Tag: A’s

By Morris Phillips

The level of disappointment in the A’s post-game clubhouse was obvious.  Despite all the new faces, the missing, injured pieces, this is a team that wants to win now.  And that wasn’t result on Saturday as the A’s toiled for more than 3 ½ hours only to lose 5-4 to the Mariners in 11 innings.

“It’s no fun losing a close game,” manager Bob Melvin admitted.  “Both teams fought real hard, both teams had opportunities.  They had one more, big hit than we did.”

The A’s have split six consecutive home games to start the season, with all three wins impressive routs—but each followed by a loss.  With King Felix Hernandez on the mound for Seattle on Sunday, the prospects of finishing the week with more losses than wins simply won’t sit well.

On Saturday, a couple of pitches didn’t end up where the A’s needed them, and a couple of advantageous situations weren’t fully realized and the Mariners escaped with a win.  It couldn’t be discounted that the A’s grew used to winning games like this in 2014 on their way to all too abrupt playoff appearance.

Sonny Gray was sharp, pitching into the eighth inning with the lead, only to depart and see reliever Dan Otero miss location on a pitch to Nelson Cruz, who deposited it over the left field fence for a Mariners 4-2 lead.  The A’s would answer right back and send the game into extras, but among other things, Gray’s seemingly big opening week lost some steam.

In a pair of starts, Gray threw 15 plus innings, allowing just one earned run, but with Cruz’s pyrotechnics, the A’s youthful ace has just one win to show for all his efforts.  Not surprisingly, Gray battled despite some physical issues not to mention the presence of Seattle lineup that was beefed up in the off-season.

“There’s so many things that didn’t go our way and we still had a chance,” Gray said.

by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s ended a 10 game losing streak on Opening Day. The A’s behind the stout pitching of Sonny Gray defeated the Texas Rangers 8-0. There were many story lines to the game, but the most impressive one was the performance of Sonny Gray. Sonny had a no-hitter going through seven innings. The Rangers’ Ryan Rua singled to lead off the eighth and that was the only hit the Rangers could muster all night. Gray went eight innings allowing just one hit, walked one and struck out three. He threw 98 pitches and 66 went for strikes. The A’s got contributions from several players in recording the win. Ben Zobrist in his first game in an A’s uniform had a home run and a double and two runs batted in. Brett Lawrie, who came over from Toronto in the Josh Donaldson trade, made two nice defensive plays and had a single in his A’s debut. Billy Butler had a double and scored a run in his first game wearing the Green and Gold. Marcus Semien also made a nice defensive play at shortstop and Ike Davis also was impressive on defense. Stephen Vogt drove in four runs with a double and a three-run homer in the seventh that iced the win for Oakland.

The A’s started off the first inning with a bang. With one out, center fielder, Sam Fuld blasted a triple to the base of the wall at the 388 foot mark. The next batter, Ben Zobrist, who was playing in left field tonight, hit a home run to give the A’s an early 2-0 lead. It was Zobrist’s first at bat as an Oakland A and the crowd went crazy.

The A’s put two more runs on the board in the bottom of the fourth. First baseman Ike Davis started things off with a walk. With one out, Stephen Vogt doubled down the left field line to put men on at second and third with one out. Shortstop Marcus Semien singled to drive in Davis. For Semien, it was his first hit as an Athletic. Vogt advanced to third and then scored when Rangers’ starter, Yovani Gallardo, uncorked a wild pitch allowing Vogt to score giving the A’s a 4-0 lead after four innings of play.

The A’s broke it open in the bottom of the seventh. Designated hitter, Billy Butler, walked with one out and then advanced to second on a Brett Lawrie single. A’s catcher, Stephen Vogt, blasted a shot to deep right field off Ranger reliever Phil Klein to make it 7-0 in favor of Oakland after seven. The A’s added another run in the bottom of the eighth. Eric Sogard led off with a single. With one out Sam Fuld walked to put men on at first and second. Billy Butler, signed as a free agent after many years with the Kansas City Royals, doubled to drive in Sogard with the eighth run of the game for the A’s. Final score 8-0 in favor of Oakland.

Notes- The last time the A’s won on Opening Day was in 2004. The only no-hitter ever pitched happened in 1940 when Bob Feller no-hit the Chicago White Sox. The last shutout on Opening Day in Oakland A’s history happened when the A’s shut out Seattle in 2003. Ben Zobrist became the first player to homer in his first at-bat on Opening Day since Josh Willingham in 2011.

After the game, A’s manager Bob Melvin was all smiles due to the performance of his team He said that doesn’t guarantee the A’s will win on Tuesday, but it’s just fine for right now. He was ecstatic about Gray’s performance and felt that Gray had everything working for him. Gray had good velocity on his fast ball and his cutter and slider was also working well. Stephen Vogt said that Gray knew he had a no-hitter going and was upset when Rua singled. Melvin also said Rua’s hit made it easy for him to take Gray out of the game after the eighth inning. He was concerned that ray might have to go nine full innings and the most he pitched in Spring training was just six.

The series continues Tuesday night in Oakland. The A’s will send righty Jesse Hahn to the mound. Hahn came to Oakland in the trade that sent Derek Norris to San Diego.  Colby Lewis will pitch for Texas.

Game time will be 7:05 pm

Attendance was 36,067 which was a sellout.

By Morris Phillips

For 15 seasons, legendary Bay Area sports announcer Lon Simmons graced the airwaves for the Oakland A’s partnered with Bill King.

The pair had already accomplished plenty in the world of Bay Area professional sports.  King was simultaneously the voice of the Raiders and Warriors, and Simmons had enjoyed a long career with the Giants, partnered for the first 13 seasons with broadcasting giant Russ Hodges.

But in 1981, King was hired by the A’s and joined by Simmons.  The pairing was the brainchild of Walter Haas and the Haas Family, who had bought the team from Charlie Finley hoping to lift the prospects of the franchise that was sagging at that point.  Simmons recalled that never once did the ownership group interfere with the soon-to-be Hall of Fame broadcasters, allowing them to say what they felt for the entirety of their tenures.

“Not one time in those 15 years did anyone in the organization ask me why I said something or, told me I should have said something,” Simmons remembered.  “The Haases may have bitten their toungues several times, but they never criticized me.”

King and Simmons would go on to broadcast “Billy Ball” and the “Bash Brothers” along with the majority of Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson’s career in Oakland.  King with his signature “Holy Toledo!” and Simmons with his “Tell it Goodbye!” were an obvious hit with listening audiences and were a more than capable companion to the team’s rise on the field.

They were also paid handsomely for their work; Simmons and King combined to earn nearly $500,000 per season while they were in Oakland.

In 1989, the A’s were a juggernaut, loaded with talent and ended up in the Bay Area World Series opposite the Giants.  When King was felled by laryngitis, Simmons broadcast the final outs of Game 4 in Oakland’s sweep.  The irony couldn’t missed: Simmons had announced Giants’ games all those years without the team winning the World Series, but there he was doing the call when as the Giants lost on the game’s biggest stage.

In 1995, Simmons was let go as new ownership gained control.  He would go on to do short stints with the Giants until his retirement in 2002.

In 2004, Simmons was honored with Ford C. Frick award given annually to an exemplary major league baseball broadcaster.  In 2oo6, Simmons was inducted as a member of the initial induction class of the Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame.

By Morris Phillips

The A’s surprisingly successful spring ended Saturday with a loss and notable demotion, but neither development casts a cloud on the team’s mood or prospects heading into Monday’s opener against Texas at the Coliseum.

Not with Barry Zito’s return to baseball after a year off followed by Saturday’s announcement that the veteran will accept an assignment to Triple-A Nashville providing so much inspiration for the team and the coaching staff.

The 36-year old Zito pitched well this spring for the A’s, finishing with a 4.79 ERA in seven appearances, but with no shot to crack the A’s starting rotation or overtures from other major league teams, the veteran proudly accepted his assignment content just to extend his baseball career.

“I didn’t stay in shape for a year to come back here and go all in and go sit at home,” Zito said.

“I’ll take the wife and kid and have some fun with it.”

With all the cyclical trades and changes, it’s often hard to view the A’s as a cohesive team.  But they are just that, leading all major league teams with wins this spring (22) and scoring the most runs (199 in 35 games) in the process.

Accordingly, ever-faithful A’s fans better fall in line and figure out who’s playing where and what’s their place in the batting order.

But on Saturday, a crowd of better than 29,000—filled with fans of both the Giants and the A’s—just needed to remember a pair of familiar names: Zito and 39-year old Tim Hudson.

The pair, along with Mark Mulder, helped comprise the front end of the A’s formidable rotation in the mid 2000’s.  But there they were on Saturday still plying their trade.  Hudson started for the Giants and fooled the A’s for five innings in San Francisco’s 2-1 win that concluded the Bay Bridge Series.

Hudson picked up the win by scattering four hits and two walks across those five frames, keeping the A’s scoreless despite giving up doubles to Ike Davis and Ben Zobrist that could have led to big innings for Oakland.

When Hudson departed, the A’s didn’t have much success with the five Giants relievers that followed either.  Only a run scoring sacrifice fly from Brett Lawrie in the sixth kept the A’s from being shut out.

And right after Hudson called it an afternoon, Zito appeared, pitching a scoreless sixth inning for the A’s.  The veteran entered and left to applause—from fans of both teams.

“That was kind of cool,” Hudson said.  “All we needed was Mulder to warm up and come in after him.”

NOTES: The A’s starting rotation isn’t set, but all signs point to Jesse Chavez, Kendall Graveman and Jesse Hahn completing a group that will be headed by Sonny Gray and Scott Kazmir.  With Sean Doolittle on the disabled list, former Washington National Tyler Clippard will begin the year as the closer.

Jarrod Parker—who is expected back in June—along with Sean Nolin and Josh Reddick will begin the season on the disabled list.

The A’s appear to better situated defensively this year in comparison to last with Sam Fuld and Craig Gentry supplanting 35-year old Coco Crisp in center field.  Crisp is rehabbing and working with legend Rickey Henderson in hopes that he can successfully transition to playing in left.

Ike Davis, who had an impressive spring offensively, and Brett Lawrie will be the A’s starters at first and third respectively.  Ben Zobrist will play primarily at second base with occasional starts in left and at first base.

By Morris Phillips

Curt Young, as rooted within the A’s organization as anyone outside Billy Beane, and as low-key as any human anywhere, seemed curious just like the any of the fans attending the team’s annual Fanfest on Sunday. In particular, non-roster invitee Pat Venditte, currently the only professional pitcher adept at pitching with either hand, held Young’s attention.

“Does he play catch with himself?” Young wondered.

When asked if the minor league pitcher would need twice the normal bullpen work, Young seemed genuinely vexed. After a pause and some thinking, Young answered, yes, knowing that Venditte, at least initially would provide a bit of a challenge for a coach long set in his methods.

During a Q&A session held inside Oracle Arena with the rain and the revamping going on inside the stadium, a young fan asked how do ballplayers get their nicknames. New bullpen coach Scott “Emo” Emerson thought instead of answering the kid’s question the time was right to gift newly acquired pitcher R.J. Alvarez his nickname.

“Shaggy,” Emerson declared, looking at the speechless Alvarez, the latest in a long line of lovable athletes with uncontrollably long hair.

And so it went for most of the afternoon, a meet and greet—heavier on the meet—that seemed to satisfy the most anxious fan attempting to figure out what type of team the 2015 A’s will be. Here’s what we know:

Beane orchestrated nine off-season trades the GM says were prompted by the team’s poor performance in last season’s second half that showed the team had gone as far as it could go as constructed in his estimation. The A’s said goodbye to Jon Lester, John Jaso, Brandon Moss, Josh Donaldson, Jason Hammel (just to name a few) and picked up 27 players—many not major-league ready—most notably Ben Zobrist from Tampa Bay, Tyler Clippard from Washington and signed Royals DH Billy Butler to a three-year free agent deal.

Among the lesser names the A’s acquired, Marcus Semien from the White Sox shows the most immediate promise as the team’s successor to the departed Jed Lowrie.

The A’s still have Coco Crisp, Josh Reddick, Ryan Cook, Stephen Vogt (just to name a few) and All-Star Sean Doolittle, but the bearded closer won’t be ready for the opening of the season. If things are to just keep humming along then Vogt could be plenty busy. The A’s are all in on the veteran after dealing Jaso and Derek Norris.

Young says that pitchers A.J. Griffin and Jarrod Parker will not pitch in any spring training games, given that both are still recovering from arm injuries that shelved them for all of 2014. Instead, the pair will do all their spring work on the side with the hope that both will be up to speed and back on the roster by early June.

In their place, Scott Kazmir and Sonny Gray will anchor the A’s rotation with Jesse Chavez, Drew Pomeranz, Kendall Graveman, Jesse Hahn and Chris Bassitt expected to compete for the other three available spots.

Through it all, the expectations are the same. Young said as much when revealing his spring training regimen.

“We have a team that we think is going to win, and that is what we are going to expect from our guys,” he said.

“Everybody is overlooking us again with what the Angels and Mariners have done. But we got some great pieces in return for what we lost,” Reddick said.