Category: Oakland Athletics

Oakland Athletics’ Trevor Plouffe (3) celebrates his three-run home run with teammates in the dugout during the seventh inning of the team’s baseball game against the Seattle Mariners on Thursday, April 20, 2017, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

by Jerry Feitelberg

Oakland- The A’s started Cesar Valdez Thursday night against the Mariners. Valdez, who is 32 years old, last started a game in the Major Leagues way back on June, 10th, 2010. He pitched well in spring training and 1-0 with an ERA of 2.70 at Nashville. Valdez was filling in for Kendall Graveman and probably will be headed back to Nashville soon. Valdez has an average fastball, but his curveball and changeups have a lot of movement and are effective. The Mariners, winners of five of their last six games, tallied three runs in the first two innings Thursday night. The A’s came back and won 9-6.

The Mariners, as mentioned above, led 3-0 until the bottom of the third. The A’s scored three times to snap Paxton’s streak of 23 consecutive scoreless innings to start the season. Jaff Decker and Rajai Davis singled to put men on at first and third with no out. Adam Rosales singled to drive in Decker. Davis scored when right fielder Mitch Haniger’s throw to third hit the second base bag and that allowed Rajai to score. Ryon Healy doubled to drive in Rosales to tie the game.

The A’s scored two more in the fifth to send Paxton to the showers. Rajai Davis singled to center, but the ball took a weird bounce and went through the legs of Leonys Martin in center. Davis ended up on third. Rosales hit a sac fly to drive in Davis.  Jed Lowrie Doubled and scored on a Ryon Healy single to put the A’s ahead 5-3. The Mariners’ shortstop, Taylor Motter, homered with a man aboard to tie the game at five. The A’s regained the lead in the bottom of the sixth when Josh Phegley led off with a double. Jaff Decker laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Phegley to third. Rajai Davis ground out, and that allowed Phegley to score.

The A’s behind two walks, and a blast to deep left field by Trevor Plouffe put the A’s ahead 9-5. The A’s bullpen of Ryan Dull, Sean Doolittle, Ryan Madson kept the Mariners off the board until the ninth. Santiago Casilla gave up a run but was able to close out the game.

Game Notes- The A’s, with the win, improved to 8-8 for the season. The A’s now own a modest three-game winning streak. The Mariners fall to 7-9. Ryon Healy was the hitting star with three hits and a couple of runs batted in. Cesar Valdez went four innings and allowed five hits and three runs. Frankie Montas pitched the fifth and sixth innings and gave up the two-run dinger to Taylor Motter.

Game two of the four-game series takes place Friday night at the Oakland Coliseum, Lefty Sean Manaea will go for Oakland, and he will be opposed by Hisashi Iwakuma. Game time is at 7:05 pm.

Time of game was three hours and ten minutes and a sparse crowd of 10,707 watched the A’ win.

Oakland Athletics pitcher Jesse Hahn throws against the Texas Rangers during the first inning of a baseball game in Oakland, Calif., Wednesday, April 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

On the A’s Podcast with Jerry Feitelberg:

The A’s loss on Monday 7-0 was their fourth in a row and they had not been playing well and coming back on Tuesday they won 4-2 they got a great pitching performance on that day from A’s starter Andrew Triggs and yesterday A’s pitcher Jesse Hahn pitched very well going six innings two hits, one earned run. The A’s have started to right the ship they looked a lot better on Tuesday and Wednesday with Triggs and Hahn. The A’s open a series with the Seattle Mariners the first of four games starting Thursday night.

Jerry does the A’s podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland Athletics’ Adam Rosales, right, celebrates as he rounds third base after hitting a two-run home run off Texas Rangers’ Yu Darvish, foreground, during the sixth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, April 18, 2017, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

by Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–The Oakland A’s snapped a four-game losing streak Tuesday night at the Oakland Coliseum. The A’s Andrew Triggs earned his third victory of the year as he went six innings and allowed just three hits. The Rangers scored two runs in the sixth, but both were unearned. The A’s tallied four in their half of the sixth to send Yu Darvish and the Rangers down to defeat 4-2.

Triggs kept the Rangers off the board for the first five innings. In the sixth, Jurickson Profar reached on a rare error by A’s first baseman Yonder Alonso. Profar advanced to second on a wild pitch. Ranger shortstop Elvis Andrus singled sharply to center to drive in Profar with the first run of the game. Andrus then stole both second and third. Andrus scored when he beat Adam Rosales’ throw home on a grounder was late. Triggs got Mike Napoli to ground into a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. The Rangers lead 2-0.

Darvish, who had allowed the A’s just one hit in the first five innings, fell apart in the bottom of the sixth. Darvish walked Trevor Plouffe to start the inning. Rosales tied the game when he hit went yard with a blast to left field. The next hitter, Jaff (pronounced Jeff), Decker doubled to left field. Darvish walked Alonso and Rangers’ manager Jeff Banister removed him from the game. Ranger reliever Tony Barnette walked Jed Lowrie to load the bases. Khris Davis hit a sac fly to deep centerfield to drive in Alonso with the A’s third run of the inning. Dario Alvarez was brought in to pitch to Stephen Vogt. A’s manager sent in Ryon Healy to hit for Vogt. Healy came through with a bloop hit that landed safely in front of four Ranger players and the A’s now owned a 4-2 lead.

There was no more scoring in the game. The A’s bullpen was excellent. Sean Doolittle retired the Rangers in order in the seventh. Melvin let Doolittle start the eighth as he faced Joey Gallo was is left-handed. Doolittle struck him out. Ryan Dull finished the inning retiring Ryan Rua and Carlos Gomez. Santiago Casilla set the Rangers down in the ninth 1-2-3 to earn the save and secure the win for Triggs.

Game notes- The A’s snapped a four-game losing streak and improved the season record to 6-8. The Rangers dropped to 5-9. The rubber game of the three-game series will be played Wednesday afternoon at 12:35 pm.

Andrew Triggs set an A’s franchise record as he has not allowed an earned run in 17 2/3rd innings of work and is 3-0 to start the season. The A’s announced that they have called up righty Cesar Valdez to start against Seattle Thursday night.

Oakland Athletics’ Adam Rosales celebrates as he crosses home plate after hitting a two run home run off Texas Rangers’ Yu Darvish in the sixth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, April 18, 2017, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

by Charlie O

OAKLAND–To make baseball more enjoyable for the fans today’s fan is into offense, today’s fan isn’t into defense back in the day we got to go to a game and we got to see some of the world’s greatest pitchers. The first game I ever saw was my first MLB game in 1957 and the incredible Hall of Famer Warren Span was on the mound for the then Milwaukee Braves. He was pitching and he pitched until he was 42 years old.

Those guys back in those days were phenomenal we were used to seeing games that were 1-0, 2-0, and 2-1 and for us those were exciting games but today’s fans have been taught to be offense oriented. They’ve been taught that though basketball, through football, and they’ve even been taught that through baseball because of the Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Jose Canseco, and Sammy Sosa era and put all the PED things aside.

Just because of the explosive home runs the excitement of that era and everything else they set the tone for that and now all of a sudden they want to go back and make it the 2-1 game. It’s never going to go back you want to sell the game? Sell the game of home runs.

Charlie has much more on the A’s podcast and each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–This is thing that Jose Canseco Comcast NBC analyst was hired for is to tell it like it is and Canseco get’s criticized for saying the A’s are not prepared, sloppy, and are playing like a Triple A team. Right now especially after they’ve lost four straight and got whipped in a Monday night laugher in front of 10, 406 people 7-0 to the Texas Rangers at the Oakland Coliseum. He said they were disorganized, they were swinging at the ball way out of the strike zone.

There was a play where the A’s centerfielder Rajai Davis missed the cut off man for an error and it led to a two base error. Monday night was the worst game I’ve seen the A’s play and the Rangers are no great shakes at the moment as both teams are tied for last in the cellar of the American League West. In games if the A’s lose 10-0 or 7-0 you have to say the other team played better.

You have to be honest and I have to agree with Jose because the A’s played lousy last night, I’m sure A’s manager Bob Melvin recognizes that and Canseco said he was just calling them as he sees them and the A’s looked like they just wanted to get out of here. I know it was raining the day before Sunday and Sunday’s game got called on the count of rain with the Houston Astros it will be made up as part of a doubleheader September 9th. The Rangers are still a good team and they won the last two years for the AL West title.

Listen to the rest of Amaury’s podcast at http://www.sportsradioservice.com; Amaury is the Spanish TV talent for the Angels, the Spanish radio talent for the A’s and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Jerry Feitelberg

Oakland- The A’s woes continued Monday night as they welcomed the Texas Rangers to the Oakland Coliseum. Both teams were looking to snap a three-game losing streak. The Rangers were the one that did as they beat the A’s 7-0 before a sparse crowd on a cold and rainy evening.

Jharel Cotton started for Oakland and took the loss. Cotton went 5 and 1/3rd innings allowing five runs and five hits. Cotton walked four, and three of them scored. Former Athletic, A.J. Griffin won his second of the young season. Griffin restricted the A’s to just one hit in six innings of work. Griffin struck out eight, one less than his career-high. Griffin last pitched at the Oakland Coliseum on September 18th, 2013. Griffin underwent Tommy John surgery and was released by the A’s after the 2015 season.

The Rangers scored in the top of the first. Cotton gave up singles to Carlos Gomez and Elvis Andrus. Hot-hitting Nomar Mazara doubled to drive in Gomez with the first run of the game. As it turned out, it was the only run the Rangers would need.  The Rangers scored four times in the top of the fifth. Carlos Gomez and Mike Napoli each had a double and each drove in two runs to put the game out of reach. The Rangers scored two more in the ninth of A’s reliever Liam Hendriks.

Game notes- The A’s continued to play poorly on defense as they committed another error.  The offense has gone into the deep freeze as the best the A’s could do was two singles and a pinch-hit Ryon Healy double in the ninth, and only one player made it past second base.

The A’s are now 5-8 for the season, and the Rangers improved to 5-8.

The medical report was not good. Kendall Graveman, the A’s number one starter, was placed on the 10-day Disabled List with a shoulder strain. Marcus Semien, who was second on the team last year with 27 homers, will have surgery to repair a broken bone in his right wrist. Semien will be lost for 6 weeks. The A’s recalled infielder Chad Pinder and catcher Bruce Maxwell from Nashville.

Game two of the three-game set will be played Tuesday night at the Oakland Coliseum. Andrew Triggs will pitch for Oakland, and the Rangers will counter with Yu Darvish. Game time will be at 7:05 pm.