Tag: mlb

ALDS Preview- Detroit Tigers vs.Oakland Athletics

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by Jerry Feitelberg

ALDS Preview- Detroit Tigers vs. OaklandAthletics

The AL Division Series begins Friday night at the Oakland Coliseum at 6:30pm. The A’s will be hosting the AL Central champion Detroit Tigers. This will be the third time since 2006 that the A’s

have met the Tigers in the playoffs and the Tigers eliminated the A’s in 2006 and in 2012. The A’s are hoping to oust the Tigers and move on the ALCS.

The Tigers have a powerful team. They are led by last year’s MVP Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera won the Triple Crown last year and this year he led the league in hitting with a .348 average while hitting 44 home runs and driving in 137 and has an OPS of 1.078. He is certainly a candidate for MVP with those numbers. Torii Hunter, Prince Fielder, Victor Martinez,Austen Jackson, Alex Avila, Andy Dirks and

Jhonny Peralta are players that can cause a lot of damage. The A’s pitching is going to be good in order to slow these guys down.

The Tigers’ pitching staff feature Max Scherzer who is the favorite to win the AL Cy Young award.

Scherzer won 1 record of 21-3 with an ERA of 2.90 and a WHIP of 0.97. Scherzer will be starting game 1 Friday night. Former MVP and Cy Young award winner Justin Verlander will start game 2

with Anibal Sanchez going in game 3. Doug Fister will pitch game four for the Tigers.

Jim Leyland said “I truly feel that I could start any one of my guys and I would feel comfortable.”

The A’s will have their hands full facing this team and are not intimidated by anyone. The A’s

went into Detroit in August and took three out of four from the Tigers and narrowly missed sweeping the series. The A’s do not have superstars like the Tigers’ Cabrera or Fielder but they have good players up and down the lineup that play well together. A’s manager Bob Melvin uses different lineups in order to put the best team on the field for the game. Since the Tigers’ starters are all right handed pitchers, Melvin will you his lefty lineup. Coco Crisp, Jed Lowrie and Alberto Callaspo are all switch hitters.

Brandon Moss will be at first base, Steven Vogt probably will catch and Eric Sogard may play shortstop. The only right hand bats playing will be Josh Donaldson and Yoenis Cespedes.

Donaldson is having an MVP type year.He is hitting .301 with 24 home runs and 93 runs batted in.

Bartolo Colon will go for the Green and Gold Friday night. Colon had an excellent season winning 18 games and had an ERTA of 2.65 which was second best in the American League. The A’s bullpen

has been outstanding led by setup stars Sean Doolittle and Ryan Cook. The closer, Grant Balfour

has pitched well all season. Lefty Brett Anderson will be available in the bullpen. Anderson won a game in the ALDS last year as a starter. Jarrod Parker, Sonny Gray and A.J.Griffin will be in the rotation for the ALDS.

One big question mark for the A’s will be the health of Yoenis Cespedes. Yoenis didn’t have a monster year but he did get untracked in September. The A’s were 83-51 with Yoenis in the lineup and 13-15

without him. Hopefully, his shoulder will be fine and he can contribute to the A’s offense.

Should be a great series. My prediction will be that the A’s will win it in five games. The reason for my optimism is that the A’s have a better bullpen than the Tigers and that the A’s pitching has shown that it can shut down the Tiger offense.

Giants want wins in final week

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123According to the Giants, you can’t start 2014 on fire if you finish 2013 in a funk.

With six games remaining this season, the Giants desire a winning finish even if means going without seeing more from rookies like Juan Perez or Ehire Andrianza. Of course, Andrianza and Perez aren’t chopped liver. Andrianza’s solo shot in the sixth inning of Sunday’s 2-1 win over the Yankees in New York got the Giants on the board.

But the Dodgers come to town on Tuesday, and manager Bruce Bochy is likely to tab his veterans to fight the NL West champs. The Dodgers need some wins to gain home stadium advantage in the first and second rounds of the playoffs, and the Giants wouldn’t mind seeing them go without those wins. Also, the momentum built by winning three of four in Dodgers Stadium last week is something the Giants would love to build on.

The series with Los Angeles, with Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner and Tim Lincecum making starts, also offers the prelude to the off-season’s most prominent question: Are the Giants potentially good enough to knock off the billionaire Dodgers? These games provide a glimpse into the answer of that vital question.

Also, the Giants have individual goals as well. Buster Posey (.295) and Marco Scutaro (.297) want to finish with .300 batting averages, Bumgarner wants a 200th strikeout, and Hunter Pence wants to hit 26 home runs in a season for the first time. Look for those guys to get their opportunities to achieve their goals, especially in the next three games.

The Giants remain a 1 ½ games ahead of last place Colorado in an attempt to avoid being the first team since the 1998 Marlins to finish last in the season following a win in the World Series. Winning the series against the Dodgers might be enough to keep the Giants from gaining that distinction, especially since the Rockies have just five games remaining, and only two of those at home.

Cain and Hyun-Jin Ryu are the starting pitchers for the series opener on Tuesday at 7:15pm.

The A’s keep on winning

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628x471by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s keep on winning

The Oakland A’s won their fifth straight game downing the Los Angeles Angels 10-5 Monday night in Anaheim. The A’s clinched the AL West crown Sunday but are not content being the second seed in the AL. They are now just one game behind the Red Sox and if the Sox falter , the A’s can claim the top seed and the A’s and not the Red Sox would face the Wild Card. If that should happen, Detroit would play Boston in the ALDS.

Tommy Milone started for Oakland and he pitched well. Milone went 5 1/3rd innings giving up 5 hits

and four runs. Two of the runs were unearned. Milone struck out eight and walked just one and picked up his twelfth win of the year. The A’a scored two in the first and in the third Jed Lowrie who blasted a three run homer to give the A’s a 5-1 lead. The Angels came back with three in their half of the third. Howie Kendrick doubled with the bases loaded and all three runners scored.

The A’s scored two more in the fifth. Lowrie walked and scored ahead of Brandon Moss who hit a towering home run to right field. The A’s made it 8-4 in the sixth when Chris Young doubled to start the inning and he came home on an Eric Sogard single. The Angels scored their fifth run of the game in the bottom of the sixth. Josh Hamilton tripled and then scored on a sacrifice fly.

The A’s put the game out of reach when they scored two more runs in the top of the ninth. The A’s called on Grant Balfour to close the door on the Angels. It wasn’t easy as the Angels had two men on with one out but Balfour struck out the last to batters to secure the win.

Game Notes- The A’s have now won five in a row, eleven of the last thirteen and are 17-5 for September. Their record of the year is 94-63. Josh Donaldson had two hits in the game and was his 56th multi-hit game of the season and needs one more multi-hit game to tie the A’s team record.

Jed Lowrie hit his fifteenth home run of the year and when asked about the team’s success he said we’ve “done a great job the last couple of weeks.” When asked about his ability to hit home runs, Lowrie replied “ doubles are a power stroke and homers are doubles that go out.”

The A’s have five games left in the season. The play the Angels Tuesday night in Anaheim. A.J.Griffin will go for Oakland and Jason Vargas will be on the hill for the Halos.

A-Rod’s grand slam puts Yanks on top of Giants

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By Pearl Allison Lo

Behind in the count with two outs , Alex Rodriguez changed the game and also passed Lou Gehrig for most grand slams with 24, as New York beat San Francisco 5-1 Friday.

Giants’ starter Tim Lincecum was lifted in favor of George Kontos after 121 pitches and the bases loaded.  Rodriguez entered the inning just 1 for his last 25 and was behind 2-1 when his hit landed with the spectators in deep right field, leading to a much needed win for his team.

It was a tie game since early on in the matchup.

The Yankees’ Alfonso Soriano hit a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first to make the score 1-0.

The Giants tied the game the following inning.  Brandon Crawford was issued a leadoff walk.  One out later, rookie Juan Perez doubled Crawford back to home plate to make it 1-1.

Rodriguez’s grand slam set up came in the bottom of the seventh.  Eduardo Nunez led off with a single and stole second after one out. Brendan Ryan was then hit by a pitch and a fielder’s choice left runners on first and second once again.  Ichiro Suzuki then walked to load the bases.

Sabathia was lifted in the top of the eighth after 107 pitches and issuing a leadoff single in the game that featured two former Cy Young winners .

Lincecum threw two wild pitches in addition to his two walks in his first game playing against New York

San Francisco had a one out, runners on the corners scoring opportunity in the top of the first.

The Yankees also had the bases loaded with two outs in the bottom of the third.

Game notes: During the game, Lincecum became the first Giants pitcher with 1,500 strikeouts since  Gaylord Perry in 1971.  Both teams get right back to playing Saturday at 10:05 am with two morning games in a row.

A’s end regular season versus Texas with sweep

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September 15, 2013

By Pearl Allison Lo

With their biggest win margin of the series, Oakland engineered their first season sweep at Arlington in four years with a 4-1 finale.

The A’s magic number to clinch the American League West is now at seven games.

In this game, it was the big bats were the difference, producing four of the five runs. Josh Donaldson’s home run in the top of the first proved to be the game-
winner.

Oakland wasted no time getting runners on base as Coco Crisp and Chris Young got on
base before Jed Lowrie brought in the game’s first run with a double play. Donaldson followed suit with a home run to double the A’s lead and extend his
hitting streak to 11 games, a career-high.

Texas scored in the first inning as well, when A.J. Pierzynski hit a two-out single to bring in Elvis Andrus and slice the lead back down to one.

Chris Young re-doubled Oakland’s lead when he hit a two-out home run in the top of the third.

The Rangers’ best chance came in the bottom of the sixth with runners at the corner and one out. Texas used three pinch hitters in the inning, but only Jurickson Profar was successful.

The game stayed 3-1 from the third inning until Oakland tacked on two more runs
in the top of the ninth. Brandon Moss came in to pinch-hit and was walked and
Josh Reddick brought them both to home plate with a home run. Reddick went 2-
for-4.

Tommy Milone, who filled in after the A’s hot-pitching Jarrod Parker was scratched
from the game due to illness, pitched 5 innings, while Ranger’s starter Martin
Perez pitched 6.1 innings.

Game notes: Oakland’s Yoenis Cespedes was also scratched from the game due to a sore shoulder. He would have been the designated hitter. It was a franchise first for Texas to go winless in their six-game homestand. The A’s will continue
Monday with a three-game series versus the Los Angeles Angels, who they face six times in the next 10 games.

¡Vamos Los Athleticos!

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By Emily Zahner

Welcome to September baseball in Oakland, where unlikely players step up and prove they belong as the Oakland Athletics (83-60) push forward to the post season. In the finale of season series, the A’s defeated the Houston Astros (47-96) by a score of 7-2. Oakland took the season series 15-4, as the Astros stood no chance after in the beginning of the season the A’s had gone 10-0 against their new division rivals.

Bartolo Colon was on the mound for the A’s this afternoon, and looked like he didn’t have his best stuff. On first pitch, Colon instantly struggled, giving up a leadoff single, followed by an RBI double. Before Colon had thrown five pitches, the A’s were already down 1-0. He regained composure and quickly settled down after the initial shock and fanned the next two batters and got the final out on a ground out. Colon went on to have a great outing, pitching six innings and surrendering five hits and just one earned run with seven strike outs. Manager Bob Melvin was pleased, praising his starter saying “I thought he was really good. After the first two hitters, that got his attention in a hurry. He ramped it up, had really good movement, good location today. A lot of good things came out of Bartolo’s outing today.” Colon improves to 15-6 with his win today.

Rookie RHP Paul Clemens was scheduled to start today for Houston, but was scratched at the last minute due to a blister, so the Astros called upon relief pitcher Lucas Harrell to take the mound. Harrell sailed through the first two innings, surrendering one hit and one walk, but he fell apart at the seams when the third rolled around. Stephen Vogt was the first and last batter of the inning as the A’s batted around and scored seven runs. Brandon Moss had a huge two out two-run double, Yoenis Cespedes and Daric Barton each added runs with RBI singles, and then Seth Smith capped it off by crushing a huge 3-run homerun into the right field bleachers.   Smith would be pinch hit for his next at bat, but the skipper was pleased, “That was big for Smitty, it was a key blow in the game”.

Things seemed to be clicking for the A’s lineup today as they tallied 11 hits total. In the 7th spot, Daric Barton went 2-2 with two walks, an RBI and a run scored, highlighted by his two-out RBI single in the big third. Cespedes was swinging the bat well today as well, going 2-4 with a run scored. Melvin gave a lot of credit to his left fielder, saying “we have better energy when he is swinging the bat… he’s as important as everybody knows to us. If this is the time when he’s heating up, it’s certainly a good time for it.”

The A’s close out their second to last homestand going 8-2, a record they will gladly take. Melvin recounted, “It started out good and ended up good. We’ll take it”.

Oakland has an off day tomorrow before beginning a 6-game road trip, starting with a 3-game series against the Twins on Tuesday, a team they have yet to face this year. After Minnesota, the A’s travel to Arlington for an all too important 3-game series against their division rivals Texas Rangers, who defeated the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim today by a score of 4-3. The A’s now hold a 1.5 game lead on the Rangers.

Game Notes—Brandon Moss went 3-for-4 this afternoon with two singles, a double, and two RBIs. The A’s top three hitters, (Coco Crisp, Eric Sogard, Jed Lowrie) combined for 1-14 today with two strike outs. Brett Anderson got the save, pitching three innings and surrendering three hits and one earned run. Anderson struck out three.

Giants pounce on the Padres

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By Jeremy Harness

The last time Pablo Sandoval hit three home runs in a game, he was leading the Giants past the Detroit Tigers in Game 1 of last year’s World Series.

Lest to say that we are far removed from those days, even though it was only less than 11 months ago. Nonetheless, every win should be taken as a positive, no matter how meaningless it is now, and Sandoval’s three-bomb outing Wednesday night helped the Giants breeze past the San Diego Padres, 13-5, at PETCO Park.

In hitting the trio of homers, Sandoval drove in a total of six runs, giving the Giants all the runs they would need to pull out the victory.

Well, this game did have some meaning, in the fact the Giants are no longer in the cellar of the National League West. Now they have company, as they dropped the Padres into a tie with them for last place with matching 62-77 records.

Tim Lincecum didn’t pitch great – he gave up five earned runs on seven hits, walking four and striking out five – put he held on long enough to pick up only his ninth victory of the season against 13 defeats.

He was helped out by a bullpen that combined to allow only two hits the rest of the way.

Aside from Sandoval, Hunter Pence had a rather-solid game at the plate for the Giants. He knocked in three runs, including a two-run homer in the fourth inning off Padres starter Eric Stults.

Sonny Gray’s gem spoiled in A’s 7-4 loss to Seattle

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By Emily Zahner & Gabe Schapiro

On the mound for the Oakland Athletics in just his third Major League start, Sonny Gray (1-1, 1.00 ERA) shined bright and glowed with confidence. In the second of this three game series against the Mariners, Gray, facing off against Joe Saunders (10-12, 4.86 ERA), had the look of a veteran as the A’s were defeated by the Seattle Mariners 7-4 on Tuesday evening. The A’s fall to a record of 71-54, 1-½ games back of the first place Texas Rangers who picked up a victory tonight. The Mariners improve to 58-67, and remain in a distant third place.

The 23 year old from Smyrna, Tennessee lead off the game by shutting down the Mariners’ hitters 1-2-3. If run support was something he was worried about, the A’s offense took care of that in their half. Mariners starter Joe Saunders was hit hard early, as the A’s batted around and were a double away from hitting for the cycle against him in a 40-pitch first inning. Jed Lowrie, hitting lead-off for the fourth time this season, started off the game with a triple down the right field line. Homeruns by Josh Donaldson and Nate Frieman gave the A’s an early 4-0 lead in the first, giving Sonny some early run support. Gray cruised through two, then hit some trouble in the third. He started the inning with a four-pitch walk to Michael Saunders, and as lead-off walks so often do, it came back to bite him. Three batters later Nick Franklin got a hold of a change-up that was meant for the outside half and drifted in, sending it into the right field bleachers, making the score 4-2.

The A’s scattered a few hits through seven innings, but neither team was able to get on the board again through seven. Gray finished his night after seven strong innings, holding the Mariners to just two hits, two runs (both earned), and striking out seven on 94 pitches. Of his outing tonight, Manager Bob Melvin was pleased, saying “he was great… he’s got some presence out there, he certainly has the stuff and he continues to give us impressive outings.” In Sonny’s last outing, he fanned nine over eight innings. Gray is establishing himself as a competent and reliable started for the A’s, which with Bartolo Colon going to the DL and Brett Anderson still on rehab assignment, is arguably something Oakland needs the most. The A’s bullpen might be another topic of serious discussion.

The momentum drastically shifted to the Mariners in the eighth. Sean Doolittle was the first man out of the bullpen, and the Mariners bats, seemingly relieved to no longer be facing Gray, came alive again. Four consecutive hits later and the game was all tied at 4-4. Ryan Cook was summoned to stop the bleeding, but he couldn’t find his control and the runs kept on coming. After two wild pitches, two walks, and a fielders’ choice play at the plate that injured catcher Derek Norris, the Mariners had built up their first lead of the game, 7-4. Jesse Chavez, the third pitcher of the inning, stabilized the chaos and mercifully ended the inning. Bob Melvin later confirmed the Norris had fractured his left big toe.

The disastrous five-run eighth would prove to be too much to come back from, even for a never-say-die club like the Athletics. The back end of the Mariners bullpen kept the comeback kids at bay, closing down the ninth 1-2-3, clinching the 7-4 win. The A’s and Mariners complete their three game series tomorrow at 12:35pm.

SF Giants split series, defeat Brewers 4-1

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By Jerry Feitelberg

August 8, 2013

0808131The Giants were looking to even the four game series with the Milwaukee Brewers Thursday afternoon at AT&T park. The Giants sent Tim Lincecum to the hill. Lincecum entered the game with a 5-11 record for the season but he looked like the Timmy of old as he picked up the win going eight innings allowing no runs and just ONE hit as the Giants won the game 4-1. Marco Scutaro and Brandon Crawford were terrific at the top of the lineup as they both had three hits each in the game. They had back to back hits in the first, second and sixth inning. The big blow of the game came in the first inning went Brandon Belt hit a three run homer. The game summary follows.

The Giants jumped out to 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Marco Scutaro led of with a single to left. Shortstop Brandon Crawford followed with a double to left center field to put men on at second and third with no out. With one out, first baseman Brandon belt launched a home run to deep right field to score Scutaro and Crawfor ahead of him. Giants lead 3-0 after one inning of play.

The Giants added a run in the bottom of the second. With two out, Marco Scutaro doubled down the left field line. He advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored on a single off the bat of Brandon Crawford. Giants lead 4-0 after two.

The Brewers got on the board in the top of the ninth. Khris Davis, pinch hitting for the pitcher, doubled to start the frame. Davis scored when Jean Segura singled with one out. Sergio Romo nailed nail the win getting the last two outs of the game. Giants win 4-1. Lincecum gets the win and he is now 6-11 for the season and Donovan Hand took the loss . Hand’s record is now 0-4.

Notes: The Giants entered the game homer less in eleven straight home games. The last home run at home was on July 20th.The Giants are now 8-12 since the All-Star break. The Giants recalled Hector Sanchez from Fresno and he caught the game for the Giants. Catcher Guillermo Quiroz was designated for assignment. With the win, the Giants are now 12 games under .500 and their home record improves to 30-29. The Giants play an inter-league series with the Baltimore Orioles Friday night at AT&T park at 7:15 pm.

Attendance was 41,219. It was the 233rd consecutive sellout for San Francisco.

Reds edge A’s, 6-5

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By George Devine, Sr.August 7, 2013
 
Corky Miller, Alberto CallaspoThe A’s will be glad to leave Cincinnati. They lost 6-5 to the Reds in a hard-fought game to end their series on the banks of the Ohio and now head to Toronto.

The scoring started in the first as Shin-Soo Choo singled to right, beginning a busy day in the position for Seth Smith, then advanced on Todd Frazier’s walk and reached third on Joey Votto’s base hit to right, scoring when Jay Bruce grounded into a 6-4 force.

Josh Donaldson put Oakland on the board in the second with a homer to right, his 17th of the year. In the bottom of the inning Zack Cosart singled to right and scored as Corky Miller hit a double in Smith’s direction.

In the home third, Votto singled to right, and scored on a homer hit over Smith’s head by Jay Bruce, his 24th of the season. Cozart walked and scored when Miller doubled to left.

In the fourth, Brandon Moss singled to short, then Alberto Callaspo doubled to right, so Moss reached third, scoring on Stephen Vogt’s single to right.

In the fifth, Xavier Paul hit a ground rule double to right and scored when Devin Mesoraco singled to third.

The Athletics’ last scoring drive was in the sixth, when Jed Lowrie doubled to center, reached third when Moss singled to right and scored as Donaldson grounded a base hit to left. Eric Sogard tripled to right, plating Moss and Donaldson.

The winner is Homer Bailey (7-10) and the loser Bartolo Colon (14-4). Araldis Chapman picked up his 27th save of the year.

After a travel day, the A’s first game in the Toronto series is at 4:07 p.m. PDT on Friday, August 9, with Jarrod Parker (7-6) facing Esmil Rogers (3-6).