Tag: mlb

Cincinnati Reds’ Luke Maile runs the bases after hitting a solo home run against the Oakland Athletics during the third inning  at the Oakland Coliseum on Sat Apr 29, 2023 (AP News photo)

Cincinnati. 001 000 002 – 3. 9. 1

Oakland. 020 000 000 – 2 7. 1

Time: 2:54

Attendance: 7,052

Saturday, April 29, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Every so often, the A’s find a promising young pitcher and hype him as a second coming of Cy Young. Tod Van Poppel, Tyson Ross, and AJ Puk have come and gone. But, then, so have Tim Hudson, Sonny Gray, and Barry Zito. This year’s candidate for greatness is Kyle Muller.

After the 2022 season, both Baseball America and MLB.com ranked him as the Braves’ top prospect. After he came to the A’s as part of a nine player in December, Baseball America listed him as the A’s #2 prospect, and MLB.com had him at #5 on their equivalent list.

The 25 year old lefty more or less lived up to his billings today. He threw five innings and gave up as many hits. They yielded one run, which came on a homer, and issued two walks while striking out three.Of his 80 pitches, only 33 were balls. Domingo Acevedo replaced him at the start of the sixth. Richard Lovelady took over for the seventh.

Muller’s opposite number for the Reds was another fireballer, Hunter Greene, making his 30th big league start. In the 29 that preceded it, he threw 34 or more pitches at more than 100 mph.

His average fast ball last year, his rookie season, was 98.9 mph. Like Muller, Greene lasted five innings this afternoon and surrendered an equal number of hits. None of them left the park, but they yielded two runs, both earned. Greene walked three Athletics and was guilty of one wild pitch. He struck out 10. His pitch count reach 112, 68 of them strikes.

Alex Young started the sixth to replace him and pitched an inning and a third, allowing only a down the line to left single to Peterson, the first batter he faced. Young handed the ball to Ian Gibaut with no one on and one down in the home half of the seventh,

Muller got into some trouble in the top of the second, thanks to some bad luck. Tyler Stephenson led off with a drive into left that went just under the glove of a diving Aledmys Díaz at short. Then Jace Peterson, who made two costly errors last night, made a beautiful stop of a hard shot to third by Henry Ramos, who beat out Peterson’s one bounce throw to first for a single that put runners on first and second with none down.

Then Ramón Laureano, restored from the injured list today, showed just how good an arm he has. He caught Newman’s foul fly near the home plate area of the visitors’ bullpen and fired a laser to third, nabbing Stephenson, who was trying to advance. That broke the back of a nascent Redleg rally.

The A’s, riding the momentum of Laureano’s throw, played heads up baseball to forge a 2-0 lead ion their half of the second. Carlos Pérez reached first on a throwing error by third baseman Senzel, a play that could just have as justifiably scored as a hit.

After Conner Capel struct out swinging, Laureano double to right, sending Pérez to third, where Kevin Smith replaced him as pinch runner. With Peterson, who eventual fanned, at bat, the A’s speedy right fielder stole third. Jordan Díaz sent a single into right that plated Laureano before Ruíz went down swinging for the third out.

Cincy got one of those two runs back in the top of the third on Luke Maille’s lead off 408 foot blast to right off a 93.9 mph slider. Maille’s homer, his first of the year, raised his batting average from .211 to .250.

The A’s still were leading, 2-1, after seven when Zach Jackson took over mound duties and held the visitors to an innocuous single.

Casey Legumina went to the hill for Cincinnati in the bottom of the eighth. He walked Peterson, but a strike out and a pitcher’s best friend kept Oakland at bay.

Jeurys Familia entered the fray in the top of the ninth looking for his third save in four opportunities. He fanned Stephenson for the first out. He went to a full count on Ramos before walking him, putting the potential tying run on base. Kevin Newman hit a grounder up the middle.

Smith went to his left to make a nice play, but Newman beat out his throw. Senzel drew a walk to load the bases. Barrero went down swinging. Jake Fraley, who had pinch hit for Maile in the eigth, doubled to right, drivving in Ramo and Newman, and, just like that, theA’s were looking up at the Reds, who led 3-2.

It now was Alexis Díaz who came in to pitch, looking for the save. Ruíz attempted a two strike but. It went foul for a strike out. Noda took a full swing for his K. And so did Rooker. A pleasant surprise for A’s fans had turned into a disappointing loss.

Legumina got the win, He’s now 1-0, 1.69. The save went to Díaz, his fourth. The loser was Familia, 0-1. It was his second blown save.

The A’s will try to salvage a little bit of this atroious home stand tomorrow, Sunday, afternoon, at 1:07. Two southpaws, Ken Waldichuk (0-2, 7.82) will toe the rubber for the green and gold. Nick Lodolo (2-1, 6.31) will do the honors for Cincinnati.

Oakland Athletics fans hang signs at RingCentral Coliseum to protest the team’s potential move to Las Vegas and to call for team owner John Fisher to sell the team during a baseball game between the Athletics and the Cincinnati Reds on Fri Apr 28, 2023 (AP News photo)

Cincinnati. 032 000 312. – 11. 16. 1

Oakland. 100 002 202. – 7. 11. 2

Time: 2:56

Attendance: 6,423

Friday, April 28, 2023

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–Friday night’s solid 11-7 defeat of the A’s at the hands of the Cincinnati Reds in the Coliseum brought back the sort of bittersweet memories we can expect as fans of the A’s undergo the long agony that precedes their move to Las Vegas. Not for nothing is one of the Spanish slang expressions to for dying is “to move to the other barrio.”

1988-1990 was one of the golden (or at least gilded) age of the now moribund Oakland franchise. It also was an age fraught with mixed emotions, especially, but not exclusively in the microcosm that is baseball. The ’88 Athletics won the AL pennant but got swept by the Dodgers, perhaps because Kirk Gibson’s walk off homer in game one destroyed Oakland’s morale the way the 1954 Cleveland Indians were demoralized by Willie Mays’s catch of Vic Wertz’s blast in the opener of that year’s series.

The A’s swept the Giants in ’89 in an October classic that was over shadowed by the Loma Prieta earthquake. The resumption of the series after a week’s delay contributed to the bay area’s recovery and return to what passes for normal around here. But the 1990 World Series was all about baseball, and Cincinnati won it in four games. Oakland didn’t even make it to the ALDS again until 2000.

The Cincinnati team that visited the Coliseum tonight was no Big Red Machine. And its starting pitcher, Luis Cessa, a 31 year old righty who brought an 0-3, 10.80 record to work with him. He didn’t need to be.

The A’s sent a well travelled veteran, 34 year old Drew Ruckinski, fresh off the injured list and making his fist appearance of the season, KO the mound. His baggage included a lifetime MLB record of 4-4, 5.33, but the last time he had appeared in the show was 2018. He spent the last four seasons toiling for the NC Dinos in the Korea Baseball Organization, where he went 53-36, 3.06, including marks of 19-5, 3.05 in 2020 and 10-12, 2.97 in ’22.

That year he either led the league or was second on the list in starts, strike outs, inning pitched, and strike out to walks ratio. On the other hand, only two pitchers allowed more hits than he did, and only three unleashed more wild pitches.

The Athletics jumped to an early lead on back to back to back singles by Ryan Noda, Brent Rooker, and Shea Langeliers. Cincy answered with three runs in the top of the second. It would have been less if Kemp and Esteury Ruíz hadn’t bumped into each other on Henry Ramos’s fly to left center that should have been caught but fell to the grass for a safety.

It would have more if Ruíz hadn’t mowed Ramos down at third when he tried to advance on Nick Senzel’s single that drove in Jake Fraily. In any case, the Reds led 3-1 after an inning and a half.

They didn’t stop there. Jace Petereson made two errors at third, one throwing and one fielding. Just the fielding error would have been enough to make both runs that Cincinnati scored in the frame unearned. Fraley, who picked up a couple of RBI with his second round tripper of the year wouldn’t have come to bat if Peterson had handled Spencer Steer’s hard hit drive down the line properly.

Still, it was 5-1 after two and a half frames were in the book. It would have been more if an inning later if the Friedl had violated the slide rule at second base, resulting in an inning ending double play. The Redlegs challenged the invocation of the rule, but New York ruled that it was correct.

The score still stood at 5-1 in the top of the sixth when Sam Long was called on to get the final out with a runner on second and number two batter Friedl at the plate. He got Friedl to foul out to third, preventing further damage.

Rucinski had lasted 5-2/3 innings and allowed five runs, two of which were unearned. He struck out one and walked one. His pitch count reached 89, 56 if them strikes.

Oakland’s bats came alive briefly in the bottom of the sixth with a single to right by Noda, followed by a walk to Rooker, and a bases clearing triple to center off the bat of Langeliers that closed the gap between the teams to 5-3 and spelled the end of Cessa’s tenure on the mound, replaced by another righty, Derek Law, who restored order.

Cessa threw 71 pitches, 50 of them for strikes, over five innings, in which all three runs he yielded were earned. They came on eight hits and a walk, and he recorded a pair of strike outs.

Senezel’s two on, out double in the top of the seventh and Stuart Fairchild’s seeing eye single to left restored the Red’s four run margin and tacked another on for good measure.

After the crowd, if you can call it that, finished singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” Noda took the ball out of the park, driving in Ruíz, who had singled and stolen second, and driving a hanging curve ball 427 feet into the right field seats.

The Athletics’ first sacker’s third dinger of the season also drove Law to the showers and brought Buck Farmer in from the pen with the Rheinlanders still leading, now by a score of 8-5. A hit batter and a walk later, Jordán Díaz was at bat, representing the potential tying run. Farmer struck him out to end the inning.

Jonathan India walked to open the visitors’ eighth, and Friedl sacrificed him over to second, which ended Farmer’s chores for the evening. Shintaro Fujinami made his second appearance as a reliever and looked sharp striking out Spencer Steel, but India stole third in the process and then scored when Tyler Stephenson beat out a slow nubber between the mound and the plate for a single.

Fraley forced him out at second on a grounder to short, and Lucas Sims had a 9-5 lead to work with when he came in to hurl the eighth for the visitors. He put the home team down in order.

Fujinami looked uncomfortable on the mound in the ninth, and he was wild. He walked the first three batters he faced before José Barrero lashed a vicious liner to Smith at short, who was playing drawn in still managed to hold on to the ball. But Smith’s heroics were undone by Fujinami’s control problems.

A wild pitch to India moved everyone up a notch, with Ramos crossing the plate. India’s single to left brought in Senzel, the recipient of Fujinami’s second base on balls. Sam Moll then replaced Fujinami and retired Friedl and Steer.

Fernando Cruz was given the assingment of preserving Cincy’s 11-5 lead in the ninth. He didn’t quite succeed. Rooker’s eighth HR of the season, a no doubter that travelled 392 feet into the left field seats with Noda, who had walked, on base made it 11-7. But that was it.

Cessa got the win, making hin 1-3, 9.55. Rucinki took the loss and now stands at 0-1, 4.76.

A’s Fireballer Kyle Muller (0-2, 7.23) will face the Reds and Hunter Greene (0-1, 3.52) tomorrow, Saturday, at 1:07.