Tag: mlb

MLB The Show podcast with Matt Harrington: Braves get back-to-back division titles; Fiers lights out for A’s again; plus more

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Photo credit: talkingchop.com

On the MLB The Show podcast with Matt:

#1 The Atlanta Braves are for the second season in a row division winners in the NL East with a victory over the San Francisco Giants. Never an easy task to win a second division championship, but the Braves pulled it off.

#2 The Braves players celebrated after the game in the waterfall pool just beyond the outfield fence wrapping up the night. The players posed for a photo while standing in the pool.

#3 It was Oakland A’s Mike Fiers bobblehead night. Who threw a no-hitter on May 7 this season, Fiers on his pitch of the game gave up a hit to Texas Rangers lead-off hitter Shin-Soo Choo, but pitched a very controlled game afterwards threw eight innings of shutout ball.

#4 The New York Mets’ Pete Alonso was the second rookie to hit 50 home runs. Quite an accomplishment from Alonso, whose had a great year so far.

#5 The Washington Nationals got a big win over the Miami Marlins 6-4 to hang onto first place in the NL Wild Card. The Nats’ Trea Turner hit two home runs and Asdrubal Cabrera hit one in the win.

Matt Harrington does the MLB The Show podcast each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Braves clinch division with 6-0 victory over Giants

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Photo credit: @Braves

By Jeremy Kahn

When the Atlanta Braves were forced to switch divisions 25 years ago, the season before saw one of the greatest division races in the 25-year history of just two divisions per league.

Back then, the Braves won 104 games, while the San Francisco Giants won 103 and went home; because, there was no wild card.

Once again, the Braves are heading to the postseason after clinching their second consecutive National League Eastern Division championship with a 6-0 victory over the Giants at SunTrust Park.

Ronald Acuna, Jr., hit his 41st home run of the season, as the Braves officially eliminated the Giants from wild card contention in Bruce Bochys 25th and final season as a major-league manager.

Acuna was the star of the game, as he scored three runs and gave Mike Foltynewicz enough to pick up his eighth win of the season.

Foltynewicz went eight innings, as the Braves won their 19th division title, tying the New York Yankees for the most in major-league history since the MLB introduced division play in 1969.

Freddie Freeman got the Braves going in the bottom of the first inning, as he hit a sacrifice fly to give the Braves and Foltynewicz the only run that he would need. Ozzie Albies then added a run-scoring single to stretch the lead.

Acuna and Brian McCann each hit two-run home runs in the fourth and sixth innings respectively to finish off the scoring, and clinch the division for the Braves.

Tyler Beede was the hard luck, as he gave up seven hits on those six runs in six innings of work and he saw his record fell to 5-10 on the season.

Josh Tomlin came on in the top of the ninth inning, as he closed out the game for the Braves, who celebrated on the field after Acuna caught Alex Dickersons fly ball for the final out.

Mike Yastrzemski picked up three of the four Giants hits on the evening, as they fell to 74-80 on the season.

UP NEXT: Johnny Cueto continues his comeback from Tommy John surgery, as he looks for his second win for the season for the Giants. Cueto will be making his third start of the season.

Max Fried goes for his 17th win for the Braves on Saturday evening.

Fiers dominant in A’s 8-0 blow out win over the Rangers

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Photo credit: @Athletics

Texas: 0 | 2 | 1

Oakland: 8 | 8 | 0

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND — Major League Baseball players are a motivated group. They dedicate years in the minors to learning their craft in small towns and all-night bus riders until, when they reach the top, they report for what we call spring training, although the calendar insists it’s winter. They toil through 162 games, sometimes playing day games after night games, in what can be grueling weather, and travelling through three time zones (or more if they play in an overseas series) to face (or throw) a hard pellet at speeds of more than 95 mph. If their team qualifies, they play in a post season tournament that can last as long as twenty games. These men are driven. They’re also well paid at this level, which is a huge incentive for them to perform well in spite of the hardships and dangers they face. They also take a good deal of legitimate pride in their accomplishments.

When September rolls around a new layer of motivation is added. By Labor Day, the field of contending clubs in each of MLB’s six divisions narrows considerably, and the teams with a reasonable chance of making the playoffs push and shove, claw and gnaw to make the cut for postseason play and, once they’ve achieved that, to gain home field advantage throughout the remainder of play by having the best winning percentage of the lot.

But contenders aren’t the only teams who play with added intensity in the season’s waning days. They also have a chance to avenge five and a half months of being kicked around by spoiling the more successful teams’ bids for the different championships up for grabs in September. On the first of the month, the active rosters are expanded, and Spoiler Schadenfreude joins every non playoff team.

These are some of the reasons why stretch drive baseball can be so compelling even when the opponents are going in opposite directions. Not every game will provide as much drama, anticipated and realized, as the last three games of the 1951 National League season, which culminated with Bobby Thompson’s shot heard ‘round the world, or even the final game of 2012 when the A’s defeated the Rangers to occupy first place for the only time all season, which enabled them to advance to the playoffs.

Late season intensity wasn’t the only reason the teams had to be motivated for tonight’s contest. The stadium give away was a bobble head honoring the A’s starting pitcher, Mike Fiers (14-4, 4.09 ERA), who was coming off two dreadful starts. The statuette saluted him for his May 7 no-hitter against Cincinnati, but his bid to repeat that feat ended with his first pitch of the evening, which Shin-Soo Choo slapped into center field for a single. A double play and fly to left, however, set things straight. Fiers allowed only one more hit—and that was his only other base runner—in the rest of his eight inning stint. So you could say that he rose to the occasion.

His opposite number, Texas southpaw Mike Minor (13-9, 3.33 ERA) also had a bitter taste in his mouth from his most recent outing, in which he gave up seven earned runs in as many innings to the same A’s he was facing tonight. Just as Fiers’ recent bad experiences had been break in his pattern of success, Minor’s year had been a good one until recently. It included a spot on the AL roster for the All-Star Game, and brought a career-high 188 punch outs to the Coliseum mound tonight.

Minor’s troubles began later, but were more serious than the one Fiers had faced. With Laureano and Murphy on base and one down in the bottom of the second, the slumping Chad Pinder slammed a 94 mph four-seamer over the center field fence fore his 13th round tripper of the year, which gave the A’s an early 3-0 lead.

Oakland tacked on another run in the third on a walk to Chapman, who advanced to second on a ground out to first by Olson and scored on Canha’s two ball, two strike double to right. The A’s made it 5-0 in the fourth when Semien’s two-out two-bagger to left plated Sean Murphy, who had walked, advanced to second on Pinder’s single and to third on Neuse’s DP grounder to short. Canha’s lead off dinger to lead off the fifth brought his total to 25 and stretched the A’s advantage to 6-0.

After throwing five innings and 105 pitches (61 strikes) and allowing six runs, all earned, Minor’s exercise in frustration was over. He had surrendered six hits, giving his numbers a certain symmetry. He struck out only two, but this raised his year’s total to an impressive 190. He was replaced by Ariel Jurado, who set the side down in order before being replaced, in turn, by Yohander Méndez.

The A’s resumed their scoring ways once Méndez, like Minor a left handed hurler, entered the fray to pitch the seventh. With one out, Olson walked, as did Canha. Then Laureano doubled to right center, scoring the former and sending the later to third. A walk to Davis loaded the bases. This brought up Seth Brown, who had been brought in to pinch hit for Pinder when the Rangers switched pitchers from the left-handed, ineffective Minor to the right-handed, effective Jurado. Brown and Méndez went to a full count before the A’s rookie whiffed on a changeup, When Fiers got his first out in the eighth, a strike out of Nomar Mazaro, it was the deepest he’d gone in a game since August 9th, when he’d thrown seven innings of shutout ball in US Cellular Field. He finished tonight’s performance having thrown 95 pitches, striking out five Rangers, and allowing two hits and nothing else. He improved his record to 15-4, 3.91 ERA.

Taylor Guerrieri gave away the A’s final run with a wild pitch to Canha with Chapman on third. Canha eventually struck out.

Then Chris Bassitt set the Rangers down 1, 2, 3 in the ninth.

The loss went to Minor, who now is 13-10, 3.52 ERA.

The A’s hefty offensive was a relief after they had managed to score only three runs in their last two games, both of which they still managed to win. That the pitching, or at least Fiers and Bassitt didn’t let up in spite of a comfortable margin also was good news.

With Houston’s victory tonight, the A’s were mathematically eliminated from the AL West pennant race. Cleveland and Tampa Bay’s wins kept them tied with each other, two games behind Oakland in the struggle for first wild card honors.

Sean Manaea (2-0, 0.50 ERA) will go against Brock Burke (0-1, 5.19 ERA) in a battle of left-handers starting at 6:07 p.m. tomorrow evening and followed by a fireworks display celebrating the evolution of pop.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast: Pats can’t withstand keeping Brown; Pirates overwhelmed by Vazquez coverage; plus more

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@AB84 photo: Former New England Patriot Antonio Brown confers in practice photo with Patriots head coach Bill Belichick

On That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast:

#1 How surprised were you about the New England Patriots letting wide receiver Antonio Brown go on Friday. It looked like prosecutors were not going to go after him for the rape accusations made by his former trainer Britney Taylor.

#2 Baseball no doubt is in a state shock regarding Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez and his child solicitation charges can the Pirates shake this one off.

#3 Amaury talks about the A’s and how they are ahead of Tampa Bay in the wild card by two games. They’ve had to beat some of baseball’s best like the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees in recent weeks.

#4 The San Francisco Giants open a three-game series in Atlanta and the Braves need a win tonight to get back to back NL Eastern Division titles.

Amaury does the A’s Spanish play-by-play broadcasts on 1010 KIQI San Francisco and does News and Commentary each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

State of the A’s

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Photo credit: @MLBStats

By Lewis Rubman

Mark Canha’s walk off double, following Homer Bailey and the bullpen’s (yes, you read that right) 11-inning shutout win over the Royals has faded into recent history, and so has the euphoria it brought. The A’s have a day off, and we have a chance to take a dispassionate look, if baseball fans are allowed to use that adjective, at how things stand for the team.

First of all, no one now has even unspoken illusions about catching up with Houston in the regular season. The Astros hold an eight-game lead over Oakland with nine games to go for each team. Even if the A’s won all their remaining games, all Houston would need is one win to finish the season with a tie for the best record in the AL West. All that would get the A’s would be the chance to play the tie-breaker at the Coliseum.

The A’s outlook is brighter in the wild card race. Boston will be eliminated unless it wins every game left on its schedule and the team it trails loses all of its. Cleveland is on the ropes, which means that there’s a good chance that what’s left for Oakland is a battle by proxy with Tampa Bay for the right to be the home team in the one and done play-in round to determine the wild card team that will get the chance to battle Houston in the ALDS. The one-shot nature of the wild card game and the brevity of the best three out of five format for the ALDS accentuate the craps shoot nature of the whole process. The closest thing to a sure bet is that, if you care enough to read this column, your blood pressure will rise between now and at least October 2, when we’ll finally know–weather permitting–whether Oakland, Cleveland, or Tampa Bay will be on its way to Minute Maid Park to open the Division Series.

Let’s look first at the Indians, if only to take a guess at their chances of displacing the Rays as the A’s play-in opponent, although we shouldn’t forget that there is a possibility, however unlikely this morning, that Cleveland will overtake both Oakland and Tampa Bay and make one of those teams an also ran.

FanGraphs’ probability ratings make no claim to be infallible; their very name indicates that. But they are an extremely valuable tool for assessing a ball club’s chances. They give the Indians a mere 44% chance of making the play offs, which is our immediate concern, and, incidentally, a 42.8% of winning the division title, which would mean defeating Houston in the ALDS. The same source offers a probable season’s won-lost record of 94.5-67.5 for the Tribe. (That half a win points to the difference between a real season and a statistically analyzed one).

Still on the Indians’ schedule are a game against Detroit and a two game inter-league series against the Phillies, both at Progressive Park, né The Jake. Daniel Norris, who pitched well as an opener in the Bengals’ 3-1 September 8 loss, which was charged against him, will start for Detroit. Although the Tigers haven’t announced it, he most likely will be used in the same role today. His opponent, Mike Clevenger, is 11-3, 2.68 ERA, so don’t count on Cleveland’s elimination number dropping today.

Philadelphia, like Cleveland, is hanging on to the chance of a wild card spot, having an elimination number of eight in its division at this writing. Looking at the pitching match ups and the teams’ batting records, I think the Indians have the edge in the series, so Oakland shouldn’t count on getting help from the Phillies.

Like the A’s, the Tribe will finish its season on the road. They’ll start with a three game set on the south side of Chicago. Cleveland’s current 89-63 record is three games off from being a mirror images of the ChiSox’ 66-86, but that doesn’t mean that the Sox are a push over. The Indians are hitting only .239 against their pitching, albeit with a more respectible OPS of .711, and trail them 7-9 in the season series.

Washington will be Cleveland’s last opponent in the regular season. The Nats currently occupy second place in the NL East, where they have been eliminated from the division race and are in the first wild card position by a game and a half.

In short, it would be foolish to predict which series the Indians will win in what’s left to them in 2019 and which they’ll lose. But it seems more than reasonable to expect that they’ll lose at least as many as the A’s need them to, unless the green and gold has an unlikely melt down and need Cleveland to do the same.

That leaves the thorny problem of the Tampa Bay Rays. FanGraphs computes their probable record at the end of the season as 95-67, two games behind the A’s 97-65. If not a razor thin margin, it’s still a well-sharpened scissors thin one, one close enough for FanGraphs to give the Rays a 60% chance of a play off spot. They give the A’s a 96.3% shot at that, and they calculate each team’s chance of winning the wild card game as the same as their getting into it, that is, 60% and 96.3%, respectively. The team from St. Petersburg has the most challenging schedule of the three contenders for the two wild card berths. They’ll battle the Red Sox, the Green Monster, and Peskey’s Pole tomorrow through Sunday. That’s tough, but what’s awaiting them is tougher. They go to the Bronx, where the Yankees will be fighting for home field advantage, not just in the Division Series, which they already have qualified for, but in the rest of the postseason. A strong opponent with something worth fighting for is a formidable obstacle to fulfilling FanGraph’s computerized forecast, and the Bombers just might keep Tampa Bay from reaching the 95-win mark.

So there are grounds for reasonable, but guarded, optimism about the A’s chances as they take on , with Fiers, Manea, and Roark on the mound, the Rangers this weekend in Oakland.

Fiers has gotten rid of the nerve irritation that cut short his last start and also has gotten rid of his number six, lying on its back beard by cutting it off entirely, thereby restoring his facial equilibrium. He didn’t pitch well in his two starts at Texas this summer, but he’s been having an excellent season overall, including a no-hitter and a near record streak of starts without losing. Like most of the A’s rotation, he’s bullpen reliant. Manaea has looked great since coming off the IL, and Roark’s 3.83 ERA over 47 innings since joining the A’s at the trade deadline was inflated by two of the runners he’d left on base in his last start scoring after he’d been relieved. The Rangers haven’t yet announced their Sunday starter. Of the two they have announced, the choice for Friday, Mike Minor, is the one more likely to give the A’s trouble. He’s 13-9, 3.33 ERA, but only 5-4, 4.22 ERA at home.

Then it’s on to Anaheim for a pair of games against the Angels. The Halos are having an awful season and have been further weaken by the loss of Shohei Ohtani, but they’re always a menace when they play the A’s.

The A’s will close out the season with a four-game series against Seattle at T-Mobile Park, booking ending their opening and closing games of the 2019 season against the same team but in a different domed facility. My guess is that it will be then that they decide (or learn) if there’s life after game 162 for them. I think there will be, in spite of the problems that still hover over them. The bull pen remains is unpredictable. Khris Davis isn’t going to carry the team on his shoulders. (I suspect that he’s been playing hurt). Jurickson Profar isn’t throwing wildly, but he still looks awkward with his throws, and, though he has power batting left, it’s from the right side that his batting average is good. Since most pitchers are right-handed, this combination makes Profar’s somewhat of a weak spot in the batting order. Laureano’s legs aren’t 100% yet, and Piscotty’s on the IL. Chapman’s BA is slipping, but he’s still a joy to watch in the field. And Oakland counts with (if not yet on) some definite assets that were missing before September. Luzardo and Puk, though still relatively untested, have been all you could hope for. Manea has been (knock wood) lights out. Brown and Murphy are looking good and might find their way on to a post season roster, if there is one, with some judicious juggling of the injured list.

Another plus is Mark Canha’s stepping up to the role of every day center fielder. From high power, low average utility player, he has become a well-rounded batter whose defense has improved from good to excellent thanks to his playing consistently in one position. Not to mention Semien and Olson, both of whom, in addition to their prowess at the plate and their virtues in the field, help compensate for Profar’s throwing problems. Let’s hear it, too, for Liam Hendriks and Yusmeiro Petit.

The great comedy team of Bob and Ray, the voices of Harry and Bert Piels in a classic series of beer advertisements from the 1950s, used to sign off their radio show by saying, “Write if you get work and hang by your thumbs.” We’ll have to settle for hanging by our thumbs for a while.

Giants whiff on late rally, puts damper on otherwise-legendary series

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Photo credit: @NBCSGiants

By Jeremy Harness

The Giants lost in heart-sinking fashion on Thursday, 5-4, to the Boston Red Sox, after a ninth-inning rally that fell just shy that will almost certainly make the plane ride to Atlanta a little less pleasant.

But before sulking in that any deeper, let’s all take a moment to look back on all the good, legendary stuff that went down in these past three games.

First of all, the Giants took two of the three games at historic Fenway Park, a place where the Giants had not won since 1915.

Do the math. That’s 104 years, people!

Mike Yastrzemski, the grandson of Hall of Famer and Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski, made his Fenway debut Tuesday night and was given a standing ovation by the Boston faithful, and the magnitude was ramped up when young Yaz blasted one out of the ballpark later in the game.

To cap it all off, Bruce Bochy got the 2,000th win of his managerial career Wednesday night, a career that will land him into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

As we let that sink in for a little bit, fast-forward to Thursday afternoon.

Trailing by a pair in the ninth, the Giants began a rally against Red Sox closer Brandon Workman, which started when Brandon Belt reached base on a throwing error by second baseman Marco Hernandez, who made a nice sliding stop but watched as his routine throw to first pulled Brock Holt off the bag.

The Giants loaded the bases with nobody out, but Brandon Crawford struck out looking, a situation where simply making contact would likely bring in a run. Yastrzemski was then blown away by a Workman fastball, and the rally was suddenly in jeopardy.

Kevin Pillar kept the rally alive by drawing a walk and bringing in a run, and Evan Longoria was able to work a full count. However, Workman then threw perhaps his best pitch of the afternoon, a breaking ball that dove out of the strike zone and enticed Longoria to swing at air, ending the rally and the hope for a sweep.

“(Workman) found a way to get through it,” manager Bruce Bochy said. It’s a tough pitch to lay off for (Longoria), especially after seeing a couple of pretty good fastballs before that.

“We were close to getting a nice sweep here, but we just came up a little short.”

Although the numbers won’t necessarily reflect it, but Madison Bumgarner threw well on Thursday and gave his team a chance to win.

He went five innings and gave up five runs on nine hits, walking two and striking out seven. However, many of the decisive hits were not hit especially hard at all, but rather were bloopers off good pitches that found open spots in the Giants’ defense.

“It’s just unfortunate that that many fell in,” Bumgarner said. “In this case, I just keep making my pitches and trust that that’s not going to continue to happen. I felt that I threw the ball pretty good.”

Headline Sports podcast with Tony Renteria: Vazquez admits to solicitation charges with minor; Astros’ Cole K’s 300 batters in a season; plus more

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photo file from nytimes.com: Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez admitted to Pennsylvania Police that he had sexual relations with a 13 year girl. Vazquez’ admissions has sent shockwaves through the Pirates organization and MLB.

On Headline Sports with Tony Renteria:

Breaking: Antonio Brown will not be prosecuted for rape allegations from Florida ex-trainer Britney Taylor

#1 Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Felipe Vazquez admitted that he did have sexual relations with a 13 year old minor. The mother of the minor said she contacted police after finding photos that Vazquez sent to her daughter’s phone. Vazquez reportedly admitted to contacting the minor, who he met at a Pirates game when he was in the bullpen and got her contact information at the time.

#2 Houston Astros right-hander Gerrit Cole struck out 300 batters becoming the 18th pitcher in MLB history to do so. Cole is 18-5 with an ERA of 2.61. The Astros are having a great year and having pitching like this from Cole certainly has complimented the ball club.

#3 Just looking ahead to the postseason, the Oakland A’s are in first place in the AL wild card. They have dominated some of baseball’s best teams winning series from teams like the New York Yankees and Houston Astros. If the A’s can get past the wild card, the road to the World Series is past teams like the Astros and Yankees.

#4 After Sunday’s second quarter drubbing by the Kansas City Chiefs, the Oakland Raiders are regrouping and taking a look at their secondary, who took a bath when the Chiefs scored four touchdowns all the scoring they needed to upend Oakland 28-10.

#5 After the tough loss last Sunday at home, the Raiders have four away games in their next five games, which schedule wise can be considered their toughest challenge of the season.

Tony does Headline Sports each Thursday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Giants thrash BoSox

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Photo credit: @NBCSGiants

By Jeremy Harness

The Giants’ playoff hopes may be over, but they are still playing hard and playing good baseball in spurts, and that still makes them interested to watch, even with only a couple of weeks left in the 2019 season.

For the past two nights, they have given it to the Boston Red Sox, a team that is in the thick of the American League playoff race, the latest installment being an 11-3 rout of the Red Sox at Fenway Park Wednesday night.

The Giants jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first three innings, a surge that was spearheaded by Stephen Vogt’s two-run homer in the first inning that sailed over the short wall in right field.

In the sixth and seventh, the Red sox mounted a comeback and cut the lead in half. However, the Giants used the next two innings to blow the game wide open.

They got a pair of runs in the eighth and then erupted for a five-run ninth, during which Mike Yastrzemski, who got a standing ovation from the Boston faithful in his first game at Fenway Park Tuesday night, singled in a run to start the burst.

Vogt had four RBI on Wednesday for the Giants, while Mauricio Dubon knocked in a pair of runs himself, courtesy of a two-run single in the ninth.

Meanwhile, Jeff Samardzija had a solid outing, giving up only a run on two hits, walking only one and striking out a pair of batters, lowering his ERA to 3.64. His Red Sox counterpart, Jhoulys Chacin, however, was not so fortunate. He was chased from the game after only 2 2/3 innings after surrendering four runs on five hits.

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