Giants’ bats go to sleep again in 5-1 loss to D-Backs

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Photo credit: @KNBR

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – Arizona’s Alex Young looked like an All-Star in his major-league debut Thursday night. But then again, he was pitching against the Giants, who aren’t going to remind anybody of the 1927 Yankees any time soon.

As it was, he started his big-league career with a win, as his Diamondbacks cruised to a 5-1 win over the Giants at Oracle Park. The Giants have now lost four of their last five games, and they have been in last place with no interruption since May 9.

With the exception of one exceptionally-long fly ball in the fourth inning, Young did not run into much difficulty navigating through a punchless Giants lineup that struggled to get the ball out of the infield for most of the night.

“The guy threw a lot of cutters, mixed it up,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “We couldn’t do much with him.

“(But) we’ve got to swing the bats. Three hits, very little action out there, it’s hard to win a game like that.”

He went five innings and surrendered only a run on three hits, walking and striking out five, throwing only 74 pitches in the process. His only real hiccup was a home run off the bat of Brandon Belt. From that point on, the Giants only got only runner past second base.

Giants starter Tyler Beede (1-3, 6.96 ERA) held his own and even traded zeroes with Young for the first three innings.

“He threw well, he did a nice job out there,” Bochy said. “He threw more strikes, looked more in control. He probably could have kept going, but I had Reyes (Moronta) fresh (in the bullpen). He looked much better in commanding the strike zone and staying in his delivery, and hitting his spots a lot better.”

However, he ran into some trouble to start the fourth, as he walked Ketel Marte, who will be starting for the National League at second base in this year’s All-Star Game, and then watched as David Peralta’s hot grounder up the middle skip off shortstop Brandon Crawford’s glove and bounce into shallow left-center for a double.

With runners on second and third with only one out, Christian Walker’s grounder to second scored Ketel Marte and gave Arizona a 1-0 lead, but Beede escaped the inning without any further damage.

The lead didn’t last very long. Belt led off the bottom half and took Young deep, his solo homer sailing just over the reach of center fielder Jarrod Dyson and tying the game.

However, the Diamondbacks just as quickly found themselves back in the lead. Beede made a mistake in location, and Nick Ahmed made him pay with a solo shot that went screaming down the tunnel past the left-field wall.

Beede gave up only those two runs on four hits over 5 1/3 innings, walking three and striking out another three. Those numbers typically stand a good chance to translate to a win. However, with a lineup that the Giants trot out these days, that’s nowhere close to a sure thing.

“It’s going to be up to us to put some runs on the board,” Bochy said. “Our margin of error is so small because we just don’t score a lot of runs, and one little mistake, it seems like it cost us.”

Two innings later, the door was effectively slammed shut on the Giants’ evening, when Carson Kelly’s smashed one over the wall in left-center off reliever Trevor Gott to give Arizona a 4-1 lead.

Headline Sports with Tony Renteria: Durant and Leonard could be signed with a new team by next week; Baseball epidemic, nets needed to protect fans; plus more

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Photo credit: @NBCSBoston

On Headline Sports with Tony Renteria:

#1 The Golden State Warriors’ Kevin Durant and the Toronto Raptors’ Kawhi Leonard are going free agency to see if they can get the maximum for their buck.

#2 Some of the teams that most likely will show interest in Durant and Leonard are the LA Clippers, Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks. It’s very likely everyone should learn either by Sunday night or Monday morning where they’ll be going.

#3 The Houston Rockets are shopping center Clint Capela, guard Eric Gordon, and forward PJ Tucker in their bid to get Philadelphia 76ers star Jimmy Butler. The Rockets are to trying to solidify themselves after failing to make the NBA Finals in the last two seasons.

#4 In the game of baseball, fans come many sit as close to the action as they can. After some serious injuries to fans last season, the MLB thought they got it covered with all the netting they possibly muster up to protect the fans. Last Sunday, a young girl was hit in the eye with a bullet hit by the Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger, and on May 29th, a two-year-old girl was hit by a foul ball hit by the Chicago Cubs’ Albert Almora Jr. that fractured her skull at Houston’s Minute Maid Park leaving her with injuries that she will have to battle with for years to come. The Dodgers, Nationals, and White Sox have said during the All-Star Break, they’ll be netting their entire stadiums from foul pole to foul pole.

#5 The San Francisco Giants’ lineup has been noted for having the worst offense in baseball and possibly the worst in their franchise history. The Giants do not have a batter hitting over .300 in their lineup and have lost nine of their last 12 games.

Tony does Headline Sports each Thursday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Dahl’s grand slam carries Rockies past Giants, 6-3

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By Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO — Given the Colorado Rockies’ history of harvesting sluggers over the last 26 major league seasons, David Dahl’s accomplishment on Wednesday ranks as no small feat.

Dahl’s grand slam off Jeff Samardzija propelled the Rockies in a 6-3 series clinching win as the centerfielder became the first Colorado player to hit a slam in San Francisco.

Not Larry Walker, Todd Helton, Nolan Arenado or the Big Cat, Andres Galarraga, but Dahl, the Rockies’ emerging talent with just over 200 big league contests under his belt.

“Days like today validate what you’re seeing from David,” manager Bud Black said of Dahl. “I think it’s great. I know that his motivation and his desire is to be the best player he can be, and he’s working hard and what I like is he’s doing it on both sides.”

Dahl’s 10th home run of the season wiped out the Giants’ early 2-0 lead, and was largely responsible for pinning a loss on Samardzija, who surrendered five runs on just three hits in five innings. Samardzija followed Drew Pomeranz and Madison Bumgarner on the strikeout parade, fanning six, but he couldn’t get a big out facing Dahl when he needed it.

“A two-run homer and we’re fine there, and the game’s still going our way. But when it’s four it’s unfortunate,” Samardzija said.

The Giants struck for two runs in the first, interrupting a 13-inning scoreless streak, but after Pablo Sandoval’s solo shot off Rockies’ starter German Marquez in the third, the bats went quiet again. The Giants were shutout for the fifth time at home on Monday, and scored just five runs in the series. On Wednesday, when Marquez departed, things really dried up: the Giants managed just one base hit over the final four frames.

Marquez wasn’t particularly sharp, allowing seven hits, two runs and the home run to Sandoval, but he didn’t need to be with Dahl contributing five RBI to the cause, and allowing the Rockies to lead from the third inning on. Marquez picked up his second win this season at Oracle Park, having limited the Giants to one-hit on April 14.

“German was off. It was a combination of not his usual breaking balls and lack of fastball command,” said Black. “He had to work really hard to get through that.”

The Giants tinkered with their lineup–moving Brandon Belt into the leadoff spot, spelling the scuffling Evan Longoria with Sandoval, and giving Buster Posey a day off from his catching duties–but not much of that tinkering took hold after a rare, first inning outburst.

The Giants open a four-game set on Thursday against the Diamondbacks, who just bounced back from the losing a series to the Giants over the weekend by taking two of three from the first-place Dodgers.

Only the Marlins (30-48) have a worse record than the Giants among the 15 National League clubs. The Giants have been particularly deficient at home winning just 16 of their 39 contests so far.

Arizona’s Alex Young will face the Giants’ Tyler Beede in the series opener on Thursday.

Vako’s brace powers Earthquakes over Dynamo 2-0

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Photo credit: @SJEarthquakes

By Marko Ukalovic

SAN JOSE, Calif. — In a game that was dominated from start to finish, led by Georgian striker Vako, the San Jose Earthquakes defeated the Houston Dynamo with a convincing 2-0 win on Wednesday evening at Avaya Stadium.

Vako put on a clinic out on the pitch for San Jose, whose unbeaten streak was extended to five games (4-0-1), scoring twice and had opportunities to score more than two as Houston had no answer in trying to stop him.

San Jose continued their transformation since starting the season 0-4 and have jumped to sixth place in the Western Conference that even has surprised head coach Matias Almeyda.

“I knew it was going to take a while,” said Almeyda. “I even thought it would take a little bit longer. The start was completely negative. But it’s day to day and we have to keep insisting on improving. This is one of the team’s that has the lowest payroll in the league and watching them compete at this level makes me proud.”

The Quakes (6-6-4) drew first blood halfway through the first half. Magnus Eriksson centered a pass that split two Dynamo defenders from along the right side of the goal-line to an unmarked Vako, who one-timed a chip shot past Houston goalkeeper Joe Willis for his first goal of the game and second goal of the season in the 22nd minute.

The Quakes controlled the tempo and play in the first half as they kept the Dynamo on their heels with the majority of the possession (61%-39%) being played in the Houston’s defensive zone in the opening 45 minutes.

“Really growing that belief,” said Wondo. “It’s a funny thing, confidence. We’ve bought into Matias’ game plan and when you execute it in the right way it’s very effective. It’s a lot of fun.”

In the second half, San Jose kept the pedal to the metal as they dominated play and were constantly in Houston’s end of the pitch getting six quality scoring chances in the first 20 minutes.

When Vako wasn’t scoring, he was setting up his teammates, including captain Chris Wondolowski. Vako centered a pass over to a wide-open Wondo, who was robbed from six yards out by Willis’ great two-handed save to keep the ball out of the net.

“It would’ve been very easy for him to just throw in town,” said Wondo regarding the play of Vako, who had struggled earlier on in the season. “But he’s (done) the opposite. As you saw tonight, he’s a very great player.”

Jackson Yueill led a three-on-one attack after stripping the ball off a Houston defender from 30 yards out, but his shot sailed wide of the mark in the 69th minute.

Houston (7-5-3) could not muster much of a counter attack against San Jose. An errant pass here, a turnover there was the story of the night for the fifth place Dynamo. Their poor offensive play was the catalyst for the quick counters by the Quakes that led to their numerous scoring chances.

San Jose doubled their lead in the 75th minute when Vako scored his second tally of the evening and third goal of the season when collected a rebound inside the box, dribbled five yard into the middle and rifled a shot past Willis to put the home team comfortably ahead.

“I’m just trying to stay focus and keep going,” said Vako. “I’m just happy I had some chances and I used it.”

GAME NOTES: Quakes defender Anibal Godoy underwent surgery on Tuesday to remove scar tissue from his abdomen that was impairing his bilateral nerves. He is expected to be sidelined for six weeks.

Quakes forward Danny Hoesen missed the game with an upper thigh injury.

Defenders Nick Lima (USA) and Harold Cummings (Panama) were away on international duty for their respective countries participating in the CONCACAF Gold Cup.

Houston’s Ronaldo Pena received a yellow card in the 17th minute for displaying unsportsmanlike conduct. AJ Delagarza Jr. also received a yellow card in the 57th minute on a low tackle attempt.

San Jose leads the overall series 7-4-2.

UP NEXT: The Quakes host the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday, June 29 in the annual California Clasico at Stanford Stadium at 6:30 pm.

Oakland A’s podcast with Jerry Feitelberg: A’s Mengden demonstrates the evolution of the comeback, shutout Red Birds 2-0

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mercurynews.com photo: Oakland A’s pitcher Daniel Mengden serves up a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals in a four hit shutout on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

On the A’s podcast with Jerry Feitelberg:

#1 Oakland A’s pitcher Daniel Mengden is back from his rehab assignment from Las Vegas and pitched a shutout against the St. Louis Cardinals in a 2-0 win.

#2 Mengden pitched for six innings giving up four hits and no runs striking out five. Not bad for his first game of the 2019 season.

#3 Mengden takes over for Frankie Montas’ spot and gets a great performance in after Mengden pitched lights out. The A’s are really looking for someone to also be an effective pitcher as well.

#4 The St. Louis Cardinals players got a chance to honor the St. Louis Blues before the game on Wednesday night by giving the Blues players a ride around the park with the Stanley Cup in the open convertible car.

#5 The A’s are back on the west coast after the St Louis trip and are in Anaheim tonight against the Los Angeles Angels. For the A’s, Tanner Anderson ,who is looking for his first win of 2019 (0-2, 4.20 ERA), and for the Angels, Griffin Canning (2-4, 3.88 ERA).

Catch Jerry on the A’s podcasts each Thursday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

A’s beat the Cardinals 2-0 to sweep the 2-game series

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Photo credit: @Athletics

By Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s, behind Daniel Mengden’s outstanding outing, downed the St. Louis Cardinals 2-0 at Busch Stadium on Wednesday. A’s catcher Beau Taylor hit a solo home run in the fourth, and Matt Chapman homered in the seventh to provide the offense the A’s needed.

The start of the game was delayed a few minutes due to a short rainstorm in the St. Louis area. The Cards gave some time to members of the St. Louis Blues to drive around the stadium with the Stanley Cup. The Blues won the cup for the first time in their history.

Mengden, who was called up from Las Vegas to take Frankie Montas’ position in the starting rotation, pitched exceptionally well. He gave the A’s six innings of work, and he allowed just four hits and no runs. Mengden walked one and struck out five. Yusmeiro Petit worked the seventh, and Joakim Soria the eighth. Both retired the Cardinals in order. Liam Hendriks worked the ninth. With one out, he gave up a double to Marcel Ozuna. Hendriks retired Jose Martinez and Yadier Molina to seal the win for the A’s. Mengden’s record improved to 2-1, and his ERA dropped to 4.09. Hendriks earned his second save. Hendriks is now the closer until Blake Treinen returns from the 10-day IL.

The Card Adam Wainwright also pitched well. He went 6 2/3 innings. He gave up seven hits and two runs. Both runs came on home runs by Beau Taylor (#2) and Matt Chapman (#19). He walked one and struck out nine. He is now 5-7 for the season.

The A’s line was two runs, eight hits, and no errors. The Cards’ line was no runs, five hits, and no errors.

With the win, the A’s are now five games over the .500 mark with a record of 43-38. The Cards drop to 40-39. The A’s picked up a game on the Houston Astros and trail them by seven games. The Texas Rangers won their game, and they lead the A’s by 1 1/2 games in the race for second place in the AL West.

The A’s left for Anaheim after completion of the game. They begin a four-game series with the LA Angels starting Thursday night at 7:07 pm Tanner Anderson (0-2, 4.20 ERA) will go for Oakland, and Griffin Canning (2-4, 3,88 ERA) will pitch for LA.

Time of game was two hours and 46 minutes. 44,871 fans watched the game.

Headline Sports podcast with London Marq: Trump says Rapinoe’s protest is inappropriate; War of words starting to brew between Trump and Rapinoe over protests; plus more

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photo from time.com: Megan Rapinoe #15 of USA (center) and her teammates are standing for the national anthem during the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup France Group F match between USA and Chile at Parc des Princes on June 16, 2019 in Paris, France.

On the Headline Sports podcast with London:

#1 The war of tweets and words has initially begun at the US World Women’s soccer matches between President Trump and US Women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe. Rapinoe originally took a knee during national anthems during the 2016 games. Now she stands without putting her hand over her heart unlike the rest of the teammates. Rapinoe said she will not visit the White House if the US team wins the championship. Trump says by her not doing it, Rapinoe is inappropriate and said she should win first before she talks.

#2 Rapinoe said that the reason she is protesting is because of unjustified treatment by police and law enforcement officials towards minorities and people of color. Rapinoe told American Soccer Now, “Being a gay American, I know what it means to look at the flag and not have it protect all of your liberties.” With the World Cup going on, this will most likely not be the last of the stand off between Trump and Rapinoe.

#3 We asked London about the World Cup putting up signs on the scoreboard indicating that there will game delays for replay reviews. This lends to fans following the games and thinking that their team has the game in hand, but they’ll wait until a replay review has been called for.

#4 After going five straight games without a loss the San Jose Earthquakes lost to LAFC who took it to the Quakes with a 3-1 win in Los Angeles last week on Thursday. For LA, Adama Diomande scored twice, which led LAFC to the two-goal win.

#5 The Quakes continue their road trip tonight against Houston at Avaya Stadium in San Jose as they face the Dynamo. The Dynamo are in fifth place in the MLS West at 7-3-4. The Dynamo are 2-1-3 in their last six games and have lost their last two games to Minnesota and Portland.

London Marq covers the San Jose Earthquakes and does Headline Sports podcasting each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Baseball in England? “This is Bloody Cool”

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Photo credit: @visitlondon

By: Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

Major League Baseball’s first regular season series will take place this weekend from June 29-30 at London Stadium in London, England.

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are the greatest rivalry in baseball and perhaps professional sports. The Red Sox are the home team, which makes a lot of sense for their first ever game in England, since the Red Sox play in New England. The NFL and the NBA have played in England, but this is a first for the MLB.

The Yankees have an on-going major league record of 29 consecutive games hitting a home run, plus they just ended a 10-game homestand with a 9-1 record. As this series gets underway, the Yankees are leading the AL East with 52-28 and a nine-game lead over the reigning champion Red Sox, who are in third place.

The two-game series between the Yankees and Red Sox will see the biggest and oldest rivalry in US sports in front of an estimated 130,000 fans.

London Stadium is a multipurpose outdoor stadium with a capacity of 66,000. One of the most iconic cities of the world, London has Big Ben, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, and the Coca Cola London Eye, a huge observation wheel next to the Thames river. It is a scenario worthy for a James Bond movie.

It will be aired on FOX Sports Saturday, June 29 at 1:10PM EDT and ESPN Sunday, June 30 at 10:10 AM EDT.

Baseball in England is a spectacle, and like the British would say, “This is bloody cool.”

Bumgarner looks dominant in Giants’ 4-2 win

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Photo credit: @KNBR

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO — After one of his worst starts of the 2019 season, Madison Bumgarner came back with a vengeance.

In six innings of work, Bumgarner struck out a season-high 11 and added a RBI single, as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Colorado Rockies 4-2.

Bumgarner, who raised his record to 4-7 on the season followed up a terrible start against the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he allowed six runs in 3.2 innings of work.

“He’s shown that ability so many times to come off a bad start and put it behind him and wash it off and bounce back,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He did that tonight. What a great game he threw.”

Bumgarner did not give up a hit until Ian Desmond hit a solo home run in the top of the fourth inning, as he stopped a streak of retiring 10 in a row.

The Rockies also scored in the top of the sixth inning, as left fielder Alex Dickerson lost the ball in the lights that allowed Charlie Blackmon score on a double by David Dahl that cut the Giants lead down to one run.

“I’ve been getting caught just pitching to just one side pretty much every pitch,” Bumgarner said. “These guys are too good to do that to. The plate is small enough as it is so you better use the whole thing.”

In six innings of work, Bumgarner gave up two runs on three hits and three walks along with 11 strikeouts. It was the first double-digit strikeout game for Bumgarner since April 2, 2017 against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field.

Donovan Solano picked up a single of his own in the bottom of the fourth inning, and then Bumgarner came up with one of his own to lengthen the Giants lead up to 3-1.
This was the first appearance for Chi Chi Gonzalez in the majors since the 2016 season, and he got off to a great start, as he struck out the side in the top of the first inning. In all, Gonzalez gave up three runs on six hits in five innings of work.

Tyler Austin put the finishing touches on the scoring in the bottom of the seventh inning, as he hit a pinch-hit home run.

It was the seventh home run of the season for Austin and his second pinch-hit home run for him this season.

The bullpen trio of Sam Dyson, Tony Watson and Will Smith pitched a perfect three innings, following up Derek Hollands three innings of perfect work on Monday night.
Smith pitched the ninth inning to notch his 21st save in 21 chances this season.

NOTES: Bumgarners 11 strikeouts moved him past Matt Cain for third place in San Francisco Giants history.

Brandon Belt batted leadoff for just the second time in his major-league career, and he struck out on three pitches in his first at-bat against Gonzalez.

“It didn’t look too smart the first at-bat,” Bochy said. “I told him, `You’re supposed to make me look good, but three pitches and you sit down.’ He laughed.”

UP NEXT: Jeff Samardzija takes the mound for the Giants on Wednesday afternoon, while the Rockies will counter with German Marquez.

Aces take down defending champions, 60-56

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20190602 - Liz Cambage 03

Photo credit: Sports Radio Service/Shawn McCullough

By Shawn McCullough

The Aces proved that they could play with the best.

Las Vegas beat the 2018 WNBA champion Seattle Storm, 60-56 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

But despite struggling in the first half, the Aces pulled out the win.

“I’m not happy one bit,” said head coach Bill Laimbeer. “I told the players at the halftime that I was embarrassed for our players and our team. I thought we had no life. An important game like this, a game that we needed to win, and we laid an egg in the first half. I was embarrassed. At the end of the game, we won the game but I’m disturbed because any adversity that comes our way we don’t respond to it.”

Liz Cambage led the Aces with 14 points and 13 rebounds, while A’ja Wilson added 12.

“We don’t know how to be consistent,” said Cambage. “That’s pretty much it right now. We gotta learn how to win and how to stick with it and come out aggressive.”

The Aces turned the ball over 17 times and shot just 31.4% from the field.

“All wins can’t be beautiful, I wish they could,” said Wilson. “We learned that we need to grind things out. Nothing is easy in this league and we have to attack every single game like it’s a playoff game, that’s where we got caught up a little bit. For us to win this game against the defending champions is definitely something that we should be proud of, but in situations like the way we played we shouldn’t be proud of that at all.”

With the win, the Aces improved to 6-4 on the season heading into a game in Los Angeles on Thursday against the Sparks.

Las Vegas Aces – http://aces.wnba.com

Game Notes:

  • Liz Cambage recorded her second double-double of the season.
  • The win moves the Aces to two games over .500 for the first time since the 2014 season in San Antonio.
  • The Aces outscored the Storm 16-0 in fast break points.
  • 4,215 fans attended the game.

Game Starters:

F – 22 A’ja Wilson
F – 21 Kayla McBride
C – 8 Liz Cambage
G – 0 Jackie Young
G – 10 Kelsey Plum