Category: Oakland Athletics

Texas Rangers catcher Meibrys Viloria can’t get a handle on the ball as Oakland Athletics’ Sean Murphy (12) scores on a single by Chad Pinder in the top of eighth at Globe Life Field in Arlington on Wed Aug 17, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Jerry Feitelberg

On another emotional day for the Oakland A’s (43-75) and the Texas Rangers (52-65), the A’s won their second game in a row, downing the Rangers 7-2. The A’s cut ties with their veteran shortstop Elvis Andrus. Andrus can now sign with any team. I have included the A’s press release in the game notes section.

The Rangers are in a bit of turmoil, too. On Monday, the Rangers fired their manager Chris Woodward. On Wednesday, they dismissed Jon Daniels, who was with the team for 17 years and was the president of their baseball operations. Daniels had also been their general manager. The Rangers also designated pitcher Garrett Richards for assignment.

Even with all the day’s events, the teams still had to play a baseball game. The A’s sent Adam Oller to the mound to face the Rangers. Oller struggled earlier in the season. His record of 1-5 and ERA of 7.62 was not impressive. He was sent down to Triple-A Las Vegas to work on some of his issues.

Since his return, he has performed better. On Wednesday night, Oller pitched his finest game as an Oakland Athletic. He went six innings and allowed five hits and one run. He recorded his second win of the year.

The Rangers’ starter, lefty Cole Ragans, went five innings and allowed four hits and three runs. The A’s catcher Sean Murphy sent two of Ragans’ pitches over the fence. Murph hit a solo blast in the first and a two-run jack in the fourth. 

The A’s grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the first when Murphy homered with two out. It was Murph’s 15th of the season. The Rangers tied the score in their half of the inning. With one out Corey Seager singled. Seager went to second on a wild pitch. Oller retired Nate Lowe for the second out. Adolis Garcia doubled to drive in Seager with the run.

In the fourth, David MacKinnon walked, making his first start in an Oakland uniform. Murphy brought him home when he sent the ball over the fence in right-center-field. It was the second time in Murphy’s career that he had a multi-homer game. The A’s led 3-1. The Rangers’ pitching kept the A’s off the board until the eighth. 

Murphy led off the inning in the eighth with a double, his third hit of the night. Chad Pinder singled to drive in Murphy. The play at the plate was close. The throw to Rangers’ catcher Meibrys Viloria was on the money.

Unfortunately for Texas, Viloria could not hold onto the ball as it dropped out of his glove, attempting to put the tag on Murphy. Pinder went to third on the error.

Vimael Machin, pinch-hitting for Sheldon Neuse, singled to drive in Pinder with the A’s fifth run of the game. Oakland was done. The next hitter, Shea Langeliers, homered over the wall in right-center-field to put the A’s in the driver’s seat 7-1.

The Rangers scored a run in the bottom of the ninth, but it was too little, too late. The A’s win 7-2.

Game Notes: The A’s won their second in a row to improve to 43-75. The Rangers fall to 52-65.

The winning pitcher was Adam Oller. He is now 2-5. The loser was Cole Ragans.

Sean Murphy was the hitting star for Oakland. Murphy had a double, a solo homer, and a two-run shot. He drove in three runs. Rookie Shea Langeliers hit his first Major League home run in just his eighth at-bat in the bigs.

Game four of the series will start at 11:05 am on Thursday. The A’s will have lefty Zach Logue (3-6, 5.49) on the mound. Texas will counter with righty Dane Dunning (2-6, 4.12)

The time of the game was two hours and 58 minutes. 14,846 fans were on hand to watch the A’s down the Rangers

Here is the press release from the A’s regarding Elvis Andrus

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Oakland Athletics recalled infielder Sheldon Neuse from Triple-A Las Vegas and released shortstop Elvis Andrus, the club announced today.

Neuse joins the A’s for the third time this year and is batting .227 with three home runs and 21 RBI in 70 games over his first two stints with Oakland. He was on the A’s Opening Day roster and hit .329 over his first 22 games, but a 13-for-91 (.143) stretch preceded his first option to Las Vegas on June 7.

The 27-year-old right-handed hitter batted .227 with a home run and four RBI in 21 games during his second stint from June 21 to July 27. Neuse is hitting .398 with five home runs, 20 RBI, and a 1.018 OPS in 25 games with the Aviators.

Andrus was batting .237 with eight home runs and 30 RBI in 106 games in his second season with Oakland. He was acquired by the A’s from the Texas Rangers on Feb. 6, 2021, with Aramis Garcia for Khris Davis, Jonah Heim, and Dane Acker and hit .243 with three home runs and 37 RBI in 146 games in his A’s debut last year.

The 33-year-old is a two-time All-Star (2010, 12) and left as the Rangers’ all-time leader in stolen bases (305). He also ranked second in games (1652), at-bats (6366) and triples (48), third in runs (893) and hits (1743), fifth in doubles (303) and walks (519), seventh in RBI (636) and eighth in extra-base hits (427).

Andrus has played 1,872 career games in the field, all at shortstop, which is the fifth-longest career-opening streak of appearing only at shortstop in Major League history behind Derek Jeter (2674), Luis Aparicio (2583), Ozzie Smith (2511) and Alan Trammell (1910). He is a .270 career hitter with 87 home runs and 703 RBI in 1,904 games in 14 seasons in the majors. Andrus is the active leader in stolen bases (324), is tied for fourth in triples (50), ranks sixth in hits (1948) and games (1904), and ninth in runs (994).

The Oakland A’s Elvis Andrus is all smiles after belting a top of the seventh two run homer against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Field in Arlington on Tue Aug 16, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s snapped their nine-game losing streak Tuesday night as they beat the Texas Rangers 5-1. The A’s had a revamped lineup as they continued to make roster changes. The A’s released veteran outfielder Stephen Piscotty.

Piscotty had been with the A’s since 2018. Piscotty had a great year with the A’s in 2018, but injuries took their toll, and he was hitting below the Mendoza line and had missed considerable playing time in 2022.

The A’s put two players on the IL on Tuesday. Pitcher Paul Blackburn was shut down for the remainder of the season with a finger injury. Blackburn was the A’s only player to make it to the All-Star team. He was 7-6 for the year.

Outfielder Ramon Laureano is on the ten-day IL with an oblique strain. The A’s brought up infielder David MacKinnon and catcher Shea Langeliers. Langeliers came over from Atlanta in the trade for Matt Olson. Langeliers is 24 years old and was hitting .283 with 19 homers and 56 RBIs in 92 games for the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators.

J.P.Sears was making his second start since coming to the A’s from the New York Yankees. Sears went five innings and allowed four hits, no runs, three walks, and two strikeouts. The A’s bullpen allowed the Rangers just one run over the last four innings of the game to give Sears his fourth win.

The Rangers had Kohei Arihara on the mound. Arihara was making his first start of the season. The A’s scored a run in the first three innings and recorded seven hits in the first three frames.

The A’s drew first blood in the tip of the first inning. Cal Stevenson led off the game with a double. Tony Kemp bunted for a single, sending Stevenson to third. Sean Murphy popped out to short for the first out. Seth Brown, playing in right field, singled to drive in Stevenson.

Oakland made it a 2-0 game when they plated a run in the second inning. Shea Langeliers, making his Major League debut, sent the first pitch from Arihama down the left field line for a double. Langeliers advanced to third on Vimael Machin’s ground out. Jonah Bride singled to make it 2-0.

In the third, Sean Murphy launched a 454-foot blast to straightaway center field. There was no doubt that it was an actual moonshot.

The A’s brought in the big lefty, A.J.Puk to pitch the sixth. With one out, Rangers’ right-fielder Adolis Garcia singled. First Baseman Nate Low singled, sending Garcia to third. Former A’s catcher Jonah Heim reached on an infield single. Garcia scored to make it 3-1 after six complete.

The A’s put two more on the board in the seventh. Sean Murphy singled with one out. Seth Brown was retired for the second out. Former Rangers’ shortstop Elvis Andrus homered to put the A’s ahead 5-1.

The A’s bullpen shut the Rangers down the rest of the way. Domingo Acevedo, Kirby Snead, and Dany Jimenez all kept the Rangers from scoring to preserve the A’s win.

Game Notes- With the win, the A’s are 42-75. The Rangers fall to 52-64

The line score for Oakland was five runs, eleven hits, and no errors. The line for Texas was one run, nine hits, and no errors.

Sean Murphy had a home run and a single. Vimael Machin also had two hits, both singles.
The A’s outfielders recorded two assists in the game. Nate Lowe was at first base with two outs in the bottom of the fourth. Jonah Heim hit a rocket to left field that bounced off the wall into Tony Kemp’s glove.

Kemp threw the ball to Elvis Andrus. Andrus double-clutched the ball, but his throw home was on the mark as Murphy tagged Lowe on the should before he could cross the plate. The play went 7-6-2.

The Rangers loaded the bases with one out. A’s starter J.P. Sears walked three hitters and needed a big play to get out of the jam. The Rangers had the speedy Leody Taveras at third. Ezequiel Duran was at second. Sears had to face a very dangerous hitter, Marcus Semien.

He got Semien to foul out to Seth Brown in right field. Brown had a long run and had to get into position to get ready to make a throw as Taveras had tagged up and was on his way home. Brown made a great throw.

Tavares stopped halfway down the line. When he tried to get back to third, he saw Duran was almost on the base. Taveras was caught in a rundown to end the inning.

Here is the announcement from the A’s regarding the release of Stephen Piscotty.
General manager David Forst thanked Piscotty, 31, for his impact on the club dating to his arrival ahead of the 2018 season in a trade from St. Louis that brought him back close to his home in Pleasanton.

His mother, Gretchen, died in May that year from Lou Gehrig’s disease, and Piscotty helped raise awareness for ALS. Major League Baseball held its first Lou Gehrig Day last year.

He helped lead the A’s back to the playoffs in 2018 after a three-year drought with career highs of 27 home runs and 88 RBIs.

“I want to acknowledge Stephen Piscotty first and just talk a little bit about his time here, which came at a really important time for us when we made that trade at the end of 2017,” Forst said in a conference call. “I appreciate everything that Stephen gave us both on and off the field in his time here.”

The time of the game was 3:07. The attendance was 15,260.

The teams play Wednesday night again at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The game will start at 5:07 pm. Adam Oller (1-5, 7.26 ERA) goes for Oakland. Lefty Cole Ragans(0-1, 4.82 ERA) will pitch for the Rangers.