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O’Neill ends it with a walk-off to lift the Cardinals to a 5-4 win over the Giants

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Photo credit: taiwannews.com.tw

By Jeremy Kahn

Tyler O’Neill ended Saturday afternoon’s game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants with one swing of the bat.

O’Neill smashed a solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning, helping the Cardinals to their fifth win in their last six games with a 5-4 victory over the Giants at Busch Stadium.

Mark Melancon served up the O’Neill home run, as the Cards smacked their team record eighth walkoff home run of the season.

It was the ninth home run of the season for O’Neill, as they remain in the second spot for the National League Wild Card game and remain behind their division rival, the Milwaukee Brewers for the top spot.

The win by the Cards gave the victory to closer Carlos Martinez, who improved to 8-6 on the season, while Melancon drops to 0-3 for the Giants, who have dropped their last three games.

Adam Wainwright made just his third start of the season for the Cards, as he went 6.1 innings, allowing four runs on eight hits, walking no one and striking out six.

Things were looking good for the Giants, as they led the Cards 4-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning, but Yadier Molina tied up the game with a two-run home run off of Giants starter Dereck Rodriguez.

Aramis Garcia came up with a big hit in the top of the seventh inning, as he gave the Giants a 3-2 lead. Garcia picked up four hits on the afternoon for the Giants.

Garcia went 4-for-4 on the afternoon, a career-high and Garcia now has hits in 10 out of his last 12 games.

Gregor Blanco extended the Giants lead up to 4-2, as he grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored Garcia.

Molina tied up the game with his 19th home run of the season off of Rodriguez, whose day ended following the Molina home run.

Rodriguez went six innings, allowing four runs on seven hits, walking one and striking out two and he will make one start next weekend against the Los Angeles Dodgers at AT&T Park.

This was the first time since his second major league start against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on June 9 that Rodriguez allowed three or more earned runs in the same game. Rodriguez went 15 consecutive games without allowing three runs or fewer.

Joe Panik picked up three hits and drove in a run for the Giants.

NOTES: Garcia is the first Giants rookie since Austin Slater on June 15, 2017 against the Colorado Rockies on June 18, 2017, to have a four-hit game in his rookie season.

The four-hit game by Garcia came one day after the rookie struck out four times in the same game. Garcia is the first to accomplish this feat since Hunter Pence did it from July 22-24, 2015 and only the second Giants player to do it since 1913, this according to STATS, LLC.

Garcia is only the fifth rookie in major league history to strikeouts four times in a game, and then four hits in the game. He joins Andre Ethier of the Dodgers in 2006, Travis Hafner of the Cleveland Indians in 2003. Roberto Meija of the Colorado Rockies and Craig Paquette of the Oakland A’s also in 1993.

Panik made his professional debut at first base, as he started the game at first base and it was the first time that Panik started there on the minor league or the Major League level.

UP NEXT: The Giants and Cards wrap up their series Sunday at 11:15 am PDT.

Andrew Suarez puts an end to the road trip and the Giants 2018 road schedule, as he takes the Busch Stadium mound for the first time in his Major League career, while Mike Mikolas takes the mound for the Cards.

San Jose State men’s basketball announces 2018-19 TV schedule

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Photo credit: sjsuspartans.com

By: Ana Kieu

San Jose State men’s basketball will play on a nationally televised stage five times during Mountain West play during the 2018-19 season. The conference and its national TV partners finalized the schedule and made the announcement on Wednesday.

“I’m excited that our team will get multiple opportunities to play on a national stage, especially at home,” head coach Jean Prioleau said. “We enjoy having the chance to make some noise and perform at a high level in front of a lot of viewers. The national spotlight is great exposure for this program and I’m excited for our fans and the San Jose community as a whole.”

Two of the five games broadcasted will be played in the Event Center. The Spartans welcome UNLV for a 2 pm PT contest on Sunday, February 16, and New Mexico for a 7 pm PT tip on Tuesday, February 26. Both games will be broadcasted by AT&T SportsNet.

The Spartans’ fans’ first chance to catch SJSU on television will be Wednesday, January 9th at Nevada on CBS Sports Network. The Spartans also have televised road contests slated for Saturday, January 19th at UNLV and Wednesday, February 13th at New Mexico.

Additionally, any SJSU men’s basketball game not on national television will be broadcasted on the MW Network via watchstadium.com. Links for those games will be available all season long on the MBB schedule page and TheMW.com.

Date                                     Location                            Opponent         Network                           Time

1/9/2019                           Reno, Nev.                          Nevada               CBS Sports Network     8:00 p.m. PT

1/19/2019                         Las Vegas, Nev.                 UNLV                    AT&T SportsNet             4:30 p.m. PT

2/13/2019                         Albuquerque, N.M.          New Mexico      AT&T SportsNet             6:00 p.m. PT

2/16/2019                         The Event Center            UNLV                    AT&T SportsNet             2:00 p.m. PT

2/26/2019                         The Event Center            New Mexico      AT&T SportsNet             7:00 p.m. PT

Three takeaways from SJSU’s home opener vs. UC Davis

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Photo credit: @SJSUSpartanFB

By: Ana Kieu

SAN JOSE, Calif. — In case you missed it, the San Jose State Spartans welcomed the UC Davis Aggies to its home turf inside CEFCU Stadium on Thursday night.

As you should already know, SJSU went 2-11 (1-7) last year under first-year head coach Brent Brennan, who’s now in his second year as the Spartans’ head coach. And, of course, there are a lot of folks–mostly non-Spartan fans–who doubt that the 2018 Spartans will be an improved team, but that’s fine. It’s still too early to throw in the towel.

Here are three takeaways from SJSU’s home opener vs. UC Davis.

3. Tyler Nevens is in our thoughts and prayers 
The Spartans’ 2018 season is off to a rough start. Tyler Nevens, who’s arguably the Spartans’ top wide running back, suffered a serious injury following a head-to-head collision. Nevens was on the field for nearly 20 minutes before being taken off the field on a stretcher for an evaluation at a local hospital. Nevens was released late Thursday night and has been resting since then.

Many people sent their thoughts and prayers to Nevens, who scored two touchdowns prior to his injury, and it appears to be working wonders on the Spartan star. While it’s unclear if Nevens will be cleared to play in next Saturday’s game at Washington State, Spartans’ head coach Brent Brennan said that Nevens’ replacement at running back would be DeJon Packer, Jamar Williams or Brenden Manigo.

2. Montel Aaron is more confident this year
Spartans’ quarterback Montel Aaron, who’s now a sophomore, told the local media that he felt more confident this year compared to last year.

The only issue is that Aaron hasn’t had much experience last year, so he has a lot of things to learn and a lot of strides to make, but it’s a process, so he’d say that it’s all about mental techniques, so he has to have the required confidence regardless of who’s starting the game or what they’ve done in the offseason, as you’ll have to go after what you want to achieve.

1. Where’s the Spartan defense?
If you listened to the radio broadcast and/or followed live updates on Twitter, you’d notice that the Spartan defense was pretty much non-existent during the SJSU vs. UC Davis home opener at CEFCU Stadium. The Spartan offense, however, was a force that just happened to be reckoned with.

The Aggies are far from a good college football team in the Big Sky Conference, but they were able to hold off the Spartans, who are in the Mountain West Conference, for a 44-38 win in San Jose, Calif. Ulonzo Gilliam became the ninth Aggie to score three touchdowns in a single game in UC Davis’ Big Sky history, and the second to do so against an FBS opponent.

That being said, the Spartan defense has to show up sooner than later if the Spartans want to win games this season. The Spartans’ defensive lineup of Bryson Bridges, Owen “Boogie” Roberts, Sailosi Latu, Jesse Osuna, Tysyn Parker, Ethan Aguayo, Jamal Scott, John Touissaint, Tre Webb, Jay Lenard and Dakari Monroe looks pretty darn good on paper, but in the game versus UC Davis, SJSU’s defense allowed an FCS quarterback to pass for 446 yards and three touchdowns and an FCS running back to rush for 132 yards and two touchdowns. The Spartan defense clearly got destroyed by the Aggies in 2018’s first-ever FCS over FBS upset, which was extremely disappointing.

Up Next
SJSU heads to the Pacific Northwest to take on Washington State at Martin Stadium on Saturday, September 8th at 8 pm PDT on PACN.

Holland beats his former team–Rangers–for the first time, 3-1

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Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO — Derek Holland faced his former team in the Texas Rangers for just the third time in his career, but it was a rookie that came up with the biggest hit of the game.

Steven Duggar hit a two-run triple that helped the San Francisco Giants defeat the Rangers 3-1 before a crowd of 39,260 at AT&T Park on Sunday afternoon.

Duggar’s triple off of Yovani Gallardo scored Hunter Pence and Nick Hundley with what proved to be the winning margin, as the Giants took two of three in a rematch of the 2010 World Series.

That triple was the first of Duggar’s career.

Gallardo got the first two batters out in that fateful fourth inning, but Pence singled and then Hundley walked before Duggar launched a Gallardo pitch into Triples Alley to give the Giants the lead for good.

Holland went 6.1 innings, allowing one run on three hits, while walking three and striking out four, as he won for the seventh time on the season.

This was the first career win for Holland against the team that drafted him in the 25th round of the 2006 Major League Draft. Holland played his first eight seasons with the Rangers, where he went 62-50 with a 4.35 earned run average in 179 games (158 starts).

The 158 starts by Holland with the Rangers is the eighth-most in Rangers history, and his 62 wins are the ninth-most.

Evan Longoria got the Giants going in the bottom of the first inning, as he tripled to the appropriately named ‘Triples Alley,” and then Brandon Belt singled to score Longoria. As for Longoria, that was his third triple of the season, the most for him since the 2013 season, when he also hit three.

The Rangers tied it up in the top of the third inning, as Elvis Andrus hit a double to left field that Hunter Pence bobbled in left field to allow Rougned Odor to score the tying run for the Rangers.

Following the Andrus double that tied up the game, Brandon Crawford came up with the defensive play of the game, as Adrian Beltre hit a ball into the hole that looked like it was going into left field; however, Crawford dove for the ball, got up and was able to throw out Beltre to keep the score tied at one. Not only did Crawford make another fantastic play, but Brandon Belt dug the ball out of the dirt for the final out of the inning that kept Andrus from scoring the potential go-ahead run.

That was the only hit that Holland would allow until he gave up two in the top of the seventh inning.

Duggar gave the Giants the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth inning, as his triple scored the eventual winning runs for the Giants.

Holland got into a bit of a jam in that seventh inning, as he gave up two hits in the top of the seventh inning; however, both Joey Gallo and Isiah Kiner-Falefa were stranded at third base, when Tony Watson struck out Robinson Chirinos and then got Odor out on an attempted bunt to end the inning.

Without the services of usual closer Will Smith, Mark Melancon came on to finish the game, and despite the fact that he gave up a pinch-hit single to Shin-Soo Choo with one out in the top of the ninth inning, Melancon was able to get the last two batters for his third save of the season.

NOTES: Buster Posey will undergo season-ending hip surgery on Monday in Vail, Colorado to repair a damaged labrum and remove bone spurs in his right hip.

Posey was placed on the 10-day disabled list, and to replace Posey on the roster will be Aramis Garcia, who was recalled from Triple-A Sacramento.

This was the first time that Melancon picked up back-to-back saves in consecutive games since May 19 and 20, 2017 against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.

By winning the series finale against the Rangers, the Giants won their 65th game of the season, surpassing their total of 64 from just one year ago.

UP NEXT: The Giants host the Arizona Diamondbacks for a three-game series starting Monday night at 7:15 pm PDT.

Giants’ Chris Stratton will look for his ninth win of the season on Monday night, as he takes the mound against Patrick Corbin of the D-Backs, who is looking for his 11th win of the season for the Diamondbacks.

Aces falter in the fourth quarter, fall to Dream 109-100

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Wilson

Photo credit: Las Vegas Aces

By Shawn McCullough

The Atlanta Dream scored eight of the last 10 points of the game to beat the Aces 109-100 at McCamish Pavilion.

The Aces led 84-80 after three quarters, but Atlanta outscored Las Vegas 29-16 in the fourth quarter.

Four Aces scored in double digits including a team high 20 points from point guard Kelsey Plum.

Kayla McBride dropped 19 points, while A’ja Wilson added 18.

With the loss, the Aces have now lost four straight games coming out of the All-Star Break and have now dropped 2.5 games out of a playoff spot with five games remaining in the regular season.

The Aces will next return home on Thursday night to face the Minnesota Lynx at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Las Vegas Aces – http://aces.wnba.com 

Game Notes:

  • The Aces shot 48.6% from the field and 42.9% from three point range.
  • The Aces out rebounded the Dream 34-29.
  • A’ja Wilson scored in double figures (18) for the 28th straight game.
  • The Aces gave up a franchise high 109 points for the second straight game.
  • The WNBA announced that the game between the Aces and the Mystics in Washington D.C., that was canceled due to Las Vegas travel issue, will count as a forfeit and a loss for the Aces.

Game Starters:

F – 22 A’ja Wilson
F – 1 Tamera Young
C – 8 Carolyn Swords
G – 21 Kayla McBride
G – 10 Kelsey Plum

Aces drop their second straight game in 109-88 loss to Sun

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Photo credit: Las Vegas Aces

By Shawn McCullough

Head coach Bill Laimbeer knew that the All-Star Break layoff was a very important time for his team to remain focused on their playoff push, but what he feared is becoming reality.

The Aces have struggled losing their second straight game out of the break 109-88 to the Sun in Connecticut.

This is the second straight game that their opponent has scored over 100 points, a feat that no team has done against the Aces since May 31st when the Seattle Storm beat Las Vegas 101-74.

Rookie A’ja Wilson scored 24 points while point guard Kelsey Plum dropped 21, going 5 for 6 from three point range.

The Aces committed 14 turnovers while being out-rebounded 35-26.

With the loss, the Aces dropped to 12-15 on the season and are 1.5 games out of the eighth and final playoff spot.

The Aces will next play the Dream in Atlanta on Tuesday.

Las Vegas Aces – http://aces.wnba.com

Game Notes:

  • The Aces took the lead early, but the Sun never trailed after 3:06 into the game.
  • A’ja Wilson scored in double figures (24) for the 27th straight game.
  • The 109 points given up by the Aces was the most in franchise history.
  • The WNBA announced that the 2019 All-Star Game will be held in Las Vegas.

Game Starters:

F – 22 A’ja Wilson
F – 1 Tamera Young
C – 8 Carolyn Swords
G – 21 Kayla McBride
G – 10 Kelsey Plum

Aces making playoff push with 85-82 win over Mercury in Phoenix

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Plum

A once young team is now starting to find its stride with confidence and determination.

The Aces got 27 points from All-Star guard Kayla McBride in an 85-82 road win over the Phoenix Mercury. Las Vegas has now won five of their last six games.

A’ja Wilson put up a double-double, scoring 18 points with 12 rebounds.

Down 34-33 in the second quarter, the Aces rolled off 13 straight points and never trailed after that.

The Mercury were led by guard Diana Taurasi, who scored 33 points, while center Brittney Griner scored 19 and pulled down 10 rebounds.

With the win, the Aces improved to 11-13 on the season and moved to within 1.5 games of the 8th place Connecticut Sun.

The Aces will next return home to face the 2-21 Indiana Fever on Sunday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Las Vegas Aces – http://aces.wnba.com

Game Notes:

  • A’ja Wilson scored in double figures (18) for the 24th straight game.
  • The Aces have now won five of their last six games.
  • 8,587 fans attended the game at Talking Stick Resort Arena.
  • Rookie A’ja Wilson and Kayla McBride were both named to the WNBA All-Star Game and will play on Team Delle Donne (both were drafted by All-Star captain Elena Delle Donne)
  • Today is Carolyn Swords’ birthday. She started and played a little over 17 minutes, scoring four points with two rebounds.

Game Starters:

F – 22 A’ja Wilson
F – 1 Tamera Young
C – 8 Carolyn Swords
G – 21 Kayla McBride
G – 10 Kelsey Plum

Bryce? Nice!: Nats star Harper electrifies home crowd in Home Run Derby

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By Morris Phillips

WASHINGTON D.C. — Was this Bryce Harper’s swan song, or just another big moment in his continuing career with the Washington Nationals?

It’s difficult to say. But one thing’s certain: the moment lasted 50 seconds and it included nine home runs, each one electricifying Nationals Park and the team’s fans.

An obviously fatigued Harper finished the T-Mobile Home Run Derby with an adrenaline rush, catching finalist Kyle Schwarber with the last of the nine as the horn signaled that his time had expired. Then having earned the 30 seconds of bonus time, Harper delivered the contest winner on his final swing.

Harper then tossed his bat, and was handed the winner’s trophy as his National League teammates surrounded him.

“I was fortunate to share that and show that to the fans,” Harper said. “That wasn’t only for me and my family and everybody like that, but this is for the cook, the guy who that works the front and the people that work upstairs.

“I mean, this is [for] the whole city of D.C. I was very fortunate to be able to bring this back to them and do it here.”

Harper was joined by his father Ron, his pitcher for the evening, and his partner in previous Derbies. After raising the trophy above his head, Harper quickly passed the prize to Ron.

“I love this man, he’s my hero. To be able to do that with tonight, that’s a dream come true,” Harper said.

Both Harpers struggled down the stretch of the competition.  On a hot, muggy night with temperatures above 80 degrees, Bryce Harper made good use of his timeouts, and down time by hanging in the clubhouse and adjacent batting cage. Still, through the first two minutes of the final round, Harper appeared gassed without enough in his tank to overtake Schwarber.

At the same time, Ron Harper struggled to get the ball over the plate, at one point failing to get his son to offer at three, consecutive pitches. But then, after a final timeout, everything came together with Harper depositing nine balls beyond the outfield wall in his final ten swings.

The crowd of 43,698 followed suit, roaring with each successive swing. During the brief break before the 30-second, bonus period awarded for the length of his home runs, the crowd kept it up. Then on his second swing, Harper delivered the competition winner.

“For him to come in and do that–it was getting close to the wire–then all of a sudden, he started racking them of one at a time. You just accept your fate there,” Schwarber conceded.

“We have some of the best fans in all of baseball, and to be able to do that with my family out there, that’s an incredible moment, not only for me but for the organization and the Nationals fans. I’m very blessed and humbled.”

Harper became the third slugger to win the competition in his home ballpark following Todd Frazier for the Reds in 2015, and Ryne Sandberg of the Cubs in 1990.

Harper bested the Braves’ Freddy Freeman in the first round, and the Dodgers’ Max Muncy in the semifinals. Muncy pulled the upset over the Cubs’ Javier Baez in the opening round, before falling short 13-12 to Harper in the semis.

“You can’t really feel your hands. Your forearms are really tight, so you’re not sure if you’re gripping the bat or if it’s falling out of your hands. Your legs are really sore. You just get exhausted,” Muncy said.