Tag: Baseball

by Jerry Feitelberg

It was another tough night for the A’s in Toronto Wednesday night as they were trounced by the Toronto Blue Jays 10-3. Aaron Brooks started for the A’s. His last two outings for Oakland were very impressive but on this night, Brooks lasted just 1 and 2/3rds innings, and he allowed six hits that produced eight runs. Toronto’s R.A.Dickey, one of the few knuckleball pitchers in baseball, was not on the top of his game but went six innings allowing the A’s just three runs.

The Blue Jays took a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Brooks walked Troy Tulowitzki to start the inning. Josh Donaldson singled to put men on at first and third with no out. Brooks retired the dangerous Joey Bautista for the first out but threw a belt-high fastball with a 2-0 count to Chris Colabello that hit off the facade over the second deck of Rogers Center.

The A’s scored two runs in the top of the second. Danny Valencia hit a solo dinger to left to get the A’s on the board. Valencia has knocked in seven runs in six games since joining the club. Billy Butler singled and went to third on a ground-rule double off the bat of Mark Canha. Eric Sogard hit a slow grounder to second to drive in Butler.

The Blue Jays put the game out of reach as they exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the second inning. They sent eleven men to the plate and had seven hits that produced seven runs. With the score at 7-2, A’s manager Bob Melvin brought in Lefty Felix Doubront to pitch against his former team. Doubrount gave up a single, and a home run to Justin Smoak, and another hit before getting the third out of the inning.
Toronto leads 10-2 after two.

The Jays did not score the rest of the way, but the A’s picked up another run in the top of the fourth. Dickey walked Valencia and Stephen Vogt to start the inning. Butler hit into a 5-4-3 double play with Valencia advancing to third. Canha hit his second double of the night to drive in Valencia with the third and final run of the game for Oakland.
Final score 10-3 in favor of Toronto.

Game Notes – The Toronto Blue are smoking hot. They have won ten games in a row, and thirteen out of the last fourteen played. Also, they have moved into first place by a half-game over the Yankees, who lost to Cleveland Wednesday night. New York has now lost five in a row,
and they come to Toronto for a three-game series starting Friday night.

Mark Canha was the hitting star for the A’s with three hits, including two doubles. Chris Colabello was Toronto’s star with two hits, including a three-run dinger and four RBIs for the night.

Felix Doubront pitched extremely well for Oakland. After giving up three hits to the first three batters he faced, Doubront went 6 and 1/3rd innings and did not allow any further damage by the potent Toronto offense. He threw 95 pitches giving up five hits and two runs.

Game three of the series will start at 9:30 am Thursday. Sonny Gray (12-4, 2.06ERA) will go for Oakland, and Mark Buehrle (12-5, 3.34ERA) will toil for Toronto. It will be a matchup of two quality pitchers. Don’t miss it.

by Jerry Feitelberg

The Toronto Blue Jays remained red-hot as they beat the A’s 4-2 in the first game of a three-game series in Toronto Tuesday night. The A’s had three former Blue Jays in the lineup. Brett Lawrie was at third, Danny Valencia was the DH and Kendall Graveman was pitching for the Green and Gold. Graveman deserved a better fate as the A’s defense committed two errors in one inning allowing three runs to score. Two of the runs were unearned.  Toronto slugger, right fielder Joey Bautista slammed a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth for the Jays fourth run of the game. The game summary follows below.

The A’s took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Coco Crisp walked with one out. Right Fielder Josh Reddick hit a ground ball to the hole between first and second. The ball was scooped up by Josh Donaldson who was at second because of the shift. Donaldson threw to Tulowitzki to get the force on Crisp and  Tulo’s throw to first appeared to nail Reddick. Bob Melvin challenged the call and Reddick was ruled safe after the review. Former Jay, Danny Valencia, in his first game back in Toronto after being designated for assignment, doubled to left-center to drive in Reddick.

The lead didn’t last long as Toronto scored three times in the bottom of the second. Sloppy play led to all three runs. Chris Colabello hit a line drive to left that should have been a single. However, Coco Crisp came in too fast and the ball bounced over his head and that turned the hit into a double. Jays’ catcher Russell Martin followed with a ground ball to shortstop Marcus Semien. Semien thought about throwing to third to throw out Colabello but thought it would be better to get Martin at first. Semien sidearmed the throw and it went over Ike Davis’ head at first base for an error. Colabello scored and Martin took second on the play. Semien committed his thirtieth error of the year and just his second in the last 25 games. He still leads the AL shortstops in most errors. First baseman Justin Smoak lined a ball to deep left field. Martin scored and it appeared that Crisp’s throw to Eric Sogard was in time for the out. The Jays challenged the call and for the second time in the game, a call was overturned. Second baseman Eric Sogard committed the A’s second error of the inning when he couldn’t handle a sharp ground ball off the bat of Kevin Pillar. The error allowed Smoak to score the third run of the inning.

Jays’ slugger Joey Bautista hit a solo homer  with two outs in the bottom of the fifth to give the Jays a 4-1 lead. the next hitter Colabello singled and that ended the night for Graveman.

The A’s made it a 4-2 game in the top of the eighth. Semien reached on an infield single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Sogard. Billy Burns singled to drive in Semien, but the A’s could do no more as they fall to the Jays by a final of 4-2.

Game Notes- Kendall Graveman took the loss and is now 6-8 for the year. He pitched 4 and 2/3rds innings, allowing 5 hits and four runs. Two of the runs were unearned. The Jays’ starter, Drew Hutchison, won his eleventh game of the year for Toronto.

Toronto is smoking hot as they won the ninth game in a row and are 12-0 in games that Troy Tulowitzki has started since coming over from Colorado on July 28th.

Aaron Brooks will be making his third start for the A’s and Mark Buehrle will go for Toronto.

Attendance was 39,381 and time of game was 2 hours and thirty-five minutes.

by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s are on their way to Toronto to play three games with the red-hot Toronto Blue Jays to start a seven-game road trip before returning home to face the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Blue Jays have won eight in a row and swept the AL East leading Yankees over the weekend to move into second place in the division. The Jays trail the Yankees by just 1 1/2 games and play the Yankees again this weekend after facing the A’s.

Toronto has made made significant moves the last couple of weeks to improve the team. On July 28th, the Jays acquired All-Star shortstop, Troy Tulowitzki from the Colorado Rockies. They improved the pitching by trading for lefty David Price. Reliever LaTroy Hawkins came over from the Rockies in the Tulowitzki deal and the Jays added another reliever, Mark Lowe from the Mariners. Outfielder Ben Revere came from the Phillies and they added veteran utility man, former Athletic Cliff Pennington from the DiamondBacks.

The Jays were active in the off-season,too. The big trade was with the A’s. Toronto received third baseman Josh Donaldson and the A’s received four players including Brett Lawrie and pitcher Kendall Graveman. The Jays signed free agent catcher Russell Martin, too. The Jays have a dynamic offense as evidenced by the fact that they have scored 597 runs so far this year and a run differential of plus 129 which is the best in baseball. They have five righty hitters that have fifteen or more dingers so far this year. Their lineup is potent with Tulowitzki, Donaldson, Joey Batista, Edwin Encarnacion, and Russell Martin. Chris Colabello, Kevin Pilar, Ben Revere, Cliff Pennington and Dioner Navarro all contribute to Toronto’s success.

The Jays starting pitching has improved since the start of the season. Stats show the starters have a combined ERA over four but that is misleading. Since the All-Star break, starters have an ERA of 2.69 which is the best in the American League. David Price has made two starts since coming over from Detroit which helped and starter R.A.Dickey (0.99), Marco Estrada(2.35) and veteran lefty Mark Buehrle(3.38) have a combined 9-1 record in their last 22 games.

The A’s, to their credit, continue to play hard. Their is no quit in the team. They took three out of four from the Houston Astros over the weekend. Their starting pitching continues to do well. Sonny Gray is one of the best pitchers in baseball and will be in the running for the Cy Young award. Chris Bassitt has pitched extremely well for the A’s and is much better than his 1-4 record. The rest of the staff includes Jesse Chavez, Kendall Graveman and newly acquired Aaron Brooks. Brooks has made two starts since coming over to the A’s and has been impressive. The A’s bullpen continues to flounder. The bullpen has the most blown saves in the AL.

It should be a good series as the A’s will be hoping to derail the Jays. Third baseman Brett Lawrie will be making his first trip to Toronto since coming to Oakland in the Donaldson trade and will want to show the Jays’ brass that they made a mistake trading him. Also returning to Toronto will be Danny Valencia. The A’s picked up Valencia off waivers from the Jays last week and he has had a terrific start with his new team. Valencia went 7-for-16 with two home runs in his debut with Oakland. He was used sparingly by Toronto appearing in just 58 games but was hitting .298 when they designated him for assignment. Coco Crisp has returned to the lineup after a lenghty stay on the DL. Josh Reddick has had a solid year for Oakland,too.

Tuesday night will feature Kendall Graveman(6-7) going against Drew Hutchison (10-2) and on Wednesday Aaron Brooks (1-0) will be facing left Mark Buehrle (12-5.

by Jerry Feitelberg

Sonny Gray pitched a gem Tuesday night as he shut out the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-0. Gray’s brilliant performance removed some of the gloom from the clubhouse. The A’s traded Ben Zobrist to the Kansas City Royals for two pitchers, Righty Aaron Brooks, and twenty-year lefty Sean Manaea. On Monday, the A’s traded reliever Tyler Clippard to the Mets. The A’s needed a shot in the arm, and Gray came through big-time in that department. Gray pitched a complete game. He gave up just three hits while striking out nine and walked one. Former Athletic, Brett Anderson took the loss for the Dodgers.

The A’s scored the first run of the game in the top of the first inning. Billy Burns singled on the very first pitch of the game. Marcus Semien walked to put men on at first and second with no out. Brett Lawrie grounded into a fielder’s choice. Burns took third on the play and later scored when Billy Butler hit a slow grounder to third. There was no way for the Dodgers to complete a double play, so Burns was able to score with the A’s first run.

Josh Reddick hit a solo home run to right in the top of the seventh; It was Reddick’s 13th dinger of the year. The A’s lead 2-0 after seven.Reddick also had a single and double in four trips to the plate Tuesday. The other hitting star of the game was none other than Sonny Gray himself. Gray singled to right with his first career hit leading off the eighth. He looked surprised that he made contact, but he did and was able to manage a weak smile when he reached first. Final Score 2-0 in favor of Oakland.

Game notes- with the win, Gray’s record improved to 11-4. The A’s played their 101st game of the year, and they are now 45-56. After the game, A’s manager Bob Melvin was all smiles talking about Gray’s performance. However, he said, Gray will want to talk more about getting the hit than anything else tonight. He also said the Josh Reddick “swung the bat great and used the whole field.” Melvin commented that the three trades the A’s made since last Thursday made it a “rough day for everybody.”

The Dodgers’ record drops to 56-45 but remain 1/2 game ahead of the San Francisco Giants as the Giants lost to Milwaukee 5-2 in San Francisco. The A’s did their job by beating the Dodgers but the Giants missed a golden opportunity to pass the Dodgers in the NL West standings. The A’s will have their work cut out for them Wednesday evening as they will be facing the Dodgers’ ace, Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw is 8-6 this season but has been dominating lately. The A’s will send Jesse Chavez out to pitch. Chavez had a bad outing in his last game, and he will be trying to get back on the winning track.

Time of game was two hours and twenty-two minutes, and there were 50,182 people in attendance at Dodger Stadium. Game two will be played in LA at 7 pm Wednesday night.

by Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s hit the road Monday traveling to the Big Apple to play a three-game series with the Yankees before heading off to Cleveland for another three-game series with the Indians before the All-Star break.

The A’s finished their ten-game homestand with a record of 4-6. The Kansas City Royals swept the A’s three straight but the Green and Gold rebounded to take two out of three from the Colorado Rockies and then split a four-=game series with the Seattle Mariners. Oakland’s starting pitching has been excellent this year. The A’s, who were sixteen games under.500 earlier in the season, are playing well as they are benefiting from improved fielding and better performance from their bullpen.  The A’s are currently last in last place in the AL West with a record of 38-47, but they have a winning record since May 23rd.

The A’s will be meeting the Yankees for the second time this season. The Yankees were here in Oakland at the end of May for four games, and the A’s took the series three games to one. New York has been playing well as of late, and the Yanks have moved into first place in the AL East with a record of 44-38 and have a one-game lead over the Baltimore Orioles.

The Yankees have had several key players on the DL this year but are still playing winning baseball. Centerfielder Jacoby Ellsbury will come off the DL Wednesday night. Pitcher Ivan Nova is back from Tommy John surgery and has made three starts. Carlos Beltran is also on the DL.

The Yankees big boppers include designated hitter, Alex Rodriguez, first baseman Mark Teixeira, catcher Brian McCann, third baseman Chase Headly, Jacoby Ellsbury and Brett Gardner.

A-Rod, on the comeback trail after being suspended last year for PED use, is performing well. He is hitting .271 with sixteen home runs and 47 RBI. Teixeira’s average is just .243, but he has twenty homers and is leading the AL with 59 RBIs.

The first game of the series will feature the A’s ace, Sonny Gray going against the Yankees’ Nathan Eovaldi, Gray,  named to the All-Star team Monday, missed his last two starts due to a salmonella infection. Gray has a record of 9-3 and an ERA of just 2.09. Eovaldi’s record for the Yankees is 8-2, and his ERA comes in at 4.52.

The second game of the series will feature a battle of two lefties. Scott Kazmir will go for Oakland and C.C.Sabathia will be on the hill for New York. Kazmir has pitched much better than his record would indicate. Kazmir has been the subject of much speculation this year as he will be a free agent at the end of the season.  Many teams are hoping that the A’s will be sellers and that Kazmir will be dealt before the July 31st trade deadline. Reports had several scouts checking him out last week in Oakland. Sabathia has struggled this year. His won-loss record in 3-8 and he his ERA is a whopping 5.59.

The A’s bullpen, as mentioned earlier, has improved. Lefty Drew Pomeranz has done well coming out of the bullpen either to pitch ans inning or a specialist, coming in to face a left-handed batter. Evan Scribner has faltered somewhat but has been good all year. Tyler Clippard has done his job as closer much to the delight of A’s manager Bob Melvin.

The Yankees starting rotation has had health issues all season. Masahiro Tanaka was shut down last season due to an elbow injury and has made just ten starts in 2015. Ivan Nova has returned from Tommy John surgery and had two good outings and one not-so-good outing. His record is 1-2. Eovaldi (8-2) and Michael Pineda lead the Yanks with eight wins each. Adam Warren is the fifth starter, and he has a record of 5-5. Lefty Andrew Miller was doing an excellent job as closer for the Yanks until he was injured. Miller recorded seventeen saves before going on the DL.and is scheduled to pitch an inning for Triple-A Scranton Monday Night. Dellin Betances took over the closer role and has been lights out. Betances was superb last year in a setup role and has appeared in 37 games this year with a won-loss record of 5-1 and seven saves to his credit. He has struck out 68 men in just 42 innings of work. His ERA is 1.50 with a WHIP of 0.86.

Sonny Gray and A’s catcher Stephen Vogt have been named to the American League All-Star team. The honor is well-deserved.

The A’s announced that they have obtained right-handed minor league reliever Aaron Kurcz from the Atlanta Braves for international slot number 113 which corresponds to the right to spend $167,000 on international signings during the 2015-16 signing period without incurring penalties. This is the second time the A’s have traded an international bonus slot for a Braves pitcher in a week. The A’s acquired Cody Martin for slot 53 on July 2.

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