Category: Oakland Athletics

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

OAKLAND–A’s pitcher Bartolo Colon is the big difference he got 18 wins in the regular season and he’s been named to open game one on Friday night at 6:30PM at the Oakland Coliseum against the Detroit Tigers who are sending to the mound their number one ace Matt Scherzer. This is a battle for the Cy Young Award both are candidates but Scherzer probably has the better numbers. He won 20 games and you got an 18 game winner versus a 20 game winner and this should be a terrific series.

The big difference is Colon is having a tremendous season, the A’s Josh Donaldson he’s the most underrated player in baseball whose having a terrific season at third base and having close to 100 RBIs. Then the A’s Brandon Moss get ahold of this doesn’t play everyday, so your talking about a team that has improved, this is a better team this year for the A’s. The first game is crucial, this is a very short five game series if you lose at home your first game your already against the wall.

This is a very first game this game onFriday 6:38 PM and Saturday they play again at 6:08 PM these are crazy starting times to accommodate television for the east coast. Verlander is going in the second game for the Tigers and the first game your going to have Colon for Oakland against Scherzer. The A’s Sonny Gray will be a probable for game two on Saturday night a rookie 23 year old who’ll face Verlander.

It’s going to be extremely interesting the A’s are throwing their all time veteran 40 year Colon in game one and a real rookie in Gray a 23 year old going in game two. This will be a terrific series, the team who makes the least mistakes that team will win this thing. The Tigers are healthier and the Bengals Miguel Cabrera says he’s ready, this is going to be extremely, extremely tough and it’s going to go five games.

Scherzer during the season became the number one pitcher and Verlander was number two and you got Doug Fister at number three and you got a very good pitching going for Detroit. The Tigers bullpen is a little suspect, the A’s bullpen is a better bullpen and as a line up you have to go with the Tigers when you have guys like Tori Hunter, Prince Fielder, Cabrera, and your talking about mega stars here.

The A’s have a good team, the A’s don’t depend on one player, everybody does the job, they can hit and they can run. Coco Crisp has had a tremendous September. The A’s Yoenis Cespedes hit over .200 in September so the advantage as far as power is concerned goes to the Tigers and pitching is pretty close. The experience is with the Tigers except in the first game. Colon who already won one Cy Young is going for his second Cy Young and the pitching is very close in this one.

The bullpen goes to the A’s and the Tigers bullpen with Joaquin Benoit he’s a big guy but the Tigers bullpen is suspect and both teams play good defense this should be a five game series at least with game five finishing out the series in Oakland. The schedule Game one in Oakland Fri Oct 4, Game two in Oakland Sat Oct 5, Game three in Detroit Mon Oct 7, Game four in Detroit Tue Oct 8, and Game five Thu Oct 10th at Oakland.

These teams are very even for this year’s division series.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland Athletics baseball and does News and Commentary each week on Sportstalk radio

by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–While it’s odd that that the Giants and only the A’s are in the post season and my wife works for the Giants and they have a post season breakfast where the front office comes and speaks which includes Giants manager Bruce Bochy, Giants General Manager Brian Sabean, but Sabean won’t be there because he’s in the Dominican Republic with Giants vice president of operatons Bobby Evans. Bochy said the guys were tired when they showed up in February and their still tired.

I don’t think people understand how much winning a championship takes out of a team because basically what it does it just backtracks your body clock to adjusting to a normal baseball schedule to recuperate and that’s not just a physical thing that’s also a mental thing and an emotional thing. The Giants have decided to adapt the old former Royals pitcher Brett Saberhagen’s method of being outstanding every other year.

How Tigers and A’s series shapes up: This is going to be a very interesting series both offenses decided to get a jump on the government shutdown and close themselves in the last week or so. Each team is not scoring very much, the last time the A’s went into Detroit they manhandled the Tigers pretty well and then you have the weight of history on the other side the Tigers have knocked the A’s out of the playoffs three times in row.

It will be very interesting to see how this plays out, having the home field advantage may help the A’s get a little bit of an edge and Tigers pitcher Matt Scherzer had one of his worst outings all year this year. Tiger pitcher Justin Verlander hasn’t been the pitcher that he was and what you’ll find out is that most of the guys who pitched to any extent in the month of March there just weren’t very good pitchers in Major League Baseball this year.

Verlander, the Giants Ryan Vogelsong, and a few other that I haven’t mention, it’s going to be difficult for Tigers manager Jimmy Leyland he’s gong to have to manage his team a little bit more like a National League team they’re going to have to play station to station baseball. The Tigers are going to have to scrap for runs and runs are going to have to come at a premium in this post season series. Despite how scary that Detroit offense is on paper they saw good pitching shut them down in late October last year and it certainly could happen to them.

The Tigers will have to see the A’s pitcher Jarrod Parker who won 17 straight starts without a loss he kind of got lost in the winter in September and he best find himself real quickly the A’s are relying on 40 plus year old Bartolo Colon to get them out to a good start and the A’s are in need to win game one at home and it must give the A’s some advantage. The A’s really need to thrust hard to get the first two games so that at worst they have the opportunity to come back to Oakland in a tie.

Bob Melvin the A’s manager’s chances of being manager of the year are between slim and none just because he’s Bob Melvin and it’s Oakland whether or not that he deserved it is a whole different question. He absolutely needs to be in the discussion and he probably deserves to finish in top two at the worst but I question that he’ll make it, but I expect that Terry Francona will get manager of the year for piloting Cleveland not just out of the wilderness but to have a ten game winning streak to close out the season.

Michael Duca is covering the 2013 Oakland post season playoffs for Sportstalk radio

By Charlie O. Mallonee

Game 162 can be a throw-away game for a Major League team. If you are in the playoffs, then take it easy and look forward to the post-season. If you are just playing out the season, put as many of your Triple-A players as you can in the game and let the vets think about going fishing.

On Sunday, the A’s showed up to play hard and get ready for the Tigers in the ALDS. Oakland demolished the hapless Mariners 9-0 to close out the 2013 regular season. The intense play and stunning result shows that Athletics have their heads in the right place to enter the first round of the American League Playoffs.

A’s rookie pitcher Sonny Gray took the hill for the A’s on Sunday. Gray worked 5.0 innings giving up no runs on just three hits. He struck out eight Mariners and walked only three Seattle hitters. It was a great tune up for Gray as he prepares for his opportunity work in the post-season.

Oakland posted two four-run innings in the game. The A’s scored four-runs in the top of the second inning and repeated the feat in the top of the fifth inning. Oakland added one-run in the ninth to top off their 96^th win of 2013.

The one surprising fact was the A’s did not use the long ball in the lopsided victory. To win 9-0 and not have a home run is almost unheard of in the MLB. Oakland used well timed singles and doubles to pick apart the M’s.

Seth Smith led the way for the A’s on Sunday. He went 3-for-5 in the game including two doubles, scored two- runs and had one RBI. Smith had the only multi-hit game for Oakland.

The A’s used 13 position players and six pitchers in the game. Closer Grant Balfour even threw an inning in a non-save situation just to have a game level pitching opportunity before the playoffs begin next Friday in Oakland.

As for Seattle highlights, there were none. The Mariners finished the season 71-91 and missed the playoffs for the 12^th consecutive year.

It was the final game for Eric Wedge as manager of the Mariners. Wedge announced on Friday that he would not return to manage the Seattle club in 2014. Wedge cited philosophical differences between himself and the Seattle front office as the reason for his departure.

Yoenis Cespedes did not play for the A’s on Sunday due to his sore shoulder. Expect to see Cespedes in the line-up next Friday versus the Tigers.

By George Devine, Sr.

The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim beat the A’s, 3-1, in the rubber game of a three-game visit from the Oaks, winning the series and having a negative impact on the Athletics’ chances for home field advantage in the ALDS.

The scoring didn’t begin until the home fourth, as starters Dan Straily and Jered Weaver had battled each other mightily. But Weaver’s dominance over the A’s repeated itself and the road team’s offense remained flat, as it has been during this series. Erick Aybar singled to left, stole second and reached third on Cole Calhoun’s 4-3 groundout, scoring as Josh Hamilton reached on a fielder’s choice. In the next inning Chris Ianetta walked, and took second as first baseman Daric Barton missed Andrew Romine’s sacrifice bunt. J.B. Shuck reached on a fielder’s choice and Ianetta went for the plate but was out. Romine advanced to third and scored when Aybar singled to cener. Shuck then went to third and scored when Josh Hamilton singled to short.

In the sixth, the A’s got on the board when Coco Crisp singled to right, as did Eric Sogard. Crisp came home on Jed Lowrie’s sacrifice fly to left.

Weaver is the winner (11-8; 7 ip, 5 h, 1 er, 1 w, 2 k) and Straily the loser (10-8; 6.2 ip, 7 h, 3 r, 1 er, 1 w, 2 k). Ernesto Frieri picked up his 37th save.

The Athletics now travel to Seattle where they face the Mariners at 7:05 p.m. PDT on Friday, September 27. Starting pitchers are Bartolo Colon (17-6) and Felix Hernandez (12-9).

Oakland Athletics single game tickets for potential American League Championship Series home games at O.co Coliseum will go on sale Friday, Sept. 27 beginning at 10 a.m., it was announced today.
Fans are strongly encouraged to purchase tickets online at www.oaklandathletics.com/postseason. Tickets can also be purchased over the phone by calling 877-493-BALL (2255) and at the O.co Coliseum Box Office.
The A’s will use dynamic pricing on all ALCS games to accurately set and adjust ticket prices in real-time. Tickets purchased for any unplayed games are refundable.
Fans can lock in ticket prices and guarantee tickets to the ALCS and World Series by placing a deposit on a 2014 ticket plan. For more information or to place a deposit, please call 510-638-GoA’s (4627) or visit www.oaklandathletics.com/deposit.
The A’s, who clinched the American League West title on Sunday for the second consecutive season, will be making the 17thpostseason appearance in Oakland history and 25th in Athletics history. Only the Yankees (51), Dodgers (27) and Cardinals (26 including this year) have made more postseason appearances. Since 1968, the A’s have won 16 AL West Division championships (1971-75; 1981; 1988-90; 1992; 2000; 2002-03, 2006, 2012-13) and four World Series titles (1972-74, 1989). Only the Yankees (18) and Braves (17 including this year) have won more division championships during that span, and only the Yankees have more world championships (7).

by Jerry Feitelberg

A’s lose an opportunity to tie Boston

The Los Angeles Angels’ Jason Vargas shut down the powerful offense of the Oakland Athletics Tuesday night by beating the A’s 3-0. Vargas pitched a complete game allowing just four hits, all singles. Vargas’ record improved to 9-7 for the season. The loss went to A.J.Griffin. Griffin went five innings giving up three runs and five hits. Griffin struck out seven an walked one. Griffin’s record drops to 14-10. The A’s missed a golden opportunity to tie the Boston Red Sox for the best record in the American League. The Red Sox lost to the Colorado Rockies Tuesday night by a score of 8-3 and the A’s knew the Sox had lost but just couldn’t manage to do anything against Vargas. It was a classic case of good pitching shutting down good hitting and Vargas won the battle for the Angels.

The game summary follows below.

The Angels took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning when Howie Kendrick hit a solo home run

off Griffin. Griffin has thrown 36 gopher balls this season and he leads the American League in that department.

The Angels scored two more runs in the bottom of the third. With one out, Tommy Field and J.B.Schuck singled. Griffin walked Mike Trout to load the bases. Josh Hamilton followed with a single

to give the Angels a 3-0 lead.

That was all the Angels would need to win the game. Final score 3-0 in favor of LA.

Notes- The A’s have four games left. Their record is 94-64 and they trail Boston by one game for the best record in the AL. The road doesn’t get any easier for the A’s as they face the Angels’ ace, Jared Weaver on Wednesday and then travel to Seattle where King Felix Hernandez will go for the Mariners

on Friday night. Both pitchers have done well against the A’s in their careers.

Game time will be at 12:35 pm in Anaheim.