Category: Oakland Athletics

Oakland A’s Nick Allen (left) and Tony Kemp (right) jump for joy after taking two games from the San Francisco Giants at the Oakland Coliseum (AP News photo)

On the Oakland A’s podcast with Barbara:

#1 The Oakland A’s Nick Allen belted two home runs against the San Francisco Giants and that made up the difference in the A’s two run win over the Giants at the Oakland Coliseum 8-6 on Sunday.

#2 A’s catcher Shea Langeliers belted a two run single in the bottom of the sixth to help the A’s rally from behind to pick up the win.

#3 Barbara, the Giants had come into this series in Oakland last Saturday night having won five of their last six games, the A’s had opened up the series after losing four straight games including a three game sweep by the Dodgers in Los Angeles. They battled in this brief two game series with a sweep.

#4 Allen had surprised everyone coming into this game he was hitting .155 in his last 21 games after returning July 4th from playing at triple A Las Vegas. “Anytime I hit a home run, it’s special. But hitting two, it’s amazing,” said Allen in the A’s clubhouse post game.

#5 The A’s will have a real challenge Monday night when they open a three game series against the Texas Rangers (66-46). The Rangers are in first place in the AL West and one of the toughest teams in MLB having won seven of their last ten games. The Rangers will start Dane Dunning (9-4 ERA 3.14) for the A’s starter Ken Waldichuk (2-7 ERA 6.52) first pitch 6:40pm PT.

Barbara Mason does the A’s podcasts Mondays at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland Athletics’ Nick Allen, right, celebrates next to San Francisco Giants catcher Patrick Bailey after hitting a solo home run during the fifth at the Oakland Coliseum on Sun Aug 6, 2023 (AP News photo)

San Francisco (61-51). 112 020 000 – 6 9 2

Oakland (32-80). 120 013 10x. – 8 11 1

Time: 3:04

Attendance: 27,381

Sunday, August 6

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND –It was a bittersweet day for the Oakland Athletics. Before the game started, the five members of the 2023 cohort of the team’s hall of fame were inducted. The late Bob Johnson, who played for the Philadelphia Athletics, was the first, followed by the late Voice of God, Roy Steele.

Next came the MVP of the 1972 World Series, Gene Tenace, who paid tribute to those teammates of his who had died recently. Dave Stewart introduced Carney Lansford. Tony LaRusa did the same for Jason Giambi. We shall not see their like again, at least not in the uniform of the Oakland A’s. The A’s Nick Allen provided the punch with two home runs which made the difference in the A’s 8-6 two game sweep over the Giants at the Oakland Coliseum.

When the game began, Luis Medina was one the mound, making his 12th start for the A’s, carrying the burden of a 3-8, 5.35 record. The good news is that it was 1-1, 2.86 in July. It was his first appearance against the visiting San Francisco Giants.

This afternoon, Medina got knocked about in 3-1/3 innings of hard labor under a broiling sun, allowing four runs, three of them earned, on five hits and an equal number of walks while striking out three. 53 of his 88 pitches qualified as strikes. He escaped with a no decision and went home with a record of 3-8. , ERA 5.47.

His opposite number for the visitors was Alex Cobb, whose off speed and breaking ball offerings gained him a 6-3, 3.05 record at game time. He throws sinkers 41.3% of the time; splitters 35.8%; curves, 16.5%; sliders, 86.3%; and the traditional four seam fastball, a mere 0.4%. Cobb wasn’t particularly impressive today.

Cobb lasted 5-1/3 innings, in which he threw 77 pitches, 51 for strikes. He allowed five runs, all earned, although one was posthumous.. The A’s touched him for seven hits, two of them for the distance. He wasn’t involved in the decision and ended the day at 6-3, 3.30.

The Giants lost no time in taking an early lead. LaMonte Wade, Jr., led off with a single to left center. Two outs later, a walk to Joc Pederson and a single by JD Davis brought in the game’s first tally.

Oakland answered back with a run in the bottom of the frame. A two out double by Zack Gelof that bounced off the center field fence to the right of the NBC Sports California sign, followed on the next pitch by Seth Brown’s triple to center, and the game was tied at 1-1.

That didn’t last long. Wade hit another single in the top of the second, this one with runners on the corners and one away, made it 2-1, Giants. That changed with Tyler Soderstrom, who had walked, on first and two men out, when the good field, no hit shortstop Nick Allen parked a fly on the steps separating the left field grandstand from the bleachers. It was Allen’s second homer of the year and raised his batting average from .181 to .186. He ended the day at .195.

San Francisco responded by sending two men across the plate in their next at bat. A leadoff walk to Pederson led to Davis’s grounder to the left side. Jordan Díaz cut in front of Allen and bobbled the ball. The error put runners on first and second, and a walk to Michael Conforto clogged the base paths with no one out.

Patrick Bailey singled to left to bring in Pederson with the tying tally, and Brandon Crawford’s grounder to short forced him out at second and allowed Davis to score the tie-breaking run that put San Francisco up, 4-3.

Medina’s afternoon’s work was over when he walked Flores with one out in the visitors’ fourth, Sam Long relieved him, retired the next two batters and stayed in the game. long enough to give up singles. to Conforto and Bailey and then strike out Crawford looking in the top of the fifth before passing the ball to Austin Pruitt.

Pruitt got Matos to pop out to short, but Wade slammed a single to right, scoring Conforto. Estrada then laid down a beautiful bunt towards third, which he beat out for a single that advanced Wade to second and brought Bailey home with the Giants’ sixth run of the game. Both runs were charged to Long.

In the home fifth, Allen closed the gap to 6-4, with his second round tripper of the game and third of the. year, a line drive into the Oakland Lading seats, a little to the left of where his earlier blast had landed. His BA moved up again, this time to .191 It didn’t help that, after Esteury Ruíz followed Allen’s homer with a single, got picked off first.

Pruitt didn’t come out to pitch after his unfortunate showing in the fifth. Kirby Snead struck out the side in his stead. Three up, three down.

After Seth Brown’s one out double to left in the sixth, Luke Jackson relieved Cobb. He got Brent Rooker to hit a grounder to Crawford, whose errant throw to first put runners on at first and third. Díaz walked, loading the bases. Soderstom also strolled to first, bringing Brown home.

Shea Langeliers lined a single to left, driving in Rooker and Díaz, and Alllen’s force out of Langeliers at second plated Soderstrom, and Oakland was leading, 7-6, when Lucas Erceg took over mound duties for the A’s in the top of the seventh. In spite of a pair of walks, he got through that half inning with Oakland still on top.

Scott Alexander faced the A’s after the seventh inning stretch. Gelof got a one out single to left off him, and Conforto dropped Brown’s fly to right after having lost it in the sun. Gelof went to third and Brown to second on what was ruled, properly, a double.

That brought Ryan Walker to the mound. Tony Kemp pinch hit for Rooker and drove in Gelof with a sacrifice fly to right as Brown moved on to third. Once more, an Oakland base runner was picked off first. This time it was Díaz. The A’s challenged the call, but it stood.

Angel Felipe had an 8-6 lead to protect when he entered the game when the Giants came to bat in the eighth. He was angelic, striking out all of the three batters he faced.

Jakob Junis kept the game in reach in the home eighth, allowing only an infield single to Allen, his third hit of the day. On that play, Crawford committed his second error; his wild throw allowed Allent to take second.

Trevor May set the visitors down in order to earn his 11th save. Jackson took the loss and now is 1-1, 1.98.

With today’s Kansas City 8-4 defeat by the Phillies, the Royals are 36-77 .319 and seem to be falling out of the race to the bottom. The A’s remain contenders with their 32-80, 2.86.

On this day in baseball infamy, the 1899 Cleveland Spiders split a double header with the Chicago Orphans, which improved the Forest City club’s record to 17-80, .175. They finished the season at 20-134, ,130.

On August 6, 1962, the New York Mets, on their way to a 20-140, .250, monument to futility, dropped a 2-1 squeaker at Chavez Ravine in Johnny Podres and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Bruce Bochy’s Texas Rangers ride into town tomorrow, the seventh. They’ll face the A’s at 6:45 in the evening. Ken Waldichuk (2-7, 6.52) is expected to start for the Athletics, facing the Rangers’ Dane Dunning (9-4, 3.14).

Oakland A’s Jordan Diaz (13) gives thanks to the good Lord after clouting his eighth home run of the year at the Oakland Coliseum against the San Francisco Giants on Sat Aug 5, 2023 (AP News photo)

San Francisco (61-50) 000 000 010. – 1. 3. 0

Oakland (31-80). 000 010 01x. – 2. 6. 1

Time: 2:34.

Attendance: 37,553

Saturday, August 5, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Saturday was a reverse boycott day, and the action was almost as much in parking lot B and the right field bleachers as it was on the field. There were Sell THE TEAM rally towels in the former, and chants, cheers, and shouts in the latter.

In other off field action, the A’s announced that they had designated Ramón Laureano for assignment and optioned Tayler Scott to the Las Vegas Aviators. The Athletics also reinstated Dany Jiménez and Esteury Ruíz from the injured list.

They also reinstated the injured Kevin Smith, only to option him to Vegas. They outrighted Tyler Wade there and released Manny Piña. Sic transit gloria mundi. On the field of play, the A’s defeated the visiting Giants, 2-1, in a stunning and thrilling nail biter.

Oakland sent what passes for its ace to the mound. Perhaps it’s unfair of me to qualifyPaul Blackburn that way. He came off the injured list on May 29, so you can say that he’s about two months behind where he’d be if he’d been healthy all season. Throw the Athletics’s weak hitting and poor fielding into the mix, and his numbers look somewhat better, but his 2-2, 4.83 game time record was not one to inspire confidence.

At the Coliseum, “confidence” is an adjective that modifies “game” when describing what the ownership has been doing in cahoots with the cardsharps of southern Nevada to the city of Oakland and the county of Alameda.

Blackburn, who went 7-6,4.28 last season, performed well, if not economically today. It took him 78 pitches to get through his first four innings, 26 in the fourth alone. but he shut the Giants out on two hits over that span. At the end of his tenure, he had thrown six scoreless innings and allowed but two hits and three walks while striking out seven.

He had to settle for a no decision. making his record 2-2 ,4.35. His pitch count was 105, 63 of them strikes. Austin Pruitt took over for. him to pitch a scoreless seventh before giving away to Angel Felipe, who pitched to three men in eighth, leaving with runners on the corners and one out. Trevor May was his replacement and retired the two men he faced but not before the Giants had tied the score.

The Giants’ starter, Ross Stripling, also has had problems with injuries this year. San Francisco’s been allowing him to build up his arm strength since his return from the IL June 25 and has enough confidence to entrust a traditional start to the ex-Dodger hurler, who entered the day with a balance sheet of 0-4, 5.52.

He definitely is not the ace of the Giants’ staff; that honor goes to one of the Cobb-Webb combo. The afternoon, Stripling also started out strong, keeping Oakland off the board during four frames, helped out by a spiffy backhanded stab and throw by Brandon Crawford in the third and a spectacular leaping catch at the NBC Sports advertisement jut to the right of the 388 foot sign in center in the fourth.

Stripling ended his day’s work after pitching another inning and a third and allowing a total of one run on three hits (a home run) and no walks. He struck out seven, Of his 74 pitches, 52 were strikes. He escaped with a no decision, and his record now stands at 0-4, 5.21. Sean Manaea relieved him, facing his old teammates and shutting them down on one hit in 1-2/3 innings.

The A’s finally broke the scoreless tie in their half of the fifth with a leadoff home run to left center by Jordan Díaz, his eighth round tripper of the year. It came off an 83.6 mph change up and travelled 402 feet, with an exit velocity of 106.8 mph. The Giants tied things up in the eighth with a walk to Thairo Estrada and a single by Flores, followed, after May relieved Felipe by Joc Pederson’s sac fly to left.

Ryan Walker replaced Manaea for the home eighth. He faced two pinch hitters, Aledmys Díaz, who singled to center, and Tony Kemp, who drew a base on balls, before Esteury Ruíz attempted a sacrifice bunt. Home plate umpire Dan Menzel called it a foul.

The A’s protested that he was hit by the pitch. A replay review ruled that it was, indeed, a foul. (That’s how it looked to me, too). Ruíz attempted another bunt. JD Davis came charging in from third, nabbed the bunt in the air and threw to first to retire Ruíz.

Kemp moved on to second. That’s when Scott Alexander replaced Walker. And that’s when Jonah Bride pinch hit for Bleday and lined out to second. Alexander conceded a walk to Gelof, loading the bases. Seth Brown singled to right, bringing Díaz home with the go-ahead run, but Michael Conforto’s throw home beat Kemp by a mile. The A’s claimed that Bailey had block the plate, but a video review disproved that.

Now May had to get three outs to preserve the Athletics’ precarious lead. He retired Conforto, Bailey, and Crawford, thereby earning the win. He’s now 3-4, 4.30.

Walker, now 4-1, 2.,56 took the loss.

With today’s win , the A’s improved their record to 31-80, .279. Kansas City lost to the Phillies, 9-6, I Philadelphia, falling to 36-76, .321. W 37-75, .330

The 1899 Cleveland Spiders, all time leaders in futility with their record of 20-134, .130, were shut out by the Chicago Orphans, 4-0, at West Side Park in the Windy City. That dropped the Spiders to 16-79, .168.

The 1962 New York Mets, whose mark of 40-120, .250 is the worst seen in the majors since 1901, split a double header against the Reds in Crosley Field on August 5, leaving the Amazin’s at 29-80, .266.

The 2023 Battle of the Bay concludes Sunday with San Francisco’s Alex Cobb (6-3, 3.05) dueling Oakland’s Luis Medina (3-8, 5.35) first pitch 1:07pm PT. Before the game, the Athletics will induct the 2023 cohort into their Hall of Fame. The honorees are Jason Giambi, Carney Lansford, Gene Tenace, Bob Johnson (from the A’s Philadelphia days), and former A’s PA announcer Roy Steele.