A’s cut magic number to 1 with 3-2 win over the Twins on a wild pitch walk-off

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Photo credit: @Athletics

By: Jeremiah Salmonson

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Oakland A’s came into Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Twins feeling good. Friday night ended in another Khris Davis walk-off homer, and shrunk the A’s magic number to three games. The starting pitching matchup was the A’s Mike Fiers, who faced the Twins’ Chase De Jong. The A’s record coming into the game was 93-61 versus the Twins 71-82.

Fiers came out in full force for the A’s. He struck out the side in order in the first inning followed by a scoreless second inning. The third inning would be a little bump in the road for Fiers. He surrendered a double and single to start the inning. He managed to limit the damage by getting Joe Mauer to hit a sacrifice fly, Jorge Polanco to pop out, and Jake Cave to fly out to end the inning. The A’s on the other hand hadn’t been able to get much going against De Jong logging two hits through three innings.

Neither team was able to muster anything until the A’s came to bat in the bottom of the fifth. Ramon Laureano hit a one out single followed by a low line drive homer for Marcus Semien. Semien’s homer sailed over the out of town scoreboard in left field to give the A’s a 2-1 advantage in the fifth.

The next scoring chance came in the top of the seventh for the Twins. Ehire Adrianza doubled followed by a RBI single from Willians Astudillo. Mark Canha made a great effort to throw out Afrianza, but ultimately, Jonathan Lucroy wasn’t able to come up with the throw. The game was tied 2-2 at this point. In the bottom of the eighth, the A’s had a runner on third with two outs and Matt Olson grounded out to keep the game tied.

Blake Treinen came in the ninth and worked a relatively easy inning. He retired the first two Twins he faced before giving up a bloop single. He proceeded to strike out the next batter and end the Twins’ half of the ninth.

In the bottom of the ninth, Stephen Piscotty led it off with a ringing double down the line in left. Ramon Laureano struck out, Marcus Semien reached on a throwing error, and Matt Joyce was intentionally walked. Paul Molitor then brought in his right fielder to play the infield in an effort to cut down a potential run at the plate. Mark Canha struck out, but it wasn’t over just yet. With Matt Chapman batting and the bases loaded Trevor Hildenberger unleashed a wild pitch that brought Stephen Piscotty home to score.

With the A’s win and the Rays’ loss, the A’s magic number to clinch a Wild Card birth is one game.

The A’s will wrap up their series versus the Twins on Sunday afternoon at 1:05 pm PDT. Trevor Cahill (6-3, 3.77 ERA) will be on the Oakland mound and his opponent will be Minnesota’s Kyle Gibson (8-13, 3.78 ERA).

San Jose Sharks podcast with Len Shapiro: A look how Karlsson will impact the Sharks in 2018-19

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Photo credit: @theScore

On the Sharks podcast with Len:

#1 The acquisition of  Erik Karlsson from the Ottawa Senators is all the rage in San Jose. What will Karlsson add to the Sharks’ lineup?

#2 Karlsson says he’s worth an eight-year contract. Talk about the deal–Karlsson got to come to San Jose!

#3 Karlsson spent nine years in Ottawa and helped the Sens get close to the Stanley Cup in 2017. The reason why Karlsson left is that he was asking for more than what small market Ottawa could afford.

#4 The Sharks trimmed their roster after Thursday’s game in Anaheim, sending 16 players to juniors and 12 players going to the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda.

#5 Ivan Chekhovich scored twice against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night. Chekhovich was sent down. Looks like they want Chekhovich to get more experience in the AHL first.

Len does the Sharks podcasts each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

LAFC held the Earthquakes to just 1 shot in 2-0 shutout

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Photo credit: @SJEarthquakes

By: Pearl Allison Lo

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Football Club prevailed over the San Jose Earthquakes again 2-0 Saturday to earn points in six straight games.

The teams’ only meeting previously was in the Bay Area at Avaya Stadium June 9, where LAFC won in stoppage time 4-3. This result ended an eight-game scoring streak and continued a four-game losing streak for the Quakes. The last time San Jose was shut out was July 28th versus Real Salt Lake. The last time the Quakes were shut out in a loss was the game previous to that one versus the Seattle Sounders.

After playing top team Atlanta on Wednesday, the Quakes played another top 3 team in LAFC. Both teams took a water break in each half on the first day of fall as they kicked off the first MLS game of the day. 6’3” Walker Zimmerman led LAFC with his first two goals of the season, the first scores with his new club. Captain Carlos Vela had the two assists and a game-high six shots and four shots on goal.

Quakes keeper JT Marcinkowski, who made his first MLS start Wednesday, started for the second game in a row. He was forced to make a career-high six saves. Marcincowski commented, “…this being my first away match in the MLS, I think it’s a pretty cool environment to be in…but at the end of the day, still didn’t get the result, so a bit frustrating, but definitely some stuff to look forward to.”

The Quakes have faced at least 18 shots in their last two games and at least 16 shots in their last three.

Corners were the name of the game in the first half. LAFC dominated possession at first. They started with three corners and six crosses and ended with nine corners to San Jose’s one.

Marcinkowski had two close calls involving Adama Diomande in the 14th and 19th minutes. During the first, Diego Rossi was close to connecting with Diomande, but Diomande got called offside. In the 19th minute, Marcinowski was able to race to the ball before Diomande.

After Marcinkowski made a high right hand save in the previous minute, Vela had a clear shot but it went to the hands of Marcinkowski in the 22nd. Rossi had a side angle shot in the 39th minute but was blocked. This precipitated three corners. The next corner would not fare so well after the Quakes got just a bit of breathing room.

Harold Cummings turned the ball over, Latif Blessing gunned for the net and Florian Jungwirth kicked the ball out for a corner. Zimmerman nailed the top left as he won the aerial battle in the 41st minute, making it 1-0.

The shot total in the first half was 11 (five on target) for LAFC and 3 for San Jose (one on target–Jackson Yueill in the 15th and 21st and Jahmir Hyka in the 30th). Two of the Quake’s shots were blocked. Vela led all in the first with three shots, two on goal and an assist.

Yueill had a close chance in the 54th minute, but his shot went just wide. It would be San Jose’s only attempt in the second half.

Former Quake Marco Ureña had his shot blocked in the 67th minute and a corner was conceded by Joel Qwiberg. This set up Vela and Zimmerman, who connected for a goal again in the 65th minute. Vela took the corner like before and Zimmerman, facing towards him, headed the ball into the net again, this one close to his back.

Regarding the defenses, San Jose Captain Chris Wondolowski stated, “I thought LAFC played pretty well, they were really organized…definitely a Bob Bradley coached team, very compact, well disciplined. I thought our defense played well too, we let two set piece goals, which is a bit uncharacteristic for us, got punished and rightfully so.”

San Jose made their last two substitutions in the 71st and 81st minute and had two more minutes of stoppage time in the second half but were unable to break through this time.

Quakes interim head coach Steve Ralston relayed, “Performance I thought was actually okay,.. Coming off the game on Wednesday on short notice, early game in heat, and me asking them to do the things that I ask them to do, is going to be hard…but I feel for this club going forward, this is what we need to do. Elaborating, he replied, “It’s a new formation we haven’t played all season. This is only the second game…” On what went wrong, “…we never could really get through in the final third, kind of ran out of ideas. What he wants the team to do, is to “…just press forward.”

San Jose’s Magnum Eriksson was not in the top 18 for just the second time this season.

Up Next: The Quakes travel to play the Houston Dynamo Saturday at 5:30 pm PDT.

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.

MLB The Show podcast with Matt Harrington: Can Yanks open up the lead in the Wild Card?; If not, A’s can help it; Tribe, Red Sox set for postseason; Puig’s home gets burglarized again

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Photo credit: @TheRitaGarcia

On the MLB The Show podcast with Matt:

#1 The New York Yankees are sitting on the top of the AL Wild Card standings by 1 1/2 games. They host the struggling Baltimore Orioles and can capitalize if they can win at least two out three.

#2 The A’s open a three-game set Friday versus the Minnesota Twins at the Oakland Coliseum. The A’s are in second in the AL Wild Card race and will have to win almost all their remaining games to catch the Yankees. Even at 1 1/2, the Yankees keep pulling away each time the A’s start to get close.

#3 The Houston Astros are closing in to clinch the American League West title. The Astros have a 3 1/2 game lead. The Astros are projected to win 102 at the pace they’re going.

#4 Teams that have already clinched? The Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox. Of these two teams, Matt tells us who will go the deepest in the playoffs.

#5 Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig’s home in Encino, Calif. was burglarized for the fourth time. This time the thieves made off with $170,000 in jewelry. Puig was on the field when the theft went down.

Matt Harrington does the MLB The Show podcast each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Jaime Jarren at the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum & Hall of Fame Wall at the Coliseum

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Photo credit: Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

By: Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

Jaime Jarrin has been the Spanish voice for the Los Angeles Dodgers for over half a century. As you can see, Jarrin is standing at the popular Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame wall conveniently located at the Club Level entrance of the Oakland Coliseum, the home of the Oakland Athletics.

Jarren is pointing at the flag of Ecuador. Ecuador is his country of birth. Aside from Jarren, other folks love to stop by the same area to take pictures of the colorful wall.

Amaury Pi-González serves as the Vice President of The Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame, a nonprofit organization that was founded in San Francisco in 1998.

Click the link for more information: http://www.hispanicheritagebaseballmuseum.org/

Davis’ Second Homer Leads to A’s Walk-off Win Over Twins 7-6

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Photo credit: @Athletics

By: Matthew Harrington

The Oakland A’s inched, or rather walked off a step closer to a playoff berth, coming from behind to beat the Minnesota Twins 7-6 in 10 innings at the Coliseum on Friday night. Khris Davis hit a pair of home runs, including the game-winner, to cut the A’s magic number to three games.

Davis crushed his league-leading 45th homer to deep center field with no outs in the bottom of the 10th, erasing the sting of a blown 4-0 A’s lead. Blake Treinen strengthened his Cy Young candidacy by picking up the win after allowing no hits over the ninth and 10th innings for his eighth win of the year. Matt Magill wound up the loser after finishing off the ninth inning by standing a pair of runners, but failing to retire Davis to start the 10th.

Davis knocked in a pair of runs in the bottom of the first on his first homer of the game, a two-run shot off Twins starter Jose Berrios. A couple of sacrifice flies had the A’s up 4-0 with opener Liam Hendriks and long reliever Chris Bassitt out of the game after five innings of combined work.

The Twins plated six runs in a lengthy sixth inning, knocking around Lou Trivino (four runs) and Shawn Kelley (two runs) to take a 6-4 edge, but Mark Canha returned fire in the bottom of the frame with a two-run shot of his own off reliever Gabriel Moya. Berrios was charged with one of the runs, ending the day with 5 2/3 innings of work and five runs (four earned).

Ryan Buchter and Jeurys Familia pitched scoreless seventh and eighth innings, respectively, to open the door for Treinen. Treinen handle his part, as did Davis, to help the A’s keep pace with the New York Yankees in the top AL Wild Card chase. New York, by virtue of beating the Baltimore Orioles Friday, leads the race for home field in the one-game playoff by just a game and a half. Oakland will send the leading candidate to pitch in the contest, Mike Fiers, to the mound Saturday night at 6:05 pm PDT against Minnesota.

Adams hits a big home run; Cardinals beat Giants 5-3

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Photo credit: @Cardinals

By Jeremy Kahn

Matt Adams hit a big home run for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2014 National League Championship Series, and he came up with a big hit in the opener of their three-game series against the San Francisco Giants.

Adams, who hit a home run off of Hunter Strickland in the bottom of the eighth inning in Game 2 of the 2014 NLCS hit a two-run, pinch-hit double off of Tony Watson in the bottom of the eighth inning, as the Cardinals defeated the Giants 5-3 at Busch Stadium.

Harrison Bader got the eighth inning rally started with a two-out walk off of Mark Melancon, then Yairo Munoz singled before Melancon was replaced by Watson, who gave up the two-run double to Adams.

Reliever John Brebbia struck out the side in the top of the eighth inning to pick up his fifth win of the season for the Cards, while Carlos Martinez, who was celebrating his 27th birthday notched his fourth save in as many opportunities.

Marcell Ozuna drove in the first run of the game for the Cardinals, as he singled to drive in Matt Carpenter in the bottom of the first inning.

Chris Shaw tied up the game in the top of the third inning, as he drew a walk against Cards starter John Gant to score Evan Longoria.

It was a big night for Longoria, who went 3-for-5 on the evening for the Giants, who have lost 14 out of their 18 games, including a season-long 11-game losing streak.

Gant did not get of the third inning, as he went just 2.2 innings, allowing one run on four hits, walking three and striking out three and threw 67 pitches in those 2.2 innings.

Kolten Wong gave the Cards the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning, as he singled off of Madison Bumgarner to score Bader.

Wong came up with his second hit and second run batted in in as many innings, as he singled off of Bumgarner in the bottom of the sixth inning to score Jedd Gyorko.

Bumgarner pitched six innings, allowing three runs on eight hits, walking one and striking out five.

The Giants tied up the game in the top of the seventh inning, as Gregor Blanco singled to score Austin Slater and then Longoria tied up the game with a ground ball to first base that scored Alen Hanson.

NOTES: Brandon Belt is done for the season, as he underwent surgery to clean up his torn meniscus and cartilage damage in his right knee. This was the second surgery of the season for Belt, who underwent an emergency appendectomy on June 2 after he left the game against the Philadelphia Phillies. Belt should be ready when the team meets again in Scottsdale, Ariz. in February at their Spring Training Complex.

This season, Belt hit .253 with 14 home runs and 46 RBIs for the Giants.

UP NEXT: The Giants and Cards continue their series with game two Saturday at 10:05 am PDT.

Dereck Rodriguez goes for his seventh win of the season, as he takes the mound against Adam Wainwright, who looks for his third win of the season for the Cards. Wainwright is 6-7 against the Giants in his career, while Rodriguez will face the Cards for the second time in his career. Rodriguez faced the Cards on July 6, where he did not fare in the decision of a 3-2 Giants victory.

Tyler Ulis reportedly agrees to Exhibit 10 contract with the Warriors

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Photo credit: @957thegame

By: Ana Kieu

The defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors are continuing to make moves this offseason. The Athletic’s Anthony Slater first broke the news on Twitter.

Ulis last played for the NBA G League’s Northern Arizona Suns in 2017-2018. The 22-year-old was initially selected 34th overall in the second round of the 2016 NBA Draft by the Phoenix Suns. The former Kentucky baller made 71 appearances and 43 starts last season in Phoenix, averaging 7.8 points, 4.4 assists and 23.4 minutes per game.

According to ESPN’s Marc J. Spears, Ulis reportedly chose the Warriors over the Rockets and Kings.

Ulis was waived by the Suns on June 30th.

Of course, we’ll have to see how Ulis plays in Oakland. But I think that this move was a win-win for both parties. Ulis likely wanted to join a winning team and the Warriors appeared to be planning for the future.

Oakland Raiders podcast with Joe Hawkes Beamon: Raiders need to button down the hatches on defense; Carr can beat the Dolphins

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Photo credit: @Big_Tah47

On the Raiders podcast with J Hawkes:

#1 The Raiders continue their road trip. This time, Week 3 brings them to Miami as they come off a razor edge loss in Denver last Sunday 20-19.

#2 Last season in Week 9, both the Raiders and Dolphins played to a 27-24 Raiders win when Marshawn Lynch carried a three-yard, fourth quarter touchdown for the win.

#3 The Raiders lost on a game-winning field goal after leading the Broncos by as much as 17 points. Broncos quarterback Casey Keenum helped the Broncos’ down field to set up a score.

#4 After Khalil Mack went to Chicago, the Raiders’ defense has been suspect and that was evident after dropping the 17 points in the second half of Sunday’s game.

#5 The Raiders now face the Miami Dolphins (2-0) with quarterback Ryan Tannehill, whose 31-57 for 398 yards. Joe takes a look at these two teams matching up.

Joe does the Raiders podcasts each Friday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com