Category: Oakland Athletics

Toronto stays hot, beat the A’s 4-2 for Ninth Straight Win

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by Jerry Feitelberg

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The Toronto Blue Jays remained red-hot as they beat the A’s 4-2 in the first game of a three-game series in Toronto Tuesday night. The A’s had three former Blue Jays in the lineup. Brett Lawrie was at third, Danny Valencia was the DH and Kendall Graveman was pitching for the Green and Gold. Graveman deserved a better fate as the A’s defense committed two errors in one inning allowing three runs to score. Two of the runs were unearned.  Toronto slugger, right fielder Joey Bautista slammed a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth for the Jays fourth run of the game. The game summary follows below.

The A’s took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Coco Crisp walked with one out. Right Fielder Josh Reddick hit a ground ball to the hole between first and second. The ball was scooped up by Josh Donaldson who was at second because of the shift. Donaldson threw to Tulowitzki to get the force on Crisp and  Tulo’s throw to first appeared to nail Reddick. Bob Melvin challenged the call and Reddick was ruled safe after the review. Former Jay, Danny Valencia, in his first game back in Toronto after being designated for assignment, doubled to left-center to drive in Reddick.

The lead didn’t last long as Toronto scored three times in the bottom of the second. Sloppy play led to all three runs. Chris Colabello hit a line drive to left that should have been a single. However, Coco Crisp came in too fast and the ball bounced over his head and that turned the hit into a double. Jays’ catcher Russell Martin followed with a ground ball to shortstop Marcus Semien. Semien thought about throwing to third to throw out Colabello but thought it would be better to get Martin at first. Semien sidearmed the throw and it went over Ike Davis’ head at first base for an error. Colabello scored and Martin took second on the play. Semien committed his thirtieth error of the year and just his second in the last 25 games. He still leads the AL shortstops in most errors. First baseman Justin Smoak lined a ball to deep left field. Martin scored and it appeared that Crisp’s throw to Eric Sogard was in time for the out. The Jays challenged the call and for the second time in the game, a call was overturned. Second baseman Eric Sogard committed the A’s second error of the inning when he couldn’t handle a sharp ground ball off the bat of Kevin Pillar. The error allowed Smoak to score the third run of the inning.

Jays’ slugger Joey Bautista hit a solo homer  with two outs in the bottom of the fifth to give the Jays a 4-1 lead. the next hitter Colabello singled and that ended the night for Graveman.

The A’s made it a 4-2 game in the top of the eighth. Semien reached on an infield single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Sogard. Billy Burns singled to drive in Semien, but the A’s could do no more as they fall to the Jays by a final of 4-2.

Game Notes- Kendall Graveman took the loss and is now 6-8 for the year. He pitched 4 and 2/3rds innings, allowing 5 hits and four runs. Two of the runs were unearned. The Jays’ starter, Drew Hutchison, won his eleventh game of the year for Toronto.

Toronto is smoking hot as they won the ninth game in a row and are 12-0 in games that Troy Tulowitzki has started since coming over from Colorado on July 28th.

Aaron Brooks will be making his third start for the A’s and Mark Buehrle will go for Toronto.

Attendance was 39,381 and time of game was 2 hours and thirty-five minutes.

That’s Amuary’s Podcast,News and Commentary: Gifford was part of what many say the best NFL broadcast team in history

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–One more thought on the late Frank Gifford who passed this week at the age of 84 he was most likely part of the best talented broadcast teams in the history of netowrk TV. You have to remember that Monday Night Football revolutionized sports with the Dandy Don Meridith, Howard Cosell, and Gifford may he rest in peace.

Those three are inseparable in the success of the football broadcasting booth although Cosell didn’t get along with the jocks in the booth, he didn’t get along with Frank but the Giff was a class act. Gifford was one of those guys who played for the New York Giants and in the 60s in New York the biggest star was Mickey Mantle and then Gifford. Remember the NFL wasn’t big yet in the 60s.

The NFL became big because of TV and because of these three guys in the MNF booth Cosell, Meridith, and Gifford who worked together from 1971-1977. These three revolutionized MNF and later you got guys like Al Michaels, Tony Kornheiser, Jon Gruden, Dennis Miller and many more and Michaels you might remember was the voice of the San Francisco Giants in 1974-75.

These three guys revolutionized national television on Monday Nights and MNF became more than a game MNF became an event and now we see what happens the NFL is the leading league in all of sports and is the number one league. Every single game is on TV with Sunday night, Thursday night and on Monday night.

So those three revolutionized the national TV spotlight, Gifford came from humble beginnings born in 1930 grew up in California during the depression, moved 47 times before high school, his family was so poor they ate dog food during the great depression to survive, Gifford went to Bakersfield City College and got enough credit to go to USC and was a fast runner on the football team there and got noticed and was drafted to the NFL and after his playing days went onto work in acting and television broadcasting.

Listen to Amaury Pi Gonzalez on the podcast below as he also discusses more on Gifford and MLB headlines, Amaury is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s, the Spanish TV voice for the Angels, and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland A’s podcast with Charlie O & Jerry Feitelberg Tue Aug 11, 2015

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by Charlie O Mallonee & Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s you would think after the fire sale everthing would be a little depressing for them around there and yet they just had a very good homestand against the Houston Astros last weekend. They had a 6-4 homestand they lost to Cleveland in three 2-1 and went 1-2 against Baltimore.

That series didn’t surprise Baltimore right in the throes of the wild card so their very motivated right now but then coming back and taking three out of four at the Coliseum against Houston no one saw that one coming. The A’s could have come back in the fourth game and they came back from behind to tie it but they lost it when the bullpen let them down.

To see the A’s come together well and to do that well and your starting to get a little glimpse for what maybe next year for the A’s. It’s still tough for them their still 51-63 and their still in last place in the AL West. Their ten games behind Houston and their 1.5 games back of Seattle.

The Athletics are 9.5 games back of the wild card, so for the A’s it’s an interesting situation that they are where they are and if you wipe out that first six weeks of the season it’s an entirely season for the A’s. The A’s have had good games and they’ve had some poor games. On the current road trip their in Toronto, the Jays are a very potent and very red hot team that Oakland is going into the Sky Dome to face and the A’s found that out by dropping Tuesday night’s game to them 4-2 in the series opener.

The Jays came into the series having won nine in a row, swept the Yankees in Yankee Stadium where they’ve had 17 loses before that and took all three games. They made two blockbuster deals getting Troy Tulewski and pitcher David Price and plus some other minor deals. They also got veteran pitcher LeTroy Hawkins who just picked up a save with the Jays, Cliff Pennington from Arizona, and Mark Lowe from Seattle joining the Jays.

The big news in the off season was Russell Martin and Josh Donaldson who joined Toronto. From Toronto the A’s go to Baltimore for four games before going to face the Dodgers in an interleague game on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. For the series it’s going to be very tough in Toronto. On the MLB Network they were talking about Donaldson could possibly be the MVP for the A.L. and it’s like stabbing A’s fans in the heart. He may not overcome the Angels Mike Trout but there is a chance that Donaldson could become the MVP.

Charlie O and Jerry Feitelberg did the A’s podcast for this week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Preview of the A’s- Blue Jays Series in Toronto

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s are on their way to Toronto to play three games with the red-hot Toronto Blue Jays to start a seven-game road trip before returning home to face the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Blue Jays have won eight in a row and swept the AL East leading Yankees over the weekend to move into second place in the division. The Jays trail the Yankees by just 1 1/2 games and play the Yankees again this weekend after facing the A’s.

Toronto has made made significant moves the last couple of weeks to improve the team. On July 28th, the Jays acquired All-Star shortstop, Troy Tulowitzki from the Colorado Rockies. They improved the pitching by trading for lefty David Price. Reliever LaTroy Hawkins came over from the Rockies in the Tulowitzki deal and the Jays added another reliever, Mark Lowe from the Mariners. Outfielder Ben Revere came from the Phillies and they added veteran utility man, former Athletic Cliff Pennington from the DiamondBacks.

The Jays were active in the off-season,too. The big trade was with the A’s. Toronto received third baseman Josh Donaldson and the A’s received four players including Brett Lawrie and pitcher Kendall Graveman. The Jays signed free agent catcher Russell Martin, too. The Jays have a dynamic offense as evidenced by the fact that they have scored 597 runs so far this year and a run differential of plus 129 which is the best in baseball. They have five righty hitters that have fifteen or more dingers so far this year. Their lineup is potent with Tulowitzki, Donaldson, Joey Batista, Edwin Encarnacion, and Russell Martin. Chris Colabello, Kevin Pilar, Ben Revere, Cliff Pennington and Dioner Navarro all contribute to Toronto’s success.

The Jays starting pitching has improved since the start of the season. Stats show the starters have a combined ERA over four but that is misleading. Since the All-Star break, starters have an ERA of 2.69 which is the best in the American League. David Price has made two starts since coming over from Detroit which helped and starter R.A.Dickey (0.99), Marco Estrada(2.35) and veteran lefty Mark Buehrle(3.38) have a combined 9-1 record in their last 22 games.

The A’s, to their credit, continue to play hard. Their is no quit in the team. They took three out of four from the Houston Astros over the weekend. Their starting pitching continues to do well. Sonny Gray is one of the best pitchers in baseball and will be in the running for the Cy Young award. Chris Bassitt has pitched extremely well for the A’s and is much better than his 1-4 record. The rest of the staff includes Jesse Chavez, Kendall Graveman and newly acquired Aaron Brooks. Brooks has made two starts since coming over to the A’s and has been impressive. The A’s bullpen continues to flounder. The bullpen has the most blown saves in the AL.

It should be a good series as the A’s will be hoping to derail the Jays. Third baseman Brett Lawrie will be making his first trip to Toronto since coming to Oakland in the Donaldson trade and will want to show the Jays’ brass that they made a mistake trading him. Also returning to Toronto will be Danny Valencia. The A’s picked up Valencia off waivers from the Jays last week and he has had a terrific start with his new team. Valencia went 7-for-16 with two home runs in his debut with Oakland. He was used sparingly by Toronto appearing in just 58 games but was hitting .298 when they designated him for assignment. Coco Crisp has returned to the lineup after a lenghty stay on the DL. Josh Reddick has had a solid year for Oakland,too.

Tuesday night will feature Kendall Graveman(6-7) going against Drew Hutchison (10-2) and on Wednesday Aaron Brooks (1-0) will be facing left Mark Buehrle (12-5.

Resilient A’s squeeze past the Astros in the ninth, 5-4

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By Morris Phillips

After all the departures that reshaped the A’s roster for 2015, and the trade deadline deals that further diluted their lineup, it didn’t appear possible the team could play this well.

It certainly didn’t seem possible on Thursday when the A’s lost by a run for a major-league worst 26th time.  Especially after experiencing the high of tying the game with a pair of runs in the ninth, only to lose in the tenth.

But in the last three days, the A’s have gotten three, stellar performances from their starting pitching, not committed an error, and defeated the first-place Astros each day, capping the streak with a stirring rally on Sunday in a 5-4 win.

If nothing else, the A’s are proving to be a resilient bunch, and far more formidable than their last place-standing would suggest.  Just ask the Astros.

“There’s a lot of fight in here still,” Danny Valencia said.  “And that’s nice to see.”

Lost in the revolving door, sell-high, buy-low strategy employed by A’s general manager Billy Beane is the inherent fight players possess when they’re discarded, considered not good enough or given up on.  It’s not a surprise that the A’s current poster child of the big-league orphanage, Valencia, was the MVP of the three-game streak.

Valencia was designated for assignment by Toronto after the Jays made headlines with their acquisitions of Troy Tulowitzki and David Price.  The 30-year old hadn’t played poorly, just sparingly, hitting .296 in 58 games.  Still when the stars moved in, Valencia moved out.

And the A’s stepped up to acquire the veteran, a move that has paid immediately as the infielder just completed his first week in Oakland with a .438 average, two home runs and five RBI’s.  On Sunday, Valencia delivered the game-winning hit in the bottom of the ninth.

“How he got DFA’d is shocking to every single person on this team, including coaches,” Sunday’s starter, Chris Bassitt said.  “I don’t know how we got him, I really don’t.”

Bassitt hand-delivered the A’s into the seventh inning, striking out 10, allowing the Astros just one run while lowering his ERA to 2.48.  Bassitt was the odd-man out coming from spring training, but he’s the pitching the like the second-guy up in any mock rotations one could draft for the A’s in 2016.  His sinker continued to confound hitters on Sunday, and only the A’s meager offense kept the tall right-hander from winning for a second time.  Not surprisingly, when Bassitt departed, things got dicey for the A’s.

Oakland rallied for a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth, only to see their 3-1 lead disappear in the ninth with Edward Mujica in to close things out.  Mujica admitted afterward that he wasn’t where he needed to be physically after a surge in activity in recent days.  The results showed as much as Mujica allowed singles to Carlos Gomez and Jed Lowrie ahead of Colby Rasmus’ go-ahead, three-run homer.  The whole process took just 10 pitches and the O.co Coliseum crowd was stunned silent.

But the A’s weren’t done, and it was apparent as soon as Mark Canha, leading off the bottom of the ninth, hustled out of the batter’s box following his routine, ground ball to short.  If one play typified the brief win streak this was it.

Canha—no speedster by any measure—busted it down the line while Houston’s standout, rookie shortstop Carlos Correa elected not to charge Canha’s grounder.  In a bang-bang play, Canha was clearly safe, surprising everyone, except Canha.

“I went as hard as I could,” Canha said.  “I don’t think Correa probably thought I could run like that.”

A few pitches later, Canha was headed to third with more spirited baserunning following Josh Phegley’s single to right.  Three batters later, Canha scored the tying run on Josh Reddick’s infield single that careened off Houston pitcher Luke Gregerson.  Valencia followed with the game-winning hit with two outs, and the spectre of extra-innings staring the A’s in their collective faces.

Sunday’s game began on somber, but hopeful note, with the first pitches thrown out by members of Hayward police officer Scott Lunger’s family.  Lunger was killed in the line of duty on July 22, and along with the pre-game ceremony a jersey with Lunger’s name and badge number was visible in the A’s dugout.

On Tuesday, the A’s travel to Toronto where the Blue Jays attempt to build on an eight-game win streak prompted by their trade deadline pickups.  On Tuesday, Kendall Graveman will get the start for Oakland.

Chavez, Valencia led the A’s past first-place Houston for the second, straight day

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Valencia

By Morris Phillips

Call it an out-of body experience.  The last place A’s have transformed themselves—at least for the weekend—from a bottom dweller to a factor in the American League playoff chase.

For the second day in a row, the A’s knocked of AL West-leading Houston, with pitching and defense superior to the Astros, beating their top two starters who have combined for 26 wins thus far this season.

The win moved the A’s a half-game ahead of the Red Sox and out of the American League cellar.  The Astros saw their lead trimmed to a game over the Angels in the race for the AL West top spot.

On Saturday, it was Jesse Chavez rebounding from a horrible start Monday to best the Astros and 13-game winner Collin McHugh in a 2-1 win.  Newly-acquired Danny Valencia knocked in a pair of runs with a first-inning double, then saw Chavez and the A’s defense make his big hit stand up.

“It’s a good confidence builder after what happened last time,” the victorious Chavez said.  “Something that I’ll just go back to work on and build off of.”

Chavez couldn’t get out of the fourth inning on Monday in a 9-2 loss to the Orioles.  On Saturday, the right hander wore his high socks proudly, cruising through seven innings, scattering six hits and four walks.  Chavez hadn’t won since July 19 and he hadn’t thrown seven innings since June 17, a stretch of nine starts.

McHugh wasn’t bad, but started badly, walking the first two A’s batters of the game.  Both would score when Valencia doubled with one out.  Looking to become the first 14-game winner in either league, McHugh would go on to strike out eight and pitch the next five innings scoreless.  But he never had his best stuff,  and threw too many balls in a 121-pitch effort that only got him through the first six innings.

“It took a little while to find a feel for my pitches,” McHugh said.  “I really didn’t have a very good curveball all day.”

Valencia was designated for assignment by the Blue Jays after hitting .296 with seven homers in limited duty.  The A’s claimed Valencia earlier this week, and on Saturday, the 30-year old found himself the designated hitter in the cleanup spot in Bob Melvin’s batting order.  Expected to be a platoon player that would spell Brett Lawrie at third base against lefties, Valencia could be up for extended duty after racking up five hits in his first three games as an Athletic.

“We want to give him some opportunities here against righties,” Melvin said of Valencia.  “We gave him a big one today, and he came through for us.”

Edwin Mujica pitched a perfect ninth to earn his first save.  Mujica needed just nine pitches to retire pinch-hitter Jake Marinsick, Chris Carter and Hank Conger after Drew Pomeranz walked Jed Lowrie to leadoff the inning.

On Sunday, the A’s attempt to take three of four from the division leaders with Chris Bassitt facing Houston’s newly-acquired Mike Fiers at 1:05pm.

Gray Earns Twelfth Win In Complete Game Win Over Astro’s 3-1

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OAKLAND, CA - AUGUST 07: Sonny Gray #54 of the Oakland Athletics pitches against the Houston Astros during the first inning at O.co Coliseum on August 7, 2015 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Jason O. Watson/Getty Images)
OAKLAND, CA – AUGUST 07: Sonny Gray #54 of the Oakland Athletics pitches against the Houston Astros during the first inning at O.co Coliseum on August 7, 2015 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Jason O. Watson/Getty Images)

By Kahlil Najar

OAKLAND – Two of the best pitchers in baseball faced off tonight. The A’s Sonny Gray came in with a 11-3 record while the Astros had Dallas Keuchel throwing with a 13-5 record. Everyone knew this would be a pitchers duel and they weren’t wrong.

In the game that lasted a little over two hours Gray (12-4) tossed a complete game and only gave up five hits, one earned run and struck out five.

Catcher Josh Phegley said, “It’s the same every time. He’s pretty consistent. He uses his fastball to challenge every hitter and keeps them off balance with his slider. He’s out to prove he’s one of the best pitchers in the American League and he does it time and time again.”

“I’m not really pitching against the other pitcher,” said Gray. “It’s the other team, their lineup. I just challenged them a lot with my fastball. Just trying to make them put the ball in play as quick as possible.”

New guy Danny Valencia, in only his second game with the A’s had a great game tonight. He walked in the first, hit a solo homer in the third and singled in the fifth.

Oakland earned a run in the second after three straight singles and a sac fly by Billy Burns to drive home Phegley. In the fifth inning Gray made his only real mistake of the game as he gave up a homer to Luis Valbuena but the A’s got the run back in the bottom of the inning with a Phegley ground-rule double to right to drive in Brett Lawrie.

The A’s send Jesse Chavez to the mound tomorrow against another Houston 13-game winner in Collin McHugh.

King of Leon: Davis’ slam propels O’s past the A’s in extra innings

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Grand Slam

By Morris Phillips

Is it the worst way to lose a ballgame? For the A’s maybe not the worst way, but close.

But the best way to win a game?  For Orioles, you would have to say yes.

The Orioles trailed 3-1  in the sixth inning, rallied to tie, then won in the tenth on a dramatic, grand slam home run from Chris Davis on reliever Arnold Leon’s 3-2 pitch.  Davis’ blast dropped the A’s back in the American League cellar, while it propelled the Orioles in the right direction of a crowded field of AL playoff hoepfuls.

“You try to take advantage of the situations where we have runners in scoring positions and not do too much and just get one run in,” Davis said after the O’s 9th win in their last 12 games.  “And a lot of times when you’re just trying to do a little you get rewarded with a lot”

“I was trying to go away to get a ground-ball double play, but I didn’t execute very well the way I wanted to,” Leon said.

Leon allowed the first, two Orioles’ hitters to reach in the tenth, with tall, rangy Manny Machado just 90 feet away at third representing the go-ahead run.  So manager Bob Melvin elected to walk the bases loaded and have Leon face Adam Jones and Davis back-to-back in search of an out, then an inning-saving double play.

For Leon, the first part came easy.  Jones popped out to second base on the reliever’s second pitch.  The second part?  Leon’s still looking for that, as Davis went down and golfed a fastball at the knees over the 388 sign in left center.

It was Davis’ sixth career grand slam, and his third homer in the last four days.  Based on the location of the pitch, it also was a case of a talented hitter who’s also red-hot taking advantage of a pitcher who backed himself into a corner.

“Once you get two strikes you try to battle,” Davis said.  “He actually made a pretty good pitch.  I just thought I waited him out.  He threw me a really good curveball earlier in the at-bat.”

Kendall Graveman started for Oakland and cruised into the sixth inning with the lead, allowing just two hits.  But in the sixth, Gerardo Parra bunted his way on, busting up the starter’s rhythm.  With two outs, the O’s rallied as Davis, Jimmy Paredes and J.J. Hardy came up with consecutive hits off the A’s starter.

That quickly the A’s lead evaporated.  And their offense had as well as the A’s would go the final six innings without additional scoring.

Wei-Yin Chen started for Baltimore and struggled, allowing four hits and four walks in just five innings.  But with a run in and the bases loaded in the third, Chen escaped further damage by striking out Danny Valencia.  The next inning, Marcus Semien came up the RBI double, and stole third.  But Billy Burns struck out, and Semien was picked off third to end the inning.

It was the third straight start Chen failed to pitch into the sixth inning.

The A’s fell in extra innings for the seventh time in 2015.  The A’s lost their first six extra-inning contests before winning four straight.  Davis’ grand slam did prevent the A’s from losing a one-run ballgame for a major-league worst and franchise-record 26th time.

On Thursday, Aaron Brooks attempts to follow up his stellar A’s debut in a 7:05pm start against Scott Feldman and the first-place Astros.

Semien’s Blast Backs Bassitt to First Win With Oakland

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By Matthew T.F. Harrington

OAKLAND, Calif. – It had been nearly a year since Oakland Athletics starter Chris Bassitt knew what it was like to see a W next to his name in the Sporting Green the day after one of his starts. It was a feeling he’d only experienced once in his two-year, 16-game major league career. Halfway through his 11th career start, this time coming against the Baltimore Orioles at O.Co Coliseum, it looked like the youngster would be waiting a little longer.

Orioles Hurler Miguel Gonzalez shut out the A’s for four innings Tuesday night, yielding only one hit before the Oakland offense roughed him up for five runs in the 5th and 6th innings combined. Marcus Semien launched a three-run homerun, Brett Lawrie hit a run-scoring triple and Billy Burns picked up an RBI single to support a near-flawless Bassitt (1-4, 2.64 ERA) earn a 5-0 win.

“I don’t really care about ERA, I don’t care about stats,” said Bassitt. “I just care about wins. I don’t care about anything else. I don’t look at any stats. I can tell you what my record is and that’s it. As for runs, I don’t care if it’s one, zero or eight as long as we win.”

Bassitt authored a standout performance, throwing a season high 104 pitches over 7 innings to handcuff the vaunted Orioles (54-52) offense. Bassitt came two pitches shy of matching his career high, 106, set last season in his first start of the year August 20th against the Tigers. The 26-year-old righty struck out seven Birds, besting a career-high most recently set in his previous outing against Cleveland.

“He’s a really intense kid out there,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin. “Since he’s been in the rotation, you see each and every time he goes out there he’s more and more confident.”

Bassitt’s only other win at the major league level also came in a 7-plus inning performance. Before joining the A’s in the Jeff Samardzija trade this offseason, Bassitt helped the Pale Hose to a 2-0 win over the Detroit Tigers, firing 7 2/3 innings of scoreless ball on September 22nd.

When asked how he felt about getting the win, Bassitt had only one word to describe it. “Relief.”

Bassitt scattered only 5 hits, allowing a single Baltimore baserunner to reach third base. Slugger Chris Davis was the only one to get 90 feet from scoring, opening the 2nd inning with a double. Bassitt froze Davis after catcher Matt Wieters roped a liner right into Brett Lawrie’s glove. Davis moved to third on a bounce out by J.J. Hardy but was stranded after Bassitt punched out Jimmy Paredes to escape the jam.

“Thank god for Stephen Vogt,” said Bassitt of his battery mate for the night. “Take all the credit and give it to him. I was really fast tonight and he just knew how to slow me down.”

The Orioles would again put a runner on 2nd base with one out in the next inning, but Manny Machado bounced out to Lawrie. Proving he is no worse for wear in his second game back from a lengthy DL stint, Coco Crisp stole a line drive basehit from Gerardo Parra with a diving catch to save what would have been the go ahead run.

“Coco is back,” said Bassitt emphatically.

“I said all along it’s going to be tough for him not to dive,” said Melvin of his left fielder. “He only plays one way.”

Heading in to the 5th, the A’s had managed only one hit and three baserunners against the stingy Gonzalez. They found an opportune time to piece together a two-hit inning, with Eric Sogard ripping a one-out double down the right field line to start the rally. After Marcus Semien struck out swinging, the rookie leader in hits Billy Burns came up to the plate looking for the clutch hit that proved elusive to the A’s over the previous four innings.

Burns delivered his 98th base knock, flicking a soft liner into shallow center field. O’s outfielder Adam Jones corralled the ball and fired a seed to home plate hoping to cut down Sogard at the plate. The ball took an Oakland bounce off the back side of the mound, allowing Sogard to come around easy for the 1-0 lead.

The next inning, the A’s struck again off Gonzalez after Billy Butler opened the inning with a ground-rule double. After an Ike Davis grounder to third for the first out, Brett Lawrie sat on a Gonzalez fastball, crushing a triple to the wall in left center field to put the A’s up 2-0 and stick Gonzalez (9-8. 4.32) with the loss.

Reliever Chaz Roe kept Lawrie stranded at first by coaxing a strikeout from Mark Canha before brining Sogard to the plate with two down. Showalter elected to issue the free base, presumably Sogard’s first in his major league career, to bring Semien to the plate.

“Both of us were a little surprised,” said Semien of his and his fellow keystoner Sogard’s reaction. “I don’t think he knew till he looked behind him.”

Semien responded to Showalter’s slight, mashing his 10th homerun of the season over the wall in left center. Semien’s dinger handed Bassitt a comfy 5-0 lead heading into the final three innings.

“Sometimes you can get a little too fired up,” said Melvin. “But after you hit a homer it’s nice.”

The Fernandos, Rodriguez and Abad, each tossed a scoreless inning to ensure Bassitt’s scoreless start would stand intact and give the A’s (48-60) their third win in four games.

The A’s could pull off the series win against an Orioles team just one game back of the second Wild Card with a win in Wednesday’s series finale. Kendall Graveman takes the mound in the matinee match-up, squaring off against Wei-Yin Chen.

Oakland A’s game recap by Jerry Feitelberg: O’s go yard on A’s Chavez twice for 9-2 win in series opener

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s Jesse Chavez struggled through much of his outing on Monday night at the Oakland Coliseum getting rip torn by the Baltimore Orioles Chris Davis in the first inning for a three run shot for home run number 27 of the season and Caleb Joseph added insult upon injury with a two run homer in the fourth as the O’s won by seven runs when it was all done 9-2.

For the Orioles it was their eighth win in their last ten games as the same two clubs get together again on Tuesday night for game two of the three game series. The Orioles Tyler Wilson who started the game and who was transitioned from the minors up to the big club several times might have won himself a spot on the roster with his pitching performance against the A’s on Tuesday going 7.2 innings, six hits, two runs both earned, with three strike outs and lowered his ERA to 2.19.

Wilson had great control throughout the contest and had the A’s going down as they continue to suffer with poor offense, “I’m just trying to stay focused on the task at hand. There’s a lot of different variables in this game that are completely out of control. I focus on the things that I can be prepared when the phone rings and I hope it does keep ringing I’ll do whatever it takes to be back up here.” said Wilson.

Chavez looked like Charlie Brown on the mound out there on Monday surrendering the two homers and a line that read 3.2 innings, nine hits and six runs and an ERA of 3.88 and Chavez dropped his record to 5-11. The A’s with the loss are now 47-60 in the cellar of the American League West. Meanwhile the A’s Coco Crisp returned to the line up after 60 days of being on the D.L. and went 2-4 with two hits in his first two plate appearances.

Crisp says he feel comfortable at the plate and is feeling great to be back in the line up, “I haven’t had that many at bats from the end of last year, no at bats really in spring training, so when I came back the first time from elbow surgery I really didn’t have the appropriate time. I wanted to wait and make sure I was myself and I was able to do that” said Crisp.

For Tuesday night’s tilt the Orioles will start Miguel Gonzalez (9-7) Gonzalez dropped his last game in an attempt to win number ten and he’ll be matched up against right hander Chris Bassitt (0-4) Bassitt who has not a victory this season but one last year could pick up his second career win if he can overcome Baltimore on Tuesday night. First pitch at the Coliseum is at 7:05PM.

Jerry Feitelberg is the Oakland A’s beat writer at http://www.sportsradioservice.com