Tag: Baltimore Orioles

Photo credit: @Athletics

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Tuesday, April 09, 2019

Oakland’s middle infield was responsible for driving in nine of its runs on Tuesday, as the Athletics hammered Baltimore 13-2 at Camden Yards. It was the A’s first road win of the season and ended a four-game losing streak.

Second baseman Jurickson Profar was 4-for-5 with a home run and a career-high five runs batted in, and shortstop Marcus Semien contributed a three-run home run in the second inning, his second of the season. Semien also drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

Brett Anderson (3-0) picked up the win, working 6 2/3 innings. He struck out four, walked one and gave up two earned runs on seven hits.

Lou Trivino and Liam Hendriks threw the final 2 1/3 scoreless innings.

John Means (1-1), making his first career start for the Orioles, gave up five runs in three innings – one earned. After Evan Phillips threw three scoreless innings for Baltimore, O’s relievers Richard Bleier and Miguel Castro were each rung up for four earned runs each over the final three innings.

Baltimore has lost five of its last six games.

Notably absent from the Orioles lineup was slumping slugger Chris Davis, who sat out Tuesday’s game a day after establishing the MLB record for longest hitless streak by a position player – 0-for-49, going back to last season.

Orioles first baseman Trey Mancini singled in the first inning to extend his season-opening hitting streak to 11 games.

On Wednesday, the A’s will start right-hander Frankie Montas (1-1, 2.45), while Orioles manager Brandon Hyde has yet to name a starter. Right-hander Alex Cobb was supposed to start for Baltimore on Wednesday, but was placed on the 10-day IL retroactive to April 6 (lumbar strain).

by Jerry Feitelberg

There was good news and bad news for the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday night at Camden Yards. The good news was that the woeful Orioles held the A’s scoreless in eight of the nine innings played. The bad news is that Oriole pitchers were pounded in the third inning as the A’s put ten runs on the board when they pummeled Orioles’ starter Andrew Cashner and reliever Cody Carroll for ten runs on ten hits and two walks. The A’s used five pitchers in the game and kept the O’s of the board and limited to just one hit as the A’s won their sixth in a row by a score of 10-0.

The A’s kept pace with the Houston Astros in the race for first place in the AL West. The A’s remain three games behind the Astros. They did pick up a game on the New York Yankees as the Yankees lost 3-1 to the Minnesota Twins. The A’s are just one game behind the Yanks for the first Wild Card spot. If the A’s overtake the Yankees, the one-game playoff between the teams will be played in Oakland. Seattle lost and fell 9.5 games behind Oakland in the race for the second Wild Card.

How did the A’s do it Wednesday night? Orioles’ starter Andrew Cashner allowed just one hit in the first two innings that he pitched. The third inning was a different story. Cashner failed to retire a single hitter in the third. Cashner did not record an out in the third as the A’s put eight on the board before O’s skipper Buck Showalter replaced him with Cody Carroll. The A’s ended the inning scoring ten runs on ten hits and two walks. They sent fifteen men to the plate in their biggest inning of the year. The key hits were provided by Matt Chapman and Matt Olson. Chappie had a double and a single in the inning to drive in three runs. Matt Olson also drove in three when he blasted his 26th bomb of the year over the left field wall. Jed Lowrie singled to drive in his 90th RBI, and Khris Davis drove in his 110th of the year to tie him with his total of last year.

The A’s used Liam Hendriks as the “opener.” Hendriks pitched one inning. He was followed by Daniel Mengden who threw five scoreless innings and was the winning pitcher. He is now 7-6 for 2018. The O’s Andrew Cashner went two-plus innings, and his record fell to 4-15

The A’s improved  89-57 for the year and Baltimore is 41-104.

The A’s go for the sweep on Thursday. Hopefully, the game will be played as Hurricane Florence is near landfall.

The A’s will send lefty Brett Anderson to the hill. Anderson will be coming off the 10-dl. He hasn’t pitched since August 27th. He is 3-4 with a record of 4.02. His opponent will be Dylan Bundy. Bundy is 7-14 and his an ERA of 5.58. Bundy is healthy but has been ineffective the last two months. Bundy has surrendered a club-record 37 home runs this season.

Photo credit: mlb.com

By Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s started the six-game road trip on a winning note as they downed the hapless Baltimore Orioles 3-2 at Oriole Park on Tuesday. The Orioles–who have traded away many of their stars–gave the A’s a tussle, but the A’s produced enough offense to record the win.

A’s starter, Mike Fiers, gave the team six innings of four-hit pitching. He made just one mistake when O’s shortstop Jonathan Villar hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth.

O’s starter, Alex Cobb, went only two innings as he had a flare-up of a blister on his pitching hand and as unable to continue.

The O’s brought in Mike Wright to pitch the third inning. The A’s put three on the board on the strength of three hits and two walks. The rally started when A’s catcher reached on a walk. Lucroy went to second on a groundout off the bat of Ramon Laureano. Third baseman Matt Chapman doubled to right field to drive in Lucroy. Jed Lowrie walked to put two men on with one out.  A’s DH Khris Davis singled to drive in Chapman with the second run of the inning. Lowrie stopped at second. Wright struck out Matt Olson for the second out. The next hitter, Stephen Piscotty, singled to drive in Lowrie to give the A’s a 3-0 lead. Piscotty extended his hitting streak to 12 games.

The O’s got on the board when Villar homered off Fiers in the bottom of the sixth.

A’s manager Bob Melvin turned the game over to his bullpen for the last three innings of the game. Fernando Rodney pitched a scoreless seventh inning. Melvin called on Lou Trivino to pitch the eighth. The O’s rallied to score a run and make it a 3-2 contest. O’s second baseman Breyvic Valera singled to get things going for Baltimore. Trivino retired Corban Joseph for the first out. He struck out Cedric Mullins for out number two. Valera got into scoring position when he successfully stole second. Jonathan Villar knocked in his second run of the night with a single. Orioles first baseman Trey Mancini line a shot to center that looked like it would drop and Villar would be able to score. A’s center fielder Ramon Laureano had other thoughts. Laureano was playing shallow and was able to make a sensational diving catch to end the inning and save the game for the A’s.

Melvin brought in Jeurys Familia to pitch the ninth. The A’s had used closer Blake Treinen in the last three games at the Coliseum and had the night off. Familia responded by pitching a perfect ninth inning to earn his first save as an Athletic. The A’s won 3-2.

Game Notes: With the win, the A’s improve to 88-58. They are now 54-21 in their last 75 games.

The O’s drop to 41-103.

The A’s remain three games behind the Houston Astros as the Astros beat the Tigers Tuesday night. The A’s picked up a game on the New York Yankees in the race for the first Wild Card slot. The Minnesota Twins beat the Yankees 10-5.

Fiers improved to 12-6 for the season and is 5-0 with Oakland. Wright took the loss for Baltimore.

Stephen Piscotty was 3-for-4 and has now hit in 12 straight games. Khris Davis has now driven in 109 runs, which is good for second in the AL.

The A’s recalled pitcher Frankie Montas from Nashville as the A’s are two pitchers short for the five-man rotation.

The A’s also announced that lefty starter and ace of the staff, Sean Manaea, will have arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder September 18th. The procedure will be performed by Dr. Neil ElAttrache at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe clinic in Los Angeles. Manaea will not pitch again this season and may be lost for the entire 2019 season as well. The A’s will give updates on his condition after the surgery is performed.

Time of games was two hours and 45 minutes, and there were 9,545 hardy souls watching the game under very cloudy skies.

Up Next: Game two of the series is Wednesday at 4:05 pm PDT. Liam Hendriks will be the “opener” for the A’s, and he will be opposed by the O’s Andrew Cashner.

Photo credit: @Athletics photo: A’s players wearing their favorite football jerseys as they board the plane to Baltimore, Md.

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s start a six-game road trip against the Baltimore Orioles starting Tuesday. One of the problems that these teams may have is the weather. The forecast is as follows: Tuesday (thunderstorms) along with Wednesday and Thursday (scattered thunderstorms; Hurricane Florence). Hopefully, they will be able to play.

If the games are played, the A’s will be facing a Baltimore Oriole team that has the worst record in the AL. O’s manager Buck Showalter probably will be gone after the season as the team will be in rebuild mode. They traded Manny Machado to the Dodgers. Machado will be a free agent at the end of the season, and he will be getting a contract that will take care of him and his family for years. Jonathan Schoop has been traded to the Brewers. Ace reliever, Zach Britton, is now a Yankee. Kevin Gausman is now in Atlanta. Former A’s players Danny Valencia and Craig Gentry did not produce and are currently unemployed. Chris Tillman, who was once the O’s best starter, had a dismal season and was released on July 25th.

The O’s own a 41-102 record and are languishing in the basement of the AL East. They still have Adam Jones, but not much else. Slugging first baseman Chris Davis (not to be confused with the A’s DH Khris Davis) is having a terrible year. His batting average is a .177 with 16 homers and 49 RBIs on his tally sheet. The rest of the players with the exceptions of catcher Caleb Joseph, second baseman Jonathan Villar, and outfielder Trey Mancini are either young players or fill-ins. The veteran, Mark Trumbo, who is the O’s DH, is out for the season following knee surgery.

The A’s are rolling and would love to sweep the O’s. They travel to Florida to play the Tampa Bay Rays over the weekend. The weather won’t be a problem there as their games are played in a dome.

If the games are played in Baltimore, Mike Fiers will pitch Tuesday night. Fiers is 11-6 overall and 4-0 since coming to the A’s. His opponent will be Alex Cobb. Cobb got off to a terrible start with Baltimore after signing a free agent deal this year. Cobb has been pitching better in the second half. The A’s have not announced their starters for Wednesday and Thursday. Lefty Brett Anderson is due to come off the DL, and he may be available. A’s manager Bob Melvin might have to have two bullpen games if he can’t find a starter.

The A’s swept the three games from Baltimore when they played in Oakland on May 4th, 5th, and sixth. The A’s are just 2 1/2 games behind the AL West division-leading Houston Astros for first place and 2 1/2 games behind the New York Yankees for the first Wild Card spot.

After the two series on the road, the A’s play three with Minnesota and three with the LA Angels. They finish the season on the road with three against the Seattle Mariners and the last three of the year with the Angels.