Category: Oakland Athletics

The Angels blast the A’s 14-1, even series

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by Jerry Feitelberg

It was a rough, rough night for the Oakland Athletics as they were pulverized by the Los Angeles Angels by a score of 14-1. The A’s did not get good pitching and they committed three errors on defense while all the offense could muster was just one run and four hits. It was a duel of two left-handed pitchers. Drew Pomeranz for Oakland and Hector Santiago for the Angels.

Pomeranz struggled and was lifted in the sixth inning. Santiago went six complete and picked up the win. The A’s bullpen failed to put out the fire as they could not contain them and they gave up nine runs in the defeat.

The Angels scored four runs in the bottom of the second. With one out and Erick Aybar on first, C.J. Cron hit a slow roller to third. Brett Lawrie fielded the ball cleanly and threw to second trying to start a 5-4-3 double play. Eric Sogard made the force out and pivoted quickly and made a good throw to first to complete the double-play. The umpire ruled Cron out to end the inning. Angel manager, Mike Scioscia challenged the ruling and after a review the call was overturned. Angel catcher, Chris Iannetta walked to put two men on with two out. Angel second baseman, Johnny Giavotella, then connected for  his first home run of the year to give the Angels a 3-0 lead. Pomeranz was still not out of the woods. Leadoff hitter, Kole Calhoun singled and Pomerantz walked Mike Trout. The next batter, Albert Pujols lined a shot that A’s shortstop Marcus Semien let bounce off his glove for an error allowing Calhoun to score with the fourth run.

The A’s got on the board in the third when designated hitter, Billy Butler, hit a solo home run to deep left centerfield to make it a 4-1 game.

The Angels blew the game open in the bottom of the sixth when they scored six times. Drew Pomeranz started the inning but was lifted after a C.J.Cron doubled. Bob Melvin brought in R.J.Alvarez to pitch.

Johnny Giavotella singled to drive in Cron with the Angels fifth run of the game. The next batter, Kole Calhoun, was credited with a single when the ball hit the second base umpire and was ruled dead.

Alvarez uncorked a wild pitch allowing the runners to advance to second and third. The A’s issued an intentional walk to Mike Trout to load the bases. Alvarez uncorked another wild pitch allowing Giavotella to score and moving the other two runners to second and third.David Freese singled to drive in two more runs and Freese advanced to second when Craig Gentry fumbled the ball for an error.

Erick Aybar followed with a single to make it 9-1. Collin Cowgill, the only Angel up to this point in the game that did not reach base safely, singled. Aybar scored all the way from first when the throw from Semien went by third for an error and Cowgill ended up on third when the throw home was wild.

Angels lead after six 10-1.

The Angels scored four more in the 7th. Iannetta and Giavotella reached safely to start the inning. Bob Melvin went out to the mound and ended Alvarez’ night. Fernando Abad was brought in to pitch to the left-handed hitter, Kole Calhoun. Calhoun promptly deposited Abad’s offering over the fence in right centerfield to make the score 13-1. The Angels added another when Mike Trout scored on a sacrifice fly. 14-1 in favor of the Angels after seven full.

The A’s brought in position player, first baseman Ike Davis to pitch in the bottom of the eighth. It was the first position player to pitch for the A’s since the 2000 season. All Davis did was set the Angels down in order 1-2-3 on nine pitches. Great job, Ike.

Game three of the four-game set will be played in Anaheim at 7:05 pm Wednesday night and the game should be a dandy as Sonny Gray will go for Oakland while Jared Weaver will go for LA.

Oakland A’s podcast with Charlie O: After Anaheim series next week A’s set for long ten game road trip

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by Charlie O Mallonee

The Oakland A’s are off to an okay start it’s not like the Royals and Tigers 11-3 but you look at the start historically the teams that jump out to the these quick starts aren’t necessarily there at the end of the season and the A’s are off to the kind of start that is alright and where they want to be and be in game competition for their division at the end of the season.

Right now the A’s are 7-7 their in second place their just a half game behind Houston 7-6 that’s right I said Houston whose in first place in the American League West. The impression were getting right now is that the A.L. West is going to be competitive but nobody is going to run away with it. That already seems to be sorting itself out after 13-14 games.

The A’s are off to a pretty good start they split the opening four game series with the Rangers, they lost a series with the Mariners, they came back and won the three game series with the Astros and then they lost the series with the Royals. To start the season and to be there with this long road trip matter of fact their going to go on a long road trip starting May 1st for ten games.

The A’s opened the four game series with the Angels Monday night with a 6-3 win they had some good things there, Sam Fuld had one hit and scored two runs. Stephen Vogt scored a run, you had Billy Butler coming through again who went 2-3, the most important thing in that game last night was the bullpen who came through.

Starter Kendall Graveman didn’t have a great start he went three innings, four hits and three runs, the bullpen had to come on and Dan Otero in relief had four great innings he gave up just one hit and came away with the victory. That was a great situation for the A’s. The A’s offense is off to a great start. What we’ve seen the A’s are either going to score runs or their not going to score runs.

It’s going to be that on off, on off, kind of thing like they won by three on Monday and they trailed much of Tuesday night’s game behind the Angels. It’s going to depend when they ultimately seal their fate, right now as a club their hitting .235 and have scored 22 runs over the last six games. It contrasts that in their first eight games they were hitting .306 with 51 runs.

Charlie O talks A’s baseball each Tuesday night at http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast below

The A’s Win Game One against the Angels

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s stopped in Anaheim to face the Los Angeles Angels Monday night. The A’s beat the Angels 6-3 and are now 7-7 for 2015. This was the seventh game of a ten game road trip and the A’s are 4-3. Kendall Graveman made his third start of the year and it was a tough start for the young righty. Graveman went three-plus innings giving up three runs on seven hits.  Dan Otero was brought in to pitch in the fourth after Graveman allowed the first two hitters to reach. Otero threw four scoreless innings and was credited with the win. Evan Scribner and Tyler Clippard also kept the Angels off the board. The Angels’ starter, Matt Shoemaker also went three-plus innings. Shoemaker allowed seven hits and five runs and took the loss. Shoemaker is 2-1 for the year. The Angels’ season record drops to 5-8.

The A’s took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning. Super Sam Fuld walked to start the inning. Fuld stole second and went to third on a Billy Butler single. Fuld then scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Ike Davis. The lead didn’t last long as the Angels scored twice in their half of the first. Mike Trout and Albert Pujols singled to put men on at first and second. A’s first baseman, Ike Davis, made a sensational play getting the out on Matt Joyce but the runners advanced to second and third and they both scored on a David Freese single. Angels lead 2-1 after one.

The A’s regained the lead in the third. Sam Fuld doubled and Mark Canha reached on an infield singled to put two men on for Stephen Vogt. Vogt hit an off-speed pitch into the right field bleachers to put the A’s up 4-2. It was Vogt’s fourth home run of the year. The Angels cut the lead in half in the bottom of the third. Mike Trout singled and then stole second. Albert Pujols drove him in with a single to make it a 4-3 game. For Pujols, the  run batted in was the 1610th of his career moving the future Hall-of-Famer into 33rd place all-time.

There was no more scoring until the ninth. The A’s picked up insurance run to take a 6-3 lead. Eric Sogard doubled to lead off . Sogard took third on a long fly to right and then scored on a sacrifice fly. Final score 6-3 in favor of Oakland.

Notes- The Oakland bullpen of Otero, Scribner, and Clippard pitched six innings of scoreless ball allowing just one hit. Stephen Vogt has 4 home runs and 12 runs batted in to lead the A’s. LHP Drew Pomeranz will pitch for Oakland.

The A’s and Angels play game 2 of the 4 game series Tuesday evening in Anaheim at 7:05pm

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Battle Royal, A’s and Royals will meet again; A’s in Anaheim for four

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ANAHEIM–After their three game trip in Kansas City which saw benches empty in each of the three games the A’s are hoping to have four nice civilized games in Anaheim in a series that starts Monday night. In a hard slide that started off the series in Kansas City, A’s third baseman Brett Lawrie slide hard enough to injure the Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar that took him out for most of the series.

Lawire is in his first year with the A’s and he wants to prove something to his new teammates in Oakland and Lawrie has always been a hard nosed player. He was that way when he was in Toronto he dove into the seats at third base for foul balls that’s the style of baseball he plays. That slide was not intentional. I want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

However you never slide with your spikes up because you could hurt the second baseman or in this case the shortstop Escobar who was trying to turn the double play and he got hurt pretty bad. That’s why the Royals are taking this like it was done intentionally. I would like to give Lawrie the benefit of the doubt that this was not intentional.

Lawrie was just playing hard and this was baseball it’s what happens. That’s what happens like when Scott Cousins from the Miami Marlins slide into Giants catcher Buster Posey and broke Posey’s leg a few years back. This is what’s going to happen and people say that baseball is not a contact sport. Baloney you play 162 regular season games. These injuries happen and you want to give Lawrie the benefit of the doubt however the Royals didn’t see it that way.

The one thing led to the next, to the next, to the next, and then you have relievers aim at hitters heads it’s very ugly I hope it doesn’t continue. Some people like Royals manager Ned Yost say it was intentional, who knows? Only the players on the field know if it was intentional or not. The media can speculate up in the press box or the broadcast booth.

When this happens to each team you know it’s retaliation when somebody hits a hitter and the pitcher hits the other guy it crates this catch 22 and you go around and you keep hitting guys this is the wrong thing to do. The Royals have a very good bullpen the best in baseball and that’s the reason why they went to the World Series. The Royals will be making a trip to Oakland on June 26th get ready there could be more retaliation by both teams.

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

A’s lose game and series in KC

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Kansas City Star
Kansas City Star

by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Oakland Athletics lost the third and final game of series to the Kansas City Royals 4-2 on Sunday. The A’s also lost the series 2 games to one.

Now on to the real story of the game. Five Kansas City Royals were ejected from the game as the Alcides Escobar – Brett Lawrie feud continued. The problem began on Friday when Lawrie took out Escobar on a play at second base. Escobar missed the Saturday game with an ankle injury. He also was held out of the Sunday game which is causing observers to speculate that his injury is more serious than first believed.

After Lawrie was hit on Saturday night and both benches were cleared, most fans and reporters felt the issue would be laid to rest. They would be wrong.

Royals outfielder Lorenzo Cain was hit by a Scott Kazmir pitch in the bottom of the first inning. It did not appear that Kazmir was trying to hit Cain intentionally.

In the ensuing argument that followed the hit-by-pitch, Royals manager Ned Yost and pitching coach Dave Eiland were ejected from the game. The tension meter went back into the high range following the incident.

In the eighth inning, Royals reliever Kelvin Herrera threw a fastball behind Lawrie’s back in what appeared to be an attempt to hit and possibly injure Lawrie. Herrera was ejected immediately. As he was led from the field, Herrera gestured toward his head indicating that was where he was aiming or would aim the next time.

In the arguments that followed the Herrera ejection, acting manager Don Wakamatsu was sent to the showers by umpire Jim Joyce. Alcides Escobar was ejected from the bench for his loud comments to the umpiring crew.

To his credit, Royals manager Ned Yost complimented the umpires for handling the situation decisively.

The problem is that the situation does not seem to be settled. The fireworks could continue in Oakland in June when the Royals visit the Athletics – especially if Escobar’s injury turns out to be serious.

This where Commissioner Rob Manfred needs to earn his money. Manfred needs to talk with the management of the Athletics and Royals declaring that all hostilities are over and will not be rekindled. Manfred needs to make sure this silliness does not continue.

Oh by the way, there was a baseball game played on Sunday.

Scott Kazmir pitched an outstanding game giving up just two runs on six hits in 7.1-innings of work for Oakland. Kazmir struck out five hitters and walked just one batter. Ironically, the one walked batter came home and scored the tying run of the game in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Eric O’Flaherty came in to relieve Kazmir and he was unable to shutdown the Royals. Kansas City scored two additional runs that led to their 4-2 victory. O’Flaherty was tagged with loss and a blown save.

Ben Zorbrist was the man of the hour for the A’s at the plate. Zorbrist had both of Oakland’s RBI in the game.  He had a two for two day at the plate.

The victory went to Kansas City reliever Wade Davis who pitched a perfect ninth inning.

Royals designated hitter – Kendrys Morales – was the star of the day for Kansas City. He hit a double off the top of the center field wall in the bottom of the eighth inning that cleared the bases scoring two runs.

The A’s will have no time to lick their wounds as they jump back into action versus the Angels in Anaheim on Monday night.

A’s shut out Royals as tensions between the clubs resurface from Friday night

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tensions

By Morris Phillips

With every shutout—and each bench-clearing incident—the 2015 A’s are growing closer and better as a team.

Saturday night in Kansas City was an occasion for both as the A’s shut down the Royals 5-0 during which tensions between the clubs spilled onto the field for the second straight evening.

The A’s scored all five of their runs in the eventful fourth inning and Josh Reddick’s home run with a pair of runners aboard stood as the capper.  Brett Lawrie was the next batter following Reddick, which almost by baseball definition, meant things were just getting started.

Flashback to Lawrie’s aggressive slide into second base on Friday night that took out Royals’ shortstop Alcides Escobar.  Escobar was felled in an awkward manner, injured on the play and carried off by teammates.  The play was complicated by the hit ball’s ricochet off reliever Kelvin Hererra that was then fielded by Mike Moustakas near third making his throw late to Escobar covering second base.

In Lawrie’s defense, he was trying to break up what he feared was a potential double play.  The former Blue Jay said he didn’t see the ball bound off the pitcher, which disrupted the timing of a possible relay throw from Escobar.  Luckily, what looked bad actually wasn’t that bad: according to manager Ned Yost, Escobar suffered a deep bruise and could have played Saturday, but was held out for precautionary reasons.

Escobar and his teammates voiced their displeasure, barking at Lawrie as he headed to the dugout following the play.  Both benches emptied, but no punches were thrown.  Later, Lawrie claimed he texted Escobar with a note of apology, which according to Lawrie, was answered with a dismissive text from Escobar.

Before the game, the Venezuelan shortstop claimed he never heard from Lawrie verbally or via text, basically accusing the A’s infielder of being horribly insensitive.  What may have been bothering Escobar even more was being scratched from Saturday’s lineup.  The slick fielder has missed just 15 of 658 games since being acquired by the Royals from the Brewers following the 2010 season.

Either way, tensions were still high when Lawrie stepped into the batter’s box in the fourth inning.  Reddick—hardly distracted by the occasion of his first home run of the season—posted himself closest to the field on the A’s dugout steps in anticipation of something bad happening.

“We knew it was coming,” Reddick said of the moment.

Royals’ starter Yordano Ventura bounced his first pitch to Lawrie well off the plate.  But his second pitch bore in and glanced the A’s hitter on the arm and home plate umpire Jim Joyce signaled for Ventura’s ejection immediately.

The bench-clearing posturing that followed didn’t amount to much.  Lawrie diffused things most effectively by quietly heading to first base.  Ike Davis got to bark, showing his loyalty to his new Oakland teammates, and Billy Butler got to show how much he cares for his new and old teammates by being the chief peacemaker.  “Country Breakfast,” a commanding presence, posted himself between both groups and single-handedly kept things calm.

The A’s stopped a brief, two-game slide with the shutout win, and evened their season record at 6-6.  The win gave the A’s first place in the AL West to themselves for the evening as each of the other four division teams are currently under .500.

Oakland starter Jesse Hahn picked up his first win as an Athletic despite departing early with a blister on his pitching hand.  Hahn allowed just three hits and was helped by inducing a pair of double-play ground balls.

Former starter Jesse Chavez was even more impressive in relief.  He pitched the final 3 2/3 innings, scattering four hits while striking out six.

Five of the A’s six wins have come via shutout, and the sixth saw starter Scott Kazmir allow just one run on Monday in Houston, an 8-1 victory.  That kind of dominance qualifies the new-look A’s as a bonafide juggernaut, that is if you simply discount their more narrow losses.

Even at .500, the A’s are an early season surprise, having scored 65 runs in 12 games, the major league’s second best run total, trailing only the wall-bashing Boston Red Sox.

Kazmir takes the ball in Sunday’s rubber match in Kansas City with lefty Danny Duffy getting the start for the Royals.

Oakland Falls To Kansas City 6-4 In Rematch of 2014 AL Wild Card Game

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Oakland Athletics' Ike Davis hits a sacrifice bunt for an RBI during the second inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Friday, April 17, 2015, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
Oakland Athletics’ Ike Davis hits a sacrifice bunt for an RBI during the second inning of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals, Friday, April 17, 2015, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

By Kahlil Najar

Kansas City – In what is turning out to be a legitimate rivalry the Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics 6-4 in Oakland’s first return to KC since the heart breaking loss in last years AL Wild Card game. Sonny Gray escaped a loss however he gave up a career high 11 hits to the Royals and gave up four runs.

Dan Otero suffered his first loss of the year as he gave up two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Royals their eighth win of the year. Royals rookie Paulo Orlando hit his fourth triple of the year in the bottom of the inning that secured the victory for Kansas City.

“I missed my spot by probably 18 inches trying to come hard in,” Otero said. “Just came back over, outside corner.”\

Tempers started to flare in the top of the seventh inning when on a routine ground ball to third, Brett Lawrie slid into second to try and break up a double play but ended up sliding into Royal’s second baseman Alcides Escobar and injuring his left knee. Both benches cleared but after a few minutes order was restored and Escobar was helped off the field with a mild sprain of his left knee.

“No one’s trying to hurt anybody,” Lawrie said. “In the sixth or seventh inning, in a tight ballgame, no one’s trying to hurt anybody there. It wasn’t like I overextended myself to go get him. He was right on top of the bag. That’s just baseball,” said Lawrie on his slide.

Stephen Vogt had him a nice night as he went 3 for 4 with a pair of home runs and two RBI. This was Vogt’s first ever two home run game. Ike Davis also hit a home run in the top of the fourth for his first career home run as an Athletic. Billy Butler, in his return to his former club grabbed a hit and extended his hitting streak to 11 games.

The Royals will send Yordano Ventura to the mound tomorrow against Jesse Hahn who is making his third career start for the A’s. Game time 4:10 PT.

 

Oakland A’s podcast & commentary with Jerry Feitelberg: Escobar and Lawrie collide benches empty in Royals 6-4 win

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s remember it well last September needing to beat the Kansas City Royals in just one game to advance in the playoffs but the Royals who had such a strong 2014 season shutdown Oakland in the one and done match and the A’s had all winter to ponder their one game loss. Fast forward to Friday night’s 6-4 loss to the Royals it felt all too familiar.

The game included a bench clearing incident when the A’s base runner Brett Lawrie barreled into the Royals shortstop Acides Escobar at second. Escobar took exception to the way Lawrie came into him to break up a double play and the Royals bench emptied and soon the A’s bench emptied. Escobar was angry because the slide injured his knee and Escobar will be out for the rest of this three game series.

Royals manager Ned Yost felt that the slide was not intentional and that Lawrie’s slide was not trying to hurt Escobar. Escobar thinks differently but none the less Escobar will not be back against the A’s for this series, “I’m trying to break up a double play there. It’s a tie game no one is trying to hurt anyone there. That’s just trying to play the game hard” said Lawrie.

The Royals improved their record to 8-2 and rebounded after dropping two straight to the Minnesota Twins prior to this series. The A’s Billy Butler faced his old teammates and Butler is becoming a true hitter in the DH role. He’s hitting .349 although he went 1-4 at the plate on Friday night.

Butler has an 11 game hitting streak and he’s in his first year with the club, the Royals who are now some six games over .500 are doing it not only without Butler but without their former ace pitcher James Shields who went to the Padres in the off season. The other loss in the off season was Nori Akoi who went to San Francisco and ironically the Giants who beat the Royals in the World Series lost their eighth straight game on Friday night 9-0 with Akoi in left for the Giants.

The Royals have replaced Akoi with Alex Rios who ironically is on the 15 day DL, Rios was hit with a pitch and is suffering with a broken hand and could return this week depending on tests. The Royals in the off season signed Edinson Volquez to replace Shields in the off season. Kendrys Morales was signed by the Royals in the off season and is their top designated hitter.

Jerry Feitelberg does A’s commentary weekly and Kahlil Najar is doing the A’s game recap every Friday on http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to Jerry’s podcast below

Preview of The A’s vs Kansas City Royals Weekend Series

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s return to Kansas City to face the Royals for the first time since the single-game playoff game last September 30th. If you recall, the A’s blew a four-run lead behind A’s ace, Jon Lester. The game was tied at 7 after nine innings of regulation. They played twelve innings to determine who would move on to play the Los Angeles Angels in the AL Division series. The A’s scored a run in the top of the twelfth to put them up 8-7. The Royals, who were in the playoffs for the first time since 1985, did what they had to do to win. Royals first baseman, Eric Hosmer, tripled with one out. Christian Colon hit a 45 foot chopper to third base driving in Hosmer with the tying run. With Colon at second, Salvador Perez hit a line shot just past Josh Donaldson to win the game for the Royals. The A’s went home  trying to figure out what went wrong and regroup while the Royals beat the Angels and Orioles to advance to the World Series and they played the Giants tough  before losing the series in seven games.

The A’s general manager, Billy Beane, thought he had put the pieces together to get the A’s to the World Series, but that didn’t happen. The A’s had the best record in baseball for the first four months of the 2014 season, but they had the worst record in all of baseball the last two months. The barely made the playoffs and suffered an early exit. The A’s reshaped their roster over the winter while the Royals did not many too many changes. They lost their designated hitter, Billy Butler, to the A’s. Nori Aoki signed with the Giants as a free agent and “Big game” James Shields, also a free agent signed with San Diego.

The Royals made three acquisitions  They picked up Kendry Morales, who was with Seattle last year, as their DH. Morales was a free agent in 2014 and did not sign a contract until 2 or 3 months after the season started and he had a bad year, Not this year.  They also signed Edison Volquez to replace James Shields.

In the nine games, the Royals played, Morales is hitting .351. They also signed Alex Rios to play right field. Rios was doing well but he was hit by a pitch that broke his left hand and he will be out for 3 to 6 weeks. The Royals are hot. They started out winning the first seven games they played. Their first loss came Wednesday night in Minnesota and the Twins beat them again on Thursday. The Royals are now 7-2 for 2015.

The Royals have strong starting pitching. Their five-man rotation is led by Edinson Volquez, Jeremy Guthrie, Yordano Ventura, Danny Duffy and Jason Vargas. Their bullpen was fantastic last year. Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland were lights out in the 7th, 8th, and 9th innings last year and have been excellent again this year.  The Royals have a veteran infield made up of Hosmer, Omar Infante, Alcides Escobar and Mike Moustakas. Manning the outfield are Lorenzo Cain, hitting a mere .429, moved to right field after the Rios injury and  Jarrod Dyson took over in  center and Alex Gordon remains in left. Gordon and Infante are hitting below the Mendoza line, but it’s early in the season. Catching is done by the very reliable Salvador Perez.

The A’s record so far is 5-5. They have won four games by shouting out  the opposition and have had four blowout wins. In three of the losses, the A’s scored just one run. The other two losses were in extra innings to the Seattle Mariners. The A’s, when they are hitting are formidable. Super Sam Fuld, filling-in for Coco Crisp, is hitting .361 with four doubles and three triple. Billy Butler has hit safely in all ten games. Ben Zobrist, acquired from Tampa Bay, is playing second base and left field. He hitting .286. Mark Canha, a Rule 5 draftee, can play first base and left field and is hitting .324 with 7 ribbies. Shortstop Marcus Semien is hitting .289 with 8 runs batted in. Ike Davis at first has a .333 batting average and third baseman Brett Lawrie is hitting .256. Catcher Stephen Vogt is at .300 and he is backed up by Josh Phegley. Josh Reddick is back in right field after starting the season on the DL and Craig Gentry and Cody Ross are backup outfielders.

It should be a terrific series starting Friday in KC. The pitching matchups will be the following: Sonny Gray going against Jeremy Guthrie on Friday, Jesse Hahn squares off against Yordano Ventura on Saturday and Scott Kazmir will face Danny Duffy on Sunday.

San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s podcast with Michael Duca; San Jose will strike out with Supreme Court; Giants drought continues

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by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–The City of San Jose’s bid for the Oakland A’s to move the team to the South Bay is very unlikely as San Jose is asking for a hearing from the U.S. Supreme Court to remove baseball’s long time exemption status so that would clear the way for the A’s to move to San Jose. San Jose is a very lovely place and it’s very diverse but I would bet you that a cricket team would draw better than a baseball team there would.

In Oakland you have a mayor there Mayor Libby Schaff whose business oriented you have a city that is in the process of becoming the Brooklyn of the west coast. There is a lot of gentrification, lot of positive energy with young people coming in. There is more of a sense that it could happen and a sense that things could be done. Oakland doesn’t have the austerity of a former Mayor Jerry Brown.

You don’t have the lunacy of the former mayor you don’t have the complete lack of interest of the mayor who proceeded Brown offer anything that involved sports whatsoever. The thing that is most likely to happen is the A’s and the city of Oakland recognize that there is not much sense in having a 20,000 seat arena to attract the occasional rock show, rap show, and the circus. Circus fans can come back now that they don’t have elephants anymore.

SF Giants update: It’s got to be ironic for Giants leftfielder Nori Akoi when he runs out to leftfield he has to stand near the three championship flags out there including the one that was taken away from him in Kansas City last year. It’s got to be as almost as interesting as the Yankees and Cardinals who met in the 1964 World Series and they swapped managers when it was over.

They didn’t really trade managers but when their contracts were up they went to work for the opposing clubs. It’s got to be a little strange for Akoi to look at the standings the Royals have yet to lose, they won 32 of their last 35 games or some ridiculous thing like that. The Royals are playing as well as the Giants are not yet the Giants do have 154 games left before it’s all settled.

The Giants are are pleased to have Akoi in left he’s proven to be a bigger offensive contributor than they are expecting and he’s a better defender based on what they were expecting. The Royals substituted for Akoi early in last season’s World Series but he proved to do well and the Giants are very happy to have him on the club this season.

Michael Duca does A’s and Giants commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com catch Miguel’s podcast below