Oakland Athletics – Page 320 – Sports Radio Service

Brett Lawrie’s Grand Slam Leads the A’s to Victory over the Texas Rangers

Published on June 24, 2015 by rxsluggerLeave a comment

by Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s scored early and often to defeat the Texas Rangers 8-2. The win was the fourth in a row for the A’s and the eighth win in the last ten games. The Rangers have lost four in a row. Kendall Graveman started for the A’s, and he had a 5-0 lead before he threw his first pitch. Graveman went seven-plus innings allowing eight hits and just two runs. With the win, Graveman evened his record at 4-4. The veteran left-hander, Wandy Rodriguez did not have a good outing as the A’s rocked him for eight runs in the first two innings. Rodriguez was done after just four innings of work and he lost for the third time this season.

The A’s scored five runs in the top of the first. Leadoff hitter, Billy Burns, got things going when he doubled on the second pitch of the game. The hit extended Burns’ hitting streak to a career-high fourteen games. Mark Canha ground out to the right side moving Burns to third. Stephen Vogt, who did not play last night, doubled to drive in Burns wit the first run of the game. Zobrist grounded out and Vogt advanced to third on the play. Rodriguez walked Josh Phegley and Billy Butler on 8 consecutive balls to load the bases. The next batter, Brett Lawrie hit the first pitch, a hanging curveball, over the left-center wall for a grand slam. A’s lead 5-0 before the Rangers came to bat. It was Lawries’s seventh home run of the year and his third career grand slam.

The A’s started the second inning the same way they started the first. Billy Burns doubled, advanced to third on a long fly ball off to right center and scored on a Stephen Vogt single. Vogt now leads the American League with 52 RBI. Josh Phegley followed with a home run over the centerfield wall to give the A’s an 8-0 lead.

The Rangers scored twice in the bottom of the fifth. Joey Gallo and Elvis Andrus singled to put men on first and second with one out. Leonys Martin flied to center for the second out of the inning. Catcher Carlos Corporan, hitting just .198, lined a double down the right field line to drive in both Gallo and Andrus. Rougned Odor walked to put men on at first and second again. The next hitter, Ryan Rua ground into a force out to end the inning. The Rangers challenged the call but fter review, the umpires upheld the call, and the A’s caught an enormous break as the Rangers would have had the bases loaded and their slugger, Prince Fielder, was the next batter.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Rangers put men on at first and second with no out. A’s manager took Graveman out of the game and replaced him with Edward Mujica. Mujica worked out of the jam, and Fernando Abad closed out the game in the ninth for the A’s.

Game Notes- Graveman has been pitching very well since the A’s recalled him from Triple-A Nashville. His ERA in his last four starts is 1.86. The hitting stars for the A’s were Billy Burns, Josh Phegley, Stephen Vogt and Brett Lawrie. Burns had two doubles and a single. Phegley had two hits including a two-run home run. Stephen Vogt had a double and two singles. The star of the night was Brett Lawrie. Lawrie had three hits and the biggest hit of the evening- a grand slam in the first inning. The line score for the A’s was eight runs, fourteen hits, and no errors while the line score for the Rangers was two runs on nine hits and two errors.

The A’s play game three of the three-game series Thursday. Game time will be at 11:05 AM PT.Sonny Gray will pitch for the Green and Gold and he will be opposed by Colby Lewis. Lewis, a former Athletic, has given the A’s fits over the years. Hopefully, the A’s will be able to turn the tables.

Game time temperature tonight was 92 degrees with a breeze. 34,216 paid to watch the game.

Oakland A’s podcast with Charlie O: A’s on the way to fourth place making a move in the win column

Published on June 24, 2015 by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by Charlie O Mallonee

The Oakland A’s are 7-3 in their last ten games and they have won four games in a row, the A’s in last place are 32-41 in the A.L.West. The A’s are 9.5 games behind the Houston Astros. That’s not a real surmountable amount of games for the A’s to play catch up on. More importantly at this point in time the A’s are a 1.5 behind Seattle with the M’s being in fourth place.

That is what the major goal has to be right now for the A’s is to make up that ground and get out of the cellar and get into fourth place. If the A’s can get into fourth place. Then they can go after let’s go after .500. Currently their nine games under .500 they have improved that number, they were further down than that.

The A’s can get into fourth and they have some work to do and things are going to look different and we know that this team could look different. Take the game against Texas it was a game two weeks ago that they lost, the A’s got down 5-2 and they came back to win 8-6. The offense came out big, they had a 11 hits and they had two key home runs.

One of those key homers came from the A’s catcher Josh Phegley and then they had a two run blast from Ben Zobrist whose been off the charts. So last night they had doubles help from Ike Davis, Marcus Semien, Phegley, and Zobrist the A’s had extra base hits all the way around. Phegley is doing a great job taking over for Stephen Vogt who had to take a cortisone shot so he couldn’t play Tuesday night.

Phegley did a great job, they got RBIs from Eric Sogard, one from Billy Butler, two from Zobrist, two from Phegley and with runners in scoring position this is one thing we were talking about when they were not converting with runners in scoring position. They were 4-8 with runners in scoring position.

You’ll take a 500 percentage with runners in scoring position anytime, they just left five men on base. So the A’s did a great job on offense but the other team we talked about the M’s are underperforming so far. The A’s bullpen had really performed well on Tuesday in Detroit. A’s reliever Evan Scribner pitched two innings shutting out the Tigers and getting two strikeouts.

Charlie O does the Oakland A’s commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

The A’s rally to start the road trip with a win over the Texas Rangers.

Published on June 23, 2015 by rxsluggerLeave a comment

by Jerry Feitelberg

Baseball is a game that defies description. There are nights that pitchers perform well but end up taking a loss. Bloop singles can beat you while balls hit right on the nose end up in an outfielder’s glove for an out. The A’s starter, Jesse Chavez, has pitched well this season. However, he entered the game with a record of 3-6. Chavez did his job, but the A’s offense failed to give him any run support. Tuesday night Jesse did not pitch well. He went five innings, allowed eight hits and was touched for five runs. Did he take the loss? No, he did not, he won. The A’s rallied in the top of the sixth from a three-run deficit to score four times to take the lead. The A’s bullpen shut the Rangers down as they recorded the last twelve outs of the game, and Oakland won 8-6. Chavez, since he was the pitcher of record when the A’s rallied to take the lead, won his fourth game of the year.

Chi Chi Rodriguez started for Texas, and Chavez was on the hill for the A’s. It was a matchup of a good-looking rookie pitcher going against a very good veteran. The Rangers struck first in the bottom of the second. Ranger shortstop Elvis Andrus doubled to start the inning. He advanced to third on a ground out and scored on a passed ball. A’s catcher Josh Phegley may have had a chance to nail Andrus at home but Chavez forgot to cover the plate. The A’s tied the game in the top of the third. Eric Sogard singled to drive in Marcus Semien with the run.

The A’s took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fifth when Phegley blasted his fourth home run of the year over the centerfield wall. The lead didn’t last long as the Rangers scored four times in the bottom of the fifth. With a man on first, Rangers’ second baseman Rougned Odor hit his second home run of the year into the right-field seats to give Texas a 3-2 lead. At this point in the game, Chavez was struggling with his location. The next batter, Joey Gallo, doubled. Prince Fielder also doubled but Gallo held up waiting to see if the ball was caught, and he had to stop at third. Adrian Beltre, in his first game back from the DL, hit a sacrifice fly allowing Gallo to score, and Fielder took third on the throw home. Andrus singled to drive in Fielder with the Rangers fifth run of the night. A’s trail 5-2 after five. Chavez pitch count reached 97 and his night was over.

This is where the game gets interesting. The A’s scored four times in the sixth to put them ahead 6-5 and since Chavez was the pitcher of record was in line to get credit for the win even though he left the game trailing 5-2. Ben Zobrist led off the inning with a walk and advanced to second when Billy Butler was hit by a pitch. Ike Davis doubled to right-center to drive in Zobrist and Josh Phegley followed with a double over the head of Ranger center fielder Leonys Martin to drive in Butler and Davis to tie the game at five. Ranger manager Jeff Bannister went to his bullpen and replaced Rodriguez with Keone Kela. Marcus Semien greeted him with a double to put the A’s ahead 6-5.

The A’s scored two more runs in the seventh. Eric Sogard walked and came home on Zobrist’s fifth home run of the year. The Rangers scored a run in their half of the inning. With two out Beltre reached on a Brett Lawrie throwing Mitch Moreland singled to put men on at first and third. A’s manager Bob Melvin brought in righty Fernando Rodriguez to face Elvis Andrus. Andrus doubled driving in Beltre, but Moreland could not score as he was not running well and had to stop at third.Rodriguez retired the next hitter to end the inning.

Rodriguez started the eight and walked Chirinos with one out. Melvin brought in Drew Pomeranz to pitch. Pomeranz walked Odor to put runners on at first and second. Pomeranz struck out Joy Gallo for the second out and got Prince Fielder to ground out to end the inning. Pomeranz came out to pitch the ninth as A’s closer, Tyler Clippard, was no available. Beltre singled to start the frame but was erased when Pomeranz induced Moreland to ground into a 4-6-3 double play. Pomeranz struck out Elvis Andrus to end the game. Final score 8-6 in favor of Oakland.

Game Notes- The A’s have won three straight and seven of their last nine. The A’s are now 32-41 for the year, and Texas falls to 37-34. Josh Phegley was the hitting star for the A’s with a home run, double and three RBI. Billy Burns had a hit in the game and extended his hitting streak to a career-high 13 games in a row. Stephen Vogt did not play as he has a strained flexor tendon in his elbow. Vogt was available for pinch-hitting duties Tuesday and is expected to be in the lineup Wednesday.

The A’s resume the three-game series Wednesday night at the Globe Life Stadium in Arlington, Texas at 5:05 PM PT.

Kendall Graveman will be on the hill for Oakland, and he will be opposed by the veteran lefty, Wandy Rodriguez.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: AL West is loaded, the Angels are on the move, the Astros have the hitting, and the A’s need relief

Published on June 23, 2015June 23, 2015 by lleonardbwLeave a comment

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

LOS ANGELES–This is the time of the year when the Los Angeles Angels start to get hot and jell and they did it this time last year. The Angels were hovering in the .500 range at 33-32 and all of a sudden they caught fire they won 98 games at the end of the season. It’s a wonder if they can do that again. The American League West is going to be a race until the finish.

The Oakland A’s are still in the cellar and if they can fix their bullpen and they’re 11 games out, this western division is certainly exciting and anything can happen. For the A’s to catch up it’s going to be tough because like the Angels their going to have to win three game series like two out of three. The A’s are going to have to win a lot of series to get back into the race.

Once in a while the A’s will have to sweep somebody to get right back into this race. We’ve been saying this all along the bullpen is very weak the A’s could make a run for it but they’re 10.5 games out and in order to get back into it all the stars will have to be aligned. Houston is going to have to go into a slump.

Houston holds a slight 3 game margin lead in the AL West and just lost two out of three over the week. The Astros have a lot of confidence and they have very good pitching. The Astros are more interesting they’re aggressive, they hit the long ball, they get pitching they can come back and string a few victories together.

That’s how they win and the A’s can hope by the end of July they’ll be just three games out but if they’re ten games out by the end of July there’s going to be a big fire sale and A’s general manager Billy Beane is going to trade for some new players. The Astros have one of the best lefthanded pitchers in baseball Dallas Keuchel 8-3 ERA 2.53.

Here’s one of the things as I was talking with one of the Astros broadcasters last night and I asked if they were going to make any trades and the Astros are so talented and it will be tough to decide who to deal. For Houston that’s a wonderful problem to have because they have talented players all throughout their roster.

The Astros were not expected to contend this year and maybe they would contend for 2016 or 2017 so what happened the Astros have guys who can hit, George Springer is hitting .279, Jose Atulve .287, Chris Cater strikes out a lot but hits a lot of home runs and is hitting .201. The Astros have a lot of talent and their in first place.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s, the Spanish radio voice for the Angels, and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Preview of A’s vs Rangers Series

Published on June 22, 2015 by rxsluggerLeave a comment

by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s have been playing a little better lately. They won series against the San Diego Padres and the LA Angels and five of the last seven games played. The starting pitching continues to be excellent. The starters, Scott Kazmir, Jesse Hahn, Jesse Chavez, Kendall Graveman and Sonny Gray have all pitched well. The bullpen has not. There are exceptions, but everyone has to hold their breath when A’s manager Bob Melvin goes out to the mound to bring in a reliever. A’s closer Tyler Clippard recorded two saves over the weekend and has recorded eleven for the year. The A’s are still committing too many errors, but shortstop Marcus Semien seems to be improving. Former A’s coach and Rangers’ skipper, Ron Washington is on board as a special assistant to help him with his fielding and throwing.

So, the A’s are off to Texas to play a three-game series with the Rangers before returning home to face the Kansas City Royals and the Colorado Rockies. The Rangers are currently in second place in the AL West with a record of 37-33 and are 3.5 games behind the first-place Houston Astros. The Rangers are playing well despite the fact that so many of their key players are on the disabled list.Yu Darvish is out for the season with Tommy John surgery. Derek Holland is on the 60-day DL, and closer Neftali Feliz is on the 15-day DL. Matt Harrison, who was on the 60-day DL, is slated to come off in late June. Other players on the DL include Adrian Beltre, Delino DeShields and Josh Hamilton. Hamilton played in just seven games after coming back to Texas. Prince Fielder leads the Texas offense. Fielder sports a .340 batting average with eleven home runs and 47 RBI and has an OPS of .929. Other key performers for Texas are Mitch Moreland, Shin-Soo Choo, and rookie Joey Gallo. Gallo was brought up to replace the injured Adrian Beltre. Gallo started well but has trailed off a bit. Gallo is hitting .222 with five home runs and ten RBI in his first eighteen games in the show.

Rangers’ starters include Yovani Gallardo ( 6-6, 2.98 era), the 23-year-old sensation, Chi Chi Gonzalez ( 2-1,0.90 ERA), veteran Colby Lewis, Nick Martinez (5-3,2.77 ERA) and Wandy Rodriguez ( 3-2,3.20). The bullpen consists of Ross Detwiler, Tanner Scheppers, Shawn Tolleson and Keone Kela.

The A’s and Rangers have played ten times so far this year and the A’s hold a 6-4 advantage. The Rangers can be beaten in Arlington as their record there is just 15-16. The A’s are a sub .500 road team in 2015. They are just 17-21 away from Oakland.

It should be a terrific series between the two division rivals. The A’s won the AL West crown in 2012 and 2013 much to the dismay of the Rangers. Last year the Rangers floundered as so many of their star hurlers were injured, and it is amazing how well they are playing under the leadership of their first-year skipper, Jeff Bannister. The Rangers may be buyers as they are in contention for the AL West lead. The A’s, are ten games under the .500 mark and need to start climbing out of the basement. When Oakland wins, the team looks great but they looked awful more often than great and the A’s will have to make decisions on players like Kazmir, Clippard and Ben Zobrist. These three players will be free agents at the end of the season. If the A’s are in contention, the team will probably keep them. If not, the A’s will probably try to rebuild the team again, and Billy Beane is probably on the telephone trying to find new homes for them.

Note- Just a word about the sad news that former Texas Ranger and San Francisco Giant outfielder, Daryl Hamilton, was found murdered in his suburban home near Houston. Hamilton was in the big leagues for 13 seasons and was well liked by his fellow teammates. He was very personable and was an analyst on the MLB Network. Very sad day for baseball to lose one of its own, but bad things happen to good people. Daryl tragic death saddened all of us at SportsRadioService, and we extend our sympathies to his family, friends, former teammates, and colleagues. RIP, Daryl.

A’s buck the odds and win a close one over the Angels, 3-2

Published on June 21, 2015June 21, 2015 by moepeaLeave a comment

By Morris Phillips

Tyler Clippard, be careful what you ask for. In fact, had Clippard or manager Bob Melvin given deeper thought to allowing the A’s closer to go back out and pitch the ninth inning on Sunday, they probably would have mutually agreed to go with someone else.

But Clippard said he wanted the ball in what had been narrowed to a one-run ball game, and Melvin went along with it.

“It’s hard to ask a guy to do that two days in a row,” Melvin said. “And originally I just had him for that inning. I just wanted to go through the heart of the order with him and if it’s 3-0 then we try to do something different. When he came off the mound, he talked me into going back out there.”

For Clippard and Melvin’s sake, it all worked out. The 30-year old fireballer survived a scare off Johnny Giavotella’s bat with two outs, and the A’s squeaked out a 3-2 win over the Angels that—if you’ve been following the numbers—went against most the precedents the A’s have set for themselves in 2015.

Most confounding are the facts that the A’s are 10 games below .500, currently have the worst record in the American League, but statistically they’re far better than that, having scored 35 more runs than they’ve allowed in the 72 games they’ve played to date.

Quite simply, the A’s have had a bunch of agonizing, narrow defeats, many of them due to defensive issues and a depleted bullpen that expected to have All-Star Sean Doolittle anchoring things, not Clippard.

Of course, Clippard doesn’t see himself as a second fiddle. Just like Doolittle, Clippard was an All-Star last season, making 75 appearances for the Nationals with an excellent ERA of 2.13. Over the last five seasons, Clippard has pitched in more ballgames (397) than any other big league hurler. But outside of 2012, Clippard has been used primarily as a set-up guy, which is far less glamorous or noticeable a role than the guy that’s asked to get the final outs.

Two other statistics should have figured into Melvin’s decision to bring Clippard back out besides the fact that he would be attempting a rare, five-out save, one day after the reliever registered a four-out save against the same team. First, Clippard is a dramatically better pitcher at night than he is in the daytime. This season, the reliever has allowed just one run in appearances at night, compared to eight runs allowed in a similar number of innings pitched during the daytime.

And there’s that little issue Clippard has regarding home runs. The reliever has allowed 60 homers in his big league career, including one to red hot Albert Pujols in the eight inning on Sunday, which wiped out starter Scott Kazmir’s potential shutout and narrowed the A’s 3-0 lead to 3-2. The frequent home runs allowed are probably the main reason Clippard’s been utilized as a set-up guy and not a closer. On Sunday, the four batters Clippard would face in the ninth inning had combined for just nine homers on the season, but make no mistake, that group of Angels’ hitters was looking for a tenth.

So it shouldn’t have come as a surprise that with Clippard needing only to get the last out, mighty mite Giavotella stepped to the plate with a runner aboard and launched one towards the left field wall. It goes without saying that the principal character’s minds begin to race.

“I thought it was gone,” Clippard recalled. “I wasn’t happy with the execution for sure.”

Catcher Stephen Vogt had a different vantage point, but the similar bad thoughts, saying “off the bat my mind did not go to good places.”

Only Melvin was calm throughout, saying later that “I thought it was off the end of the bat.”

But the ending turned out to be a good one. Left fielder Sam Fuld retreated to the wall, then turned and took a step in and made the catch to end the ballgame.

Kazmir pickup up the win, and it was well-deserved. The veteran was on top of his game Sunday, throwing his entire repetoire for strikes, and controlling the inside of the plate on critical pitches. The former Angel hadn’t had much success against his ex-teammates, but that changed on Sunday.

“It being my old team and knowing some of the guys on that team, it felt good,” Kazmir said. “I’d be lying if I said it didn’t.”

Brett Lawrie had a full day, first attempting to catch the defense napping and steal third base in the second inning. The bang-bang play inspired a five-minute review which went against Lawrie and the A’s. In the fourth, the third baseman made a highlight catch on the bullpen mound in foul territory as he was falling down. Then Lawrie gave the A’s a 2-0 lead in the sixth with an RBI single.

The A’s have Monday off before opening a series in Arlington against the Rangers. Jesse Chavez will be pitted against 23-year old Chi Chi Gonzalez in the opener.

Short memories and extra-base hits aid A’s in bounce back win against the Angels

Published on June 20, 2015 by moepeaLeave a comment

By Morris Phillips

Momentum is today’s starting pitcher, especially when reliving the previous day’s loss is too painful an exercise.

The A’s gave up eight runs in the seventh inning Friday, allowing the Angels to rally for a 12-7 win after trailing 7-2, and the consensus was the team had suffered it’s worst loss of the season to date. Nobody wanted to talk about what transpired Friday, including the team’s broadcasters at the beginning of the telecast. The A’s allowing 10 runs in the final three innings, and contributing three errors to the Angels’ rally obviously led to that frustrated response.

But professional baseball players have fewer than 24 hours to turn the page, and that’s where starting pitcher Jesse Hahn came into the story. Hahn was magnificient, pitching into the eighth inning, allowing one run in the A’s 4-1 bounce back win on Saturday at the O.co Coliseum. Hahn has won four of his last five decisions and the A’s are 4-0 in the rookie’s June starts.

“The other night in San Diego he mixed all four of his pitches up which he hadn’t really done to this point and it looked like today he was using all four of them again,” Stephen Vogt said of his teammate. “And anytime you keep that lineup to one run, it doesn’t matter how he did it, it’s an outstanding job because that lineup over there is one of the best in the league.”

Hahn has turned the corner in his first major league season by expanding his repetoire to include a fastball, curve, sinker and change after he faltered early with only his fastball and sinker being reliable. The extra weapons were key on Saturday as Hahn escaped jams in the second and third innings with the game still scoreless. In the third, Hahn induced red hot Albert Pujols to fly out to end the inning with two runners in scoring position.

“That was huge,” Hahn said. “I just tried to get groundballs with my sinker and the defense played great behind me.”

The A’s led 1-0 until the sixth when Eric Aybar’s RBI single tied the score. But the A’s used the Angels’ rally as smelling salts, responding with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning. Josh Reddick, Brett Lawrie and Josh Phegley had RBI doubles in the outburst.

“For the offense to come through for him and get him an early run, and right after he gives up one, we come right back with three,” Vogt said. “That’s always huge for your pitcher.”

Hahn pitched a shut down inning in the seventh, and retired two batters in the eighth before Tyler Clippard came on for the four-out save. Jared Weaver allowed the first three of Oakland’s four RBI doubles and took the loss. Vogt’s RBI double in the first inning gave him 51 runs batted in on the season, tied for the lead in the American League.

The Red Sox and White Sox also won on Saturday, keeping the A’s as the team with the worst record in the American League for at least one more day. The Astros lost, moving Oakland within 10 ½ games of the top spot in the AL West.

On Sunday, the A’s look to capture the series’ rubber game with Scott Kazmir on the mound in a matchup with Garrett Richards. Kazmir has yet to allow a home run at the Coliseum in any of his six starts this season.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: There’s no hacking in baseball? (photo of John Mozeliak GM Cardinals)

Published on June 20, 2015June 21, 2015 by lleonardbwLeave a comment

Amaury Pi-González

OAKLAND–We all remember the popular line by actor Tom Hanks in the movie “A League of their Own”, when he said: “there is no crying in baseball”! Well, there might be no crying today with all the money thrown around players and organizations making big profits, but it seems that there is some hacking in baseball going on. The St Louis Cardinals are been investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigations(FBI)for hacking into the Houston Astros.

It was then the New York Times who first broke the news, that St Louis Cardinals employees were stealing information as they hacked the database of the Houston Astros. It is not yet fully known how many times this did happened, the FBI said they will soon finish their investigation in this very particular case.

Now, it’s one thing for a manager or player to steal the signal of the other team during a game, and another thing is to deliberately hack another team and get information about scouting, personnel, team planning, prospects they are seeking, and other stuff that should not be taken by illegal means.

It appears that the St Louis Cardinals might have been doing this to the Houston Astros for years.
My question is, why the Astros?. Nobody hacked their computers when they were finishing last, or maybe that is why they have finished last, because the other teams(in this case)the Cardinals had all their private information.

Whatever it is,we shall know very soon. No doubt that for the new baseball Commissioner, Rob Manfred, this will be his first big task. Manfred visited the Oakland A’s prior to the game this Saturday at the Coliseum, and among the very interesting things he said, is that he believes that the Athletics and the Raiders cannot(repeat cannot)co-exist in the OCO.

Previous Commissioner Bud Selig,presided over the steroids era and scandals, maybe Fred Manfred will have to battle social media, hacking and all this technology stuff. He better be ready, Manfred is the Social Media Commissioner.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for the Angels and the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Eight Run Seventh Dooms Oakland, Lose To Angels 12 – 7

Published on June 20, 2015September 5, 2015 by kahlilnajar7Leave a comment

By Kahlil Najar

OAKLAND –

Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The Oakland A’s bullpen blew a five run lead in the top of the seventh that lead to another loss after a spectacular start from a starting pitcher.

The A’s bullpen gave up a season worst eight runs in the top of the eighth to lose to the Angels 12-7. Starting pitcher Sonny Gray lasted six innings and gave up five earned runs and only struck out a pair.

“I went out in the seventh and I’ve gotta be a little better in attacking the zone, making them beat us instead of me just kind of giving it away to them,” said Gray. “It was just a really bad inning, and it started with me. You can say this happened and this happened. But you walk the first two guys on 10 pitches, you give them a little bit of hope.”

In addition to the bad seventh, the A’s committed four errors through out the game to give them a total of 65 errors this year. Enough to land that at number one in the league in errors and 10 more than the second place team, the Texas Rangers.

“We weren’t very good defensively today,” said head coach Bob Melvin. “We have been better recently, but you’re not going to win many games when you’re making four errors.”

Brett Lawrie committed a pair and Ben Zorbist and Edward Mujica committed one error each.

The A’s looked good early when Zorbist hit his fourth homer of the year in the bottom of the first with two men aboard to give the A’s an early 3-o lead. Stephen Vogt contributed three runs on the evening when he hit his 13th homer of the year on the fifth and smacked a line drive double in the bottom of the sixth to get him his second and third RBI of the night.

But that dreaded seventh inning did Oakland in.

Gray gave up a pair of walks to start the inning and then tossed a 90 MPH cutter to Matt Joyce who singled to left field and scored Aybar to give the Angels their third run of the night. Chris Iannetta then singled to load the bases and caused Bob Melvin to get the game ball from Gray and give it to new A’s pitcher Drew Pomeranz. After a tough seven pitch at bar, Pomeranz walked Daniel Robertson that allowed Giavotella to score and make it a 7-4 game in favor of Oakland. After a quick strike out to Kole Calhoun, Pomeranz was replaced by Edward Mujica. Mujica then proceded to give up five runs including a grand slam to Albert Pujols which gave the Angels a 9-7 lead with only one out. Evan Scribner came in to relieve Mujica but still gave up a RBI single to Giavotella and made it 10 – 7 going into the bottom of the seventh.

The Angels tapped in two more runs in the top of the ninth to make it a 12 – 7 final score.

“You get an extra two runs in the bottom of the sixth, and you feel pretty good about a five-run lead with nine outs to go,” said Vogt. “You’ve got to give them some credit. They smelled blood and they didn’t stop. We’ve gotta take better care of the ball on the defensive side. A team like that, when you give them more than three outs, they’re going to take advantage, especially when you give them five or six in one inning.”

The Angels and A’s head back at it tomorrow when the Angels send up Jared Weaver (4-7) against Jesse Hahn (4-5). Weaver looks to end a three-start losing streak while Hahn is winless in six starts against the AL West.

A’s Win Streaked snapped, lose to the Padres 3-1.

Published on June 18, 2015 by rxsluggerLeave a comment

by Jerry Feitelberg

Kendall Graveman

The A’s and Padres concluded the four-game home and home series on Thursday at the O.co Coliseum. The game was played in the sunshine, and it was a close game but, as you know, the A’s have a losing record in games that are played in the daytime and are close. Today’s game was no exception as Oakland lost by a final score of 3-1. The Padres snapped their four-game losing streak and ended the A’s modest four-game winning streak

A’s starter Kendall Graveman pitched well, but he made two mistakes and took the loss. He gave up a solo home run to Matt Kemp in the fourth and former A’s catcher, Derek Norris, homered to lead off in the sixth to give San Diego enough runs to win the game. The A’s could not solve Ian Kennedy at all. The only mistake Kennedy made was a solo home run to A’s catcher Josh Phegley in the bottom of the sixth. The Padres added a run in the eighth after Billy Burns and Josh Reddick collided in deep right centerfield on a Melvin Upton, Jr flyball. The ball dropped allowing Upton to reach third for a triple. Reddick fell to the ground after the collision and lay motionless for about a minute or two. Bob Melvin and a trainer rushed out to see if Reddick was OK and after a few minutes he got to his feet and returned to action with no damage done. Nonetheless, it was a scary few moments. Upton scored on a foul out to first baseman Stephen Vogt. Vogt caught the ball over his shoulder, spun around and threw home trying to nail Upton at the plate but the throw was offline, and the Padres added the insurance run to take a 3-1 advantage. The A’s went down in order in the eighth. Vogt doubled with two out in the ninth, but Padres’ closer Craig Kimbrel struck out Billy Butler to end the game.

Game Notes- Kendall Graveman took the loss and is now 3-4 for the year. Graveman is 2-2 with an ERA of 2.27 in six starts since his return from Nashville on May 23rd. His line for the day was 7 IP, five hits and two runs. He lost his last start 1-0 to the LA Angels.

Billy Burns was 1-for-4 and has hit safely in each of his last nine games. Josh Phegley hit his third home run of the year and the first one against a right-hander. Stephen Vogt has now reached base safely in all 30 of his home games, which is the second longest season-opening streak in Oakland history. The record is held by Rickey Henderson, who had 33 in 1993.

The line score for San Diego was three runs, seven hits, and no errors while Oakland’s was one run on five hits and two errors.

The A’s continue the homestand against the Los Angeles Angels Friday night at 6 pm. There will be fireworks after the game. The A’s ace, Sonny Gray (8-3, 1.60 ERA) will go for Oakland, and Matt Shoemaker(4-5, 4.85) will pitch for the Halos.

Game time was two hours and thirty-nine minutes, and there were 16,643 people watching.