Tag: mlb

Renfroe, Padres escape with 5-4 win over Giants

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Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Kahn

Hunter Renfroe gave the San Diego Padres the win on one swing of the bat and sent the San Francisco Giants to their second straight loss.

Renfroe hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning, as the Padres defeated the Giants 5-4 at Petco Park Saturday night.

His eventual game-winning home run came just one inning after he came up with a huge outfield assist that saw Joe Panik be tagged out at the plate by catcher A.J. Ellis.

Panik tripled to get to third base with one out in the inning, and then Andrew McCutchen hit a fly ball to Renfroe, whose throw was cut off by Christian Villanueva, who in turn threw to Ellis, who tagged Panik. Replay showed it looked like Panik got underneath the tag; however, after a two-minute and 41-second review, the play was upheld.

Following the Renfroe home run off of losing pitcher Cory Gearrin, the Padres loaded the bases; however, Tony Watson was able to get out of the jam, as he struck out two and got a lineout to Brandon Crawford at shortstop to end the inning.

Adam Cimber pitched two strong innings to pick-up his first major league win, as he gave up a hit and struck out three.

Brad Hand picked up his sixth save of the season, and struck out Hunter Pence to end the eighth and then struck out the side for the Padres second straight win.

After falling behind in the bottom of the first inning, Evan Longoria tied up the game with one swing of the bat, as he hit a two-run home run off of Padres starter Clayton Richard in the top of the fourth inning.

Crawford hit a triple of his own and then scored on an Austin Jackson single to give the Giants their first lead of the game.

McCutchen lengthened the lead to 4-2, as he hit his second home run of the season in the top of the fifth inning.

Jose Pierla got the Padres within one at 4-3 in the bottom of the fifth inning, as he hit a double off of Derek Holland. The Padres loaded the bases, but Reyes Moronta came on to replace Holland and got Chase Headley to ground out to end the inning.

Renfroe gave the Padres a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, as he hit a sacrifice fly and Villanueva hit his first home run since April 3 to lengthen the Padres lead to 2-0 at the end of the first inning.

Holland pitched 4.2 innings, allowing three runs and four hits, while walking two and struck out four

Richard went five innings for the Padres, as he gave up four runs on seven hits, walked three and struck out three.

NOTES: Tyler Beede makes his second major league start on Sunday afternoon, while the Padres will send Joey Luchessi to the mound.

UP NEXT: The Giants and Padres conclude their series Sunday afternoon at 1:10 pm PT.

That’s Amaury News and Commentary: Forbes–Oakland Athletics’ valuation $1.02 Billion

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KTVU FOX 2 photo: Rendering of an Oakland A’s waterfront ballpark under the lights a dream that has had some stop gaps for A’s team president David Kaval who is trying to build it at Howard Terminal

By Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–According to Forbes Magazine,which is considered the Bible for finance in all industries, the Oakland A’s are #26 among all 30 major league clubs in total valuation worth about $1.02 billion; followed by #27 Kansas City,#28 Cincinnati,#29 Miami and Tampa Bay #30 are the four teams below the A’S The real big boys are the top three: New York Yankees valuation of $4 billion, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers $3 billion and the Chicago Cubs $2.9 billion.

An interesting situation is that of the Miami Marlins, with a valuation of $1 billion, yet they were sold this past October for $1.2 billion. Yes, The Fish are swimming deep in debt and in very shallow water in attendance. The New York Yankees generated the most in revenues last year $619 million. Forbes professionals specializes in appraising the estimate of worth among most industries.On this recent 2018 list all major league teams except the Tampa Bay Rays had evaluations upwards of $1 billion. The Tampa Bay Rays $900 million, and they are last. A lot of things are taken into consideration on these evaluations, like size of the market, debt by the team, revenue projections and potential plans for the team(in this case of the A’s a new ballpark) plus other factors.

In the case of the Oakland Athletics, who have a valuation of a little above $1 billion, they also have the lowest payroll, #30 of $69 million this season. Commissioner Manfred had said repeatedly that he wants the A’s to stay in Oakland, and with the move of the Raiders to Las Vegas and the Warriors to San Francisco within two years, the A’s are all but assured they will stay in Oakland. The possibility of a new ballpark for the Athletics with or without a Gondola are good.

They probably have odds in Vegas about that also and my guess will be like 10 to 5 odds, that they will build a new park someplace in Oakland. The Howard Terminal is the front runner, with the Oakland Coliseum as the “pinch hitter”if the Terminal strikes out. The San Francisco Giants valuation is $2.85 Billion. Every year teams valuations go up. The average team worth is $1.645 billion, which is 7% more than in 2017.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the play-by-play Spanish announcer for the Oakland A’s and is the vice president of the MLB Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Seventh-Inning Rally Helps Mariners to a 7-4 Win Over A’s

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Photo credit: @710ESPNSeattle

By Matthew Harrington

The Seattle Mariners rallied in a five-run seventh inning to beat the Oakland A’s 7-4 and continue a three-game win streak. Matt Chapman hit a solo homer for the green and gold and Khris Davis had a pair of dingers, but Mitch Haniger’s four RBIs and Daniel Vogelbach’s first homer sunk the A’s.

Oakland took a 2-0 lead off Mike Leake after the first on Davis’ third homer of the year, but the M’s rallied in the bottom of the inning to tie the game off starter Andrew Triggs. Matt Chapman continued his Monstrous 2018 by taking Leake deep for his fifth long ball of the year in the top of the sixth inning for a 3-2 lead.

The Mariners broke the tie in the seventh inning after Yusmeiro Pettit picked up a quick two outs to start the frame. Jean Segura singled, chasing Petit in favor of Danny Coulombe. Coulombe walked Robinson Cano, leaving the game for Chris Hatcher. Hatcher coughed up a three-run homer to Mitch Haniger, adding to Haniger’s RBI base hit in the first for a 5-3 lead. Kyle Seager singled and Daniel Vogelbach, DHing for an injured Nelson Cruz, took Hatcher deep for the 7-3 edge.

Khris Davis homered again off Juan Nicasio in the top of the eighth, but Edwin Diaz closed the game out for his fifth save of the year. Couloumbe (0-1, 2.57 ERA) was saddled with the loss, Hatcher with a blown save while Dan Altavilla (1-1, 1.50) picked up the win for his clean top of the seventh inning. Andrew Triggs didn’t factor into the decision, but exited the game in line for the win after the A’s scored in the top of the sixth. He threw five innings of five-hit, two-run ball.

Up Next: The A’s and Mariners meet again Saturday night at 6:10 pm PT.

East Bay native Tyson Ross, Padres rout the Giants 5-1

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Photo credit: @SFGiantsFans

By Jeremy Kahn

Tyson Ross did all the damage by himself, both on the mound and the plate for the San Diego Padres.

Ross, who grew up in Oakland and went to Bishop O’Dowd High School hit an RBI single to snap a scoreless single in the bottom of the fifth inning and the Padres defeated the San Francisco Giants 5-1 at Petco Park Friday night.

The right-hander also pitched six strong innings, as the Padres snapped a 10-inning hitless streak.

Prior to an Austin Hedges hit in the fateful fifth inning, that saw the Padres score the only run that they would need, their last hit came in the bottom of the third inning by pitcher Clayton Richard, who came on as a pinch hitter for Bryan Mitchell, who pitched just three innings in a 7-0 Giants win.

Jose Priela added a RBI single in the fifth, and then the Padres added three more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to end Ty Blach’s night.

The Richard hit off of Chris Stratton was the only hit that Stratton and Derek Law would allow in the game.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Richard became the first pitcher that did not start a game to get the lone hit in the game since June 28, 1935, when reliever Mace Brown of the Pittsburgh Pirates picked up a hit against the Chicago Cubs.

Ross gave up an unearned run in six innings on seven hits, walked one and struck out one and won for the second time this season.

Joe Panik drove in the only Giants run on the evening in the top of the seventh inning that led to the end of Ross’ evening.

Ross allowed a single, then a fielding error by Freddy Galvis and then Panik singled to end Ross’ night on the mound.

Franchy Cordero hit his second home run of the season in the bottom of the seventh inning for the Padres.

Brandon Crawford picked up three hits for the Giants.

Blach went six innings, allowing four runs, three of them earned, and seven hits. He also walked just one and struck out three.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Charlie O. Finley Was Controversial and Innovative

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Photo credit: launiusr.wordpress.com

By: Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

When Charlie O. Finley, the controversial but successful businessman and owner of the Oakland Athletics, told me in 1977: “Yes, you can broadcast in Mexican,” little could he have envisioned that Hispanics would be the largest minority in California and in the United States some 40 years later.

I never really knew if Finley believed Mexican was an actual language when in fact it’s a nationality. Today, there are 33 different countries in Latin America and the Caribbean–most of them with Spanish as their main language. In Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, Portuguese is the official language. So, regardless of what Finley believed, the fact remains that he was an old school baseball owner who was much involved with his team as he had a passion of the game. He could talk baseball with the best of them. He was an insurance magnate, and when he became involved with baseball as owner, he challenged tradition and changed the game in many ways, especially the marketing with his loco promotions. By the way, the classic A’s Front Office was just a handful of folks–mostly his relatives–who actually used the three World Series trophies to file the mail.

This is what Glenn Dickey wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle about Finley in 1996: “The irony of Charlie Finley’s life was that everybody seemed to focus on what he did poorly and ignore what he did well. His promotions were farcical, often disastrous, but the man put together a baseball team that was the only non-Yankee team to win three straight World Series for the American League.”

But among his many crazy promotions–like the live mascot, a mule called Charlie-O–my all-time favorite was Harvey the Rabbit. And this season, the A’s brought the rabbit back. We now see this mechanical rabbit prior to each game at the Coliseum.

The original Harvey the Rabbit was something special. He was a mechanical rabbit who rose from the grassy ground behind home plate near the umpire with a basket full of baseballs for the umpire to put in play.

Among Finley’s promotions
  • Orange baseballs: Tried in a few exhibition games, but hitters found it too hard to pick up the spin.
  • Hired Stanley Burrell (who would later gain worldwide fame as rapper MC Hammer) as Executive Vice President when he was just a teenager to be his “eyes and ears.” Burrell would called Finley on the telephone to give him exclusive updates of what was happening in the game. Sometimes, Burrell will bring us coffee or soda to our broadcasting booth. Burrell was a great kid.
  • Offered players $300 bonuses to grow mustaches during the championships. For star Hall of Fame relief pitcher Rollie Fingers, the handlebar mustaches he grew for Finley became a trademark.

Finley lived in Chicago, where he died in 1996. He was a great salesman who made a fortune. His flamboyant marketing revolutionized baseball. He changed the traditional uniforms that were white and gray with black shoes and dressed his A’s with Green and Gold uniforms with white shoes, allowed facial hair, which has been making a comeback in baseball in recent years.

Finley owned and operated the Kansas City and Oakland A’s for 20 years. He would come to Oakland for a series of games, sit behind the A’s dugout many times wearing a green blazer and waving an A’s pennant on his right hand. He was passionate and involved like George Steinbrenner was with the New York Yankees years later.

More often than not, Finley would be in his “owners box” at the Coliseum. You could see his reactions to the game. When the team lost, he would not be happy and depending. When they lost, he would be furious. I remember him walking by the press box many times with Sarge (bodyguard) and his friends and/or associates screaming and complaining about a play, an umpire or even his own manager.

Finley was not what they call “politically correct” today. He said what he had in mind. After winning three consecutive World Series, he refused to pay his players millions of dollars to stay with the A’s. So one by one, Catfish, Reggie, Campy and others said “adios” to Oakland.

Finley was the A’s owner as well as their Numero Uno fan. Seldom an owner dominates such way that becomes the face of a franchise, but he was that man.

The only owner today among professional sports that reminds me of Finley is Dallas Mavericks billionaire owner Mark Cuban, but aside from Cuban, who also appears on TV on Shark Tank, most baseball owners today are not like Finley. Depending on what you like, that could be good or bad for the game of baseball.

Different times, different baseball…

San Francisco Giants podcast with Michael Duca: Stratton’s gem helps SF get the shutout and get to .500

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Chris Stratton #34 of the San Francisco Giants pitches during the third inning of a game against the San Diego Padres at PETCO Park on April 12, 2018 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)

On the Giants podcast with Michael:

#1 It wasn’t quite a nail-biter as Giants starter Chris Stratton lost his no hit bid early in the ball game the third inning to pitcher and pinch-hitter Clayton Richard on a base hit, but Stratton didn’t allow another hit over the seven total innings. He pitched in the Giants’ 7-0 win at Petco Park in San Diego on Thursday night.

#2 Stratton surrendered only three walks and threw for four strikeouts. He’s one of the key pitchers that have help San Francisco improve not only their rotation, but kept the club in their games.

#3 Giants manager Bruce Bochy said that Stratton looks to have worked his way to the No. 1 position in the rotation.

#4 The Giants start Ty Blach tonight at Petco Park. who had a good outing. Michael takes a look at his body of work going into tonight’s game.

Michael does the Giants podcast each Friday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Giants blank Padres 7-0; Stratton gets a one-hitter

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Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Joey Friedman
Sports Radio Service

In their first meeting of the season, the San Francisco Giants shutout the San Diego Padres by a score of 7-0 at Petco Park Thursday night on the backs of pitchers Chris Statton and Derek Law. Hunter Pence and Buster Posey would each collect two RBIs in the win. San Diego position players were held hitless tonight.

In the Giants’ half of the first, they mounted an attack with a Joe Panik walk, an Andrew McCutchen single, a Buster Posey walk, and an Evan Longoria fielder’s choice ground ball to San Diego shortstop Freddy Galvis on the first pitch which turned in a run as Longoria reached first when Galvis took the out at second in Posey. After Brandon Crawford walked to load the bases again, Hunter Pence pushed everybody up 90 feet with a broken-bat RBI bloop single to right.

San Diego’s sparkling defensive play came in the third inning when Gregor Blanco hit with runners on the corners, the Giants up 3-0 with one out and a 0-1 count. Blanco popped up a bunt in foul ground that held in the air just long enough for Padre catcher Austin Hedges to make a diving grab halfway to the backstop. He would throw to first to double off the runner Crawford and end the threat.

The only hit in the game for the Padres came from 34-year-old LHP Clayton Richard who pinch hit for starting pitcher Bryan Mitchell before Mitchell could get his first at-bat of the night. Through 289 career at-bats, Richard carried a .118 batting average. The line drive to right came off starting pitcher Chris Stratton of the Giants in the third inning.

The Giants’ next big inning came in the 6th when the Giants loaded the bases with two out. Andrew McCutchen grounded the ball to third baseman Christian Villanueva, who through the ball in the dirt to Gold Glove first baseman Eric Hosmer who could not dig it out. The ball bounced into the seats, sending McCutchen to second, scoring two. Before the inning was over, the next batter, Buster Posey, would hit a ball on the ground down the left field line, scoring two more, and sending Posey to second. The Giants would load the bases once again before Hunter Pence would fly out to right to end an inning in which the Giants scored four runs on four hits and an error, leaving three on base.

For the Giants, Chris Stratton would pitch seven innings of one-hit ball on 101 pitches. He walked three and struck out four. He would improve to a 1-1 record. Reliever Derek Law came in to finish the game in the eighth, going two innings and striking out a pair. No one could cross the plate tonight for San Diego.

Bryan Mitchell of the Padres got the tough loss after going for three innings of four-hit, five-walk, and two strikeout baseball. All three runs he allowed were earned. His record is now 0-2. Nice relieving appearances for Jordan Lyles and Robbie Erlin were belittled by the four unearned runs that Colten Brewer gave up due to the Villanueva error.

The Giants saw a multi-hit night from Longoria, Pence, and Blanco. Almost everyone who picked up a bat got a hit tonight with the exception of Brandon Belt (who went 0-2 with two walks), Nick Hundley (0-1 in a pinch-hitting role), and Chris Stratton (0-3).

What’s Next?
Ty Blach (1-1, 4.11 ERA) will be on the hill for the Giants in the second game of the series opposed by Tyson Ross (1-1, 5.25 ERA) of the Padres. They will be making their fourth and third starts, respectively at 7:10 pm PT tomorrow night.

 

 

Preview of the A’s weekend series against the Mariners

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Photo credit: @KPODFM

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s play the Seattle Mariners this weekend in Seattle. The A’s are 5-8 to start the season and have yet to win a series against an opponent. They went 1-3 against the LA Angels to start the season. They split a four-game series with the Texas Rangers and went 1-2 against the Angels last week in Anaheim. Angels’ rookie sensation Shosei Ohtani beat the A’s twice. The A’s then split a two-game set with the Los Angeles Dodgers,

The Mariners are in third place in the AL West with a record of 6-4. So far, they have played the Cleveland Indians, San Francisco Giants, Minnesota Twins, and Kansas City Royals. The series against the A’s will be the first against an AL West opponent.

The teams have announced the pitching matchups for the weekend series. The A’s will send Andrew Triggs to the hill Friday night. Triggs will be making his third start of the young season. Triggs has a record of 1-0 with an ERA of 2.53. In his last start against the Angels, Triggs went 5 2/3rds innings and allowed just 2 runs and 4 hits as he was credited with his first win.

Mike Leake will go for the Mariners. Leake, the former St. Louis Cardinal and San Francisco Giant, owns a record of 2-0 and has a 3.00 ERA. Leake has pitched 12 innings so far and has beaten the Indians and the Twins.

On Friday night, Kendall Graveman will make his fourth start. Things have not gone well for Graveman as he is 0-2 and has an ERA of 9.45. In his three starts, he has pitched a total of 13 and 1/3rd innings and has allowed four runs in each of the starts. Seattle’s lefty Marco Gonzales will oppose Graveman. Gonzales beat the Giants in San Francisco but struggled in his last outing against the Twins. His record stands at 1-1, and his ERA is 7.27.

Sunday will see a matchup of two very good pitchers. The A’s Sean Manaea (1-2, ERA 1.74) has pitched well in all three of his starts. He took the loss Tuesday night against the Dodgers. He gave up home runs to the first two hitters he faced,, but settled down and left the game trailing 2-0. The A’s offense was impotent against the Dodgers and gave him no run support as the A’s fell 4-0.

The Mariners ace, Felix Hernandez will handle the pitching chores against. Hernandez must salivate when he sees the guys in Green and Gold. King Felix has a career record of 25-9 in 46 starts. Felix is 2-1 so far and has beat the Royals last Tuesday, despite giving up three runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings of work.

The Mariners will be without the services of Nelson Cruz (sprained right ankle), former A’s player Ryon Healy (Grade 2 right ankle sprain), outfielder Ben Gamel ( Right oblique sprain), and catcher Mike Zunino (left oblique sprain.)

The Mariners still have a potent lineup. Robinson Cano will be at second, Jean Segura at short, Kyle Seager at third, and Daniel Vogelbach will be at first base. Dee Gordon, in his first season in Seattle, will be in center field, Mitch Haniger will handle right field, and either Guillermo Heredia or Ichiro Suzuki will play left. The catching chores will be handled by David Freitas or Mike Marjama.

The Mariners’ closer is Edwin Diaz, and the bullpen consists of Dan Altavilla, Chasen Bradford, Nick Vincent, our old friend Marc Rzepczynski, Casey Lawrence, Juan Nicasio, and James Pazos.

The A’s offense got going Wednesday night in Los Angeles when they put 16 runs on the board and recorded 21 hits. They have a powerful lineup with Marcus Semien, Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, and Jed Lowrie handling the infield tasks. Matt Joyce will be in left against right-handed pitchers, Trayce Thompson will be in center, and Stephen Piscotty will be in right. Jake Smolinski and Mark Canha will be the backups. Jonathan Lucroy will handle the catching, but Bruce Maxwell will probably play in one of the games.

This would be a good time for the A’s to win a series and get closer to the .500 mark. The A’s know they can hit with power. Hopefully, they will continue the heavy hitting and not play they way they did last Sunday and Tuesday when they scored just one run and nine hits in 18 innings of action.

Oakland A’s podcast with Jerry Feitelberg: Big break out night for A’s after hitting struggles in the Southland

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Photo credit @OAKA’S: The Oakland A’s Matt Chapman (26) welcomes Jonathan Lucroy (8) home after smashing a homer at Dodgers Stadium on Wednesday night

On the Oakland A’s Podcast with Jerry Feitelberg:

#1 The A’s on the current road trip started out with the Anaheim Angels and on Sunday faced almost perfect pitching against Shohei Ohtani, who nearly threw a perfect game against the A’s. The A’s on Tuesday had to face the Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu, who nearly no hit the A’s, but things on Wednesday turned around as the A’s hit for 16 runs and 22 hits.

#2 The A’s, who had seen some good pitching, got to get a jump on Dodger starter Alex Wood, scoring two runs in the top of first to get their offense started early in Wednesday’s contest.

#3 In the middle innings, the A’s jumped on the Dodgers for five runs in the fourth and then again two runs in the sixth.

#4 The A’s open a three-game series starting Friday night in Seattle. Are the Mariners a team still trying to figure it out or do they have a shot at making things interesting this season? However, former Athletic third baseman Ryon Healy is on the disabled list.

#5 The A’s are encouraged by home runs from Khris Davis, Matt Chapman, and Jed Lowrie in Wednesday’s game.

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

 

 

Bats come alive as A’s pummel Dodgers 16-6

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland Athletics, who had scored just one run and had but nine hits in their last two games, snapped out of their collective slump and battered Dodger pitching for 16 runs and 21 hits to earn a split of the two-game series.

The A’s were playing by National League rules as they were able to score early and often as they showed that when they are hitting as they did Wednesday night, they can be a formidable opponent.

The A’s scored twice in the first inning. Mark Canha singled with two out. Khris Davis, playing left field, hit an opposite-field dinger to put the A’s in the lead 2-0. For Davis, it was his second big fly of the year and the first since opening day. The Dodgers got one back in the bottom of the first to cut the deficit to one.

The A’s scored five times in the top of the fourth. The Dodgers countered with a run in their half of the inning, but the A’s were rolling at this point 7-2. The A’s scored nine more runs in the last four innings of the game to ice the win. LA scored two in the sixth and one each in the eighth and ninth.

Game notes- Daniel Mengden went five innings and allowed 4 runs, 3 earned, 7 hits, 5 strikeouts and no walks as he won his first game of the campaign and improved to 1-2. Dodger starter lefty Alex Wood’s line was 3, and 2/3rds innings pitched, and he gave up 7 runs on 7 hits. He also struck out five and did not issue a walk.

Hitting stars for Oakland were Marcus Semien, Matt Olson, Khris Davis, Matt Chapman, Jonathan Lucroy, Jed Lowrie, and Daniel Mengden. Semien was 2-for-5, and he had 4 RBIs. Olson, who did not start the game, finished the night with 3 hits and one RBI. Davis had three hits, including a homer, and 2 RBIs. Chapman was 2-for-6, and he had a tater in the 8th with a man on, and he finished the night with 3 RBIs. Jed Lowrie also had three hits including a three-run homer in the ninth and a total of 4 RBIs for the game. Lucroy had three hits, and Mengden knocked in a run with a single.

The Dodger attack was led by Matt Kemp and Yasmani Grandal. Grandal hit a solo home run in the fourth inning off Mengden.

The A’s used four pitchers to improve to 5-8, and they are in fourth place in the AL West. The Dodgers drop to 4-7, and they are residing in fourth place in the NL West/

The A’s are off on Thursday and are on their way to Seattle to face the Mariners. The Mariners are off to a good start with a record of 6-4. The A’s are hoping that their hitters will stay hot this weekend.