Tag: Baseball

The A’s Bomb the Tigers

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by Jerry Feitelberg

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The A’s Bomb the Tigers

The Oakland A’s beat the Detroit Tigers and by doing so took a giant step in hopes of advancing to the AL Championship Series. The A’s beat the Tigers 6-3 and have a 2-1 advantage and need just one more win to advance. History is on their side as the winner of game three has made it to the Championship series ninety percent of the time.

The game featured two very good pitchers. Anibal Sanchez for the Tigers had the best ERA in the American League and the A’s Jarrod Parker pitched extremely well after a slow start earlier in the season. The A’s had their work cut out for them as they faced the Tigers’ two aces, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander in Oakland and had scored just three runs . The A’s battled in both games and were able to win game two and the series was tied before play started on Monday. The Tigers’ Anibal Sanchez entered the game with the best ERA in the American League and had allowed just nine home runs this season. The A’s countered with Jarrod Parker. Parker started slowly this year but went almost three months without losing a game. The A’s came into the game full of confidence as they beat the Tigers Saturday night with a walk-off 1-0 win.

There was no score in the first two innings of play. The A’s scored first in the top of the third. The A’s ignitor, Coco Crisp got things going with a leadoff single then stole second. Jed Lowrie and Brandon Moss struck out. Yoenis Cespedes then hit a rocket that Tigers’ third baseman Miguel Cabrera could not field cleanly. Crisp scored the first run of the game. Cabrera was charged with an error and the run was unearned. The Tigers were shut down in their half of the inning. 1-0 after three.

The A’s scored two more runs in the top of the fourth. Josh Reddick hit a solo homer leading off the inning. The next batter, A’s catcher, Steven Vogt legged out a triple and he scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Coco Crisp. The Tigers came back and scored three times in the bottom of the fourth to tie the score. Two singles and a Victor Martinez double made it a 3-1 game. Jhonny Peralta the singled to drive in two more.

The A’s regained the lead for good in the top of the fifth. Brandon Moss hit a solo home run to right field to make it a 4-3 game. Yoenis Cespedes followed with a single and left hand hitter Seth Smith, who has hit Sanchez well in the past, blasted a home run to give the A’s a 6-3 lead. That was it for Sanchez.

There was no more scoring the rest of the way. The A’s used Dan Otero, Sean Doolittle and Grant

Balfour in relief and they shut the Tigers down. There was a bit of an incident in the ninth inning

when Victor Martinez got into a shouting match with Balfour. Both dugouts emptied and there was a lot of milling about but no one was injured and the game resumed. Balfour retired the Tigers in order and the A’s win by a final of 6-3.

Game four of the five game series will be at 2pm PDT from Detroit. The Tigers will send Doug Fister

while the A’s will counter with Dan Straily.

Jerry Feitelberg
jyf1938

The Boy with the drums and the flags in the outfield

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That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

OAKLAND–Actually the faithful that attend A’s games go for the baseball, they have to, that is what happens there, ‘the boys with the drums and flags in the outfield’ – there is no pretty park like across the bay, there are no home runs balls going into the bay waters, with fans with fancy kayaks waiting for them, there are no expensive souvenirs and corporate luxury boxes.

I am not crying for A’s owners Lew Wolff/John Fisher, according to Forbes Magazine, they are the fourth richest owners in Major League Baseball. But there is a great contrast between the two teams by the bay.

In AT&T it is a: “we’re here for the party dude” atmosphere,even when the team finishes a disappointing third place after winning the previous World Series, they can’t wait for the last game of the season to cheer Barry Zito. While at the O.CO, a.k.a Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, there is not much in the form of outside the field of entertainment, players are not marketed, caricatured to the limit, there is no gourmet food in the stands, there is no quiche, or salads, but your basic hot dog and beer and hamburger and fries and an occasional bar-b-q. and yes, the Athletics play in a place were three times this season, plumbing has made the news, as an old antiquated plumbing system needs repair and acts up in an embarrassing fashion.

And no, the A’S have not won two World Series during the past three years, but they still have won four World Series since 1968. And three in a row, and how many teams have done that? For starters nobody in the American League Western Division can say that.

I know, it is not recent, but baseball is part of our history, it is a day to day grind, it is not a quarterback controversy every Monday and then you wait six days to see what happens.

Friday, for the first game of the American League Divisional Series against the Detroit Tigers, the Oakland Coliseum will be rocking, like PNC Park in Pittsburgh, a few days ago when the Pirates took the field, and then again Saturday, in Oakland, ‘the boys with the drums and the flags in the outfield’ will be there supporting their baseball team. They will have to fight the Tigers again…It’s simple, not complicated.

It’s A’s baseball.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland A’s baseball and does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk Radio

ALDS Preview- Detroit Tigers vs.Oakland Athletics

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by Jerry Feitelberg

ALDS Preview- Detroit Tigers vs. OaklandAthletics

The AL Division Series begins Friday night at the Oakland Coliseum at 6:30pm. The A’s will be hosting the AL Central champion Detroit Tigers. This will be the third time since 2006 that the A’s

have met the Tigers in the playoffs and the Tigers eliminated the A’s in 2006 and in 2012. The A’s are hoping to oust the Tigers and move on the ALCS.

The Tigers have a powerful team. They are led by last year’s MVP Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera won the Triple Crown last year and this year he led the league in hitting with a .348 average while hitting 44 home runs and driving in 137 and has an OPS of 1.078. He is certainly a candidate for MVP with those numbers. Torii Hunter, Prince Fielder, Victor Martinez,Austen Jackson, Alex Avila, Andy Dirks and

Jhonny Peralta are players that can cause a lot of damage. The A’s pitching is going to be good in order to slow these guys down.

The Tigers’ pitching staff feature Max Scherzer who is the favorite to win the AL Cy Young award.

Scherzer won 1 record of 21-3 with an ERA of 2.90 and a WHIP of 0.97. Scherzer will be starting game 1 Friday night. Former MVP and Cy Young award winner Justin Verlander will start game 2

with Anibal Sanchez going in game 3. Doug Fister will pitch game four for the Tigers.

Jim Leyland said “I truly feel that I could start any one of my guys and I would feel comfortable.”

The A’s will have their hands full facing this team and are not intimidated by anyone. The A’s

went into Detroit in August and took three out of four from the Tigers and narrowly missed sweeping the series. The A’s do not have superstars like the Tigers’ Cabrera or Fielder but they have good players up and down the lineup that play well together. A’s manager Bob Melvin uses different lineups in order to put the best team on the field for the game. Since the Tigers’ starters are all right handed pitchers, Melvin will you his lefty lineup. Coco Crisp, Jed Lowrie and Alberto Callaspo are all switch hitters.

Brandon Moss will be at first base, Steven Vogt probably will catch and Eric Sogard may play shortstop. The only right hand bats playing will be Josh Donaldson and Yoenis Cespedes.

Donaldson is having an MVP type year.He is hitting .301 with 24 home runs and 93 runs batted in.

Bartolo Colon will go for the Green and Gold Friday night. Colon had an excellent season winning 18 games and had an ERTA of 2.65 which was second best in the American League. The A’s bullpen

has been outstanding led by setup stars Sean Doolittle and Ryan Cook. The closer, Grant Balfour

has pitched well all season. Lefty Brett Anderson will be available in the bullpen. Anderson won a game in the ALDS last year as a starter. Jarrod Parker, Sonny Gray and A.J.Griffin will be in the rotation for the ALDS.

One big question mark for the A’s will be the health of Yoenis Cespedes. Yoenis didn’t have a monster year but he did get untracked in September. The A’s were 83-51 with Yoenis in the lineup and 13-15

without him. Hopefully, his shoulder will be fine and he can contribute to the A’s offense.

Should be a great series. My prediction will be that the A’s will win it in five games. The reason for my optimism is that the A’s have a better bullpen than the Tigers and that the A’s pitching has shown that it can shut down the Tiger offense.

Giants want wins in final week

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123According to the Giants, you can’t start 2014 on fire if you finish 2013 in a funk.

With six games remaining this season, the Giants desire a winning finish even if means going without seeing more from rookies like Juan Perez or Ehire Andrianza. Of course, Andrianza and Perez aren’t chopped liver. Andrianza’s solo shot in the sixth inning of Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Yankees in New York got the Giants on the board.

But the Dodgers come to town on Tuesday, and manager Bruce Bochy is likely to tab his veterans to fight the NL West champs. The Dodgers need some wins to gain home stadium advantage in the first and second rounds of the playoffs, and the Giants wouldn’t mind seeing them go without those wins. Also, the momentum built by winning three of four in Dodgers Stadium last week is something the Giants would love to build on.

The series with Los Angeles, with Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner and Tim Lincecum making starts, also offers the prelude to the off-season’s most prominent question: Are the Giants potentially good enough to knock off the billionaire Dodgers? These games provide a glimpse into the answer of that vital question.

Also, the Giants have individual goals as well. Buster Posey (.295) and Marco Scutaro (.297) want to finish with .300 batting averages, Bumgarner wants a 200th strikeout, and Hunter Pence wants to hit 26 home runs in a season for the first time. Look for those guys to get their opportunities to achieve their goals, especially in the next three games.

The Giants remain a 1 ½ games ahead of last place Colorado in an attempt to avoid being the first team since the 1998 Marlins to finish last in the season following a win in the World Series. Winning the series against the Dodgers might be enough to keep the Giants from gaining that distinction, especially since the Rockies have just five games remaining, and only two of those at home.

Cain and Hyun-Jin Ryu are the starting pitchers for the series opener on Tuesday at 7:15pm.

The A’s keep on winning

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628x471by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s keep on winning

The Oakland A’s won their fifth straight game downing the Los Angeles Angels 10-5 Monday night in Anaheim. The A’s clinched the AL West crown Sunday but are not content being the second seed in the AL. They are now just one game behind the Red Sox and if the Sox falter , the A’s can claim the top seed and the A’s and not the Red Sox would face the Wild Card. If that should happen, Detroit would play Boston in the ALDS.

Tommy Milone started for Oakland and he pitched well. Milone went 5 1/3rd innings giving up 5 hits

and four runs. Two of the runs were unearned. Milone struck out eight and walked just one and picked up his twelfth win of the year. The A’a scored two in the first and in the third Jed Lowrie who blasted a three run homer to give the A’s a 5-1 lead. The Angels came back with three in their half of the third. Howie Kendrick doubled with the bases loaded and all three runners scored.

The A’s scored two more in the fifth. Lowrie walked and scored ahead of Brandon Moss who hit a towering home run to right field. The A’s made it 8-4 in the sixth when Chris Young doubled to start the inning and he came home on an Eric Sogard single. The Angels scored their fifth run of the game in the bottom of the sixth. Josh Hamilton tripled and then scored on a sacrifice fly.

The A’s put the game out of reach when they scored two more runs in the top of the ninth. The A’s called on Grant Balfour to close the door on the Angels. It wasn’t easy as the Angels had two men on with one out but Balfour struck out the last to batters to secure the win.

Game Notes- The A’s have now won five in a row, eleven of the last thirteen and are 17-5 for September. Their record of the year is 94-63. Josh Donaldson had two hits in the game and was his 56th multi-hit game of the season and needs one more multi-hit game to tie the A’s team record.

Jed Lowrie hit his fifteenth home run of the year and when asked about the team’s success he said we’ve “done a great job the last couple of weeks.” When asked about his ability to hit home runs, Lowrie replied “ doubles are a power stroke and homers are doubles that go out.”

The A’s have five games left in the season. The play the Angels Tuesday night in Anaheim. A.J.Griffin will go for Oakland and Jason Vargas will be on the hill for the Halos.

Back to back AL West Champions!

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By Emily Zahner

 

OAKLAND, CA—The Oakland Athletics (93-63) didn’t need 9 innings for a reason to celebrate, all it took was three. With their magic number down to one, Oakland needed to either defeat the Minnesota Twins (65-90) this afternoon, or see Texas lose. Halfway through the top of the third, cheers started to erupt throughout the stadium, and yet the out of town scoreboard still read the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals were locked in a 0-0 tie in the 10th. After Sonny Gray surrendered a 3-run homerun by Oswaldo Arcia, the A’s finally got out of the inning. That was when a replay was shown of KC’s Justin Maxwell, with two outs in the 10th, crushing a grand slam that instantly sent the A’s into the post season. Once again, at the expense of the Texas Rangers, the A’s would be crowned the American League West Champions.

Not that the A’s needed the Royals help anyway… Oakland erupted for six runs in the 2nd inning, and then added one more in each of the next five innings. The A’s celebrated their division title on the back of a four-game sweep by means of an 11-7 rout of the Twins. Oakland starter Sonny Gray became the youngest pitcher in A’s history to win a division clinching game at the young age of 23. Gray was elated, “this is the best baseball day of my life… today is a very exciting day.” Even though they all knew their fate in the third, Sonny was determined, saying he knew something had happened in the Texas game, but still had a game to win.  Gray did struggle a bit, giving up four earned runs on seven hits through five innings pitched, but with the offensive tear his team appears to be on lately, it didn’t even matter. Gray isn’t worried about where he will land on the post season roster, just as long as he is a part of the team.

After tonight’s game, the A’s finish off the regular season with a three game series in Anaheim, followed by a three game set in Seattle. From here on out, the A’s will be focused on the post season. A’s manager Bob Melvin is ready, saying “we’ve got some unfinished business going forward… we’re going to enjoy today and look forward to tomorrow”. He has extreme confidence in his squad, “this is an unselfish group that just wants to win.” The players themselves are ready, Australian closer Grant Balfour said “we know how to play and we know how to win”.

Not only did the A’s clinch the West today, but Coco Crisp made history as well. In the 6th inning, after Eric Sogard reached first on a single, Coco walked. The two initiated a double steal, and Coco became only the 10th player in Oakland history to have a 20 homerun-20 stolen base year. Players all through the lineup stepped up huge today. In the 7th spot, Daric Barton went 3-3 with a walk; just a triple short of the cycle. Homeruns were a plenty today, and Oakland saw bombs from Crisp, Barton, and Jed Lowrie. Barton has made a huge impact since being called up from Triple A Sacramento on August 24th, and Melvin is taking notice, “I don’t see how Barton could not be on the post season roster”.

This marks the second consecutive and 16th overall AL West Division title for the Oakland Athletics. If the standings hold, the A’s will most likely face the Detroit Tigers once again in the ALDS. With the way this team has been playing, they’re ready for anyone.

 

Game Notes: Josh Donaldson has reached base safely via hit or walk in 27 consecutive games. Oakland has reached a season high of 30 games over .500. Josh Reddick had two outfield assists today, doubling off Brian Dozier in the 7th and Oswaldo Arcia in the 9th.

A-Rod’s grand slam puts Yanks on top of Giants

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By Pearl Allison Lo

Behind in the count with two outs , Alex Rodriguez changed the game and also passed Lou Gehrig for most grand slams with 24, as New York beat San Francisco 5-1 Friday.

Giants’ starter Tim Lincecum was lifted in favor of George Kontos after 121 pitches and the bases loaded.  Rodriguez entered the inning just 1 for his last 25 and was behind 2-1 when his hit landed with the spectators in deep right field, leading to a much needed win for his team.

It was a tie game since early on in the matchup.

The Yankees’ Alfonso Soriano hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first to make the score 1-0.

The Giants tied the game the following inning.  Brandon Crawford was issued a leadoff walk.  One out later, rookie Juan Perez doubled Crawford back to home plate to make it 1-1.

Rodriguez’s grand slam set up came in the bottom of the seventh.  Eduardo Nunez led off with a single and stole second after one out. Brendan Ryan was then hit by a pitch and a fielder’s choice left runners on first and second once again.  Ichiro Suzuki then walked to load the bases.

Sabathia was lifted in the top of the eighth after 107 pitches and issuing a leadoff single in the game that featured two former Cy Young winners .

Lincecum threw two wild pitches in addition to his two walks in his first game playing against New York

San Francisco had a one out, runners on the corners scoring opportunity in the top of the first.

The Yankees also had the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the third.

Game notes: During the game, Lincecum became the first Giants pitcher with 1,500 strikeouts since  Gaylord Perry in 1971.  Both teams get right back to playing Saturday at 10:05 am with two morning games in a row.

The Wild Card Race

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The Wild Card Race

Well, here we are in the homestretch. The Dodgers won the NL west division and the Red Sox

are in the playoffs but haven’t clinched the AL east yet. The Wild Card race in the American League looks like it will go down to the final day. 2012 saw the addition of a second WildCard team and the

Wild Cards have a one game playoff to determine who plays in the Division Championship series.

The extra Wild Card is great for the fans. In the old days before 1969, the team with the best record in each league would advance to the World Series. Divisional play started in 1969 but there were just two divisions in each league. The divisional champs would play for the league championship then advance to the World Series. However, in 1994, due to expansion, each league now had three divisions. Baseball

needed a mechanism so that there would be four teams in the playoffs in each league and baseball came up with the Wild Card. There was no World Series in 1994 due to the players’ strike. However, the new format appeared in 1995 and has been used ever since.

Teams know that if they can somehow make it into the playoffs they have a chance of going to the World Series. As of Thursday evening, six teams are in the race for the two Wild Card slots in the American League. If play were to stop as of today, the Tampa Bay Rays and the Texas Rangers would be the Wild Cards. The Rangers were one of the Wild Card last year and were bounced out by Baltimore in the one game playoff. However, if either the Rays or the Rangers falter, Cleveland is right there as they are just a half game back of the Rays and Rangers. Baltimore’s hopes are fading as they are one and half games behind Tampa and Texas. Kansas City is 2 ½ back and the Yankees are three back.

Over in the National League, there is a three way race for the Division Title. St. Louis holds a game edge over the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati is two games back. The way its going, the Division champ and Wild Cards won’t be determined until the final game of the year. In any case, the Wild Cards will be from the NL Central.

The race for a playoff spot is fun for the players and fun for the fans. Think back to 2011 as the Boston Red Sox and Atlanta Braves both faltered in September and were eliminated from the Wild Card race on the last day of the season. So, stay tuned , fans as you never know what will happen. That’s why we

love baseball.

A’s end regular season versus Texas with sweep

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September 15, 2013

By Pearl Allison Lo

With their biggest win margin of the series, Oakland engineered their first season sweep at Arlington in four years with a 4-1 finale.

The A’s magic number to clinch the American League West is now at seven games.

In this game, it was the big bats were the difference, producing four of the five runs. Josh Donaldson’s home run in the top of the first proved to be the game-
winner.

Oakland wasted no time getting runners on base as Coco Crisp and Chris Young got on
base before Jed Lowrie brought in the game’s first run with a double play. Donaldson followed suit with a home run to double the A’s lead and extend his
hitting streak to 11 games, a career-high.

Texas scored in the first inning as well, when A.J. Pierzynski hit a two-out single to bring in Elvis Andrus and slice the lead back down to one.

Chris Young re-doubled Oakland’s lead when he hit a two-out home run in the top of the third.

The Rangers’ best chance came in the bottom of the sixth with runners at the corner and one out. Texas used three pinch hitters in the inning, but only Jurickson Profar was successful.

The game stayed 3-1 from the third inning until Oakland tacked on two more runs
in the top of the ninth. Brandon Moss came in to pinch-hit and was walked and
Josh Reddick brought them both to home plate with a home run. Reddick went 2-
for-4.

Tommy Milone, who filled in after the A’s hot-pitching Jarrod Parker was scratched
from the game due to illness, pitched 5 innings, while Ranger’s starter Martin
Perez pitched 6.1 innings.

Game notes: Oakland’s Yoenis Cespedes was also scratched from the game due to a sore shoulder. He would have been the designated hitter. It was a franchise first for Texas to go winless in their six-game homestand. The A’s will continue
Monday with a three-game series versus the Los Angeles Angels, who they face six times in the next 10 games.

¡Vamos Los Athleticos!

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By Emily Zahner

Welcome to September baseball in Oakland, where unlikely players step up and prove they belong as the Oakland Athletics (83-60) push forward to the post season. In the finale of season series, the A’s defeated the Houston Astros (47-96) by a score of 7-2. Oakland took the season series 15-4, as the Astros stood no chance after in the beginning of the season the A’s had gone 10-0 against their new division rivals.

Bartolo Colon was on the mound for the A’s this afternoon, and looked like he didn’t have his best stuff. On first pitch, Colon instantly struggled, giving up a leadoff single, followed by an RBI double. Before Colon had thrown five pitches, the A’s were already down 1-0. He regained composure and quickly settled down after the initial shock and fanned the next two batters and got the final out on a ground out. Colon went on to have a great outing, pitching six innings and surrendering five hits and just one earned run with seven strike outs. Manager Bob Melvin was pleased, praising his starter saying “I thought he was really good. After the first two hitters, that got his attention in a hurry. He ramped it up, had really good movement, good location today. A lot of good things came out of Bartolo’s outing today.” Colon improves to 15-6 with his win today.

Rookie RHP Paul Clemens was scheduled to start today for Houston, but was scratched at the last minute due to a blister, so the Astros called upon relief pitcher Lucas Harrell to take the mound. Harrell sailed through the first two innings, surrendering one hit and one walk, but he fell apart at the seams when the third rolled around. Stephen Vogt was the first and last batter of the inning as the A’s batted around and scored seven runs. Brandon Moss had a huge two out two-run double, Yoenis Cespedes and Daric Barton each added runs with RBI singles, and then Seth Smith capped it off by crushing a huge 3-run homerun into the right field bleachers.   Smith would be pinch hit for his next at bat, but the skipper was pleased, “That was big for Smitty, it was a key blow in the game”.

Things seemed to be clicking for the A’s lineup today as they tallied 11 hits total. In the 7th spot, Daric Barton went 2-2 with two walks, an RBI and a run scored, highlighted by his two-out RBI single in the big third. Cespedes was swinging the bat well today as well, going 2-4 with a run scored. Melvin gave a lot of credit to his left fielder, saying “we have better energy when he is swinging the bat… he’s as important as everybody knows to us. If this is the time when he’s heating up, it’s certainly a good time for it.”

The A’s close out their second to last homestand going 8-2, a record they will gladly take. Melvin recounted, “It started out good and ended up good. We’ll take it”.

Oakland has an off day tomorrow before beginning a 6-game road trip, starting with a 3-game series against the Twins on Tuesday, a team they have yet to face this year. After Minnesota, the A’s travel to Arlington for an all too important 3-game series against their division rivals Texas Rangers, who defeated the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim today by a score of 4-3. The A’s now hold a 1.5 game lead on the Rangers.

Game Notes—Brandon Moss went 3-for-4 this afternoon with two singles, a double, and two RBIs. The A’s top three hitters, (Coco Crisp, Eric Sogard, Jed Lowrie) combined for 1-14 today with two strike outs. Brett Anderson got the save, pitching three innings and surrendering three hits and one earned run. Anderson struck out three.