Tag: Baseball

Comeback Falls Short, A’s Lose To Blue Jays 3-2

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TORONTO, CANADA - MAY 23: Brett Lawrie #13 of the Toronto Blue Jays is thrown out at second base trying to strecth a single into a double in the fourth inning during MLB game action as Nick Punto #1 of the Oakland Athletics tags him out on May 23, 2014 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
TORONTO, CANADA – MAY 23: Brett Lawrie #13 of the Toronto Blue Jays is thrown out at second base trying to strecth a single into a double in the fourth inning during MLB game action as Nick Punto #1 of the Oakland Athletics tags him out on May 23, 2014 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)

By Kahlil Najar

TORONTO – After winning the 11 of the past 13 games, the Athletics rallied in the eighth but were unable to secure the victory and lost to the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2. Brandon Moss hit his 11th homer of the year in the fifth and Alberto Callaspo scored two in the eighth for the A’s total offense on the night. Scott Kazmir (5-2) earned his second loss of the year as he gave up five hits in seven innings including a two run home run to Steve Tolleson.

Toronto’s starting pitcher Liam Hendricks earned his first victory of the year and went 5 2/3 innings and only surrendered one run and three hits.

Jed Lowrie, who went 1 for 4 on the day had this to say about Hendricks,”He was able to move his fastball around and elevate it. It looked like he kept guys just a little bit off balance.”

Toronto took the lead in the second when Steve Tolleson took a 3-1 fastball deep to left field, his first of the year. The bottom of the third saw Toronto get their game winning run. After Kevin Pillar hit his second double of the year, Kazmir threw a ball to second base trying to pick off Pillar but no one was home and Pillar moved to third. Jose Reyes came up next and hit a ground ball to second base that scored Pillar and gave Toronto a 3-0 lead.

“I should have held on to it,” Kazmir said. “It ended up being the difference-maker in the game.”

Brandon Moss put the A’s on the board when he took a change up from Hendriks deep to right field and made it a 3-1 game. Callaspo gave the A’s a pair of runs in the top of the eighth but it was already too late and the A’s lost 3-2.

Saturday’s game isn’t any easier as Toronto sends R.A. Dickey (4-4) to the mound against Jesse Chavez (4-1).

 

 

Chavez Continues Impressive Spring with Fifth Win, A’s Beat Giants 4-1

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Photo Courtesy USA Today
Photo Courtesy USA Today

By Kahlil Najar

SAN FRANCISCO – A’s pitcher Jesse Chavez (5-1, 2.22 ERA) looked great in his seventh appearance of spring training and beat the San Francisco Giants, 4-1. Chavez continued his domination during spring training as he took a no-hitter into the bottom of the fifth inning until Angel Pagan hit a double to get the Giant’s their first hit of the game. John Jaso and Sam Fuld provided the offensive power for the A’s tonight while the Giants were only able to score one run in the bottom of the ninth.

“It was a good one to finish off like that and go into the season and build off  of that one,” said Chavez on the win tonight. “Getting ahead was key for me tonight. If you can get ahead, you’re more than likely to succeed.”

On Chavez, Coach Bob Melvin said “Jesse’s been really sharp and efficient this spring. He had a really good cutter tonight and mixed his curve ball in just enough to slow him down a bit. He was on the corners all night.”

Tonight’s win solidified Chavez as a bona fied  starter in the A’s rotation and gives the Oakland faithful something to be grateful for after losing Jarrod Parker for the season. When asked about being a starter and how to keep it going, Chavez said, “I can’t get complacent. I still have to stay after it and keep doing what I’m doing and not change anything. I’ve been able to focus a lot more knowing that I have to go through line up three or four times. I’m happy that they have the confidence in me to put in me in the rotation and I don’t want them to think they made the wrong decision.”

“This is something he’s always strives for is to be a starter. He’s earned, he deserves it and you can see his confidence grows each time he goes out there,”said Melvin echoing his confidence in Chavez.

On offense, Oakland’s John Jaso hit his first homer of spring training on a first pitch 2-seam fast ball from Tim Lincecum (1-1, 5.79 ERA) to give the A’s a 1-0 lead in the third.

In the top of the fourth, the Giants biggest fear came to reality when Daric Barton hit a shot into Lincecum’s left leg and immediately dropped him. After stretching on the ground and taking time to make sure nothing was broken, the Giants were able to get Lincecum to get off the field with some help from the trainers. Luckily it was a left knee contusion and x-rays didn’t find anything.

“You never want anybody to see get hit by a come backer especially someone of his caliber,” said Chavez.

In the fifth, Jaso walked, Nick Punto doubled and Daric Barton walked to get the bases loaded for  spring training phenom Sam Flud. Flud didn’t disappoint as he took a 2-seam fastball to right field past the out-stretched body of Brandon Belt and into the deep part of right field that Hunter Pence had to scoop up and relay to home. By the time the ball reached home Flud was standing at third and had three more RBI added to his stat sheet to give the A’s a 4-0 lead.

The Giants were able to break up the no-hitter that Chavez had going into the sixth when Angel Pagan hit a double to A’s left fielder Yoenis Cespedes. After the hit, Melvin pulled Chavez ended  his night with 5 1/3 innings pitched with one hit, one walk and five strike outs.

“I don’t normally take out guys of potential no-hitters,” Melvin said. “At the time, I was almost glad that Pagan got the hit, to tell you the truth. But it was impressive. He was on it all night.”

The Giants were able to get to A’s closer Jim Johnson for one run in the bottom of the ninth but then he settled down and got Sanchez to fly out to Flud to end the game.

Both teams head to the other side of the Bay to continue the Bay Bridge series in Oakland when Dan Strailey takes on the Giant’s Edwin Escobar, game time 1:05 pm.

 

The Agony of defeat

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The Agony of Defeat

The Oakland Athletics lost the final game of the AL Division Series. The A’s led the series at one time two games to one but the Tigers won the last two games to take the best of five series 3 games to two.

In addition, the A’s had to watch the Tigers celebrate on their home field. The A’s had to go to the clubhouse and feel the agony of having their season end.

It’s hard to realize that after the great season had this year but end it did. All the hard work day after day

as the A’s won the AL west. All the great performances and thrilling come from behind wins are put aside as the players have to come in tomorrow and clean out their lockers and head home for the winter.

The A’s brass will have to think hard over the winter on ways to improve this team so that the can get

past the first round of the playoffs. The only time the A’s advanced to the AL Championship series was in 2006 and the Tigers knocked them out in four straight.

The fans were great again this year but they left the stadium disappointed as the A’s couldn’t get the job done. The fans will have to “wait till next year”.

So that’s it for the 2013 season. See you again next year as the A’s regroup and start a new quest.

Tigers Rally to even Series

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by Jerry Feitelberg


  • Division Series – Oakland Athletics v Detroit Tigers – Game Four

    October 08, 2013


  • Division Series – Oakland Athletics v Detroit Tigers – Game Four

    October 08, 2013

    Tigers Rally to Even Series

    The A’s missed a golden opportunity to advance to the American League Championship Series

    as the Detroit Tigers rallied to beat the A’s 8-6 and even the Series at 2 games apiece. The

    deciding game of the best of five series will be played Thursday night in Oakland.

    The A’s led at one point 3-0 but the Tigers rallied to tie it 3 in the bottom of the fifth.

    The A’s took a 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh but the bullpen imploded and the

    Tigers went ahead 5-4 in the seventh and added three more in the eighth. The A’s

    rallied for two in the ninth but fell short. Dan Straily started for the A’s and

    he was opposed by Detroit’s Doug Fister. Straily pitched no hit ball for four innings but

    the Tigers got to him in the fifth. Fister went six innings and was relieved by Tigers’ ace, Max Scherzer.

    The A’s got the scoring going in the first inning. Coco Crisp blasted a triple to start the game. Crisp scored on a Jed Lowrie single. Jed Lowrie hit a two run homer in the top of the fifth to put the A’s

    ahead 3-0. Looked like Lowrie was going to be the star of the game. However, The Tigers rallied to put

    three runs in the bottom of the fifth. Straily gave up singles to Prince Fielder and Victor Martinez.

    Jhonny Peralta then put a Dan Straily fastball over the left field wall to tie the game at 3.

    The A’s came back and scored a run in the seventh. Steven Vogt singled and advanced to second on a ground out. Coco singled to drive in Vogt and the A’s had a short-lived 4-3 lead. A’s Manager, Bob Melvin, went to his bullpen and brought in Sean Doolittle to pitch. He Tigers scored two runs to put them ahead 5-4 at the end of seven. Melvin had Ryan Cook pitch the eighth but the Tigers got to him and scored three more times and the increased their lead to 8-4. The A’s didn’t give up as they scored two in the top of the ninth but it wasn’t enough and they wound up on the short end of the score 8-6.

    Notes- The A’s had a chance to get back into the game in the top of the eighth. The A’s loaded the bases with no out. Scherzer struck out Josh Reddick for out number one. He got Steven Vogt to strike out for out number two. Melvin sent Alberto Callaspo in to pinch hit but Callaspo lined out to center field to end the threat.

    Since 1990, the ‘s are 1-11 in potential clinch games. The game will be played at 6pm PDT at the Coliseum. If the Red Sox eliminate Tampa Bay, the game time will be moved to 5pm PDT.

    The Tigers will send Justin Verlander to pitch and he will be opposed by the A’s Bartolo Colon.

    Verlander pitched extremely well last Saturday night allowing no runs in seven innings of work.

    Colon gave up three runs in the first inning in Game One.

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.