Raiders fall short in 19-15 loss to Rams

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By Jeremy Kahn

In their first game back at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum since the end of the 1994 season, the Oakland Raiders return was spoiled by the current tenants, the Los Angeles Rams, on Saturday.

John Kelly ran for 56 yards and a touchdown, helping the Rams to a 19-15 victory on a balmy Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles.

After trailing 16-0, the Raiders came all the back to get within one point, as Chris Warren ran for 110 yards and a touchdown in front of a partisan Raiders crowd at the stadium that they called home from 1982-1994.

Kelly got the Rams on the board in the second quarter, as he scored on a two-yard run to give the Rams a 7-0 lead.

That Kelly touchdown would be the only one that the Raiders defense would allow, as it became a field goal for the Rams, who are coming off a NFC West Division a season ago.

Greg Zuerlein gave the Rams their next six points, as he nailed a 42-yard field goal with 2:05 remaining in the half and then kicked a 28-yard field goal to send the Rams to the locker room with a 13-0 lead.

Sam Ficken stretched the lead up to 16-0, as he nailed a 31-yard field goal straight thru the uprights for the Rams.

On their next possession, the Raiders finally got on the board, as Warren scored on a three-yard run; however, the Raiders attempt at a two-point conversion was not successful.

Mike Nugent, who is trying to make the team as the teams’ kicker behind rookie Johnny Townsend cut the Rams lead down to seven, as he kicked a 31-yard field goal in the fourth quarter.

James Cowser made the defensive play of the game, as he intercepted a Brandon Allen pass at the Rams’ 36-yard line and returned it to the 21-yard line for a 15-yard return.

Just four plays later, the Raiders pulled within one point, as E.J. Manuel found former Stanford standout Griff Whalen for a 10-yard touchdown pass; however, the Warren rush on the two-point conversion came up short and the Rams maintained their one point lead.

Following the Whalen touchdown, Allen drove the Rams all the way down to the Raiders’ 14-yard line and the Rams were held to a 32-yard Ficken field goal.

With a chance to win the game, the Raiders began their final drive of the game, but the offense stalled, as the Raiders could only get to the Rams 47-yard line and then Manuel was sacked for a 10-yard loss and that would be the last time that the Raiders would get the ball.

Following the Townsend punt, the Rams ran the ball and were able to run out the clock and give the preseason tilt to the Rams.

Without the services of David Carr, Marshawn Lynch, Amari Cooper and many other would be regulars, the Raiders were led by Manuel, who went 10-for-16 for 89 yards and a touchdown. Connor Cook started the game for the Raiders, and went 6-for-12 for 49 yards, as he competes with Cook for the backup quarterback position to Carr when the season begins on September 10 at the Oakland Coliseum.

Warren took advantage of Lynch not playing, as he carried the ball 18 times for 110 yards and a touchdown.

Both rookie Paul Butler and Jalen Richard each caught three passes for 35 yards for the Raiders, who fall to 1-1 on the preseason.

NOTES: The Raiders and the Rams will see each other once again in just 23 days, as the two teams will face each other in the season opener on September 10 in Oakland in the second game of the Monday Night doubleheader.

UP NEXT: After the short trip to Los Angeles, the Raiders return home for their home preseason finale on Friday night, as they will face the Green Bay Packers at the Oakland Coliseum at 7:30 pm PDT.

MLB The Show Podcast with Matt Harrington: A’s close the gap in the AL West; Dodgers crush Mariners–now 2 out; White Sox, 25 games out, but still attract loyal fans

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On the MLB The Show podcast with Matt:

The Oakland A’s are the toast of baseball with their series opening win over the Houston Astros in 10 innings on Friday night at the Oakland Coliseum 4-3. The A’s now move just one game back behind first place Houston in the AL West. The Astros have been snake bitten with five of their key players on the disabled list.

The Los Angeles Dodgers keep the pressure up as they pick up their second straight win this time in a laugher at Safeco Field against the Seattle Mariners 11-1. For the Mariners, their third loss in their last four games and trying to get some traction since the A’s passed them up in the AL West standings the M’s are now 4 1/2 games back. The Dodgers are now just two games back of first place Arizona in the NL West.

Despite being 25 games out of first place in the AL Central, the Chicago White Sox have won three straight in a 9-3 victory over the visiting Kansas City Royals on Friday night. Their not drawing record breaking crowds but considering where they are in mid-August. They drew over 24,000 at Guaranteed Rate Field.

The New York Yankees–still holding onto a wild card spot and some 10 1/5 games behind first place Boston–were able to get a two run win over the Toronto Blue Jays. The Yanks’ Neil Walker hit a three-run homer and Giancarlo Stanton hit an opposite field homer in the cause.

The race for the NL East between the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies got a little interesting Friday night. The Braves who lost and the Phils, who won tighten their pace by a 1/2 game. The second place Phils are now a 1/2 game out as the first place Braves lost to the Colorado Rockies 11-5 and the Phillies got a two-run win over the Mets 4-2 after the Mets crushed the Phillies on Thursday 24-4.

Matt Harrington does the Oakland A’s coverage each Friday and MLB The Show podcasts at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Olson’s First Walk-Off Homer Puts A’s One Game Back of Astros After 4-3 Win in 10 Innings

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By: Matt Harrington

OAKLAND — The Oakland A’s now have a chance to exit the weekend series against the Houston Astros with a one-game lead in the American League West, and momentum is on their side. The A’s tied the game in the bottom of the ninth inning on a play at the plate, then Matt Olson launched his first career walk-off hit, a homer of Tony Sipp, in the bottom of the 10th for a 4-3 win over the division leaders at Oakland Coliseum on Friday night.

Olson pulled the A’s to within one game of the division lead after working a full count off Sipp. Sipp’s 3-2 pitch, a slider low in the zone just below the belt, found its way over the right field wall for Olson’s 23rd longball of the year and Sipp’s first loss of the campaign (1-2, 1.80 ERA). He almost didn’t get a chance for his heroics. The A’s trailed 3-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning. The leadoff man Mark Canha grounded out against reliever Hector Rondon to leave the A’s two outs away from defeat. Pinch hitter Chad Pinder walked, then was replaced by rookie Ramon Laureano, a pivotal substitution by A’s manager Bob Melvin.

The next batter, Nick Martini, laced a ball to right, with Laureano racing home from first. Josh Reddick’s throw home beat him to the plate and Astros catcher Martin Maldonado appeared to block off the plate perfectly to tag out Laureano as he dove headfirst across home. Home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez thought so, too, calling Laureano out.

The rookie, however, felt he had gained the plate legally, gesturing as soon as he rose from his slide. His manager challenged the play, and following a lengthy review, Laureano was deemed both correct and safe and Oakland was tied 3-3. Blake Treinen (6-2, 0.87 ERA) worked around a runner at second with two outs, while striking out three Stros to pick up his sixth win of the year.

The A’s had to play catch-up three times. They trailed 2-0 heading into the bottom of the fifth after starter Edwin Jackson gave up solo homers Alex Bregman and Maldonado in the fourth and fifth innings, respectively. They loaded the bases against Houston starter Charlie Morton with no outs, but Jonathan Lucroy only plated one runner on a double-play grounder. Matt Chapman would plate another run in the inning, but the big damage was avoided with the A’s forced to settle for the 2-2 tie.

The tie would be short-lived, as Houston scored in the top of the sixth. Lou Trivino struck out Carlos Correa but walked Marwin Gonzalez and Evan Gattis to put himself in trouble. Reddick capitalized against his former team, singling in Gonzalez. Trivino wriggled out of the jam trailing 3-2 after getting first baseman Tyler White to bounce into a double play.

The A’s don’t need to do any scoreboard watching if they want to lead the division by the end of play Saturday. They just need Trevor Cahill to take the bump and stymie the Houston batters. Oh, and they also need to beat Dallas Keuchel, a former Cy Young award winner.

The A’s and Astros will square off for game two Saturday afternoon at 1:05 pm PDT.

Ervin’s first career walk-off helps Reds to 2-1 win over Giants in 11 innings

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By Jeremy Kahn

Phillip Ervin ended the pitchers’ duel between the San Francisco Giants and the Cincinnati Reds with one swing of the bat.

Ervin hit the first pitch he saw from Ray Black over the center field wall, helping the Reds to a 2-1 over the Giants at the Great American Ballpark on Friday.

It was the first walk-off home run for Ervin since he hit one in his sophomore year of college for Samford against Auburn.

The loss by the Giants was the second straight loss after starting the road trip with two straight come-from-behind victories over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday and Tuesday at Dodger Stadium.

Casey Kelly made the start in place of the now disabled Dereck Rodriguez, who is on the disabled list (retroactive to Monday) after straining his hamstring during the bench clearing brawl between Nick Hundley and Yaisel Puig.

Kelly, who was making his 10th Major League start of his career and first since May 22, 2016 for the Atlanta Braves had a long-time fan in the Reds’ dugout, his father Pat, who is the bench coach for the Reds.

Prior to the game, Kelly looked into the Reds dugout, and the two saluted each and then it was the Giants and the Reds.

Kelly, who pitched 1.1 innings on Wednesday night in the series finale against the Dodgers went 4.1 innings, allowing just one run on nine hits, walking one and striking out two.

Not only was Kelly’s father in the Reds dugout, but Kelly also faced former high school teammate, Scooter Gennett, who ended the night with three hits.

Five Giants relievers 5.2 innings, allowing just that one run on two hits, walking one and striking out nine.

It was the second loss of the season for Black, who went one inning and one batter, allowing the eventual game-winning home run to Ervin, on one hit and struck out the side in the bottom of the 10th inning.

David Hernandez pitched a shutdown 11th inning, as he struck out two of the three batters he faced in the inning to up his record to 5-0 on the season and the Reds ended a four-game losing streak.

Curt Casali gave the Reds a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning, as singled in Tucker Barnhart, who doubled.

That was not the score for long, as the Giants tied the game in the top of the third, as Steven Duggar hit a leadoff double, then Kelly sacrificed to third and then Duggar scored the tying run on an Andrew McCutchen single off of Reds starter Andrew DeSclafani, who went 7.2 innings, allowing one run on six hits, walking one and five strikeouts.

McCutchen picked up three hits on the evening for the Giants.

NOTES: With Rodriguez on the disabled list, Hunter Strickland will be activated from the 60-day disabled list after missing two months with a broken right hand.

UP NEXT: The Giants and Reds will face each other again Saturday at 4:10 pm PDT.

Madison Bumgarner takes the hill on Saturday for the Giants, as they look to even up the series, while Matt Harvey takes the mound for the Reds.

Aces eliminated from playoff contention with 107-102 loss to Dallas

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Aja

Photo credit: Las Vegas Aces

By Shawn McCullough

The Aces fought through the second to the last game of the regular season, but fell short of the playoffs for the fourth straight season.

The Wings got 43 points from center Liz Cambage to beat the Aces 107-102 at the College Park Center in Dallas on Friday.

Forward A’ja Wilson led the Aces with 34 points and seven rebounds, while guard Kayla McBride added a double-double, 16 points and 12 assists.

The Aces led by six points at halftime, but Dallas battled back and later held off Las Vegas down the stretch of the game.

The Aces trail the Wings by one game for the final playoff spot with one game remaining for each team, but since Dallas beat Las Vegas all three times this season, the Wings win the tie breaker in the event the two teams end the season tied.

With the loss, the Aces fell to 14-19 on the season, still improving on an 8-26 record last season.

The Aces will finish the season on Sunday against the Atlanta Dream at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 3 pm PDT.

Las Vegas Aces – http://aces.wnba.com

Game Notes:

  • A’ja Wilson scored in double figures (34) for the 31st straight game.
  • The Aces shot 57.7% from the field.
  • The Aces were out-rebounded 42-25.

Game Starters:

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

Oakland A’s podcast with Joey Friedman: A’s giving Astros a good run as Houston just hanging on by two games with five key injuries

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On the A’s podcast with Joey:

How tight will this race go in the American League West? The Houston Astros are holding onto a two-game lead over the Oakland A’s, who open a very tight playoff-like series tonight at the Oakland Coliseum. The A’s have fallen to the Astros in all of their meetings at the Coliseum this season in the month of May and June and are hoping to turn that around. The A’s swept the Astros the last time the two teams met at Minute Maid Field.

The A’s Brett Anderson last Wednesday (the A’s had Thursday off) pitched 7.2 innings, going 7.2 innings, five hits and two strikeouts in a brilliantly pitched game at the Coliseum that went 12 innings. The Astros are snake-bitten right now with injuries to second baseman Jose Altuve (knee), outfielder Jake Marisnick (groin), catcher Brian McCain (knee), pitcher Lance McCullers (forearm) and shortstop Carlos Correa (back). Will these missing Astros help give the A’s an advantage?

Here are the starting pitchers for tonight: For the A’s, Edwin Jackson (4-2), and for the Astros, Charlie Morton (12-3).

Joey does the A’s podcast each Friday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland Raiders podcast with Joe Hawkes Beamon: Cook looks like a good backup quarterback; Who to look for among receiver and running backs

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On the Raiders podcast with Joe Hawkes Beamon:

The Oakland Raiders quarterback Connor Cook got some looks during preseason game against the Detroit Lions last Friday at the Oakland Coliseum. Cook threw 11-for-19, 141 yards, and one touchdown. Running back Marshawn Lynch took a hand off from starting quarterback Derek Carr and ran for 60 yards–only to have it called back due to a holding penalty.

Running back to look for the Raiders, Chris Warren III, who carried for 86 yards, 13 carries, averaging 6.6 yards and DeAndre Washington, who had six carries, 38 yards and a 6.3 average against the Lions last Friday. Will these be the rushers to look for this season?

On receivers, Johnny Holton caught one pass and had 41 yards receiving and Paul Butler, who had 24 yards for one reception. What will Raiders head coach Jon Gruden expect out of his receivers this Saturday in Los Angeles?

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

San Francisco 49ers podcast with Joe Lami: After a physical scrimmage, 49ers and Texans ready to rumble in second preseason game for jobs

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On the 49ers podcast with Joe:

This week, it got physical between the San Francisco 49ers and the Houston Texans during their scrimmages. The players were literally fighting for jobs as the two teams face each other this Saturday in Houston. 49ers quarterback CJ Beathard worked hard in camp this year and in his first preseason game in his bid to make second string quarterback. He threw 10-for-20 for 181 yards and one pick last Friday at Levi’s Stadium in the 49ers’ first preseason game.

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan had his watchful eye on a host of young players. For example. running back Joe Williams who 11 carries and 27 yards and Raheem Mostent, who had eight carries and 57 yards. Wide receiver Victor Bolden Jr had three catches for 54 yards and Richie James four catchers for 46 yards and a touchdown.

The 49ers play in South Texas this Saturday. Expect hot weather for this second preseason game as both teams are coming off physical scrimmages and trying to win a job.

Joe Lami does the 49ers podcasts each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

San Francisco Giants podcast with Michael Duca: Giants and Dodgers meet again end of September–will there be more bad blood?

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On the Giants podcast with Michael:

How about Giants outfielder Andrew McCutchen on Wednesday night? He hit a three-run home run that gave the Giants a lead that would soon end in a 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers. But, regardless, he is finding his swing, so look for more from McCutchen during the Cincinnati Reds series starting tonight.

In the rivalry series in LA, things got hot and somewhat out of control in the seventh inning of Tuesday night’s game in which the Dodgers’ Yasiel Puig missed a pitch and tossed and caught his bat when Giants catcher Nick Hundley said something to Puig. Both players ended up in each other faces and Puig shoved Hundley. That emptied the benches and both Puig and Hundley were ejected. Michael will see if this a continued trend between the two teams?

Major League Baseball offices are sifting out what discipline will be given to Hundley and Puig. Puig was suspended for two games and fined. Hundley was also fined. Unless Puig appeals, he’ll begin the suspension today.

Michael has the Giants podcasts each Friday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Giants rookie Dereck Rodriguez to miss Friday’s start against the Reds

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Photo credit: @McCoveyChron

By Jeremy Harness

The little brouhaha between Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig and Giants catcher Nick Hundley claimed a casualty. And the Giants will feel that starting Friday night.

That’s because starter Dereck Rodriguez expected to take the mound in Friday’s series opener against the Cincinnati Reds at the Great American Ball Park, but he was hurt in Tuesday’s skirmish, as he strained his right hamstring. As a result, he will miss at least this start, and he was also placed on the 10-day disabled list.

In the meantime, righty Casey Kelly (0-1, 1.42 ERA) will start in Rodriguez’s spot, as he will go opposite Reds right-hander Anthony DeSclafani (6-3, 4.46 ERA). DeSclafani has been on a roll lately, winning his past two starts and going seven innings each time.

He shut out the Arizona Diamondbacks in a 3-0 win last Friday, as he gave up only three hits as he struck out nine guys and did not walk a single batter. Six days before that, he surrendered only a run on six hits in a 7-1 win over Washington.

The Giants will bring out Madison Bumgarner (4-4, 2.71 ERA) on Saturday against the Reds’ Matt Harvey (5-7).

Bumgarner has started to hit his stride these days, as he has given up a total of three runs over his last three starts. However, he has only one win out of those three to show for it, as he was stuck with a pair of no-decision in each of his past two starts.

Harvey (5-7, 5.19 ERA), on the other hand, has gone the other way, going 0-2 in his last four decisions, although he did go seven strong last Saturday and gave up only two runs in a win over Arizona. He, however, was stuck with a no-decision.