Tag: Kansas City Royals

A’s get six run sixth sweep Angels 8-4 at Coliseum

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Oakland A’s Ramon Laureano fist bumps with third base coach Mark Kotsay in the fourth inning after hitting a home run at the Oakland Ring Central Coliseum on Wed Jun 16, 2021 (AP News photo)

Los Angeles 4 – 9 – 0

Oakland 8 -10 -0

By Lewis Rubman

Wednesday June16, 2021

OAKLAND–Five days ago, Cole Irvin pitched six beautiful innings at the Coliseum, shutting out the Kansas City Royals on two singles . Then, with Oakland leading 3-0, Salvador Pérez homered off the Oakland southpaw, followed by singles by Andrew Benintendi and Jorge Soler.

Yusmeiro Petit rode to Irvin’s rescue and retired the next two batters, but an error by Elvis Andrus, whose walk off single ended up winning the game for the A’s two innings later, opened the door for Benintendi to score KC’s second run of the inning.

In the next episode, Pérez blasted an encore home run off of Jake Diekman to tie the score, robbing Irvin of credit for what would have been his fifth win of 2021. His record had stalled at 4-7, 3.70.

Today, bolstered by the Oakland A’s (43-27) Ramón Laureano’s return to the line up, Irvin went for that fifth victory, facing the LA Angels (33-35), who sent Griffin Canning (5-4,5.22) to the mound.

Canning last saw action a week ago, when he held Kansas City to one run on five hits and two walks over 6-2/3 innings in a 6-1 victory over the Royals at Angel Stadium. Before today, he had a career record of 1-3, 4.88 against the green and gold. Last year, it was 0-2, 6.75.

There would be no win number five for the A’s lefty today. He left the game, trailing 4-2 with two men on and two down in the sixth. He had thrown 81 pitches, 55 for strikes, and surrender four runs, all earned on nine hits, including one homer.

He walked two and struck out two, and was on the hook for the loss. That went to Los Angeles’ Tony Watson after Oakland came back to defeat the fallen Angels 8-4..

The Angels gave Irvin a rude greeting. Justin Upton slammed his first pitch of the game up against the Kaiser Permanente sign between the 388 and 362 foot markers in right center field for a two base hit. He advanced to third on Shohei.

Ohtani’s ground out to Elvis Andrus, playing in the shift, and scored on Max Stassi’s single to left through a drawn in infield. Stassi went to second on another single to left, this one byo José Iglesias. Taylor Ward followed with yet another single to, you guessed it, left that brought Stassi home.

Jared Ward broke the monotony by sending a blast to deep left field, where Mark Canha made a spectacular leaping grab at the wall. Phil Gosselin drove in another run, scored by Iglesias with one more single, this one to center.

It looks as if the A’s might mount the start of a come back when Taylor Ward mishandled Matt Olson’s two out single to right and the A’s first baseman hustled to second, where umpire Mel Lentz called him safe. The umpires reviewing the play in New York called him out, Taylor to Stassi, covering.

The Angels padded their early lead with Ohtani’s 19th home run, a first pitch shot over the right field wall.

Laureano made two noteworthy catches in the top of the fourth. He made a long distance running catch of a liner off Lagares’s bat to open the inning and an excellent leap to pull Upton’s drive back from over the right center field fence to end the frame, the first one in which Irvin didn’t allow a runner to reach base.

In the A’s half of the inning, Laureano extended his stellar perormance, puting the Athletics on the board with a 404 foot blast on an 88 mph that left his bat at 107 mph before landing in the left field seats. It gave him an even dozen round trippers in his injury shortened season.

Irvin hung in there, benefiting from the Lefty Gomez method of successful pitching (clean living and a fast outfield) as the A’s slowly changed what looked like would be a rout into a ball glame.

Kemp walked with one down in the fifth and reached third on Aramis García’s seeing eye single to right and then scored when Canha beat out the relay from second on what would have been a double play for som without his hustle and speed. The scoreboard now read 4-2.

In the top of the sixth, Burch Smith took charge of Oakland´s pitching. He hurled 1-1/3 innings of perfect relief, earning himself his first win against no loses before turning the ball over to Sergio Romo, who pitched a 1,2, 3 top of the eigthth.

Canning was out of the game when the A’s next came to bat. He had worked five innings, in which he had yielded two earned runs on three hits, one of which went yard, two walks, and a hit batter. 45 of his 69 pitches were counted as strikes.

Canning’s replacement, Tony Watson, blew LA’s lead. He gave up back to back to back to back singles to Olson, Jed Lowry (batting for Moreland), Chapman, and Chad Pinder (recovered from his recent beaning and batting for Brown) that tied the game at four.

A conceded walk to Andrus, followed by Kemp’s single to center and the A’s were ahead 5-4, the bases were loaded, Watson was in the shower, and Steve Cishek was on the mound. His first pitch to García was a wild pitch, making the score 6-4.

Canha jrounded into a fielder’s choice that plated Andrus, and Laureano’s fly out to center moved Kemp to third, which ended Cishek’s failedattempt to stop the hemorage. José Suárez came in and struck out Lowrie to staunch the flow.

After Smith’s effective outing, Sergio Romo pitched a perfect eighth, giving way to Lou Trivino, who joined Smith and Romo in not having allowed anyone to reach base safely.

The A’s will resume play in the Bay Area on June 25 when they’ll take on the Giants in the first of a three game week end series at Oracle Park. After a day off, they’ll wrestle with the Rangers in another three game series and battle with Boston before taking off for Houston.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast: Will $12 billion price tag make City Council balk on A’s stadium? plus more A’s news

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Artist rendering of the Oakland A’s Howard Terminal ballpark. Oakland City Council will have meetings regarding approving the new ballpark on July 7th and a vote July 20th (photo from NBC Sports)

On That’s Amaury’s podcast:

#1 A $1 billion term sheet that showed the Oakland A’s price tag for the new Howard Terminal Ball Park was the initial figure but after infrastructure needs for development of the Howard Terminal and Jack London Square the price tag inflated for total developments to $12 billion.

#2 Amaury, how safe is the Howard Terminal footprint where the A’s ballpark? They have rail that surrounds the port area and it was reported to you first hand that it’s well known by the workers and contractors that have worked there that the ground is toxic radio active.

#3 Amaury, turning to the big series in Oakland with the Los Angeles Angels Shohei Ohtani brings with him the second highest home run total in the American League with 17 and he is just behind the Toronto Blue Jays Vladmir Guerrero who has 21.

#4 The A’s Matt Olson has been swinging the bats of late on Sunday he belted two home runs off of Kansas City Royals pitching and is leading the A’s with a .289 average.

#5 Tonight’s pitchers for game 2 of the series at the Coliseum the Angels will start Andrew Heaney (4-3 ERA 4.37) and for the A’s Frankie Montas (6-6 ERA 4.37) a 6:40pm first pitch.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the lead play by play announcer for the A’s Spanish flagship radio station 1010 KIQI LaGrande San Francisco and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland A’s podcast with Barbara Mason: A’s show resilience take three of four from Royals

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Oakland A’s starter Chris Bassitt is having himself quite a season picking up his seventh straight win on Sun Jun 13, 2021 with a win over the Kansas City Royals at the Oakland Coliseum (AP News photo)

On the Oakland A’s podcast with Barbara:

#1 The Oakland A’s (40-27) showed no signs of giving up in this series the A’s have won nine of their last 11 games and took three of four from the Kansas Royals (30-34) for a 6-3 victory at the Oakland Coliseum on Sunday.

#2 Once again the A’s proved attacking early putting up runs early and getting good pitching in the later innings wins in Sunday’s game as they scored once in the first, twice in the second and once again in the third.

#3 In the series guys that have been having some good at bats , Mark Canha, Matt Olson, Matt Chapman and like you said Ramon Laureano is coming soon..

#4 Tony Kemp has been on base and was walked three times on Sunday he’s also helped out in the series with some solid base running.

#5 Barbara, Shohei Otani and the Los Angeles Angels (33-32) are back at the Oakland Coliseum to open up a series with the A’s on Monday night. starting pitcher for the Angels Dylan Bundy (1-6 ERA 6.16) and for the A’s Sean Manaea (5-2 ERA 3.09).

Join Barbara for the A’s podcasts Mondays at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

A’s pour it on with 5 run 8th inning defeat Royals 11-2 in a laugher

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Kansas City 2 – 5 – 0

Oakland 11 – 14- 0

By Lewis Rubman

June Saturday, June 1 2021

The Oakland A’s Tony Kemp slides in at home in front of Elvis Andrus after Matt Chapman hits a two run double in the second inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Sat Jun 12, 2021 (AP News photo)

OAKLAND–While the Oakland A’s (39-27) and Kansas City Royals (30-33) were taking batting and fielding practice before this afternoon’s game, the city of San Leandro paid tribute to one of baseball’s unrecognized heroes of the game by dedicating the local Little League and Senior Leagues field in that city to Lou Profumo and unveiling a plaque that identifies the place as Lou Profumo Field. The A’s rallied in the bottom of the eighth inning for five runs and pretty much put the kibosh on the Royals for a 11-2 win.

It’s a small park in a small city, but Lou, who had a short career as a pitcher in the minor leagues during the 1950s and ’60s, played a major role in the development of hundreds, if not thousands of children and young adults who went on to live productive lives while enjoying and nourishing the game.

He coached youth baseball and women’s softball, worked to maintain the playing fields of the east bay area, and, as San Leandro councilmember Victor Aguilar put it, “He helped close the equity gap for those who could not afford to play.”

He’s a frequent welcome participant at the meetings of the local SABR chapter and the Pacific Coast League Historical Society, where he shares the knowledge and experience he’s gathered in his long and fruitful life, both horizontal across the baseball globe and vertical, in his deep roots here in the bay area.

In spite of all of the baseball industry’s faults and problems, the game of baseball continues to thrive, thanks to the work and dedication of people like Lou. That last sentence isn’t quite right. There are thousands of people like him, but there’s really no one like Lou Profumo.

In order to reach the Coliseum in time for today’s game, I couldn’t attend the ceremony to honor him and his contributions. I hope these inadequate notes can provide a measure of appreciation to that shown him in this morning’s ceremony.

At the Coliseum, the A’s hosted a less intimate pre-game gathering, this one held to celebrate African American Heritage Day. The different types of tribute–the grass roots and the institutional, the individual and collective–can be complimentary, as they were today.

After the last two night’s battles between Oakland and Kansas City, there’s a temptation to skip the first six innings and start paying attention in the top of the action-filled seventh. But ball games begin at the beginning and not always in the big inning.

This game began with James Kaprielian (2-1, 3.08) toeing the rubber for the 38-27 Athletics. He lost his most recent start, the first L he received as a major league hurler, but he had pitched pretty well in that losing effort, having allowed only two runs over five innings in Coors Field, where ERAs go to boom in the rarified air and spacious distances betweeen outfielders.

Kansas City (30-32) countered with Jackson Kowar, making only his second big league start. He was their compensation round draft pick, in exchange for the loss of Lorenzo Cain, in 2018 and rose quickly to the top. He was, however, creamed in his MLB debut five days ago at the Big A, where the Angels disposed of him after just two thirds of an inning in which he yielded three hits on four runs, two walks, and three wild pitches. His pitch count was 39. That he started today, five days after that inauspicious outing, is a sign that the Royals still think highly of him.

Kowar’s first inning this afternoon wasn’t the nightmare he suffered in Anaheim, but he did allow Oakland to take a 1-0 on Mitch Moreland’s sacrifice fly almost to the left center field wall, which plated Tony Kemp, who had singled to right and advanced to third when Matt Olson also singled to right.

Add a couple of walks to that, and the A’s had loaded the bases before Chad Pinder forced Seth Brown, the recipient of Kowar’s second passport, at second. He threw 34 pitches in the process of getting through his first major league complete inning. Kaprielian responded by striking out the three Royals he faced in the top of the second.

The Kansas City bull pen began stirring in the bottom of the second when Chapman’s liner to left rebounded off the fence, driving in Andrus, who has singled, and Kemp who had walked. Two pitches later, Olson drove Chapman in with a double to right.

Roland Bolaños hadn’t had time to warm up properly, but he came in anyway. Kowar, in his 1-1/3 inning stint had served up 57 offerings, 28 of which were balls. He allowed four hits and three walks while striking out one, Skye Bolt, who was spelling Canha in center field.

Bolaños retired Moreland and Sean Muprhy, so Kowar was charged with only four runs, all of them well earned. At game’s end, he was the losing pitcher, with a record of 0-2, 36.00 Kaprielian faced some trouble of his own in the third, but he pitched his way out of it.

Jarrod Dyson’s lead off single to center and a walks to Nicky López brought Carlos Santana to the plate with runners on first and second with two down. The two runners executed a double steal before Santana walked to load the bases with royalty. Kaprielian restored order by getting Benindtendi to pop out to Kemp at second.

An innning later,a one out triple to right center by KelvinGutiérrez and walks to Dozie and Dyson had Kaprielian in a bases loaded jam. He wiggled out of it with a fly to right that Gutiérrez elected not to run on (a tribute to Seth Brown’s arm) and a grounder fielded by Andrus behind second and arriving in Olson’s glove before the speedy López made it to first.

Once Bolaños had retired his sixth consecutive batter by striking Olson out to end the fourth it looked like the Athletics had setled into their familiar pattern of jumping out to an early lead and then holding on for dear life while their bats went cold and their pitching faltered. But Kaprielian’s 1-2-3 fifth held at least the pitching part of that anxiety at bay.

In the bottom of the frame, the A’s allayed the anxiety’s offensive portion. A two out singgle to center by Brown, followed b a walk to Pinder and Andrus’s single to center scored a run and chased Bolaños from the mound. Carlos Hernández squelched the uprrising by striking out Bolt.

Bolaños had done a good job of keeping KC in the game. He allowed that one run in 3-1/3 frames, striking out four and walking two while yielding two hits and had stranded the runner in scoring position he inherited with only one out.His pitch count was 56, with 32 strikes.

Hernández stopped the A’s cold in the fifth, but he wasn’t as effetive in the sixth. After Kemp took a called strike three, Chapman continued to recover his batting stride, taking a 99 mph slider 388 feet deep into the right field stands and upping the Oakland lead to a more comfortable 6-0.

Six shutout innings were enough for Kaprielian on this warm–torrid for Oakland–afternoon. He left after allowing only two hits and four walks to go with seven Ks.

60 of his 95 pitchs were strikes. He eventually got the win Jesús Luzardo, whose seventh inning meltdown two nights ago was one of the most distressing components of that debacle, replaced him and kept the Royals off the board, allowing them only a walk.

He continued his attempt redeem his performance in last Thursday’s sinister seventh when he stayed on in the eighth. That was thwarted, despite Luzardo’s strike out of Pérez, by the 378 foot homer to left that Gutiérrez hit of a Luzardo change up with Santana on base with two out that brought Sergio Romo to the mound to put out the brush fire.

Hernández didn’t answer the bell for the seventh; Josh Staumont shut the A’s out for the visitors that inning. For the eight, it was Wade Davis, whose first pitch resulted in Skye Bolt’s first hit of the season and first major league home run, a 410 foot blast to center.

Before Davis knew what had hit him, Kemp and Chapman singled, and Olson smacked a three run homer to left center, his sixteenth round tripper of the year, raising his RBI totl to 44 and the A’s lead to 10-2. No one got up in the Kansas City bullpen; it was up to Wade to just sponge it up. It turned out that only one more Oakland run crossed the plate, scored by Moreland on Pinder’s sacrifice liner to right.

Cam Bedrosian mopped up for Oakland in the ninth, setting the Royals down in order.

It was a very satisfying vindication for the A’s, who now have bounced back from the affront to their dignity inflicted on them on Thursday. Chapman’s batting seems to have turned the corner, but Luzano’s poor showing is a concern.

The A’s have clinched a tie for this series. They hope to win it tomorrow, when Chris Bassitt (6-2, 3.44) is slated to go against Kris Bubic (1-1,3.32). The Angels will come to town for a three day series starting Monday. After that, the Athletics will take off for a three game series in the Bronx, a four game set in Dallas-Fort Worth, and a three day week end in Oracle Park.

Elvis’ single has left the infield; Walk off hit in 9th gets A’s 4-3 victory

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Elvis Andrus jumps for joy as Oakland A’s teammate Seth Brown celebrates Andrus’ walk off single in the bottom of the ninth giving the A’s the one run win over the Kansas City Royals at the Oakland Ring Central Coliseum Fri Jun 11, 2021 (AP News photo)

Kansas City 3 – 9 – 1

Oakland 4 – 8 – 1

By Lewis Rubman

Friday, June 11, 2021

OAKLAND–Following Thursday night’s ill-starred loss to the Kansas City Royals (30-32), the Oakland A’s (38-27), still hanging on to a one game lead over Houston in the AL West, sent southpaw Cole Irwin (4-7, 3.70) to the mound to try to help them even their four game series with the Kansas City Royals that will last through Sunday. The A’s picked up the win in the second of this four game series with a 4-3 walk off single in the ninth by Elvis Adrus to even the series at 1-1 on Friday night.

Irwin’s history against Kansas City goes back to his first big league first game, which took place on May 12, 2019, at Kaufman Stadium, where he held the Royals to five hits over seven innings, allowing only one run. He was pitching for the Phillies, so, in a strange sort of way, his career follows the route of his team, from Philadelphia through Kansas City to Oakland. Perhaps it’s best we not think about where he’ll go next.

Irwin’s waxed hot and cold this season. He went 2-3, 3.67 in April and 1-4, 4.46 in May. In his only June appearance before tonight, Irwin performed the feat of holding the Rockies to one run on five hits over seven innings in the pitchers’ house of horrors that is Coors Stadium.The A’s took that contest, 6-3.

KC countered with Brady Singer (3-5, 4.88), their first round pick in the 2018 draft, who made a swift climb to the majors last year, when he went 4-5, 4.05 for the 26-34 Royals. Three of his 12 starts this season were frankly bad, in which he lasted no longer than 3-1/3 innings. In what was arguably his best outing, on April 24 at Detroit he went seven frames, allowing three hits and one run. Six days earlier, he had shut out Toronto at home on two hits over six innings.

Irwin set the first ten Royals he faced down in order but ran into trouble with one out in the top of the fourth. Back to back singles by Carlos Santana and Salvador Pérez brought up clean up and number five hitters Andrew Benintendi and Jorge Soler, both of whom had figured prominently in last night´s fatidic seventh inning Royals rally. Irwin rose to the ocassion and disposed of them with a strike out and a fly to right center.

Singer worked his way out of trouble in the first inning and had to face a runner on second with two out in the following frame, but he sailed through the third. He couldn’t manage that in the home fourth. With one down, Mitch Moreland and Matt Chapman hit back to back doubles to right and left field, respectively.

Then Seth Brown unloaded on a 94 mph sinker that landed in the right field stands, 405 feet from home, from which it had left at the speed of velocity of 105 mph. It was Brown’s ninth home run and 22nd and 23rd RBI of the year, and it put the A’s ahead, 3-1.

It looked as if the seventh inning curse was about to claim its second consecutive victim in the Oakland rotation when Salvador Pérez lifted Irvin’s second pitch of the inning down the left field line for his 15th home run of the year and Benintendi and Soler followed with singles. That was enough for BoMel, who replaced his starter, who now had given up six hits in six innings, striking out four without issuing a base on balls. He had thrown 62 pitches, 46 for strikes.

Yusmeiro Petit inherited the two runners, one of whom, Benintendi, advanced to third on Hunter Dozier’s fly out to right. Petit almost got out of the inning with no further damage, but Elvis Andrus flubbed an attempted backhanded pickup of Michael Taylor’s grounder, allowing Benintendi to narrow the gap to 3-2.

The run, unearned was charged to Irvin. Petit again seemed to have pulled a Houdini when Hanser Alberto hit a grounder right at Andrus … whose soft toss to Lowrie arrived too late to force Taylor out at second. That fielder’s choice loaded the bases. Whit Merrifield´s broken bat soft liner to second finally put an end to the threat.

Jake Brentz relieved Singer to start the bottom of seventth. Singer had pitched well, if not as well as the ill-served Irvin. KC’s starter allowed three runs, all earned, in his six innings of mound duty, during which he threw 104 pitches, 66 for strikes. He yielded five hits and a walk against seven strike outs. Brentz retired the side in order.

Jake Diekman replaced Petit on the hill to protect Oakland’s slim lead in the eighth. He couldn’t. After Carlos Santana grounded out to Lowrie at second, Pérez lofted his second straight four bagger, this time taking an 86 mph slider deep over the left center field fence to knot the score at three apiece.

After walking Benintendi, Diekman struck out Soler and handed the ball over to Lou Trivino to face Dozier, who blooped a single to right center. Benintendi tried to score from first, but was called out by home plate umpire Lance Barksdale, whose decision was upheld on review. The put out went Canha to Olson to García.

Kemp greeted Scott Barlow, the Royals´new pitcher in the bottom of the eighth with a line single off second baseman Merrifield’s gove into right, but he quickly was erased on a 4-6-3 double play from the bat of Olson. Barlow whiffed Lowrie to preserve the tie.

Trivino returned to the hill to open the ninth and gave up a sharp single to center on his first pitch to Gutiérrez and threw three straight balls to Taylor. When Taylor swung at and missed Trivino’s next offering, Jarrod Dyson, running for Gutiérrez took off for second. Umpire Shane Livensparger ruled him out on García’s throw to Andrus, but his call was overruled on review. With no one out and a fast runner in scoring position, Trivino proceeded to strike out Taylor and Hanser Alberto before getting Merrifield to fly out to right.

With Barlow back on the mound, Moreland opened the bottom of the ninth by grounding out to first on his first pitch. Then Chapman, whose bat had come alive earlier in the evening, hit his third straight safety, a double to left, his second of the game. Barlow conceeded a walk to Brown, preferring to face Andrus. Andrus came through. He lined a single to right, and Chapman dashed home with the winning run.

The win went to Trivino, who had given up two hits but no runs in 1-1/3 innings, during which 14 of his 20 pitches were strikes. His ERA dropped to 2.40 and he now stands at 3-2 in addition to his nine saves. The loss went to Barlow, who also worked 1-1/3 innings, but he gave up three hits, and that third won did him in. His won-lost record now is 2-2.

Over the weekend, the A’s will complete their four game battle royal with Kansas City. On Saturday, James Kaprielian (2-1, 3.08) will face the visitors’ Jackson Kowar (0-1, 54.00) in a duel of righties, and on Sunday, it will be the right handed Chris Bassitt (6-2, 3.44) who opposes KC’s southpaw Kris Bubic (1-1, 3.32). Both games are scheduled for 1:07.

Starting on Monday the 14th, the A’s will offer Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines at the Coliseum, free of charge, with no appointments or insurance necessary. The A’s press release says, “Individuals are eligible to return to the vaccination clinic for their second dose at a future game and will once again receive a voucher for two tickets to an A’s game.”

This seems to imply that everyone who gets vaccinated at the ballpark will get a voucher, and Dave Kaval’s statement, “We encourage baseball fans to head to the Coliseum to receive a vaccine and then join us for a great day of A’s baseball,” strengthens that implication If you want a vaccination and don’t already have a ticket for the game, you can enter the vaccination clinic, which will be in the Eastside Club, through the BART Ramp.

People 12 years and older are eligible for the Pfizer vaccine as a first or second dose, although those under. 18 receiving the Pfizer vaccine must have consent from a parent or guardian.) Any one under 18 will need a parent or guardians’s consent to get the Pfizer shot.

Royals rally late for six runs defeat A’s 6-1

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The Kansas City Royals Hunter Dozier is greeted at the plate by teammates after scoring against the Oakland A’s in the seventh inning on Thu Jun 10, 2021 at the Oakland Coliseum (AP News photo)

Kansas City 6 – 10 – 1

Oakland 1 – 3. – 1

By Lewis Rubman

Thursday, June 10, 2021

OAKLAND–Right handed throwing Frankie Montás, who started today’s game for Oakland, is one of the A’s talented crew of hurlers for whom the club has great expectations that are yet to be realized. He took the mound this evening with a record of 6-5, 4.52, a WHIP of 1.41, and an opponents’ BA of .273. To put that in perspective, the A’s came to the park having won 37 games against 26 defeats.

Their batting average was .232, and the opposition was batting .248 against them. Montás got off to an horrific start this season, losing 10-3 to the Dodgers on April 5, when he surrendered seven earned runs on as many hits in only 2-2/3 innings of work. He went 2-2, 6.20 for that month and a respectable 3-3, 3.18 in May.

He won his last start, six days ago against the Rockies, but gave up three runs, all earned, in his five innings of work. That performance needs to be taken with a grain of salt; Coors Field is a threat to any pitcher’s ERA.

Kansas City, sitting in the middle of the five team AL Central Division standings at 29-31, sent southpaw, nine year veteran, and former Athletic Mike Minor to the mound. He brought a record of 4-3, 4.34 with him. He throws mostly fast balls and sliders, which he mixes with the occasional curve and change up.

It was the late innings the top of the seventh and eighth that saw the Royals score three times in each frame and got them over the hump for a 6-1 win over Oakland.

The first four innings featured some exciting fielding by the A’s. Montás made a pretty glove-handed pickup and toss to first to nab Nlicky López to start the third frame, and Matt Chapman made a leaping catch of Salvador Pérez’s hot liner smashed over his head down the foul line for the second out of the third.

Jed Lowrie, tonight’s Oakland DH, injected some offensive pizzazz into the contest by leading off the home fourth with a 398 foot blast that went into the left field seats for his fifth round tripper of the season. It came on a 2-2 count and off a 90 mph four seamer.

The local nine has a troubling tendency to run into outs. Stephen Piscotty fell victim to it in the bottom of the fifth, when he laced a single to right and tried to stretch it into a double. He was caught, right fielder Hunter Dozier to first baseman Santana to Nicky López.

Although Montás allowed a Texas League single to Santana in ethe first inning and a weak infield single to Kevin Gutiérrez in the second, it wasn’t until the top of the seventh that he yielded a legitemate hit, a lead off single to center by Andrew Benintendi. And then the roof fell in, through no fault of Montás, who still was pitching beautifully.

He struck out Pérez, but Jorge Soler was awarded first on a catcher´s interference call. Hunter Dozier hit a hard grounder to Chapman, which took a bad hop and went for a game tying double and putting Dozier and Soler in scoring position. Then Gutiérrez singled to center through a drawn in infield to give the Royals a 3-1 lead and put an end to Montás’s night’s work.

He had pitched 6-1/3 innings, a season’s high for him, and allowed three runs, two of them earned but none of them deserved. He allowed five hits, of which only Benintendi’s single and Dozier’s double were hard hit, and even that last one needed a bad hop to escape being an inning ending double play.

He struck out eight and didn’t issue any walks. Of his 96 pitches, 64 were strikes. He got charged with the loss. Who says baseball is fair? Burch Smith got the last two outs to end the inning, giving way to Jesús Luzardo at the start of the KC eighth.

Benintendi did more damage to the Oakland cause by taking a first pitch Luzardo four seamer deep to center with two down in the eighth. Pérez followed that with double to right and scored moments later when Soler lofted a Luzardo change up over the left center field wall.

In the one inning Luzardo pitched, he gave up three runs on three hits, two of which were homers. He threw 25 pitches; 14 were considered strikes. Of course, that includes the ones on which the Royals hit a double and two round trippers. Cam Bedrosian closed out the game decorously, allowing one hit and nothing more.

When the A’s came to bat in their half of the disasterous eighth, they faced Scott Barlow. He put the A’s down 1-2-3,, striking out one. Greg Holland closed the game for the visitors, retiring the Athletics in order on eight pitches.

Minor, like Montás, had pitched a fine game, going seven inning and yielding but a single run, which was earned, on three hits, one of the for the distance. He struck out eight and walked one. 66 of his 106 pitches were strikes. He deserved the win, and he got it.

Only Houston’s 12-8 defeat by Boston kept the A’s in their tenuous position on top of the AL West.

The Athletics announced yesterday that they had reinstated Reymin Guduan, who had been pitching on a rehab assignment to Las Vegas, and designated him for assignment. He had appeared in 11 games with Oakland this season, without a decision, a save, or a blown save. His WHIP was 1.67, his ERA 6.28, and his opponents’ batting average .345 during his brief tenure with the big club.

The A’s and Royals will duke it out again tomorrow, Friday, evening at 6:40, with Cole Irvin (4-7,3.89) going against Brady Singer (3-5, 4.88).

Oakland A’s podcast with Jerry Feitelberg: A’s hold 1.5 game lead in AL West; Open 4 game series tonight vs. Royals

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Oakland A’s Mark Canha (left) races past Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Carson Kelly (right) to score on a sac fly hit by Matt Olson in the seventh inning at the Ring Central Coliseum on Wed Jun 9, 2021 (AP News photo)

On the A’s podcast with Jerry F:

#1 Oakland A’s (37-26) starter Sean Manaea had everything working for him through six innings of work on Wednesday afternoon at the Oakland Coliseum surrendering just two hits as the A’s got a two hit shutout against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks (20-43).

#2 The A’s got a three run rally against Diamondbacks in the bottom of the second inning with two outs and two on the A’s Mark Canha hit a bullet that the Diamondbacks centerfielder Ketel Marte made a back hand catch against the wall but the ball bounced out and allowed the two runs to score. That’s how bad things have been for the Diamondbacks this season.

#3 The A’s bullpen delivered with relief appearances from Yusmeiro Petit, Lou Trivino, and Jake Diekman who all combined for three innings of mop up work throwing no hit relief ball.

#4 Jed Lowrie and Mark Canha provided the most offense of the day with Canha two hits and two runs scored and Lowrie with three hits and an RBI.

#5 The Kansas City Royals (29-30) open a four game series with the A’s tonight Mike Minor (4-3 ERA 4.84) starts for the Royals and Frankie Montas (6-5 ERA 4.52) goes for the A’s at the Coliseum tonight.

Join Jerry for the A’s podcasts at http://www.sportsradioservice.com each Thursday

A’s shutout Royals 1-0 in 11 innings

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Photo credit: @Athletics

Kansas City: 0 | 4 | 1

Oakland: 1 | 5 | 0

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND — Last night’s thrilling come-from-behind win over Kansas City, starting with Olson’s astounding home run blast in the seventh and culminating in Hendrik’s electrifying revindication of Mondaly’s debacle in the ninth, nudged the A’s an inch or two further towards a play off berth. They entered this afternoon contest against the pesky Kansas City Royals two full games ahead of Tampa Bay, who lost last night to the Dodgers, for the home field advantage and two and a half games in front of Cleveland, whose elimination number from wild card competition stands at 11 with just that many games left to play. At game time Oakland had 10 to go. Any combination of Oakland wins and Cleveland losses of 11 or more in those 21 contests would put the A’s in the postseason, if only for a single encounter. After the game was over, they’d picked up a half a game on Cleveland, who now have an elimination number of 10 with 11 games remaining on their schedule.

Danny Duffy, the Royals’ starting pitcher is a reminder that Kansas City’s most recent glory days are not that far back in the team’s past; he pitched a half a dozen innings in the 2014 and 2015 World Series for them. So far this year, his record had been a mediocre 6-6, 4.55 ERA, and he had yet to throw a pitch against the A’s. The Oakland hitter with the best record against him was Robbie Grossman at six for 17 (.353). The A’s switch-hitter outfielder was not in the A’s opening lineup, probably owing to his .180 batting average against lefties this year.

Oakland’s starting pitcher, Homer Bailey, has ties to a less glorious time in Kansas City baseball history. He had gone 7-6, 4.80 ERA for the Royals this season when they dealt him to the A’s on July 14. Between then and the time the A’s took the verdant, recently rained upon field after a 28-minute delay caused by same light rain that had refreshed the playing surface, the veteran right hander had gone 6-2 with an ERA of 4.70, sometimes pitching very well, other times, not.

Looking at the starters’ records, you wouldn’t have anticipated how well they would perform. The once and future Royal hurlers traded shutout innings until they both had left the game. Their successors did the same until there were two men down in the bottom of the 11th inning.

Oakland threatened in their half of the fourth when Semien opened the frame with a two bagger to right center, but the A’s fell victim to the curse of the lead off double when Duffy struck out Chapman and Canha, with Olson’s fly out to deep right sandwiched between the two Ks.

It was Kansas City’s chance to threaten in the top of the seventh. With one out, Jorge Soler smacked a double to left for the Royals’ third hit. A strikeout and an intentional walk later, Ryan O’Hearn hit a sinking fly to left. Chad Pinder made a spectacular diving grab of the ball to preserve the tie.

Bailey finally left the game after the A’s went down in the seventh. He had pitched seven complete innings and yielded only three hits and an intentional walk. His strike out total was a personal season-high 11. 66 of his 95 pitches were strikes. His replacement was Yusmeiro Petit, making his league leading 76th appearance.

When Scott Barlow took over for Duffy to pitch the Oakland eighth, the Royals’ starter had gotten through seven innings, allowing just two hits and a walk on 103 pitches, 67 of which were strikes. He struck out six Oakland batters.

Barlow lasted until he yielded a two out walk to Chapman in the bottom of the ninth. Those two outs had come about on strikeouts of a pinch hitting Jurickson Profar, followed by another against Semien. It took left-handed sidearmer Tim Hill one pitch to retire Olson on a pop to short.

Jake Diekman, another ex-Royal, replaced Petit to pitch the 10th.

He stuck out the two men he faced. Then Cheslor Cuthbert was announced as a pinch hitter for Ryan O’Hearn, which brought in JB Wendelken to strike Cuthbert out on five pitches. Ah, the intricacies of lefty-righty match ups!

Monday night’s winning pitcher, Kevin McCarthy gave up two quick singles to Canha and Laureano but bounced back to fan Khris Davis and get Sean Murphy to get Laureano out at on a bounder up the middle that second base man Merrifield made a good catch of and flipped to short stop Mondesí for the force. It was cold comfort that Canha advanced to third because he died there when Grossman, facing the latest Royal reliever, grounded out short to first.

Wendelkin survived a hairy top of the 10th. Bubba Starling began it with a single to right. Meibris Viloria sacrificed him to second. Brian Phillips was out on a hard line drive to Canha in center. Mondesí walked to load the bases with two out. Then Wendelkin got Jorge Soler to swing and miss on a 1-2 slider.

Jesse Hahn was on the mound when the A’s came to bat in the bottom of the eleventh. Profar worked him for a walk. Semien went down swinging, but Profar swiped second on the strike out pitch, so the play was a functional sacrifice. Chapman took a called third strike. Now, with Olson at the plate, it was time for Kansas City to grant an intentional walk. Mark Canha, whose Hometown Hero t-shirt was the afternoon’s give away, sent a 1-2 offering from Hahn down the right field line for a walk off double.

The hard earned win went to Wendelken, bringing his season’s totals to 3-1, 3.66 ERA for his 1 1/3 innings of work. Hahn was saddled with the loss.

11 innings of excitement, played in three hours and seven minutes, under clear skies in warm weather. This is how a play off chase should be conducted.

The A’s have a day of rest tomorrow. I won’t; I’ll be writing a discussion of the state of the race for the postseason. The team returns to the Coliseum on Friday, where Mike Fiers (14-4, 4.09 ERA) will face Mike Minor (13-9, 3.33 ERA) and the Texas Rangers at 7:07 p.m.

Headline Sports podcast with London Marq: Roethlisberger heartbroken over season-ending injury; Brees seeks second opinion on torn thumb; plus more

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Photo credit: cbssports.com

On Headline Sports podcast with London:

#1 Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger injured his right elbow and will need surgery and said after last Sunday’s game that it was heartbreaking to be out on an injury. The injury knocked Roethlisberger out for the rest of the season and Roethlisberger said he looks forward to coming back next season.

#2 New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees torn thumb will need surgery. Brees sought a second opinion in Houston, and after being looked at in Los Angeles, Brees will miss six to eight weeks of the football season, which would put him at Week 10 at the latest that he can return.

#3 The Oakland A’s continue to believe in miracles. They got a huge win past the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday night. The A’s, who lost the first game of the series Monday night to the Royals 6-5, who came back on them, came back on the Royals on Tuesday night after being down 1-0 scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning for the 2-1 win. The A’s lead second place Tampa Bay by two games.

#4 What happen to the Raiders after having a 10-0 lead on Sunday? The visiting Kansas City Chiefs took over in the second quarter scoring four touchdowns and won it 28-10 and the Raiders couldn’t score in the second half.

#5 The San Jose Earthquakes, who have lost three of their last five games battled against one of the MLS’ best NYC FC, on Saturday losing 2-1. The Quakes’ Chris Wondolowski continues to find the back of the net with the Quakes’ only goal — his 14th of the season.

Join London for Headline Sports each Wednesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

A’s get back into the win column by beating the Royals 2-1 on Tuesday night

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment

KC2
Graphic: @Athletics

By Charlie O. Mallonee

The Oakland A’s got back into the win column on Tuesday night as they downed the Kansas City Royals 2-1 at the Coliseum. The A’s were down 1-0 going into the bottom of the seventh inning when they bit back at the upstart Royals.

Matt Olson hit a 450-foot home run into the center-field stands off a 2-1 pitch from the Royals starting pitcher Jorge Lopez. Lopez then had the most logical response to Olson’s home run — he hit Mark Canha with a pitch. No, Canha was not pleased.

With Canha at first, Seth Brown doubled to left-center field and drove Canha home to score what would prove to be the winning run of the game. Brown, who has been “clutch” for Oakland since being called up to the majors, made Lopez pay for his stupidity of hitting the next batter after Olson hit his home run. Lopez should have been ejected from the contest.

Focus on the A’s

KC1
Photo: @Athletics

  • Oakland is now 24-8 (.750) versus the AL Central Division this season.
  • Liam Hendriks, who picked up his 23rd save of the season, has struck out 116 batters as a relief pitcher to set a franchise record. The old record was 115 and was set by Rollie Fingers in 1975.
  • A.J. Puk earned his second career win in this game. He has pitched 2.0 scoreless innings in each of his last outings. He gave up one hit and struck out two batters on Tuesday night.
  • Matt Olson now leads the A’s and American League first basemen with 35 home runs (that is after missing the first six weeks of the season due to injury).
  • Mark Canha has now been hit by a pitch 17 times this season. That ties him with Shin-soo Choo for the most HBP in the American League.
  • Relief pitcher Joakim Soria has not allowed a run in his last five appearances.
  • The A’s are now in Wild Card Slot #1 with a two-game lead over Tampa Bay, who is in Wild Card Slot #2. Cleveland is 1/2 game behind Tampa Bay for the second Wild Card spot.

Spotlight on the Royals

  • Royals starting pitcher Jorge Lopez has allowed three or fewer runs in each of his last three starts.
  • Cheslor Cuthbert recorded his first multi-hit game since August 8th in Detroit. He is hitting .341 with three doubles and one HR versus AL West teams this season.
  • Hunter Dozier is batting .345 with four doubles, a triple and seven RBI in the month of September.

Up next

The Royals and A’s meet in a getaway day game tomorrow that will get underway at 12:37 PM PDT. The Royals will send LHP Danny Duffy to the mound. He has a 6-6 record on the season with a 4.55 ERA. He had a no-decision in his last start in Houston.

The A’s will start RHP Homer Bailey, who they obtained from the Royals, on Wednesday afternoon. Bailey is 13-8 on the year with a 4.76 ERA. He won his last start versus the Astros in Houston.