Tag: mlb

Oakland A’s podcast with Jerry Feitelberg: Oakland 3-5 on current homestand so far; looking to have breakout offense against Rays

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Photo credit: @RaysBaseball

On the A’s podcast with Jerry:

First of all let’s talk about Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Nathan Eovaldi who was coming off his second Tommy John surgery and hadn’t pitched since August 10, 2016. Eovaldi pitched six innings reached his 70 pitch count and was throwing a no hitter and left the game for reliever Wilmer Font who was an A’s pitcher once upon a time until the A’s designated him for assignment and the Rays picked him up.

Font gave up the only hit in the ball game for the A’s when the A’s Jed Lowrie got a single that broke it up. If the Rays succeeded with the no hitter it would be the first time since 1991 that the A’s would have been no hit.

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

 

Giants survive Coors Field with late 7-4 win over Rockies

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Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Harness

It did not look good early for the Giants at all, and it looked like so many other horror shows that have been disguised as road games that the Giants play at Coors Field over the years.

However, the Giants survived the rough start and rallied for a comeback win, a much-needed 7-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies that sent them to the airport in a delightful mood as they prepare to head back home.

Nolan Arenado, who has had his share of big games against the Giants, started things off with a three-run homer off starter Derek Holland in the very first inning.

The Giants, however, didn’t take much time to respond at all, as they got two runs in their half of the second inning off Colorado Jon Gray, with Pablo Sandoval singling in a run to narrow the Rockies’ lead to one.

They eventually tied the game at 4-4 in the fourth and chased Gray from the game, when Gorkys Hernandez and Buster Posey each drew bases-loaded walks. The Giants took the lead for good in the fifth, when Evan Longoria’s triple brought in a run, and Brandon Crawford singled in a run.

Nursing a three-run lead in the ninth, Hunter Strickland had to survive a bit of a scare from the Rox, and it started after he struck out Gerardo Parra. The strikeout pitch, however, got away from catcher Buster Posey, and Parra was able to reach base, thus nullifying the out.

Two batters later, Ryan McMahon lined a two-out double, and Strickland had to deal with Arenado, who represented the tying run. However, Strickland was able to get Arenado to pop out harmlessly to second, as his team escaped with the win.

The Giants will now head home to face the Phillies for a three-game series that starts Friday night at AT&T Park. The series opener is set for 7:15 pm PST.

A’s come up short in 4-3 loss to Rays

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Photo credit: @RaysBaseball

By Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND — The Tampa Bay Rays edged the A’s 4-3 in the second game of the four-game series at Oakland Coliseum Tuesday night.

Rays’ starter, Blake Snell, improved his record to 7-3 as he baffled the A’s, allowing just one run, which was unearned, and two hits. He struck out seven.

A’s starter Daniel Gossett allowed three runs and eight hits. He was tagged with the loss. He gave up three consecutive home runs in the third inning.

The Rays scored three times in the third inning. Gossett struck out the first two hitters that he faced. The next three hitters, C.J. Cron (former A’s second baseman), Joey Wendle, and Rays’ catcher Wilson Ramos, all hit solo home runs.

It was the first time since August 1st, 2017 that the Rays hit back-to-back homers against the Houston Astros, and it was the first time since they hit three consecutive dingers in a game since September 21st, 2016 when they did it against the New York Yankees.

The A’s put one on the board in their half of the third. Catcher Bruce Maxwell reached on an error. Snell retired the next two hitters. Jed Lowrie, the designated hitter, doubled to left field to drive in Maxwell. The run was unearned. Rays lead 3-1 after three complete.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Rays’ pitcher Jamie Schultz made his Major League debut and had quite a debut as he struck out all the hitters he faced. Welcome to the Bigs, Rook!

The A’s had a chance to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth inning. Rays’ reliever, righty Chaz Roe, walked Marcus Semien to start the inning. The next batter, Matt Chapman, had a broken bat blooper that fell in safely in right field. Semien made it third, and Chapman reached second on Carlos Gomez’ throwing error. Roe struck out Lowrie and Mark Canha and retired Chad Pinder on a routine ground ball out. The Rays still lead 3-1 as the teams head into the ninth inning.

In the ninth, Rays’ shortstop, former A’s farmhand, Daniel Robertson clobbered his sixth dinger of the year to give Tampa Bay a 4-1 lead. The A’s rallied to score twice. Sergio Romo, who was a closer for the San Francisco Giants, was Ray.s manager Kevin Cash’s choice to finish the game. Matt Olson singled off Romo to start the rally. Stephen Piscotty doubled down the left field line to drive in Olson. Piscotty went to third on a ground ball out and scored on Bruce Maxwell’s ground ball to first base. Romo dodged a bullet when Marcus Semien hit a long fly ball that had the distance for a home run, but the ball went foul. Romo then retired Semien for the final out of the game.

Game Notes: With the loss, the A’s drop to 28-27 and the Rays improve to 27-26.

The Rays’ line was four runs, 10 hits, and two errors. All four of the Rays’ runs were the result of solo homers.

The A’s line was three runs, five hits, and one error.

Time of game was two hours and 55 minutes.

A very sparse crowd of 7,521 fans were on hand to see the A’s lose.

Up Next: Wednesday night’s game will feature the A’s big lefty Sean Manaea (5-5, 3.34 ERA) pitching for Oakland and righty Nathan Eovaldi going for the Rays. Manaea has been scuffling lately, and he will be hoping to return to the form that he showed earlier in the season. Game time is set for 7:05 pm PST.

Two more pitchers injured in Giants’ 11-4 loss to Rockies; Samardzija and Rodriguez leave game due to injuries

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skgoabc7.com photo: San Francisco Giants pitcher Jeff Samardzija last just an inning before leaving due to tightness in his throwing shoulder while pitching against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on Tuesday night

By Jeremy Kahn

There is one or two things that the San Francisco Giants did not need with just two games remaining on their three-city, eight-game road trip.

Jeff Samardzija lasted just one inning, where he gave up two runs on three hits and the Colorado Rockies defeated the Giants 11-4 at Coors Field.

Samardzija was forced to leave the game with his tightness in his right shoulder, the same right shoulder that saw the right-hander begin the 2018 season on the disabled list for the first time in his major-league career.

With the loss of Samardzija after just one inning, the Giants turned to Dereck Rodriguez, who made his major-league debut.

Rodriguez, who is the son of hall of fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez, went 3.1 innings, allowing four runs, with just one of them earned. He also drove in the Giants first run of the game, as he doubled over the head of Rockies right fielder Carlos Gonzalez in the top of the fifth inning that cut the Rockies lead down to 5-1.

Unfortunately, Rodriguez’s debut ended on a sour note, as he took a line drive off the right calf in the bottom of the fifth inning, when Ian Desmond hit a ball up the middle.

Once again, the Giants defense was subpar, as they committed four errors on the evening, including two in the bottom of the fourth inning that saw the Rockies break the game wide open, as they scored three runs.

After Rodriguez was able to get the first outs of the inning via the strikeout, the floodgates of shoddy defense began. Kyle Freeland doubled, then Charlie Blackmon hit a ground ball to Kelby Tomlinson that he was unable to handle for his second error of the evening that allowed Freeland to scored. Blackmon went to third base on a throwing error by Brandon Belt and then both Gerardo Parra and Nolan Arenado each hit run-scoring doubles.

Tomlinson committed a third error in the bottom of the eighth inning, as his throw to Brandon Crawford on a Trevor Story groundball that pulled Crawford off of second base.

It was a good night on the mound for Freeland, as he went 5.1 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits, he also did not walk a batter and struck out three. Freeland evened up his record on the season at 5-5.

Evan Longoria hit two home runs in the same game for the first time since July 17, 2016, when he was with the Tampa Bay Rays. Longoria reaches 10 home runs on the season, just two months into the season, during the 2017 season, the Giants third basemen combined for eight home runs.

Buster Posey hit his third home run of the season.

NOTES: Derek Holland looks for his third win of the season, as the Giants look to end the road trip on a high note. Through the first seven games on the road trip, the Giants are 1-6. Rockies will send Jon Gray to the mound, as he looks for his first career win against the Giants. In his career, Gray is 0-2 with a 4.26 earned run average in four starts.

Madison Bumgarner will make his second rehab start on Thursday night, as he will throw between 70 and 75 pitches for class A San Jose.

Bumgarner is slated to make his season debut on June 5th at AT&T Park against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

UP NEXT: The Giants and Rockies continue their series Wednesday at 5:40 pm PST.

Oakland A’s podcast with Charlie O: A’s getting good pitching, they just need some offense

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mlb.com photo: Oakland A’s pitcher Daniel Mengden throwing a shutout against the Arizona Diamondbacks last Saturday May 26, 2018 at the Oakland Coliseum

Charlie O on the A’s podcast:

1) The A’s took 2 of 3 from Arizona and then lost the first game of the Tampa Bay series in an 1-0 extra inning heartbreaker. In those 4 games they scored 4 runs, what’s happening at the plate?

2) what about the pitching? How the staff perform in these games?

3) you say the A’s have some good news coming this week.

4) I have noticed on our Twitter account you have been doing some fantasy betting on A’s games? Why? And how are you doing?

Charlie O does the Oakland A’s podcast each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

That’s Amaury’s Podcast, News and Commentary: Oakland and Tampa Bay have similar business model situations; Both teams in need of new stadiums

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Photo credit: @SFGate

By Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–The Oakland A’s, who opened a four-game set with the Tampa Bay Rays on Monday, started the series with the Rays at .500 on this current homestand. The A’s started the homestand against the Seattle Mariners, a very good team who is in second place followed by Arizona.

The M’s won two out of three from the slumping Minnesota Twins over the weekend. The A’s and Rays as far as front office organization situations are concerned are in the same boat. The attendance for both teams are low and their in two different divisions but similar at this time in history. Both teams are struggling in their current ball parks. They both are in need of getting new parks built. The A’s are looking to go to Jack London Square and build a waterfront park. The Rays want a waterfront park in Tampa Bay and want to get out of Tropicana Field in St Petersburg.

The A’s and Rays also speaking of sharing business models. It gets down to on the field and both teams also have bullpens on their home fields. They are two of three teams in MLB that have bullpens on the field, the Giants being the other. Bullpens on the field became an issue after the Giants outfielder Mac Williamson tripped on the AT&T bullpen mound and got a concussion in April.

I’m old-school. I like to see the bullpens on the field, baseball has changed. The fans still enjoy to see the bullpens and you like to see the pitchers warming up in the bullpens. When you broadcast a game, you can see whose loosening up. Some stadiums you don’t see whose warming up.

There’s more on That’s Amaury listen to Amaury’s podcast weekly at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Rays shut out A’s 1-0 in 13 innings

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Photo credit: @RaysBaseball

By Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND — It was a sizzling, sun-drenched day in Oakland. The temperature at the start of the game was 78 degrees, and the 10,881 fans in attendance thought they might see a few home runs in the game. The ball usually carries well on hot days, but that did not happen as the A’s, and Rays’ pitchers were sensational. The Rays scored the winning run in the top of the 13th. The A’s had their chances,but could not get a hit with a runner in scoring position.

The A’s starter, Trevor Cahill, had his best game of the year. Cahill went eight innings, allowed just four, didn’t walk a batter, struck out six, and did not allow a run.

The Rays’ starter, Chris Archer pitched six scoreless innings, He kept the A’s scoreless and allowed just 4 hits, too. Both bullpens were terrific. The Rays were a wee bit better as they won the game 1-0.

The Rays scored the only run of the day in the top of the 13th. Chris Hatcher, the A’s fifth pitcher of the day, retired the first two hitters in the 13th. He then gave up singles to John Field, Jesus Sucre, and center fielder Mallex Smith. The Ray’s Ryne Stanek retired Matt Joyce for the first out. Marcus Semien walked. Jed Lowrie fouled out. Rays’ manager Kevin Cash made a pitching change. He brought in the lefty Jonny Venters to pitch to Matt Olson. Venters struck out Olson for the final out.

The A’s had men in scoring position in the fourth, sixth, and ninth innings but could not score. The A’s drop to 28-26 while Tampa Bay improves to 26-26.

The line score for the Rays was 1 run, 7 hits, and 1error. The A’s line was no runs, 7 hits, and no errors.

Chris Hatcher was the losing pitcher, and Ryne Stanek recorded the win.

Game 2 of the four-game series will be played Tuesday night at the Oakland Coliseum. Daniel Gossett (0-2, 6.28 ERA) will pitch for the A’s, and the Rays will send lefty Blake Snell (6-3, 2.78ERA) to the hill. Game time is at 7:05 pm PST.

San Francisco Giants podcast with Morris Phillips: Crawford has breakout May, hits .446 and defense has been looking Golden Glove-like

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Photo credit: @MLB_News247

On the SF Giants podcast with Morris:

#1 Morris talks about Brandon Crawford he’s been on a roll for the month of May, hitting a MLB best .446.

#2 Crawford was hitting .189 in the month of April. Morris talks about what Crawford is doing differently.

#3 Crawford also did some handy work with his glove in Chicago making an off-balance throw from short to get the Cubs’ Wilson Contreas on Sunday at Wrigley Field.

#4 The Giants starter Madison Bumgarner could be back as soon as Friday night. Bumgarner in rehab has thrown 47 pitches, going 3 2/3 innings and eight strike outs. He said his hand feels good.

#5 The Giants will open a three-game series on Monday night in Colorado to end this current road trip and they’re hoping to get some success at Coors Field.

Morris Phillips does the SF Giants podcasts each Monday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

Cubs take finale in comeback fashion, down Giants 8-3

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Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Kahn

Things were looking good for the San Francisco Giants at the end of the first inning, but then the Chicago Cubs came to the plate.

Between the two teams, they scored six runs on five infield hits, that included a great play by a first time second baseman and a ball off of the second base umpire.

All things got worse for the Giants in the bottom of the fourth inning, as Jorge Baez hit an opposite field three-run home run and the Cubs defeated the Giants 8-3 at Wrigley Field Sunday night.

Neither starter made it out of the fourth inning, as Ty Blach went just three innings, allowing five runs on seven hits, walking four and striking out three, as he fell to 3-5 on the season.

Cubs starter Tyler Chatwood went only 2.2 innings, as he allowed three runs on six hits, walking five and struck out three. It was the second consecutive horrific start for Chatwood, who also went 2.2 innings in his last start against the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night in a 10-1 Cubs loss.

Pablo Sandoval, who made his first ever start at second base for the Giants got them on the board in the top of the first inning, as he beat out a throw from Addison Russell that scored Brandon Belt.

Mac Williamson then extended the Giants lead up to 3-0, as he an opposite field single that scored Evan Longoria and Brandon Crawford respectively.

Longoria was one of two walks in the inning off of Chatwood, and then Crawford loaded the bases with an infield single just prior to the Sandoval base hit that scored Belt.

The Cubs got right back into the game in the bottom of the inning, as Alex Almora, Jr., reached on an infield single. After an out by Baez, Kris Bryant got the Cubs on the board, when he doubled off the right-center field wall and then came the bizarre play of the game.

Anthony Rizzo hit a comebacker that Blach knocked down, and then ricocheted off of second base umpire Cory Blaser and bounced to Sandoval, who threw too late to Belt and Bryant all the way around from second base to score.

After Wilson Contreras struck out for the second out, Kyle Schwarber singled to send Rizzo to third and then Russell tied up the game.

Things were looking good for the Giants in the top of the second inning, as they loaded the bases with nobody out; however, Chatwood was able to get out of the jam without allowing a run.

Blach got into his own bases loaded nobody out jam in the bottom of the third inning, as he gave up three consecutive walks to Bryant, Rizzo and Contreras, but then he was able to regroup to get Schwarber and Russell to strikeout swinging and then Jason Heyward flew out to left field to end the threat.

Pierce Johnson came on to replace Blach in the bottom of the fourth inning after Blach walked eventual winning pitcher Randy Rosario, and then Almora ended Blach’s day after he doubled to centerfield.

Baez then greeted Johnson by hitting a three-run home run into the right field bleachers to give the Cubs the lead for good.

Tommy La Stella hit for Rosario in the bottom of the fifth inning, and he hit a single that scored Heyward. Almora continued then his hot hitting, as he doubled to right-center field that scored La Stella from first base.

Rosario went 2.1 innings, allowing no runs on one hit, walking two and striking out three, as he won for the first time this season.

NOTES: Andrew Suarez looks for his second win of the season on Monday, as the Giants open a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field. Chad Bettis looks to improve to 5-1 on the season, as he takes the mound for the Rockies.

Buster Posey, who missed Saturday’s game with a sore right hip also missed Sunday’s game, but could available for the Giants opener in Colorado.

UP NEXT: Giants open a three-game series against the Rockies in Colorado starting Monday at 4:10 pm PST.

MLB The Show podcast with Daniel Dullum: Angels’ Trout goes yard on Yanks; Giants’ Bumgarner near to return; Choo leads MLB’s Asian-born hitters with HRs

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photo from yahoosports.com: Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout went 5-5 on Saturday against the New York Yankees

On the MLB The Show podcast with Daniel Dullum:

1  LA Angels’ Mike Trout (27) has another career day in rout of New York Yankees.

2 Mad about Bum: SF Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner fans eight in first rehab start.

3 Shin-Soo Choo is MLB’s new Asian-born home run king.

4 A’s “Star Wars” themed fireworks show starts fire in Oakland.

5 Cleveland reliever Andrew Miller back on DL.

Daniel does MLB The Show podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com