Category: Oakland Athletics

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ANAHEIM–The magic number is down to four for the Los Angeles Angels to win the American League West as they are running away with it with a huge lead over the Oakland A’s and their first division title since 2009. The Angels who won ten in a row and lost on Sunday but they handled the Houston Astros this season and you can’t win everyday it’s 162 games.

The Halos have been terrific and since this franchise started in 1961 and in 2002 was the last time the Angels won ten games in a row. 2002 was an interesting fact because the Angels won the A.L.Championship and went onto play the San Francisco Giants and defeated them in the 2002 World Series in seven games.

There’s a lot of optimism in Anaheim although the Angels are sputtering they have three guys who are winning now and the Angels can hit and the Angels have a terrific team. They have guys on the club who are hitting .280 or .300. Mike Trout is going to be the MVP of the A.L.that’s sure as anything that I know.

This week the Angels should clinch it and they don’t want to have to clinch it in Oakland and it could the worse thing for the A’s having it done at the Coliseum in their home park. The Angels head to Oakland next week Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The A’s are still fighting to stay in the wild card and the Angels will host the Mariners with hopes to clinch the west this week.

There is a very good chance by the time the Angels arrive in Oakland next Monday they would have already won the Western Division. The A’s who ran into a tough slide in the last month but won two straight over the Mariners Saturday and Sunday and rested on Monday and get set to open three games with the Rangers have a good chance at winning the wild card.

The A’s are ten games out and their not going to catch the Angels, on Sunday the A’s won for the first time back to back since August 22 and the A’s lead the wild card by three games and a game and half over the Kansas City Royals. The A’s are holding a two and half game lead over Seattle.

Now here’s the thing on Tuesday the A’s open a homestand of nine games here are the names of the teams that they should beat, the Rangers who have the worst record in baseball this year they come to Oakland for three games starting Tuesday, than they play the Philadelphia Phillies for three games starting Friday night who are completely out of it and are eliminated. The A’s then host the Angels for three starting Monday and then go to Texas starting Thursday the 25th. This is important because these games could go right down to the last game of the year for Oakland.

Amaury Pi Gozalez is the television Spanish voice for Los Angeles Angels baseball and does News and Commentary for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Oakland A’s knew they needed to win the series in Seattle in order to keep the number one Wild Card position and to keep the surging Seattle Mariners at bay. On Sunday, the A’s four pitchers combined for a shutout and the Oakland batters used well time hits to defeat the Mariners 4-0 to take the series two games to one.

John Lester took the mound for the Athletics and had to work very hard during his six innings of pitching. Lester allowed only four hits, but he also allowed four walks while striking out seven Mariner hitters. Lester had to deal with base runners in every inning but the sixth inning. He also had to throw 110 pitches (63 strikes) in those six innings of work. Lester was awarded the win and his record improves to 15-10.

The A’s got on the board early as Sam Fuld took a Chris Young fastball over the right field fence in the first inning. The A’s would not score again until seventh inning of the game. Young pitched 6.0 innings giving up two runs (both earned) on four hits but two of those four hits were home runs. With the loss, Young’s record fell to 12-8 on the season.

The A’s protected a one run lead through six innings. Then in the top of the seventh, Brandon Moss led the inning off with his 24th home run of the season. It was Moss’ first home run in 39 games. If Moss’ bat can come alive, it will be a major boon for the Athletics down the stretch.

Oakland added two insurance runs in the top of the eighth inning. Coco Crisp led off the inning with a hit to left field that he turned into a double with his speed. Sam Fuld  then hit a pitch to the opposite field (left) that brought Crisp home to score. Fuld moved up to second on the casual response by the left fielder Corey Hart. Josh Donaldson was safe at first on an error committed by Robinson Cano. Adam Dunn then slapped a single into left field that allowed Fuld to score giving the A’s a 4-0 lead.

The A’s pitching and defense kept the Mariners off-balance during the entire game. Seattle went 0-13 with runners in scoring position and left 11 runners on base. A number of Mariners will have a sleepless night thinking about what could have been with one or two well-timed hits.

Dan Otero entered the game for Oakland in the seventh inning. He gave up two hits but managed to get out of a bases loaded situation to keep the Mariners scoreless.

Luke Gregerson worked the eighth inning giving up one hit while striking out three batters. Sean Doolittle pitched the ninth inning in a non-save situation in order to get some live game work in after his recent return from the Disabled List.

The A’s are now 1.5 games in front of the second place Wild Card team the Kansas City Royals. The Mariners are now one game behind Kansas City in the Wild Card standings.

The Athletics will have their final day off of the regular season on Monday before beginning a three game series with the Texas Rangers in Oakland on Tuesday.

By Morris Phillips

The A’s needed to have their best one-game effort of the season on Saturday in Seattle. But with King Felix throwing unhittable pitches for most of his seven innings, the A’s had to settle for an anxious, but ultimately successful, couple of innings instead.

Despite all the negativity surrounding the club in this trying stretch, the A’s made it work, pulling out a win they had to have, 3-2 in 10 innings at Safeco Field.

The winning run said it all about what it takes to prevail when a team has dropped 14 of 19 and seemingly can’t summon any offense: the A’s pushed across the game-winner by waiting out combustible reliever Fernando Rodney, who walked four batters in the decisive 10^th inning, including Jed Lowrie with two outs and the bases loaded.

Coco Crisp trotted home with the winning run on Lowrie’s free pass. Luke Gregerson shook off his recent struggles to pitch a perfect ninth inning to pick up the win. And severely-missed closer Sean Doolittle came on to pick the save in the 10^th, pitching for the first time since August 23 after a stint on the disabled list.

“I haven’t had an adrenaline rush like that in a really long time,” Donaldson said. “Such an emotional game.”

With the win, the A’s maintained the top spot in what figures to be a tense, three-pronged fight for the American League’s two wild cards. Oakland is currently a half-game ahead of the Royals, which would make them the home team in the one-game playoff. The Mariners are a full game behind Kansas City and after the improbable loss Saturday, needing to regroup quickly with Jon Lester on the mound for the A’s on Sunday.

“It was a tough loss for us. We need that one. Real tough, that’s all I can say,” Felix Hernandez said, after striking out eight in seven innings of work, but getting stuck with a no-decision.

Hernandez couldn’t have given the Mariners a more intimidating presence on the mound with his arsenal of bending, unhittable pitches and his excellent track record against the A’s. King Felix has registered 19 of his 124 career wins against Oakland, and was 4-0 this season against the A’s coming into Saturday’s game. But the A’s didn’t back down, getting seven hits off the Seattle ace including a solo shot from Josh Donaldson that tied the game at 1 in the sixth inning.

But when the A’s forged a 2-1 lead in the seventh, Robinson Cano responded for the Mariners with a majestic solo shot off Sonny Gray that tied the game at two.

Gray was fantastic as well, pitching eight innings, allowing two runs to give the A’s a fighting chance.

“For me, the only pitch he maybe takes back is the changeup to Cano,” manager Bob Melvin said admirably of his young starter. “Other than that, boy, he really went through a lineup. And you’re dealing with Felix on top of it.”

The A’s step right back into the cauldron on Sunday afternoon in the rubber game of the series. Lester will take the ball for the A’s with 6’10” Chris Young pitching for Seattle.

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ANAHEIM–The Los Angeles Angels have the best record in baseball today with 89-55, a season-high 34 games over .500. During the first half of the season, they were the only team to average more than five runs per game. At the start of the second half they hit a wall, but are back today with a six-game winning streak, and won 12 out of the last 14 games.

The Angels are tied with the World Series champion 2002 team for their best record in club history through 144 games. The last 31 days they have gained 12 games in the standings in the American League West. On August 9, the Angels were four games behind the Oakland Athletics, today (a month and one day later) they are in first place by eight games, with a magic number of 11.

The team opens their last home stand of the regular season this Friday September 12th. Ten games in ten consecutive days, three against Houston, four against Seattle and three against Texas.
Any combination of Angels wins and Athletics loses that totals 11 will give the Halos their first Western Division title since 2009.

During the current hot streak they have done it without their clean up hitter Josh Hamilton, out with a stiff right shoulder. Mike Sciosia, the longest tenure manager in baseball, on his 15th season with the Angels “They keep grinding it,” manager Mike Scioscia said. “It’s good to see these guys come alive. It’s taken a lot of pressure off our bullpen.”

Angels bullpen was their biggest weakness during the first half of the season, but General Manager Jerry Dipoto made some very good deals, bringing Jason Grilli from Pittsburgh and most important, acquiring closer Houston Street from the Padres, then other relievers like Joe Smith, Kevin Jepsen and Cody Rasmus has made their bullpen very effecitve.

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

By Matthew Harrington

The ninth inning woes continue for the Oakland Athletics, losers of 9 of their last 11, after an A’s blown save turned into an extra-innings walk-off homer against the Chicago White Sox Monday night. Tyler Flowers hit a pair of home runs, the game-tying and game-winning blasts, to hand the Pale Hose a victory at U.S. Cellular Field.

Jesse Chavez surrendered the game-ender, a home run with the bases empty in the 12^th inning, to send the free-falling A’s (80-63)to their second consecutive loss against a team out of contention after leading the first eight innings. Eric O’Flaherty had blown his first save of the season as interim closer, with Flowers again victimizing the A’s with a solo poke earlier in the ninth.

Chicago (64-79) scored two runs, one earned, off A’s starter Sonny Gray in the first inning, but a two-run homer from Josh Reddick and solo blast by Jed Lowrie put Oakland ahead 3-1 in the fifth inning. Third basemen Conor Gillaspie knotted the game up at three-all after his 13^th long ball of the season in the sixth inning. Sam Fuld plated pinch-runner Billy Burns on a bunt single with one out in the eighth to give the A’s a one-run lead into the late innings.

O’Flaherty, who was unavailable to pitch in a save situation in Sunday’s 4-3 blown-lead loss to the Astros, struck out former Athletic farmhand Michael Taylor to open the ninth. Sean Doolittle’s substitute then coaxed a Dayan Viciedo ground out to put Oakland within one out of the win. Flowers instead reversed a 2-1 O’Flaherty delivery, depositing a line drive into the left field bleachers to stick the A’s with their second blown save in as many days.

A’s sinkerballer Dan Otero didn’t allow a hit in his two innings of relief, working around a walk with a double play to face the minimum six hitters. He was lifted in favor of Jesse Chavez for the 12^th. Chavez (8-8, 3.40 ERA) got Viciedo on strikes before serving up Flowers’ 14^th homer of the season on a fly ball to left center.

Oakland starter Sonny Gray was forced to depart after seven innings without a decision despite scattering four hits to go with four punch-outs. He matched Chicago’s Hector Noesi, who also allowed a scant four hits over his 6 1/3 outing while striking out four Athletics. Javy Guerra (2-3, 2.61) picked up the win after pitching back-to-back scoreless frames in the 11^th and 12^th innings.

The A’s call upon Jon Lester to play stopper Tuesday night in a battle of southpaws on the South Side. Oakland’s trade deadline acquisition will face John Danks in tomorrow evenings match-up. Oakland is currently 1 ½ games at the time of publishing ahead of Seattle and Detroit, the two teams fighting for the second Wild Card spot, with just over 20 games left to play.

Notes: A’s Manager Bob Melvin believes closer Sean Doolittle could be back as earlier as the end of the week after going on the disabled list with a strained right intercostal …Catcher John Jaso, out with a concussion, may also return later this week depending on his results after meeting with a specialist…The 2015 Major League Baseball schedule was released by the Commissioner’s office early in the afternoon Monday. Oakland opens the season April 6^th at O.Co Coliseum against the Texas Rangers. In a scheduling quirk, the A’s last roadtrip of the season will be the second half of the home-and-home Bay Bridge Series against the San Francisco Giants. Some other highlights include home-and-home sets with National League West opponents Los Angeles and San Diego, as well as a trip to Arizona. Oakland will welcome the Rockies to complete interleague play. The big names of the American League will visit Alameda County in May, with the Yankees, Red Sox and Tigers all coming to town in the second month of the season.

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–Rafael (Felo) Ramírez, was born in Bayamo, Cuba on June 22, 1923. I recently spoke with “Felo” (as we the Spanish speaking broadcasters affectionately call him) during the Marlins visit to Angels Stadium in Anaheim at the end of August. Felo is 91 years old, travels on the team charter, and still is the Spanish play by play voice for all Miami Marlins games of the National League.

I had the privilege of working with Felo during the National League Championship Series in 1998, between the Padres and the Braves, for the old (LBC) Latino Broadcasting Company for the hundreds of stations in the United States and Latin America. Since then LBC was acquired by ESPN Deportes. Felo told me in Anaheim he feels fine, and still loves to come to the ballpark.

We shared a pregame meal at Angel Stadium and we spoke, and the memories were incredible. For me (also Cuban-born) he feels like familia to me.

I remember prior to the first broadcast I did with Felo during that 1998 National League Championship Series before the first game at Atlanta, I asked him if it was correct for me to say over the air, that I used to listen to him in Cuba, when I was 9 years old during the old Cuban Professional Winter League. He said “desde luego que si” – of course you can. And I did, and it was a real treat for me to work with Felo, my mentor. Next year, 1999, I also worked together with Jaime Jarrin of the Los Angeles Dodgers Spanish radio network, another (Hall of Famer) during the Mets-Braves National League Championship Series.

I couldn’t ask for more during those two postseasons. Rafael (Felo) Ramírez (Cuba) Miami Marlins and Jaime Jarrí (Ecuador) Los Angeles Dodgers are the only two living Spanish play by play announcers to have won the Ford C.Frick Broadcasters Award of the Hall of Fame. The other one was Buck Canel, (deceased) who won it in 1985 and was the Spanish play by play announcer for the New York Yankees and the New York Mets.

Felo has been the only Spanish Voice for all Marlins games, since they began play as the Florida Marlins in 1993. He also called the two World Series titles for the Miami club in 1997 and 2003. Rafael (Felo) Ramírez is the undisputed senior announcer in Major League Baseball. Milo Hamilton is currently the play by play announcer for the Houston Astros, born in 1927, Milo is 87 years of age and has worked as play by play announcer for seven (7) different Major League teams.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig named Los Angeles Dodgers Hall of Fame broadcaster Vin Scully a recipient of the Commissioner’s Historic Achievement Award on Friday during Selig’s farewell tour stop at Dodger Stadium. Scully and Jackie Robinson’s wife, Rachel, are the only non-players to be recognized with the award. Scully was emotional.

“Wow, I’m deeply touched,” he said quietly. The great Vin Scully was born in 1927; he is 87 years of age and last month announced he will be back for an incredible 66th season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Vin, Felo, Milo and Jaime all are recipients of the Ford C. Frick Broadcasters Award.

Prior to the last game of the Angels vs Marlins series in Anaheim, to be exact, on Wednesday August 27, and prior to that game, I gave Felo a hug and told him “nos vemos pronto” with his inimitable wit he responded slowly and looking at me: “si no nos vemos, no es por mi culpa” trans: “If we don’t see each other again, it would not be my fault” Enough said.

Amaury Pi-González is the Spanish play by play announcer on the radio for the Oakland Athletics, and on Fox Spanish television in Los Angeles with the LA Angels and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com