Tag: mlb

Bumgarner’s Gem Ruined in Late Innings as Giants Drop Another Game at Home

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Photo Credit: SF Gate
Photo Credit: SF Gate

By: Joe Lami

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.–The struggles for the Giants continue as they were defeated Friday night 5-3 in ten innings by the slumping Philadelphia Phillies. The Giants entered the night looking to get two consecutive wins at home for the first time since they went on a five-game winning streak to begin June. San Francisco has lost six of their last seven and 14 of their last 20 games, while Philadelphia was coming into the contest losing five of their last six.

The Giants had high hopes early on, as Madison Bumgarner started the game hot, striking out four of the first six batters. Bumgarner had a perfect game into the fourth inning, until Jimmy Rollins broke it up with a bloop single right over the head of Joe Panik, whose diving attempt wasn’t good enough, as it tipped off of his glove. Bumgarner would be able to get out of the inning fairly quickly after a controversial call at 3rd when Rollins broke for 3rd, but Bumgarner picked him off. Review would confirm the call.

Cole Hamels was the starting pitcher on the other side, and he came into the contest being one of the hottest pitchers in all of baseball, coming into the contest throwing 7 or more innings while only giving up one earned run over his last five starts. He gave up three hits in the first three innings, but the Giants weren’t able to do anything about it.

It wasn’t until the fourth inning when the Giants got on the scoreboard. Buster Posey started off the inning with a single. He would be moved to third when Pablo Sandoval hit a ground rule double to left-center field. This would bring up Michael Morse, who in his first at-bat stroke one 400 ft to right, but it was to the deepest part of the ballpark. Morse would get a hold of another one, as he sent a moon shot to left that landed ten rows up the bleachers over the 382 mark. Giants’ Manager, Bruce Bochy praised Morse “He had some great At-Bats for us tonight”. The Giants were up 3-0 at the end of the 4th.

Bumgarner’s only hiccup out his outing came in the fifth inning, when the very first batter, Maron Byrd, would get one back for the Phillies on a solo shot to left field bringing the Giants’ lead to 3-1. It was Byrd’s 23rd home run of the year, leading the Phillies and is third in the National League. Bumgarner would buckle down not allowing another run the rest of his outing. Bumgarner had a line of seven innings pitched, surrendering one run on four hits while striking out nine. Eight of the nine strikeouts were earned from swinging strikes. He earned just his third quality start of the season at home and the first since June 10. “It feels nice to throw good at home, it’s been a while,” commented Bumgarner. Bochy added “Bum, what a great job”.

The Giants had a couple of chances to add to their lead, their most promising was in the sixth inning, when Brandon Crawford was up with Gregor Blanco on third. San Francisco tried to play a safety squeeze that went wrong. A bad bunt from Crawford plus bad base running from Blanco took away their chance. Blanco read the play wrong and tried to break for the plate, when he relalized that he wouldn’t make it, he tried to get back to third where he was thrown out by Hamel. “ There needs to be a fine line between being aggressive and being smart,” said Bochy.

 

The Phillies took advantage of the two-time all star leaving the game, as they tied the game up in the eighth inning. Jeremy Affeldt gave up a base hit to Darin Ruf to start the inning, and Cody Asche followed up by hitting his first home run of his career at AT&T Park driving it just over the right field wall to the first row of the arcade. Bumgarner mentioned that “It looked like his foot slipped on that pitch”, to which he added “it would have affected me”. For Affeldt, it was the first home run he’s given up in over a calendar year (June 28, 2013 vs. San Diego) and the first one to a left-handed batter since April 24, 2011.

 

The score was tied heading into the eighth where the Giants had yet another chance. This time with two outs and Sandoval on second base. Panik lined one to right field for the base hit, but the Giants took the chance to bring home Sandoval, where he was embarrassingly thrown out by ten feet. “We haven’t been scoring that much lately, so we took the chance, and he (Byrd) made a perfect throw,” added Bochy.

 

The Giants wouldn’t receive another great scoring chance, as the Phillies took the lead in the tenth inning when Chase Utley was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to give the Phillies the lead. Ryan Howard would extend the lead to 5-3 on a sacrifice fly that went to the warning track in left field.

 

The Giants hope to turn this terrible streak at home around, where they have gone 8-23 in the last 31 home games. This compares to their 22-9 record at home for their first 31 game at home. Even with Friday night’s loss the Giants didn’t lose any ground in the playoff race, as both the Dodgers (5.5 back of NL West) and Pirates (0.5 back of 2nd Wild Card) lost.

 

Tomorrow the Giants will try to get revenge on the Phillies in the second game of the three game set, where Tim Hudson will take the bump facing off against Kyle Kendrick.

 

 

The A’s blast the Royals

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by Jerry Feitelberg

What a difference a day makes. The Oakland A’s, who barely mustered three hits Monday night,had their hitting shoes on Tuesday night against the Kansas City Royals as they had 20 hits and scored eleven times as the A’s snapped the Royals eight game winning streak. The A’s won the game 11-3 behind their ace, Jon Lester. Lester wasn’t as sharp as he was last week when he pitched a complete game but he was in control most of the way but the Royals roughed him up for 3 runs in the bottom of the fifth. Lester pitched the sixth but Bob Melvin used his bullpen to seal the win.

The A’s started the scoring in the first inning. Sam Fuld, filling in for Coco Crisp, singled to start the game. John Jaso followed with a single to put men on at first and second with no out. Josh Donaldson hit a ground ball to Royals” third baseman Mike Moustakas who raced to third to get the force out on Fuld. Brandon Moss then hit a booming double to deep right center field to drive in Jaso but Donaldson was tagged out trying to score. A’s lead 1-0.

The A’s scored two more runs in the third inning. Fuld reached second base on a throwing error to get things going. Josh Donaldson singled to drive in Fuld and took second on the throw to home. Brandon Moss singled to drive in Donaldson. The A’s got another run in the fourth on singles by Stephen Vogt and Josh Reddick .Vogt advanced to third then scored when Callaspo grounded into a 4-6-3 double play. 4-0 A’s after four.

Th A’s kept pouring it on as they tallied two more runs in the fifth. Fuld and Jaso singled to put men on at first and third. Fuld scored on Donaldson’s sacrifice fly. Brandon Moss then laid down a bunt to third to beat the shift and Jaso scored on a single by Vogt.

The Royals came back in their half of the inning to make it a six to three game. There was no scoring in the sixth and Jon Lester was done for the night after six innings of work.

The A’s made it 7-0 in the seventh when Josh Donaldson hit his 24th home run of the year. The A’s made it a blowout in the eighth scoring four times to increase the score to 11-3. The last run was Donaldson’s 25th home run of the season.

The A’s bullpen was excellent again. Ryan Cook pitched a scoreless seventh inning and Dan Otero
pitched the eight and ninth innings keeping the Royals of the board. Lester’s record for the season in now 13-7.

Hitting stars for the A’s were Josh Donaldson with three hits, four RBIs including 2 home runs. Sam Fuld and Josh Reddick each had three hits. Brandon Moss had four hits and two RBIs. Stephen Vogt had two hits. The only player in the lineup not to hit was Derek Norris
The A’s won their 73rd game of the year. Kansas City is still in first place in the AL Central as Detroit
lost again.

The A’s play game three of the four game series Wednesday night at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City.
Scott Kazmir goes for the Green and Gold while Jason Vargas will take on the pitching duties for the Royals.

Sloppy Play Dooms the Giants

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The San Francisco Giants lost 4-2 to the Kansas City Royals Friday night in Kansas City. The game was a battle of left-handed pitchers. The Giants sent out their ace, Madison Bumgarner, to face the Royals who were trying to win their fifth straight game. Jason Vargas was on the hill for Kansas City.

It would not be easy task for the Giants to beat the Royals. The Royals had won four straight coming into Friday’s game and they had won 2 out of 3 from the A’s last weekend. The Royals are just 2 1/2 games behind Detroit for the AL Central lead.

The Royals took a 2-0 lead in the first inning. With one out, Omar Infante doubled and that was followed by a blast off the bat of Billy Butler into the seats in left field.Bumgarner really labored in the first inning throwing 29 pitches. The Giants tied the game in the third. Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval had back to back singles but Pence was called out at third on a very strange play. The play was called safe but Royals Manager Ned Yost asked for a replay. On the replay, it showed that Pence’s hand appeared to come off the bag while the third baseman still had the tag applied. The call was overturned and that hurt the Giants as first baseman Michael Morse singled and that was followed by a Joaquin Arias double that allowed Sandoval to score with the Giants’ first run of the game. Second baseman Matt Duffy singled to score Morse but Aoki’s throw from right field nailed Arias at the plate for the final out of the inning, Aoki tied a club record with two assists in one inning on throws from the outfield.

The Royals scored twice in the sixth inning to take a 4-2 lead. The Giants made two throwing errors on the same play that allowed the Royals to take the lead for good. Omar Infante singled with one out. Royals catcher Salvador Perez lined a shot to first baseman Michael Morse. Morse’s throw to Duffy at second was offline and Duffy’s throw back to Morse, in an attempt to get Perez, sailed over Morse’s head and both runners were safe. Billy Butler singled to drive in his third run of the game. Royals Left fielder Alex Gordon doubled to drive in the Perez with the second run of the inning.

The outstanding bullpen of the Royals took over. Kelvin Herrera in the 7th, Wade Davis in the 8th and closer Greg Holland in the 9th sealed the win for Kansas City.

Madison Bumgarner took the loss and he is 13-9 for the season. After the game manager Bruce Bochy said “I thought he did a great job.After the first inning, he pitched great. He gave us all he had out there. He gave us a chance to win.” Bumgarner went eight innings and threw 123 pitches.

Game two of the series will be Saturday August Ninth at 4:10pm PDT

The A’s Head into the Home Stretch

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s head into the Home Stretch

The A’s played their 113th game of the season Wednesday afternoon at the O.co Coliseum. Things did not go well for the A’s as they lost the game. The A’s have forty-nine games left to play and they are scuffling at the moment. The A’s have split the last twelve games against the Texas Rangers, Houston Astros, Kansas City Royals and Tampa Bay Rays. The play the Minnesota Twins the next four days and , hopefully, they will beat them all four games. The A’s had an opportunity to pick up ground on their closest rival, the Los Angeles Angels, but failed to do so and if the Angels beat the LA Dodgers Wednesday night the A’s will be just one game ahead of the Angels in the race for the AL West division crown.

As mentioned earlier, the A’s hitters have been scuffling and the offense has gone south. This happens to all teams as the season is made up of peaks and valleys. When things are going well, the pitching, starters and relievers, the hitting and fielding are all in sync in the team can rack up wins. However, sometimes the pitching isn’t there but the team is getting hitting. Sometimes the hitting isn’t working but the pitching is good. That is the situation the A’s find themselves in right now as the season is moving quickly to the finish line. The A’s have four outstanding starters in Lester, Gray, Samardzija and Kazmir and the fifth starter, Hammel, got his act together for his first win as an Athletic. The hitting has not been there. Brandon Moss is in an 0 for 18 slump. Steven Vogt is at least 0 for 22 and can’t buy a hit.Coco Crisp has been out with a bad neck and is just now back in the lineup. Josh Donaldson’s production has also slowed down. The hot hitter is Josh Reddick. Reddick os hitting over .380 since coming off the DL but there is no consistency in the offense. Another factor may be the trade that sent Yoenis Cespedes to Boston. Many, many fans are unhappy with the trade but the A’s got knocked out of the playoffs by the Detroit Tigers the last two years in the first round of the playoffs and General Manager Billy Beane felt it necessary to get a top of the line pitcher and in order to get Jon Lester from Boston he had to give up something and that something was Cespedes.

The A’s believe in the platoon system and the versatility of the players to be able to be utilized at different positions and be able to use left-handed hitters against righties and right-handed hitters against lefties and they have been successful all season long using that strategy.The A’s will be tested next week when they go on the road to Kansas City and Atlanta. The Royals took two out of three from the A’s here this week and they are in the hunt for a wild card spot. The A’s play four with the Royals and

they need to win at least two of the games. Then it’s Atlanta for three. The Braves have been playing poorly as of late but the A’s cannot take them lightly. The A’s return home for two with the Mets and then play the Angels seven times in a ten day stretch. The schedule after that is easier for the A’s but this is baseball and anything can happen. The A’s are going to find a way to get the hitting, pitching and fielding all working together or the A’s could fall out of first place in the west but still make the playoffs as a wild card but that would mean having to face the second wild card in a one game playoff and anything can happen. Stay tuned fans as it should be interesting from now until September 28th.

A’s beat the Rays again

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by Jerry Feitelberg

A’s beat the Rays again

The rally opossum didn’t show up for the Tuesday night game of the three game series at the O.co Coliseum. The A’s didn’t need him tonight as the A’s defeated the Tampa Bay Rays for the second night in a row. Jason Hammel was trying to win his first game of the year since coming here July 5th from the Chicago Cubs. Hammel did just that as he went 5 2/3rds innings allowing 7 hits and four walks in getting the win. It wasn’t easy but Hammel worked his way out of several jams aided by a couple of double plays in the third and fourth innings. He had to deal with allowing the leadoff hitter to reach first base in four of the innings that he pitched. When A’s manager Bob Melvin took Hammel out of the game, he received a standing and well-deserved ovation from the fans who were so pleased that Hammel did well. The Rays’ lefty Drew Smyly, in his first start as a Ray since coming over from the Detroit Tigers in the big trade that sent David Price to Detroit on July 31st, pitched well and kept the A’s off the board until the fifth inning. The A’s bullpen was fantastic again as they retired the last ten Rays’ hitters in order. Eric O’Flaherty got the final out of the sixth inning and fellow relievers Ryan Cook, Luke Gregerson and Sean Doolittle retired the Rays 1-2-3 in the seventh, eighth and nine innings respectively. Doolittle earned his seventeenth save of the year. Here’s how the scoring came about.

The A’s drew first blood in the bottom of the fifth. Alberto Callaspo singled to center to start the inning.

Eric Sogard laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt to put Callaspo in scoring position. Coco Crisp, batting right handed, sliced a single to right field beating the shift, that allowed Callaspo to score. Crisp then advanced to third when the throw from the right fielder sailed over the catcher’s head. Sam Fuld then struck out and that was followed by a rocket off the bat of Josh Donaldson but the Rays’ Evan Longoria

made a great play and threw out Donaldson at first to end the inning. A’s lead 1-0 after five innings.

The A’s scored again in the bottom of the sixth. Derek Norris singled with one out. Big Nate Freiman

lined a double to left field to drive in Norris with the second run of the game for the A’s. Freiman took third when the ball went past the catcher for an error on Rays’ left fielder, Ben Zobrist. Rays’ manager Joe Maddon replaced Drew Smyly with another lefty, Jeff Beliveau. The next batter, Josh Reddick, singled through a drawn in infield to drive in Freiman and the A’s now have a 3-0 lead with just one out in the sixth. The A’s loaded the bases but could not get any more runs on the board.

The A’s bullpen, as mentioned above was fantastic and they sealed the win for Hammel.

Final score 3-0 A’s.

Game notes:The A’ recorded their tenth shutout of the season. Albert Callaspo recorded his first multiple-hit game since July 7th. Sean Doolittle’s seventeenth save tied an Athletic record for most saves be a left handed pitcher. The record is now shared with Alan Embree who did it in 2007.

Coco Crisp was back in the starting lineup and had a hit and rbi. Sam Fuld had a hit and is 20 for 63 (.317) with 8 RBI, 17 walks and nine stolen bases over his last 21 games. Josh Reddick continues to blister the ball. Reddick had two hits tonight and is batting .388(19 for 49) with 5 doubles, 4 home runs, eight RBI, 11 runs scored and 7 multiple hit games in 14 games since coming off the disabled list on July 22nd. The A’s improve their record to 69-43 and they increased their lead to two games over the Los Angeles Angels as the Angels lost to the LA Dodgers 5-4 in LA tonight.

The A’s conclude the three game series with Tampa Bay Wednesday afternoon at 12:30pm.

Sonny Gray (12-4,2.59) will be on the hill for Oakland and Jeremy Hellickson (0-1,3.29) will pitch

for Tampa Bay.

What a Day for the A’s

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by Jerry Feitelberg

A’s report for July 31st 2014

Today’s report was just going to be a pretty strait forward report on the upcoming ten game home stand against the Kansas City Royals, Tampa Bay Rays an Minnesota Twins.

All that changed this morning when A’s General Manager Billy Beane pulled off a huge trade on the last day that non-waiver deals could be made. The A’s acquired the ace left handed pitcher, Jon Lester, and an old old friend, Jonny Gomes, from the Boston Red Sox early Thursday morning. As exciting as that was getting those two players, the big news is the the A’s are sending their All-Star left fielder, Yoenis Cespedes, to Boston. Cespedes in the third year of a four year contract and would be a free agent after the 2015 season. It was doubtful that the A’s could pony up the kind of money that Cespedes could command as a free agent in the future.

What this says is that Beane wants to win it all in 2014. The A’s under Beane have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs except for 2006 when they were swept by the Detroit Tigers in the AL Championship Series. Beane know that good pitching will stop good hitting and he now has four starters that all could be an ace on anyone’s team Lester, Sonny Gray, Scott Kazmir and Jeff Samardzija

are all terrific pitchers. The fifth man in the rotation is still Jason Hammel who has been ineffective since coming to Oakland in a trade.

The A’s then traded lefty Tommy Milone to the Minnesota Twins for outfielder Sam Fuld. Fuld was with the A’s early in the season but was Designated for Assignment as the A’s had too many outfielders at that time. Fuld is hitting .263 with an on base percentage of .356 and .722 ops.

The A’s plan to platoon Fuld and Gomes in left field. Gomes will play against lefties and Fuld will face the righties. Gomes is a local lad from Petaluma and he had a great clubhouse presence when he played he in 2012. Welcome back, Jonny.

Now to look at the three teams the A’s will face in the next ten days. The Kansas City Royals arrive Friday night for a three game set with the A’s. The Royals are currently in second place in the AL Central. Their record is 54-50 and they trail the Detroit Tigers by 4 ½ games. The Royals sent three players to the All-Star game. The standouts are outfielder Alex Gordon, catcher Salvador Perez and closer Greg Holland. The Royals also feature Eric Hosmer at first base, DH Billy Butler, third baseman Mike Moustakas and second baseman Omar Infante. The Royals cannot be taken lightly.

The Tampa Bay Rays arrive in Oakland on Monday with a record of 53-55 and have been playing better lately. The Rays had a lot of injuries to the pitching staff early in the season but some of the pitchers have returned from the DL and have been pitching well. One pitcher the A’ s won’t have to face is former Cy Young award winner, David Price. Price went to the Detroit Tigers Thursday in a three-way trade between the Rays,Tigers and Mariners. The Rays received Drew Smyley from Detroit and Nick Franklin from Seattle while Austen Jackson went to Seattle. The Rays, under Joe Maddon, play the game the right way and the A’s will be tested during this three game set.

Rounding out the home stand will be a four game series with the Minnesota Twins. The Twins are in last place in the AL central with a record of 48-58. The Twins have always played the A’s tough in the past. Former A’s catcher, Kurt Suzuki, is the team leader hitting .304 so far this year and Kurt made the AL All-Star team.

It will be interesting to see how the revamped A’s starting rotation performs during the next ten days.

The A’s have four goals in mind right now. One, win the division. Two, win the ALDS, 3, Win the ALCS and finally, win the World Series. They have made the moves to make this team very formidable. All the A’s have to do is go out and win.

Astros Jump on Hammel Early to Top A’s 8-1

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By Matthew Harrington

For the fourth time in as many outings, the Oakland Athletics lost a game started by trade acquisition Jason Hammel. In need of a win to keep the Los Angeles Angels over a game back entering play Wednesday afternoon, the A’s instead fell to the Astros 8-1 at Minute Maid Park. The Green and Gold (66-41) also dropped Monday’s contest in Houston 7-3, marking Wednesday as only the second series loss in 11 chances all-time against the Astros (44-64) since the start of interleague play and Houston’s move the American League last season.

Two starts removed from a brief two-inning July 19th start where the right hander yielded five runs against the Orioles, Hammel again found himself in early trouble Wednesday afternoon. The other starter acquired in the July 4th Jeff Samardzija blockbuster surrendered six runs in a six-hit first inning, then served up a two-run home run to Jon Singleton in the fifth for eight earned runs. Hammel (8-9, 3.87 ERA) struck out four, walked a trio of Astros and scattered seven hits in his 4 1/3 innings of work to take the loss. He has now allowed 18 runs over 17 innings with the Athletics.

The lone bright spot for the A’s came in the second inning after Josh Donaldson took the first pitch, an 88 mile-per-hour fastball, of the inning over the Crawford boxes in left field. Donaldson’s 23rd homer of the season was the only run Oakland scored off Astros starter Dallas Keuchel. The southpaw (10-7, 2.97) went the distance, notching five strikeouts and a scant three hits over his complete-game gem. Billy Burns went 0-for-4 in his first major league start in the leadoff spot for Bob Melvin with Coco Crisp still in Oakland after receiving an MRI on his neck Monday.

With the A’s idle Thursday, the Angels could pull a half-game back of Oakland by the time the AL West Leaders open up a 10-game homestand Friday night against the Kansas City Royals. The Halos, sitting two games back at the moment, play an evening game against the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday before wrapping up the four-game set at Camden Yards Thursday.

Opening Day starter Sonny Gray will open the weekend series for the A’s Friday night looking for a superhuman effort on a night when O.Co Coliseum will be lit up with a postgame super hero-inspired fireworks display. He’ll clash with the Royals’ Jeremy Guthrie in an attempt to save the dwindling AL-West lead from peril.

After three against the Royals, the surging Tampa Bay Rays roll into town (with or without hot trade commodity David Price) for a three-game set followed by a four-game series against former Athletic Kurt Suzuki and the Minnesota Twins. August 9th against the Twins, fans will receive a special Tony La Russa Hall of Fame bobblehead in honor of the legendary skipper’s induction into Cooperstown earlier this month.

The A’s rally to defeat the Astros

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by Jerry Feitelberg

A’S SNATCH VICTORY FROM THE JAWS OF DEFEAT

Holy Toledo!! That’s what the late great A’s broadcaster would say when a great play or a great win would occur on the field. Tuesday night in Houston, the A’s came back from a three run deficit trailing 4-1 in the top of the ninth and they were down to their last strike when they rallied for six runs and beat the Houston Astros 7-4. The Astros have played the A’s tough so far this year and the won the first game of the three game series on Monday night. Had the A’s lost , the team would have had a record of 2-3 on the five game trip to Texas and the best they could hope for was a 3-3 road trip. However, the never-say-die guys from Oakland came to life and stunned the Astros with their comeback.

The A’s sent Jeff Samardzija to the hill and he was opposed by the Astros’ Scott Feldman. The game didn’t start well for Samardzija as Marwin Gonzalez, the second batter Samardzija faced, hit a home run to give Houston an early 1-0 lead. The A’s tied the game in the top of the fifth when Josh Reddick blasted his sixth home run of the year to make it a 1-1 game. The Astros, however, came back and scored two in the bottom of the fifth. Robbie Grossman singled singled and then stole second. Enrique Hernandez followed with a triple and the American League leader in batting and hits, Jose Altuve singled to drive in the third run of the game for the Astros. The Astros scored another run in the bottom of the seventh to make it a 4-1 game and A’s manager Bob Melvin took Samardzija out of the game.

Samardzija went 6 2/3rds innings giving up six hits and four earned runs. He walked two and struck seven while throwing 104 pitches. The Astros Scott Feldman probably had the best game of his career against the A’s Tuesday night going seven inning allowing just five hits and one run. At this point in the game it looked like Feldman was going to pick up the win.

However, we are talking about the Oakland A’s and as Yogi Berra once said “it ain’t over till it’s over.”

It’s also the magic of baseball. A team can look lethargic and beaten for eight innings but then can rally in the ninth to come back and win the game. That is exactly what the A’s did to the Astros Tuesday night. The Astros brought in their closer, Chad Qualls, to pitch. With one out, A’s catcher Derek Norris reached base on an infield single. The next batter was Josh Reddick. Reddick, who had homered earlier in the game, doubled to left center field advancing Norris to third base. Alberto Callaspo, pinch hitting for Eric Sogard, slammed a double to right center and drove in Norris and Reddick making it a 4-3 game. The A’s replaced Callaspo with the very fleet footed Billy Burns. The next batter John Jaso ground into a fielder’s choice, Jaso reached second on a wild pitch and was now in scoring position to tie the game. Shortstop Jed Lowrie walked on a 3-2 pitch to put men on at 1st and 2nd. Quall had two strikes on Cespedes and needed one more strike to win the game but Yoenis Cespedes was able to hit a blooper to right field to drive in Jaso with the tying run. Astros’ manager Bo Porter had seen enough. He brought in left Tony Sipp to pitch to Brandon Moss. With the count at 3-2, Moss singled sharply to right field allowing Lowrie to score the go-ahead run. That was it for Sipp and he was replaced by Jose Veras. Donaldson swung and missed at the first pitch thrown by Veras but he didn’t miss the second one as he blasted a shot to deep center field that went way over the center fielder’s head and two more runs scored. 7-4 in favor of the A’s as the game headed to the bottom of the ninth. The A’s brought in closer Sean Doolittle and he set the Astros down 1-2-3 to secure the win and pick the save.

Winning pitcher was Evan Scribner who pitched the eighth inning for the A’s and Chad Qualls took the loss.

After the game Chad Qualls said “They make contact. They take a lot of pitches Two of the hits they got tonight weren’t hit really hard.-Norris’ to start everything off was a little nubber to third and the Cespedes that tied it was just a jam shot they got to the outfield. They found some holes when they needed to and hit the ball on the screws when they needed to. I just didn’t get it done.”

A’s manager Bob Melvin said ‘That’s amazing. For a late-inning at bat, that’s as good as I’ve ever seen in a team.The 27th out, we don’t give that away. It’s an attribute. That’s the way this team is.”

Time for the A’s to make Hay

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by Jerry Feitelberg

Time for the A’s to Make Hay

The A’s beat the lowly but pesky Houston Astros on Thurs and they upped their major league best record to 63-38. After the game the A’s embark on a six game road trip to Texas where they will face the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros again. The Rangers, if you can believe it, have a worse record than the Astros. The Rangers’ pitching staff has been decimated by injury and the team is just not very good right now. There is some speculation that Ranger Manager Ron Washington will be fired after the season. The Rangers’ top acquisition in the off season was Prince Fielder. The big lefty slugger is out for the season and the Ranger offense has been weakened.

The A’s will send Jason Hammel to pitch Friday night. Hammel is looking for his first win as an A since coming to Oakland in a trade with the Cubs. Sonny Gray (11-3, 2.72) will pitch game two and Scott Kazmir(11-3, 2.32) will go in the finale. The Rangers are sending out three pitchers with losing record. Jerome Williams(1-4, ERA over 6) will pitch Friday night. Nick Tepesch(1-2,4.75) goes on Saturday and Miles Mikolas (1-6,7.48) on Sunday. The A’s then travel to Houston to face a team that played them tough in the three game series that concluded on Thursday but the A’s took two out of three and clobbered them 13-1 in the finale. After that, the A’s come home to face the Kansas City Royals for three, the Tampa Bay Rays for three and four with the Minnesota Twins. The only team without a losing record is the Royals but they are at the .500 mark with a record of 50-50. The Rays are four games under .500 but have as of July 24th won seven in a row. The Rays had a lot of injuries earlier in the season but are playing well as those players are now healthy. The Twins are in last place in the AL Central with a 46-54 record.

The Angels, who are now 2 ½ games behind the A’s, start a four game series against the Detroit Tigers

Thursday and will have to face Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello. The Angels then o on a tough road trip as they travel to Baltimore to play the Orioles again. The Orioles took two out of three in Anaheim and are in first place in the AL East. The Angels then go to Tampa Bay to face the Rays and as noted above, the Rays are playing well and could be a problem for the Angels. The Angels road doesn’t get any easier as they return “home” to play a four game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The first two games of the series will be in Los Angeles and the last two games will be in Anaheim. The Angels then have to face the Boston Red Sox for three. The Red Sox have been playing better as of late and would love to upset the Angels apple cart.

It will be up to A’s manager, Bob Melvin, to keep his troops focused. The A’s have to feast on these team and they could put a lot of distance between them and the Angels. The Angels have the second best record in the American League and know that they can’t afford to lose any of these series as they want to keep pace with the A’s. The season is about two thirds complete. The trade deadline happens a week from today and the stretch drive to the playoffs begins. Should be a lot of fun and, hopefully,

the fans will come out and support the best team in the American League, the Oakland Athletics.

The 2014 All-Star game

Published on by Sports Radio ServiceLeave a comment

by Jerry Feitelberg

Today, July 15th 2014 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota the American League All-Stars will face off against the National League All-Stars for the 85th time. The stakes are high as the league that wins will provide home field advantage for its representative in the 2014 World Series.

The All-Star game was the brainchild of Arch Ward who was a sports editor for the Chicago Tribune and it was to coincide with the celebration of Chicago’s Century of Progress Exposition. We don’t know if the All-Star game was to be a one time event or whether it was to become an annual event when it was created. Fortunately for baseball it has become an annual event and has been going strong for the past eighty-one years. There was only one exception and that happened in 1945 during World War II.

As John S. Bowman and Joel Zoss stated in the Pictorial History of Baseball”as part of the fabric of American culture, baseball is the common social ground between strangers, a world of possibilities and of chance, where “ its never over till it’s over.” It is a American tradition rich in legends, folklore and history, a never-ending story where every game is a new nine-inning chapter and every player has the chance to be the hero. Through the years every franchise has had its share of superstar players that stand out above the rest. These are the ones that bring the fans out to the ballpark and one one game brings them all together at once , the All-Star game.

The game this year will be no different. The great Yankee shortstop, Derek Jeter, will be playing his final All-Star game as he is retiring at the end of the season. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if he could hit a home run just as the Orioles Hall of Famer, Cal Ripken, Jr., did in his final All-Star game. Other great moments in All-Star games include Ted Williams’ home run in the 1941 game in Detroit. Johnny Callison’s walk-off home run in the 1964 game. Which player will win the MVP award as the A’s Terry Steinbach did in 1986.

The American League starters will have at least two future Hall of Fame inductees. Derek Jeter from the Yankees and Miguel Cabrera from the Detroit Tigers. There are other great players from both leagues but it may be a little too early to predict who will make it to the hall.

Just for informational purposes only- The Oakland A’s have six players on the AL Squad. Only one, third baseman, Josh Donaldson, is a starter but Catcher Derek Norris, inf/of Brandon Moss, Outfielder Yoenis Cespedes are backups and are making the All-Star team for the first time. Pitchers Scott Kazmir and Sean Doolittle are also on the team. For Kazmir, it’s his third trip to the Midsummer classic Recently acquired pitcher Jeff Samardzija made the team as a representative for the Nation League but since he switched leagues cannot play. The San Francisco Giants are represented by star outfielder Hunter Pence and pitcher Tim Hudson.

For all the local players and everyone else around both leagues, it has to be a thrill to elected or selected to play in a game with the best of the best. In many ways it’s the culmination of a dream that a player has when starting out playing baseball as a kid. Each step along the way. Making the high school team, the college team, A ball the Double-A, Triple-A and the call up to the “show”. Each step along the way is great but being recognized as being one of the best of the best has to give a player the chills.

Who among them will be the next great superstar like Willie Mays, Hank Aaron , Ted Williams, Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Warren Spahn, Juan Marichal, Pedro Martinez ?

Have fun guys and remember that you can tell your kids and grandkids your exploits of the 2014 All-Star game when you became the MVP of the game.