be as prepared as possible and do my homework, from the elite bullpen arms to the starters every day — watching films and taking notes,” Peters said of his breakout performance which netted him two of his four career home runs. “Obviously, I’m still new but being as prepared as possible is definitely key. That’s what all of the championship teams do.

Manaea departed trailing 7-1 after five innings, and that put the A’s in an impossible spot, but they still rallied with Mark Canha’s homer in the sixth, and RBI hits from Tony Kemp and Sean Murphy in the seventh and eighth. But the ninth brought no magic: Starling Marte flew out to left with a pair of runners aboard to end the ballgame.

Matt Chapman stayed hot with a solo shot in the 2nd off winning pitcher Koby Allard. He had three hits on the afternoon, and he’s homered three times in the first six games of the road trip.

The A’s have 44 games remaining, and as they’ve grown accustomed to in recent seasons, there are plenty of moving parts around them. The Astros also lost, so the A’s squandered an opportunity to get within 1 1/2 games of the AL West lead. The trio of wild card contenders in the AL East–Boston, New York and Toronto–all won with Boston equaling Oakland’s mark at 68-50.

Frankie Montas gets the start Monday in Chicago for the first of four games with the White Sox. Familiar face Dallas Kuechel gets the start for Chicago, and at age 33, the veteran may be losing velocity and fooling hitters less frequently. Kuechel has allowed 21 home runs in 22 starts this season.

Oakland Gets Past the Rangers 7-3 in Game Two

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Oakland A’s Matt Chapman (left) hits the first of two home runs against the Texas Rangers in the second inning gets congratulations from third base coach Mark Kotsay (7) at Globe Life Field in Arlington on Sat Aug 14, 2021 (AP News photo)

Oakland Gets Past the Rangers 7-3 in Game Two

By Barbara Mason

Saturday night the Oakland A’s took on the Texas Rangers in Game Two of their series. After a rough game yesterday laden with errors Oakland really needed to clean up their act and get back on track. There is no way the A’s should be losing to the Rangers although during this season Texas has seemed to have Oakland’s number at times.

A clean game void of errors should be the pathway to the A’s first win in this series.

Oakland got off to a good start in the first inning when Jed Lowry singled driving Starling Marte home jumping out to a 1-0 lead. The Rangers would tie up the game in the inning 1-1. The good news was that the A’s did not fall behind in the early innings.

In the second and the sixth innings those home runs started coming in. Matt Chapman had one in the second and Matt Olson had a home run in the sixth inning for a 3-1 lead. The Texans answered and tied up this game 3-3. After six innings this game was closely contested.

The A’s had scored in three innings but really got going in the seventh inning. Two more home runs, one by Mitch Moreland and Matt Chapman had his second homer of the game. The A’s were really rolling at this point. Marte doubled and Olson singled as well in this taking the lead 7-3.

It was a quick eighth inning as relief pitcher Yusmeiro Petit took care of business in short order. The A’s were three outs away from the win and tying up the series.

The Texans could not contain those Oakland home runs and in the ninth inning Seth Brown knocked another one out of the park. This was a season high five home runs for the A’s as they led 8-3. They had scored in five different innings.

Oakland cleaned up those errors, they had a great defensive game and those home runs made all the difference in this A’s win.

Game Three is scheduled for 11:35 AM with the A’s looking to win the series. Sean Manea is set to take the mound for the A’s while the Rangers Kolby Allard will get the nod for Texas.

Texas Tops Oakland 8-6 to open series in Arlington

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The game wasn’t a laugher but Yohel Pozo of the Texas Rangers gets a laugh after taking Oakland A’s pitcher Sergio Romo deep in the the sixth inning for a three run homer at Globe Life Park in Arlington on Fri Aug 13, 2021 (AP News photo)

Texas Rangers Top Oakland 8-6

By Barbara Mason

Thursday night recap:The Oakland A’s are on a roll winning the past seven games in a row. In those seven games they swept a four game series with the Texas Rangers followed by sweeping a very good Cleveland Indian team.

Game Three against the Indians was a wild affair with the A’s winning by the score of 17-0. Everyone was hitting in that game and tonight they took on the Texas Rangers in another three game series looking to extend their winning streak.

When we look at the Rangers they are struggling mightily sitting in last place in the American League West with a record of 40-75 while the A’s have a record of 67-48, and only 1 1/2 games out of first place in the division.

This is a series that Oakland should comfortably win although in the first game of their last series it took extra innings to put the game away.

Friday night recap: The first inning in this game could not have started more miserably for the A’s. They fell behind 3-0 in the inning and were not able to score until the fifth inning. Oakland really put the pedal to the metal in not only the fifth but the sixth inning as well.

In the fifth inning, Seth Brown doubled and Marte singled giving Oakland a couple of runs but still trailing 3-2. The sixth saw the A’s take the lead 4-3. In the inning Moreland tripled and Chapman singled.

The Rangers came right back with a homerun by Yohel Pozo with two runners on base taking back the lead 6-4. In the seventh inning Matt Olson hit his 29th home run. With the score 6-5, although trailing, the A’s seemed to have things under control. We have seen those comebacks more often than not.

The Rangers really threw a wrench into the A’s planned comeback when DJ Peters hit the Rangers second home run of the game with a runner on base taking a 8-5 lead.

Seth Brown hit a double in the eighth inning allowing Matt Chapman to score and going into the ninth inning Oakland still trailed by the score of 8-6. Andrus would pop fly out, Marte strike out and Matt Olson thrown out at first base.

This was a disappointing loss for the Oakland A’s in a game that they should not have lost. The Rangers had two unearned runs in the first inning when the A’s had some costly errors. Sergio Romo had a disappointing outing which we have not seen in quite awhile and the offense was off after the display that we all saw last night.

It will be onto game two of the series with the A’s looking for their first win. There is no doubt that we will see a different team tomorrow with first pitch at 4:05 PM. Oakland will clean up those errors and James Kaprielian will be on the mound for the A’s looking to tie up the series.

Oakland A’s podcast with Jeremiah Salmonson: The hits keep on coming in A’s 17-0 laugher; A’s open up three game series in Texas tonight

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Oakland A’s pitcher Cole Irvin wipes his brow as he will be the starter tonight against the Texas Rangers in Arlington at Globe Life Field (file photo from White Cleat Beat)

On the A’s podcast with Jeremiah:

#1 The Oakland A’s (67-48) in the first four innings were able to score big on Cleveland (55-58) starting pitcher Eli Morgan scoring five earned runs on three hits. The A’s jumped to a 5-0 lead.

#2 The A’s got two home runs from Mitch Moreland and starting pitcher Chris Bassitt won his 12th game.

#3 Bassitt and four relivers combined for a 17-0 shutout of Cleveland on Thursday

#4 The Cleveland crowd in the ninth inning realizing it was all out of hand and knowing Oakland third baseman Matt Chapman needed one more walk to tie the MLB all time most walks in a game at six stood and cheered for Chapman to get a base on balls. But after going 0-2 Chapman knew it was over and struckout.

#5 Jeremiah, the A’s make another trip to Arlington tonight for a three game series against the Texas Rangers (40-75). Starting pitcher for the A’s Cole Irvin (8-10 ERA 3.45) and for the Rangers Dane Dunning (5-7 ERA 4.07) a 5:05 pm first pitch.

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

A’s rout Indians 17-0; Moreland belts two homers

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Oakland A’s Mike Moreland gets congratulations from teammates in the A’s dugout after belting a solo home run in the fifth inning against the Cleveland Guardians on Thu Aug 12, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s completed a three-game sweep over the Cleveland Indians as they routed the Tribe 17-0. The A’s did not have to have late-inning rallies to win on Thursday as the Indians’ pitchers had trouble throwing strikes. Five Cleveland pitchers walked ten A’s hitters and hit three batters. Eight of the players that walked scored.

The A’s got the laugher going when they scored three runs in the second inning on just one hit. Indians’ starter, Eli Morgan, hit Mitch Moreland with a pitch. The next hitter, Josh Harrison, walked. A’s catcher Sean Murphy doubled to drive in Moreland And Harrison to take an early 2-0 lead.

Morgan walked Matt Chapman to put two men on with no out. Morgan then retired Seth Brown and Elvis Andrus. Morgan got Mark Canha to hit a ground ball to the shortstop Amed Rosario. Chapman, running on the pitch, beat Rosario’s throw to second to load the bases. Morgan hit Starling Marte with a pitch to force in Murphy with the A’s third run of the inning.

The A’s scored two more in the fourth. Morgan walked Chapman for the second time to start the fourth. With one out, Andrus single sent Chappie to third. Mark Canha’s ground out plated Chappie with the A’s fourth run of the game. Andrus was safe at second. He scored on Starling Marte’s double to left. The A’s lead 5-0 after four.

The onslaught continued in the fifth. Mitch Moreland led off the fifth with a solo blast into the seats in right field. The A’s put four more on the board to take a commanding 10-0 lead. Justin Garza was now pitching for the Indians. Garza faced three batters and walked all three. Indians skipper, DeMArlo, Hale, had seen enough. He brought in lefty Francisco Perez to pitch.

Perez was making his Major League debut. He retired Seth Brown for the first out. Perez walked Andrus to force in Tony Kemp with the A’s seventh run. Mark Canha’s fly ball to right was not deep enough to allow Murphy to tag and score. Starling Marte singled to drive in Chapman. Matt Olson singled to plate two more.

The A’s onslaught continued in the sixth as they scored twice. In the eighth, four hits produced four more runs. Mark Canha’s double scored two, and Stephen Piscotty’s single added two more. The final run of the game came in the ninth on Moreland’s second dinger of the game. The A’s win 17-0.

Game Notes and Stats: The A’s line was 17 runs, 14 hits, and one error. The A’s pitchers held the Indians to three hits and no runs. Chris Bassitt was the winning pitcher. He is now 12-3 for the year, and his ERA dropped to 3.06. He threw 81 pitches. A.J. Puk, Adolis Guerra, and Jake Diekman each pitched a scoreless inning for Oakland. Eli Morgan was the losing pitcher. He went four innings, allowed three hits and five runs.

Matt Chapman tied an Oakland record with five walks. Matt scored three times. Mark Canha hit one hit and three RBIs. Starling Marte had a single and double. He, too, had three ribbies. Mitch Moreland blasted two bombs, and he scored three times.

It was the fifteenth time in Moreland’s career with two or more homers in a game. Tony Kemp, who entered the game in the second inning, had three hits, two RBIs, and scored three times. Seam Murphy’s day included two hits, two RBIs, and three runs. It was quite a day for the Oakland offense.

It was the eleventh shutout of the year for the A’s pitching staff. It was the largest shutout ever in the A’s history.

The A’s are going to Arlington Texas, to face the Rangers for three games. Friday night’s pitching matchups will see Cole Irvin (8-10, 3.45 ERA) going for Oakland and Dane Dunning. (5-7,4.07 ERA) pitching for Texas. The game will start at 5:10 pm.

Oakland A’s podcast with Jerry Feitelberg: A’s showing great resilience in come back games

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Oakland A’s starter Chris Bassitt gets the starting call against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field in Cleveland Thu Aug 12, 2021 (file photo NBC Sports)

On the Oakland A’s podcast with Jerry F:

#1 Jerry, On Tuesday the Oakland A’s (65-48) showed they have a lot of resilience with their extra inning come back against Cleveland (55-56) on Jed Lowrie RBI double. It shows you good teams win in late innings.

#2 The A’s since June and July have diagnosed their one problem they had in those two months and that was getting into a situation where they were one play short of turning a loss into a win that correction will go a long way in these last two dog day months of August and September.

#3 The A’s in Tuesday’s game trailed Cleveland 3-1 after two innings but came back in the eighth inning after tying up the game 3-3 and Lowrie got the go ahead RBI double which eventually won it for the A’s 4-3 in the top of the tenth inning.

#4 The A’s used seven pitchers last Tuesday for the win and Bob Melvin might have been reading the scouting reports on Cleveland very carefully because strategy certain played a key role in that come back win.

#5 For this morning’s matinee at Progressive Field the A’s will start RHP Chris Bassitt (11-3 ERA 3.19) vs. Cleveland right hand starter Eli Morgan (1-4 ERA 6.09).

Join Jerry each Thursday for the A’s podcasts at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Lowrie’s three-run blast powers A’s to 6-3 win over Cleveland

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Oakland A’s Jed Lowrie blasts three run homer in the top of the eighth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field in Cleveland on Wed Aug 11, 2021 (AP News photo)

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s (66-48) downed the Cleveland Indians (55-57) 6-3 Wednesday night at Progressive Field in Cleveland. Rain delayed the start of a game by about an hour. The teams met for the fifth time this year. All of the games so far have been decided by one or two runs.

It was the same story for the first six innings. The A’s starter, Frankie Montas, had a rough start as he gave up two runs in the first inning. Montas gave up a single in the second, and from that point on until he exited after the sixth, he did not allow a hit and kept the Indians off the board.

Cleveland’s starter Cal Quantrill dazzled the A’s for the first six innings of the game. The A’s managed two hits and no runs. Things changed in the seventh. The offense woke up, and the A’s would win their sixth straight game 6-3.

The Indians grav=bbed an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Bradley Zimmer got things going for Cleveland with a single. With one out, Montas walked Jose Ramirez to put men on at first and second. Jed Lowrie fielded Franmill Reyes’ grounder.

Lowrie stepped on second to retire Ramirez. His throw to first got past Matt Olson. Zimmer scored on the play. Reyes went to second. Harold Ramirez followed with a single to drive in Reyes to give Cleveland the lead 2-0.

Both pitchers were in control. Quantrill held the A’s scoreless for the first six innings. The A’s had two hits. Montas kept the Indians scoreless for his last five innings of work.

Things changed in the top of the seventh. Jed Lowrie walked to start the rally. Former Indians’ catcher, Yan Gomes, singled, sending Lowrie to third. Cleveland Skipper, DeMarlo Hale, brought in Bryan Shaw to pitch. A’s DH, Mitch Moreland, grounded out. Lowrie scored on the play.

Gomes advanced to second. Matt Chapman singled to drive in Gomes with the tying run. The score was 2-2 midway through the seventh.

Bob Melvin brought in lefty Jake Diekman to work the seventh. Jake retired the first two hitters he faced. The next hitter, Myles Straw, walked. Oscar Mercado doubled to drive in Straw with Cleveland’s third run of the night. 

Nick Sandlin was the new Indians’ pitcher for the eighth inning. A’s shortstop tied the game with his third big fly of the season. Sandlin hit the next batter, Mark Canha, with a pitch. Starling Marte singled to put two men on with no out. DeMarlo Hale brought in Trevor Stephan to pitch.

He stuck out Matt Olson for the first out. Jed Lowrie committed an error in the first inning that allowed a run to score atoned for his sin by blasting a three-run dinger to the right. The A’s regained the lead 6-3. 

A’s reliever Sergio Romo continued to weave his magic as he set the Indians down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the eighth. A’s closer gave up a hit in the ninth but would secure the win for the A’s. The A’s win 6-3. It was Trivino’s 19th save of the year.

Game Notes: With the win, the A’s are now 69-45 for the year. Houston won on Wednesday night. That means the A’s remain two games behind the Astros in the race for first place in the AL West. 

Hitting starts for Oakland were Jed Lowrie, Starling Marte, Matt Chapman, and Elvis Andrus. Lowrie had one hit, that being a three-run blast. Marte was two-for-five and scored a run. Chappie had two hits. Andrus also had two hits, a single and a home run.

The A’s will be going for a sweep on Thursday. Chris Bassitt will go for Oakland. Zack Plesac pitched for Cleveland. The game will start at 10:10 am.

Giants get walk off win with error in 9th to beat Diamondbacks 8-7

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San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey goes deep in the fifth inning for his 14th home run of the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Oracle Fire Park on Tue Aug 10, 2021 (AP News photo)

by Marko Ukalovic

SAN FRANCISCO—Oracle Park may have to be rebranded as a theme park instead of a ballpark.

The San Francisco Giants certainly did their part in giving their fans a roller coaster of a ride in its 8-7 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday evening.

Kris Bryant came up in the bottom of the ninth inning with two man on base with two out. On the first pitch hit a hard shot to the right side of the infield. The ball caromed off Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker’s glove. By the time he was able to recover, his throw to first was not in time to get Bryant, whose walk off error allowed Lamont Wade Jr. to scored from third base sending the home crowd happy and the home team a big sigh of relief.

San Francisco has won three games in a row and maintained its four game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West. Arizona has lost three games in a row and five of its past six.

The game didn’t look like it was going to have a dramatic ninth inning after the Giants scored four runs in the first inning off of starter Zach Gallen. San Francisco received three consecutive clutch hits with two outs with back to back doubles by Bryant and Mike Yastrzemski. Alex Dickerson completed the rally with an RBI single.

Giants catcher Buster Posey hit his 14th home run of the season in the fifth inning to what looked to have been an insurmountable lead.

Posey reached base in all five of his plate appearances, going 2-2 with three walks, three runs scores and a RBI. Yastrzemski had a nice rebound game going 2-4 with two RBI and a run scored.

San Francisco (72-41) starter Alex Wood cruised through the Diamondbacks lineup in the first five innings, only giving up one hit. However the wheels fell off the bus quickly for the veteran left-hander in the sixth when Arizona evened the game by putting up a five spot in the sixth inning.

Arizona (35-79) got the rally started when Gallen hit a double over the head of Dickerson’s head in left field. That seem to have rattled Wood as he gave up back to back doubles to Nick Ahmed and Ketel Marte. Carson hit an RBI triple that was just out of the diving reach of right fielder Wade Jr. Asdrubal Cabrera smacked a two-run home run to left center field, his seventh of the season, to complete the five-run inning.

Wood finished with five earned runs on six hits while striking out five batters and no walks.

“He was really effective until that inning,” said Giants manager Gabe Kapler of Wood’s outing. “He was also efficient. He had plenty of pitches to work with. They just started banging him around the ballpark a little bit and it happened pretty quickly.”

The Giants rallied for two runs in the bottom of the eighth when Brandon Crawford hit a double to score Posey, who walked to open up the inning. Sean Poppin came in relief of Joe Mantiply. His pickoff attempt of Yastrzemski bounced over the glove of Walker and down the right field line as Crawford scored easily to give the Giants a 7-5 lead.

“Crawford’s at bat with Mantiply (in the eight inning) stands out for me. (He) goes down 0-2 and hangs in there, battles through the at bat, and gets as big as any hit that we got all night,” said Kapler.

Veteran closer Jake McGee came in to close out the game in the ninth. The normally reliable closer struggled with his location and left the ball up numerous times during the inning where he allowed two hits and two walks to four of the first five batters. Ahmed’s sacrifice fly to left field tied the game at seven and ended the night for McGee, who blew his third save of the season.

Zach Littell recorded the final out in the ninth inning.

Gallen finished the evening going six innings giving up five earned runs on seven hits while striking out seven and walking one batter.

GAME NOTES: San Francisco left seven men on base. Arizona left four men on.

Giants third base coach Ron Wotus celebrated his 2000th win in a Giants uniform. The players and coaching staff toasted his milestone after the game in the clubhouse.

“I’m honor that they’re even acknowledging it with me as a coach and not a manager,” said Wotus. “I think it speaks volumes with the managers I have worked for here and the players that have come through here in the success of the organization has really put me in a position to have 2000 wins in this uniform.”

San Francisco recalled reliever Camilo Doval from Triple-A Sacramento. To make room for Doval, reliever John Brebbia was sent down to Triple-A Sacramento.

UP NEXT: The Giants and Diamondbacks conclude their two game series on Wednesday 8/11 at 6:45pm at Oracle Park.