Tag: Baseball

by Jerry Feitelberg

Monday night’s game in Baltimore was the last game of a seven-game road trip. The A’s had lost all six games in a row before the start of play and were hoping to get a win before heading home to Oakland. The A’s, however, played another sloppy game and they lost 4-2 to the Baltimore Orioles. The Orioles completed a four-game sweep and, to make matters worse, the A’s have a long flight home and probably will be very tired when they face the Los Angeles Dodgers at the O.co Coliseum Tuesday night. The A’s sent their ace, Sonny Gray, out to pitch and they were hoping that Sonny could stop the losing streak. Gray, without a doubt, is one of the best pitchers in the American League.  The A’s took an early 1-0 lead on a Danny Valencia home run but the defense let Gray down in the fourth inning, Orioles first baseman, Chris Davis, reached on an error by Eric Sogard. Sogard knocked the ball down but couldn’t find it until it was too late and Davis reached first safely. The next batter, second baseman Johnathan Schoop singled and that was followed by a blast off the bat of Designated hitter Steve Clevenger to put the Orioles ahead 3-0. Marcus Semien made a throwing error in the inning, but it did not cost the A’s.

The A’s got a run back in the top of the sixth. Left fielder Mark Canha took a Chris Tillman pitch to right for a solo home run. The Orioles got the run back in their half of the inning. Shortstop J.J.Hardy singled and that was followed by a double by catcher Caleb Joseph. Gray walked Manny Machado and that was it for him. Drew Pomeranz finished the inning.

The A’s were done for the evening.  Tillman went seven innings in recording his ninth win of the year. Darren O’Day pitched a scoreless eighth for the Birds and Zach Britton pitched the ninth and picked up his 29th save of the season.

Game notes- Not too many highlights for the A’s Monday night as they lost for the seventh straight time. It is the longest losing streak of the year for Oakland. The A’s defense made three errors in the game to have a total of 99 in 2015 so far. A’s designated hitter, Billy Butler, grounded into two more rally-killing double plays. Butler’s average is below .240 and he seems to be in a fog at the plate.

Stats for the road trip are as follows. 0-7 record. Runs scored per game 2.9. Runs allowed per game 7.4. Team batting average was .240 and the pitchers had an abysmal ERA of 6.93.

The A’s manager Bob Melvin and center fielder Sam Fuld were ejected from the game in the fifth inning on a very rare batter interference call. Fuld laid down a bunt that went about two feet in front of home plate. Fuld, running hard, all the way down the baseline, appeared to interfere with Chris Davis’ attempt to catch the ball. The ball dropped to the ground, but home plate umpire Brian Knight called Fuld out. Melvin came rushing out of the dugout and was tossed after protesting the call vehemently. Fuld continued to argue with Knight even though Knight put up his hand as if to tell Fuld to stop. Fuld didn’t stop and he was tossed, too.

The A’s had just three hits in the game. Danny Valencia had a solo homer in the second inning to go along with Canha’s blast in the sixth.

Sonny Gray went 5 2/3rds innings allowing 7 hits and four runs. Only one of the runs was earned. His record is now 12-5 and his ERA actually dropped slightly.

The A’s are now eighteen games under .500 with a record of 51-69. Baltimore improved to 61-56 and would be the second Wild Card in the AL if the playoffs were to start.

The A’s face the Dodgers at 7:05 Tuesday night at the O.co. Clayton Kershaw, the reigning NL Cy Young winner, and NL MVP will pitch for LA. The A’s will have their hands full.

by Jerry Feitelberg

It was another tough day in Toronto for the A’s as the Jays beat them 4-2 to sweep the three-game series. Jesse Chavez pitched well but not well enough to win. He had one bad inning, the second. The Jays, for the third game in a row, scored enough runs to put the game away. Chavez went six innings allowing four runs on six hits. Chavez struck out nine but still came away with a loss. Jays’ starter, Mark Buehrle won his thirteenth game of the season. He went seven-plus innings, allowing seven hits and two runs.

The A’s had a chance to do damage in the first inning. They loaded the bases with no out, but could not score. Buehrle got out of the jam by getting Danny Valencia to hit into a 1-2-3 double play. He then retired Josh Phegley for the third out.

In the fateful second inning, Jays’ catcher Dioner Navarro singled with one out. He went to third on a long single to right off the bat of Justin Smoak. Kevin Pillar followed with the third hit in a row to drive in Navarro with the first run of the game. The next batter, Shortstop Ryan Goins, made Chavez and the A’s pay as he put a Chavez mistake into the right field seats for a three-run homer. Jays lead 4-0 after two.

Chavez settled down and kept the Jays off the board for the rest of the time he was in the game. He went six innings giving up just six hits and four runs. It was his twelfth loss of the year.

Buehrle was cruising until the top of the eighth. Marcus Semien led off with a single. He scored all the way from first when Billy Burns’ line drive got by Kevin Pillar for a triple. The Jays brought in Aaron Sanchez to pitch. He got A’s first baseman Mark Canha to ground out. Burns scored on the play, and that was all the A’s could do. Roberto Osuna closed out the game for Toronto. Jays win 4-2.

Game Notes- The red-hot Blue Jays won their eleventh game in a row and fourteenth of the last fifteen played and picked up 1/2 game on the New York Yankees. The Yankees play Cleveland later in the day.

The A’s announced that Sonny Gray was scratched from Thursday’s game due to back spasms, and he will not pitch Friday night in Baltimore. The A’s start a four-game series with the Orioles Friday night. Ubaldo Jiminez will pitch for the Orioles. Game time will be 4:05 pm.

Time of game was two hours and twenty-five minutes. 46,902 were in attendance.

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.