Tag: mlb

Stratton throws first career shutout; Giants shutout Rockies 2-0 to snap losing skid

Published on by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

Photo credit: @SportingGreenSF

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO — Despite the fact that they are most likely out of the playoff race, the San Francisco Giants can still play spoiler against the Colorado Rockies.

Chris Stratton threw a complete game, allowing zero runs on just two hits, walking two and striking out seven. The Giants put a stop to their longest losing streak since 1951 with a 2-0 victory over the Rockies before a crowd of 37,800 at AT&T Park Friday night.

This was the first career shutout for Stratton, the first shutout of the season for the Giants, and just the 18th complete game shutout this season.

The 11-game losing streak that the Giants put a halt to was the longest in the National League this season, and ties the Detroit Tigers for the longest in the Major Leagues this season.

With the victory, the Giants defeated the Rockies for the first time since June 28, a span of seven games.

This is the ninth straight that the Giants’ offense have scored three runs or less in a game, the last time that they scored more than three in a game was on September 3, when they scored eight in a 9-8 loss to the Rockies at Coors Field.

Stratton got all the offensive help he needed in the bottom of the second inning, Austin Slater singled in Nick Hundley and Joe Panik, who both singled in front of Slater. The two got into scoring position when Rockies starter Tyler Anderson unleashed the first of his two wild pitches in the inning.

With the victory, Stratton won for the 10th time this season, and also got some big time from his defense, as Gregor Blanco made a leaping catch of a Nolan Arenado hit in the top of the sixth inning that robbed Arenado of extra bases. Brandon Crawford also snared a Trevor Story ball that would have gone for a single.

Stratton also helped himself at the plate, as he lashed a single off of Anderson in that two-run second inning that saw the Giants score the only runs of the game. The right-hander is first Giants pitcher since 2016, when Johnny Cueto won 18, Madison Bumgarner won 15 and Jeff Samardzija won 12, as the Giants made to the National League Division Series, where they lost to the eventual World Champion Chicago Cubs in four games.

Brandon Belt left the game after the bottom of the seventh inning due to right knee soreness.

NOTES: When the Giants lost those 12 straight in 1951, they did it from April 19-29 and a month after the losing streak ended, a 20-year old outfielder was called up to the team on May 25, his name was Willie Howard Mays, Jr.

The Giants lost 13 in a row from August 9-20, 1944, their longest losing streak since 1908.

During the month of September, the Giants have scored a total of 28 runs, an average of 2.33 a game.

Samardzija threw the last Giants shutout on August 28, 2017 against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.

UP NEXT: Madison Bumgarner takes the mound on Saturday night at 6:05 pm PDT, as he looks for his sixth win of the season, while German Marquez will head to the hill for the Rockies in search for his 13th win of the season.

Khris Davis proves to be the difference in A’s 2-1 win over Rays in 10 innings

Published on by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

Photo credit: @Athletics

By: Ana Kieu

Last night, the red-hot Oakland A’s were stunned as the lowly Baltimore Orioles snapped their six-game win streak with a 5-3 win.

So what’s new? Well, the A’s traveled to Tropicana Field to take on the Tampa Bay Rays for a three-game series starting Friday night.

The A’s broke open a scoreless deadlock in the top of the fourth inning. Matt Olson singled on a ground ball to Willy Adames. Matt Chapman scored on Olson’s play. As a result, Khris Davis went to second. The A’s were on the board 1-0.

The Rays, however, gave the A’s a hard time in the bottom of the fourth inning. Joey Wendle, a former Oakland Athletic, singled on a line drive to Mark Canha. Tommy Pham scored on Wendle’s play. The Rays tied the ballgame 1-1.

Shawn Kelley helped the A’s get out of a jam in the bottom of the sixth inning. The game remained in a 1-1 tie.

The 1-1 score continued to stay put and the game had to be decided in extra innings.

Khris Davis proved to be the difference as he homered on a fly ball to right center to give the A’s a 2-1 lead over the Rays in the top of the 10th inning.

A’s Blake Treinen (7-2) was the winning pitcher. Rays’ Jaime Schultz (2-1) took the loss.

Notes

Up Next
The A’s and Rays continue their series with game two Saturday at 3:10 pm PDT.

San Francisco Giants podcast with Michael Duca: Skid at 11; Giants hope to snap out of it Friday against Rockies

Published on by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

Photo credit: @SFGiants

On the San Francisco Giants podcast with Michael:

#1 11 is not the Giants’ favorite number. They set the all-time San Francisco record for the most consecutive loses. If you had to point to one thing, what was the main cause of this losing streak?

#2 The loss on Wednesday was a heartbreaker when Alan Hanson got thrown out at second for running out of the baseline on a bunted ball that got thrown into the Braves’ bullpen and could have scored Joe Panik from third, but it was not as the Giants lost 2-1 to the Braves.

#3 Giants pitcher Derek Holland said that this team is not letting anyone come into AT&T Park to walk all over the Giants, but battle a first-place team like the Braves.

#4 Holland has been throwing some decent ball, going six starts and allowing six runs for a 1.59 ERA.

#5 Now it’s the first-place Rockies, who come to AT&T Park to open a three-game series. Although it is unlikely if SF can sweep, they would be 10.5 games behind Colorado, but still a lot of games with just two weeks left.

Miguel does the Gigantes podcast each Friday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland A’s podcast with Joey Friedman: A’s looking to use “bullpenning” to give pitchers some rest; Will use “bullpenning” for Saturday to rest Cahill

Published on by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

Photo credit: @NBCSAthletics

On the Oakland A’s podcast with Joey:

#1 The A’s are getting done in all sorts of ways. They scored 10 runs in the third inning of Wednesday’s game and used some of their call ups the rest of the way to beat the Orioles.

#2 The A’s have been going to “bullpenning” and openers. Joey takes a look on how that has been working.

#3 The Orioles just couldn’t do anything with the A’s lineup in that third inning as the O’s starter Andrew Cashner was lit up for eight runs and eight hits in just two short innings.

#4 A’s starter Trevor Cahill is receiving treatment for his upper back and most likely will miss his turn to start on Saturday in Tampa Bay. Cahill’s situation is day-to-day and A’s manager Bob Melvin is considering “bullpenning” again starting Liam Hendricks, who started on Wednesday.

#5 The A’s have lost 10 pitchers since May for 13 different injuries, which did not include Cahill’s injuries.

#6 The A’s started Brett Anderson on Thursday night a game that was going to be a day game because of Hurricane Florence moving onto the East Coast, but the forecast for Thursday night subsided for rough weather and the A’s and Orioles concluded the series as scheduled.

Joey Friedman does the A’s podcasts each Friday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Giants appear to be in a free fall

Published on by jeremy2878Leave a comment

Photo credit: mccoveychronicles.com

By Jeremy Harness

Right now, the Giants are playing like they can’t wait for the season to be over.

After being in contention for much of the season, they have now lost 11 straight games and are sinking deeper into the abyss of the major leagues. Instead of playing spoiler, other teams seem to be able to look at the Giants as a way to pick up a few easy wins and keep their playoff hopes alive.

The next team to hope to use the Giants to fatten their records is the Colorado Rockies, who make their way to AT&T Park for a three-game weekend series that starts Friday night.

The Rockies are 1 ½ games in front of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the National League West lead, and they swept the Giants at Coors Field in a three-game series just last week, and they hope to do the same this weekend.

Righty Chris Stratton will take the ball Friday night opposite Colorado left-hander Tyler Anderson (6-8, 4.89 ERA).

Anderson, however, has fallen on hard times on the mound lately. After a promising start to the season, Anderson has lost each of his last five decisions, including his last outing against the Dodgers that saw him go only 2 2/3 innings and surrender three runs on five hits.

Stratton has not been much better. He has dropped five of his past six decisions, and his last outing saw him go five innings and give up four runs on four hits in a loss at Milwaukee.

Colorado righty German Marquez (12-9, 3.94 ERA) will go Saturday afternoon against Giants lefty Madison Bumgarner
Marquez has been a workhorse for the Rockies, as he has gone at least seven innings in seven of his past nine outings, including a 13-2 win over Arizona in his last outing on Monday. The 23-year-old has won four of his last five outings.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, Dereck Rodriguez (6-3, 2.35 ERA) will take the hill against Colorado righty Antonio Senzatela (4-6, 5.01 ERA) to close out the series.

Orioles snap the A’s six-game winning streak with a 5-3 win

Published on by rxsluggerLeave a comment

Photo credit: @Orioles

By Jerry Feitelberg

One of the great things about baseball is that one never knows what is going to happen in any game. Things that are expected to happen go awry and things that one expects to happen don’t. The red-hot Oakland A’s were expected to beat the hapless Baltimore Orioles Thursday night. Since June 16th, the A’s had the best record in baseball and everything was going their way. They entered the game against the O’s with expectations of winning and sweeping the three-game series and extend their winning streak to seven games. That did not happen as the O’s pounced on A’s starter Brett Anderson. Anderson was making his first start since coming off the 10-day DL, and he just wasn’t able to get his “A” game going.

The O’s put two runs on the board in the bottom of the first inning. The first two O’s hitters, Cedric Mullins and Jonathan Villar, singled. Trey Mancini was retired on a ground out to A’s shortstop Marcus Semien. Mullins and Villar advanced to second and third. Tim Beckham singled to drive in both runners. The O’s had an early 2-0 lead.

The A’s right fielder Stephen Piscotty homered to right to cut the gap to one, and the A’s trailed 2-1 after two innings of play.

The O’s plated two more in the bottom of the fourth. The O’s put together two singles and an Anderson wild pitch to put men on at second and third with one out. John Andreoli hit a low roller that Anderson fielded. He threw awkwardly to home but the throw was offline, and the O’s had their third run of the night. Valera singled to make it 4-1.

The A’s scored another run in the fifth. A Semien double followed by a Nick Martini single made it 4-2. The A’s made it a one-run game when they scored another run in the top of the eighth. The O’s extended the lead to two as they got the run back in their half of the inning and led 5-3.

The A’s failed to score in the ninth and lost to the O’s 5-3.

Game Notes: Brett Anderson went just three and one-third innings, and he gave up four runs and seven hits. His record is now 3-5 for the year.

Stephen Piscotty hit his 24th homer of the year to extend his hitting streak to 14. He has also hit 39 doubles.

The A’s are now 3.5 games behind the Houston Astros for first place in the AL West and 1.5 games behind the Yankees in the race for the first Wild Card slot.

Up Next: The A’s travel to Tampa Bay to face the Rays for three games starting Friday at 4:05 pm PDT. The Rays have been playing well, so the A’s cannot afford to take them lightly.

Oakland Athletics podcast with Jerry Feitelberg: A’s shouldn’t take road trip with a grain of salt; A’s provide medical update on Sean Manaea; plus more

Published on by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

Photo credit: @Athletics

On the A’s podcast with Jerry:

1. The A’s beat the Orioles 3-2 in game one of the three-game series, but the O’s might play spoiler in the series finale, a.k.a. game three.

2. A’s pitcher Mike Fiers remains undefeated with the Green and Gold 5-0.

3. If you’re an A’s and Sharks fan, you should prepare for the Sharks’ 2018-19 season with an A’s and Sharks mashup scarf you can get at the September 18th game. You can purchase a special ticket at athletics.com/sharks.

4. A’s fans, don’t miss out on the A’s last Play Ball event presented by Sutter Health on September 15th at Allendale Park in Oakland. More information could be found at athletics.com/playball

5. The A’s tweeted a medical update on Sean Manaea. He’ll have arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder on Sept. 19 at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in LA.

Jerry does the A’s podcasts each Thursday for SportsRadio Service.com

A’s pummel the Orioles 10-0 to win their sixth in a row

Published on by rxsluggerLeave a comment

by Jerry Feitelberg

There was good news and bad news for the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday night at Camden Yards. The good news was that the woeful Orioles held the A’s scoreless in eight of the nine innings played. The bad news is that Oriole pitchers were pounded in the third inning as the A’s put ten runs on the board when they pummeled Orioles’ starter Andrew Cashner and reliever Cody Carroll for ten runs on ten hits and two walks. The A’s used five pitchers in the game and kept the O’s of the board and limited to just one hit as the A’s won their sixth in a row by a score of 10-0.

The A’s kept pace with the Houston Astros in the race for first place in the AL West. The A’s remain three games behind the Astros. They did pick up a game on the New York Yankees as the Yankees lost 3-1 to the Minnesota Twins. The A’s are just one game behind the Yanks for the first Wild Card spot. If the A’s overtake the Yankees, the one-game playoff between the teams will be played in Oakland. Seattle lost and fell 9.5 games behind Oakland in the race for the second Wild Card.

How did the A’s do it Wednesday night? Orioles’ starter Andrew Cashner allowed just one hit in the first two innings that he pitched. The third inning was a different story. Cashner failed to retire a single hitter in the third. Cashner did not record an out in the third as the A’s put eight on the board before O’s skipper Buck Showalter replaced him with Cody Carroll. The A’s ended the inning scoring ten runs on ten hits and two walks. They sent fifteen men to the plate in their biggest inning of the year. The key hits were provided by Matt Chapman and Matt Olson. Chappie had a double and a single in the inning to drive in three runs. Matt Olson also drove in three when he blasted his 26th bomb of the year over the left field wall. Jed Lowrie singled to drive in his 90th RBI, and Khris Davis drove in his 110th of the year to tie him with his total of last year.

The A’s used Liam Hendriks as the “opener.” Hendriks pitched one inning. He was followed by Daniel Mengden who threw five scoreless innings and was the winning pitcher. He is now 7-6 for 2018. The O’s Andrew Cashner went two-plus innings, and his record fell to 4-15

The A’s improved  89-57 for the year and Baltimore is 41-104.

The A’s go for the sweep on Thursday. Hopefully, the game will be played as Hurricane Florence is near landfall.

The A’s will send lefty Brett Anderson to the hill. Anderson will be coming off the 10-dl. He hasn’t pitched since August 27th. He is 3-4 with a record of 4.02. His opponent will be Dylan Bundy. Bundy is 7-14 and his an ERA of 5.58. Bundy is healthy but has been ineffective the last two months. Bundy has surrendered a club-record 37 home runs this season.

That’s Amaury News and Commentary: Pitchers Are Bigger, Stronger and on the DL More Than Ever

Published on by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

Photo credit: @NBCSAthletics

By: Amaury Pi-González

If the A’s advance to the postseason, they will not be able to depend with their No. 1  starter, Sean Manaea. He will have arthroscopic surgery to repair a left shoulder impingement on September 19. A’s manager Bob Melvin said that Manaea will be sidelined through 2019.

Just a few years ago when I asked Melvin in Spring Training about Manaea, he told me wonders about the then-rookie pitcher. Jharel Cotton missed this 2018 season with Tommy John surgery as well as the A’s top pitching prospect A.J Puk. Pitchers are having all kinds of surgeries–primarily Tommy John–to the point where it’s very common. No team is immune to injuries. Young pitchers mostly throw 95 mph and they are bigger and stronger than ever. Conditioning is the best it has ever been. Nutrition is much more advanced than ever. Plus we now know more about the human body, so people are living longer than ever. Yet, few teams can escape these injuries to their pitching staffs.

One of my favorite pitchers was the Phillies’ Robin Roberts, who would throw 300 or more innings each season, just like Nolan Ryan or Jaime Moyer. Moreover, Vida Blue pitched for 17 years, and in eight of those years, he hurled between 224 to 312 innings per season. Not to mention, Moyer pitched for 25 seasons, and in 10 of those seasons, he easily went over 200 innings.

Juan Marichal completed 244 career games, going the distance. Most recently, Pedro Martínez pitched for 2,827 inning in 18 seasons. Jim Palmer pitched a total of 3,948 innings over 19 years with the Orioles, and never gave up a grand slam. Bartolo Colón has pitched for 3,459 2/3 innings and counting in his 21-plus seasons, and he has easily pitched over 200 innings per season. None of these guys were near 6’4″ and 235 lbs.

Many established pitchers as well as rookies in the MLB would travel to Cuba, Puerto Rico, México, Venezuela and vice versa to pitch in the Winter Leagues. They reported to Spring Training the following year and continued their long careers–most of them free of surgeries. There was always tendinitis, tired arms and ailments like that, but the names of the surgeons were not as famously known back then. Pitchers used to run a lot and did not lift weights. Teams did not have a state of the art gym at each park like they have today with all types of supplements and vitamins along with qualified physiotherapists. Tommy John surgery has a high success rate, but around 20 percent of pitchers never make it back.

It is a never ending debate. Should they limit pitchers to 100 pitches per game? Are they training the wrong way? And there are many other questions without definite answers.

This is one of my favorite quotes. It is from Liván Hernández, who pitched for 17 years and in many seasons threw over 200 innings, “A mi no me preocupa la cantidad de lanzamiento que yo hago, lo que quiero es ganar el juego para mi equipo, si ellos quieren contar mis lanzamientos, está bien, en Cuba solo Dios sabe cuantos lanzamientos yo hacía por salida.”

Translation: “I am not worried how many pitches I throw, what I want is to win the game for my team, if they want to count the pitches I make, that is fine, in Cuba only God knew how many pitches I made every time I started a game.”

Notes: Tommy John pitched for 26 years from 1963 to 1989, winning 288 games while losing 231. He pitched for the Indians, White Sox, Dodgers, Yankees, California Angels, A’s and Yankees. Despite not being in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., his name is mentioned much more often than all the combined pitchers that are in the HOF.

San Francisco Giants podcast with Marko Ukalovic: Giants drop 10th straight; Braves can complete a possible sweep in matinee today

Published on by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

Photo credit: @nbcbayarea

On the Giants podcast with Marko:

The San Francisco Giants dropped their second straight game to the Atlanta Braves by the same identical score 4-1. Again, the offense fails to answer the bell. This loss was San Francisco’s 10th straight loss and the Braves pitcher Mike Foltnewicz pitched a shutout going into the ninth inning gave up his only run on a Brandon Crawford single to right to score Evan Longoria.

Fortnewicz pitched a complete game: one run, six hits, one walk, seven strikeouts. For the Giants, starter Andrew Saurez with six innings, three runs, six hits, three walks and three strikeouts. The Giants will start Dereck Holland, and for the Braves, Anibal Sanchez. Can the Giants snap the 10-game skid today?

Giants podcasts with Marko Ukalovic are heard each Wednesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com