Category: Uncategorized

By Jeremy Kahn

OAKLAND-It maybe just preseason, but the Oakland Raiders ended it on a high note against the Seattle Seahawks.

Derek Carr threw three touchdowns on three of the Raiders first four possessions, while second-year player Latavius Murray added a five-yard touchdown and the Raiders defeated the Seahawks 41-31 at the Coliseum.

Carr went 11-for-13 for 143 yards and those three touchdowns before being replaced by Matt McGloin in the second quarter.

On the other side of the ball, the Raiders played good, after allowing a Seahawks touchdown on the opening drive of the game.

Russell Wilson drove the Seahawks down the field, and it culminated with a touchdown pass to Luke Wilson from 25 yards out just one minute 44 seconds into the game.

The Raiders defense continue to show progress, as they played mostly second stringers against the Seahawks first team offense.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Raiders scratched Taiwan Jones, Tarell Brown, Chimdi Chekwa, Nick Roach, Sio Moore, Justin Tuck, Antonio Smith and Kaelin Burnett.

Both Charles Woodson and Carlos Rogers were part of the scratches; however both were announced as starters.

Matt McGloin threw an interception in the second quarter that DeShawn Shead returned 54 yards for a touchdown to narrow the Raiders down to 28-14 half way thru the second quarter.

On the offensive side of the ball, Matt Schaub, Darren McFadden, Maurice Jones-Drew, Marcel Reese, Rod Streater, David Ausberry and James Jones were scratched.

McGloin found Brice Butler wide open in the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown pass with just two minutes remaining in the first half.

Denarius Moore caught two of Carr’s touchdown passes in the first quarter, as the Raiders jumped out to a 14-point lead at the end of the first quarter.

Former CAL Bear Giorgio Tavecchio kicked a 47-yard field goal in the third quarter to put the Raiders up by 17.

Steven Hauschka kicked a 27-yard field goal on the drive following the Tavecchio field goal.

After a Marquette King punt, B.J. Daniels drove the Seahawks down the field and culminated with a seven-yard touchdown pass to Bryan Walters.

Tavecchio closed out the scoring, as he hit his second 47-yard field goal of the game with just under two minutes remaining in the game.

In his return to the Coliseum, former Raiders quarterback Terrelle Pryor went 11-for-17 for 134 yards and a touchdown.

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – Monday night saw Buster Posey ejected after an egregious strikeout call, which set off all kinds of bad vibes from the Giants, particularly manager Bruce Bochy, following a loss to the Colorado Rockies.

Fast forward two days, and rather than sulking about it, he has let his bat do the talking in a huge way. After slugging a pair of home runs to spark Tuesday night’s win, Posey sent the sellout crowd at AT&T Park home happy again with a walk-off two-run homer that just made it over the left-field wall to give the Giants a dramatic 4-2 win over the Rockies Wednesday night.

Before that, however, closer Santiago Casilla made things quite interesting after inheriting a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning. Starter Tim Hudson fired eight solid innings at the Rockies and was in great shape to go the distance after throwing only 87 pitches, but Casilla rendered all of that meaningless.

He hit Drew Stubbs with the first pitch he threw and then gave up a double to Justin Morneau that scored Stubbs and tie the game at 2-2, which compelled Sergio Romo to get up to the bullpen and start warming up. He intentionally walked Corey Dickerson with one out, but quickly got himself out of the inning by getting Michael McHenry to ground into an inning-ending double play to set the stage for Posey’s heroics.

Hudson (10-9) was forced to endure a tough no-decision after surrendering only one run – a solo home run to Dickerson in the fifth inning – on four hits, walking only one and striking out eight.

“He was locked in tonight,” Bochy said of Hudson, who lowered his ERA to 2.90. “He’s a pleasure to manage.”

The Dodgers also won Wednesday night, but the Giants did get one form of a one-up on their eternal rivals. Their win gave manager Bruce Bochy his 1,600th-career managerial victory, passing up longtime Dodgers skipper Tommy Lasorda for sole possession of 19th place all-time.

“I’m very fortunate,” Bochy said. “I’m lucky to be doing what I’m doing. Sure, it goes on your record, (but) it’s all about the support that I’ve had over the years. I appreciate being able to do what I love to do for this long.”

After having a pair of opportunities go by the wayside early on, the Giants finally hit paydirt in the fourth inning. After they were able to put runners on first and third with one out, Gregor Blanco laid down a perfect bunt down the first-base line, which Morneau could not handle at first base and allowed Matt Duffy to score and give the Giants a 1-0 lead.

The Rockies, however, took advantage of a rare mistake by Hudson to tie the game in the top of the fifth. He left a fastball up in the zone, and Dickerson made him pay for it by sending it directly into McCovey Cove.

In the process, Dickerson became the only player in Rockies history not named Carlos Gonzalez to hit a ball into McCovey Cove on the fly for a home run, otherwise known as a “splash hit.”

The Giants broke through again in the seventh, after Angel Pagan and Hunter Pence each coaxed walks out of reliever Brooks Brown to lead off the inning. With one out, Posey ripped a single into left field to bring in Pagan.

Posey didn’t do all of his damage at the plate, however. In the top of the eighth, he followed up his go-ahead single by cutting down D.J LeMahieu, who had singled and was attempting to steal second with one out, with an outstanding throw that he placed right on the bag.

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Madison Bumgarner came within six outs of baseball immortality, but Justin Morneau put a stop to that.

Morneau hit a leadoff double off of Bumgarner in the top of the eighth inning and that was the only hit that the left-hander allowed, as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Colorado Rockies 3-0 before a crowd of 41,050 at AT&TPark.

Bumgarner threw a complete game, not allowing a run on just one hit did not walk a batter and struck out a career-high tying 13.

The previous time Bumgarner struck out 13 in a game came on September 5, 2011 against the San Diego Padres at PetcoPark.

Buster Posey gave Bumgarner all the run support he needed in the bottom of the sixth inning, as he took a 3-1 offering from Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa and put it into the left-center field bleachers to score Hunter Pence right in front of him.

It was the 16th home run of the season for Posey, and he extended his hitting streak to six games.

Posey added a second home run in the bottom of the eighth inning, as he hit a Brooks Brown pitch into the left-center field seats.

It was the 17th home run of the season for the 2012 National League Most Valuable Player and the second multi-home run game of his career.

Posey also hit two home runs in the same game on July 7, 2010 against the Milwaukee Brewers at MillerPark.

In the 2012 National League Division Series against the Cincinnati Reds, Posey hit two home runs, helping the Giants comeback from a 2-0 deficit to take the series.

Pence walked against De La Rosa to lead off the inning, and then immediately after the home run to Posey, De La Rosa was forced to leave the game with a left thumb contusion.

Before leaving with the thumb injury, De La Rosa went five innings, allowing two runs, while scattering four hits, walking two and striking out five.

Gregor Blanco made the defensive play of the game in the top of the first inning, as he robbed Drew Stubbs of a sure extra base hit.

Blanco leaped to rob Stubbs of extra bases for the second out of the first inning, and of course Blanco is old hat at making great plays in big games.

It was in Matt Cain’s perfect game on June 13, 2012 that Blanco made a diving catch in the top of the eighth inning to preserve Cain’s perfect game.

Brandon Crawford made a great defensive play in the top of the fifth inning, as he went deep in the hole to snag a ball hit by Matt McBride and then Crawford threw off balance to get McBride at first by a step.

Rockies manager Walt Weiss came out to speak to first base umpire Jim Joyce about the play; however after speaking to Joyce, Weiss decided not to challenge the call and the inning came to an end.

By: Phllip Torres

SANTA CLARA- The San Francisco 49ers will play their preseason finale against the Houston Texans on Thursday night in Houston.

The Niners are coming off of their first win of the preseason as they beat the San Diego Chargers 21-7 on Sunday.

Head coach Jim Harbaugh will make the final roster moves after the fourth and final preseason. San Francisco will look to finish the exhibition season with a 2-2 record before they fly to Dallas to take on the Dallas Cowboys on September 7th.

The roster will have to be trimmed down to a 53 man roster by Sunday the 7th. The big question is how many receivers will the Niners look to keep as they have a healthy receiving core that can contribute on the offense and on special teams.

The 49ers will also have a tough decision to make as far as how many linebackers to keep.

Regardless, this 2014 San Francisco 49ers team will be the deepest team that they have had in many years.

By George Devine, Sr.

After a dismal 2013 record of 11-1, the Golden Bears open on the road at Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois on August 30. The San Francisco Chronicle’s prediction is not optimistic, projecting a 12-2 record for the blue and gold this season. Coach Sonny Dykes expresses a more optimistic view.

Speaking at a preseason coaches’ press conference at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, the second-year coach points to the increasing maturity of quarterback Jared Goff, a true freshman last year. Dykes also swells with pride in noting the increased standings of Cal athletes — in particular the football players he is in charge of — when it comes to academic achievements and potential graduation rate. Goff, meanwhile, has spent the summer working on his accuracy of delivery and his selectivity in range. He is expected to work well with slot receiver Bryce Treggs in moving the ball downfield.

In the mean time, Dykes has high hopes for the defensive contributions to be made by seniors Austin Clark, Harrison Wilfley and Kyle Kragen, as well as junior Stefan McClure who this season moves from cornerback to safety.

Remaining games in the Bears’ season are:

September 6: Sacramento State, Noon

September 20: at Arizona State, TBA

September 27: Colorado, TBA

October 4: at Washington State, TBA

October 18: UCLA, TBA

October 24: Oregon, 7 p.m. PT, at Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara

November 1: at Oregon State, TBA

November 13: at USC, 6 pm, PT

November 22: Big Game vs. Stanford, TBA

November 29: Brigham Young, TBA

By: Phillip Torres

WASHINGTON D.C.- The San Francisco Giants were defeated by the Washington Nationals 14-6 on Sunday in the nation’s capital. The loss resulted in a series loss to perhaps the hottest team in baseball.

Stephen Strasburg started the for the Nationals and was roughed up but was not hit for the loss as Washington was able to rally back and win the series.

Despite putting up six runs, the Giants bullpen were unable to hold the lead.

Although the series loss to Washington hurts, the giants offense has been consistent, which has to be an encouraging sign for manager Bruce Bochy.

The Giants will host the Colorado Rockies on Monday at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

by Jerry Feitelberg

NAPA–The greater Napa Valley was hit by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake at 3:20 AM on Sunday morning in this town which is the trainning camp home to the Oakland Raiders and to Indy Car’s Sonoma’s raceway. The Raiders who are done with the property for the year and are entering their fourth pre season game. But for the tens of thousands of fans, media, and raceway officials one of the Napa Valley’s biggest events the Sonoma Raceway which started on Friday and ends Sunday will continue despite damage in the local town.

The raceway which is located in the southeast part of Sonoma County did not suffer any structural damage according to Indy Car officials who checked the building and stands as tens of thousands will pour into the raceway for the 1:45pm start. Officials did state that the surrounding roadways getting to the raceway could be effected.

The GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma is one of the biggest draws of the year for the Napa Valley which brings in more people than a Super Bowl game. Possible significant damage to roadways are still be being inspected by Caltrans sesmic engineers. According to CBS 5 TV on Sunday morning parts of Highway 37 will be effected by the quake and some parts of the freeway will be inspected and that traffic delays during the inspection could be expected.

Downtown Napa where most of the race car drivers are staying is located ten miles north of the epicenter American Canyon and downtown Napa suffered significant damage and particpant race car drivers for Sunday’s Indy race no doubt felt every bit of the 6.1 trembler, “mirrors breaking in the bathroom, you hear the alarms, pipes (breaking) and not a single picture moved” Verizon Indycar series driver Helio Castroneves told USA Today, Castroneves who is from Brazil “I want the guy who put the nails in (the hotel) to come to my house” said Castroneves who currently lives in Fort Lauderdale never feels earthquakes there.

The hotel where Castroneves was staying was evacuated and he later met with Team Penske teammate Will Power and company president Tim Cindric. Not a very likely meeting between the three at that time of the hour but under the circumstances necessary. Once outside on the sidewalk Castroneves could see significant damage, bricks, glass and debris, “Will thought it was the end of the world, I thought it was a plane crash, it was a rumbling noise, and it completely trashed the bathroom. It was like a movie and I was in it. A very scary moment and I’m still shaking” said Castroneves.

Part of the older buildings in downtown have damage where some of the roofs either fell over or collapse inside. There was no reports of anyone killed but mulitple injuries were reported. According to Indy’s car president of competition and operations Derrick Walker he said that he felt the race could continue, “we don’t feel under the circumstances as they stand now that the race is in jeopardy, we’re obviously keeping a watchful eye on what happens. If other events happen we’ll respond to them.” said Walker

Jerry Feitelberg is a Sports talk show host for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

By: Phllip Torres

WASHINGTON D.C.-The San Francisco Giants fell to the Washington Nationals 6-2 on Saturday night in the Nations Capital.

After an impressive 10-2 victory on Friday night, the Giants could not pull it together offensively.

Hunter Pence hit his 18th homerun of the season to put San Francisco up 2-0 in the dirat inning for the only two runs of the game for the Giants.

Jordan Zimmerman continued his success against the team by the bay beatung the Giants for the fifth time in his career and improving to a 5-1 record against them.

Tim Lincecum historically has never pitched well against Washington. Lincecum was roughed up for 5 runs in 2 2/3 innings pitched.

The Giants will go for the victory and the series win over the Nationals on Sunday before the fly back to San Francisco to host the division rival Colorado Rockies.