Tag: Oakland A’s

A’s clinch playoff spot, then defeat the Mariners 7-3

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Photo credit: @CaseyPrattABC7

By: Ana Kieu

The good things kept coming to the Oakland Athletics, who beat the Seattle Mariners — in the series finale at Safeco Field on Monday night. Prior to the road game, Oakland clinched the final available American League playoff spot when the Tampa Bay Rays lost to the New York Yankees 4-1. Unless if Oakland erases its five-game deficit, they’ll face the Yanks in the AL Wild Card Game on October 3rd.

The M’s got on the board first. Robinson Cano homered on a fly ball to center in the bottom of the first inning for an early 1-0 lead. As a result, Cano got his 10th home run of the season.

The A’s took a 2-1 lead in the top of the third inning. Jonathan Lucroy homered on a fly ball to left for the go-ahead play, which was his 22nd home run of the season and 100th career home run.

The A’s made it a 3-1 game in the top of the sixth inning. Khris Davis homered on a fly ball to center for his 46th home run of the season. Davis joined Jimmie Foxx (1932, 1933) as the only players in A’s history to hit 45-plus home runs with 120-plus RBI in a single season.

The M’s Dee Gordon hit a game-tying, two-run shot that bounced off the top of the right wall and over. The score was 3-3 in the bottom of the sixth inning.

But the A’s weren’t ready to back down just yet. Matt Chapman homered on a line drive to center. Jonathan Lucroy scored on Chapman’s play to help the A’s to a 5-3 lead in the top of the seventh inning.

The A’s continued to pour in the runs in the top of the eighth inning. Matt Olson singled on a ground ball to Ben Gamel. Stephen Piscotty scored on Olson’s play, and Matt Joyce went to third. The A’s were up 6-3. Then, Marcus Semien hit a sacrifice fly to Mitch Haniger. Chad Pinder scored on Semien’s sac fly. The A’s extended its lead to 7-3.

The A’s defeated the M’s 7-3. Oakland’s Ryan Buchter (5-0) was the winning pitcher. Seattle’s Shawn Armstrong )(0-1) took the loss.

Notes
A’s fans can bring Stomper home with them. Check out athletics.com/auction to bid on this week’s Stomper in the Town statues.

Up Next 
The A’s and Mariners meet again Tuesday night at 7:10 pm PDT.

A’s run out of gas, fail to clinch playoff spot in 5-1 loss to the Twins

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By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND — The A’s put together a pair of impressive, come-from-behind wins on Friday and Saturday. Based on their quiet performance on Sunday, those loud wins may have drained the club still battling for home field advantage in the October 3 wild card playoff.

The Twins got a majestic, first inning home run from Jake Cave, and Kyle Gibson shut down the A’s into the eighth inning and the Twins avoided a three-game sweep at the Coliseum. In the process, all the preparation for an A’s postgame celebration was rendered meaningless.

“Somebody mentioned the last couple years we’ve seen other teams celebrate while we were in town,” Gibson said. “So to be able to finish out the season without having to see any celebration is kind of nice.”

The Twins came to Oakland intent on impacting the AL playoff picture, but instead they got saddled with two, draining losses. But that process may have impacted Sunday’s result in which the A’s appeared flat even with everything to play for, and knowing the Yankees had lost minutes earlier.

“We didn’t play our best and we faced a guy who really pitched well,” Matt Chapman opined. “We just got out-played today.”

The A’s sliced the Twins early 2-0 lead in half with Matt Olson’s second inning home run. But that shot didn’t signal the A’s arrival, instead that was the moment of Gibson’s takeover. The Twins starter allowed just three singles after Olson’s blow leading to his departure with one out in the eighth inning. When trouble appeared to be brewing, Minnesota’s defense provided support. Former Giant Ehire Adrianza started an inning-ending double play with a snag of Chapman’s hard hit smash in the fifth.

“You can’t start talking about anything I did without talking about the defense,” Gibson said. “It was an incredible display.”

Trevor Cahill got roughed up, departing in the fourth with the Twins leading 4-1 and poised to score again. Melvin still felt Cahill acquitted himself decently following his previous, lackluster start. Cahill hadn’t pitched since September 9 when he experienced forearm strain. The loss was Cahill’s first this season at home after building a 5-0 record.

“All things considered, I think it was a step in the right direction for him,” Melvin said of Cahill.

The A’s remain 6 1/2 games ahead of the Rays giving additional importance to Tampa Bay’s home game Monday against the Yankees. If the Rays win, the A’s will move within a game of New York for the lead wild card spot. If the Rays lose, the A’s will clinch a tie for the second wild card spot.

The loss likely ended the A’s quest for a division crown with the Astros increasing their AL West lead to 4 1/2 games. The A’s finish the regular season with road games at Seattle and Anaheim beginning Tuesday.

MLB The Show podcast with Daniel Dullum: A’s pennant plans for today; M’s again erased from postseason; Tribe pitchers combine for 200 K’s in a season; plus more

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Photo credit: @offclockpodcast

On the MLB The Show podcast with Daniel:

1 Pennant race status as of Sunday. The A’s magic number is 1

2 Mariners extend longest postseason drought in major North American sports to 17 years.

3 Indians’ first time in MLB to have four pitchers with 200 strikeouts in a single season.

4 Giants celebrate National Singles Day by hitting 10 singles.

Daniel does the MLB podcast each Sunday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

A’s cut magic number to 1 with 3-2 win over the Twins on a wild pitch walk-off

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Photo credit: @Athletics

By: Jeremiah Salmonson

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Oakland A’s came into Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Twins feeling good. Friday night ended in another Khris Davis walk-off homer, and shrunk the A’s magic number to three games. The starting pitching matchup was the A’s Mike Fiers, who faced the Twins’ Chase De Jong. The A’s record coming into the game was 93-61 versus the Twins 71-82.

Fiers came out in full force for the A’s. He struck out the side in order in the first inning followed by a scoreless second inning. The third inning would be a little bump in the road for Fiers. He surrendered a double and single to start the inning. He managed to limit the damage by getting Joe Mauer to hit a sacrifice fly, Jorge Polanco to pop out, and Jake Cave to fly out to end the inning. The A’s on the other hand hadn’t been able to get much going against De Jong logging two hits through three innings.

Neither team was able to muster anything until the A’s came to bat in the bottom of the fifth. Ramon Laureano hit a one out single followed by a low line drive homer for Marcus Semien. Semien’s homer sailed over the out of town scoreboard in left field to give the A’s a 2-1 advantage in the fifth.

The next scoring chance came in the top of the seventh for the Twins. Ehire Adrianza doubled followed by a RBI single from Willians Astudillo. Mark Canha made a great effort to throw out Afrianza, but ultimately, Jonathan Lucroy wasn’t able to come up with the throw. The game was tied 2-2 at this point. In the bottom of the eighth, the A’s had a runner on third with two outs and Matt Olson grounded out to keep the game tied.

Blake Treinen came in the ninth and worked a relatively easy inning. He retired the first two Twins he faced before giving up a bloop single. He proceeded to strike out the next batter and end the Twins’ half of the ninth.

In the bottom of the ninth, Stephen Piscotty led it off with a ringing double down the line in left. Ramon Laureano struck out, Marcus Semien reached on a throwing error, and Matt Joyce was intentionally walked. Paul Molitor then brought in his right fielder to play the infield in an effort to cut down a potential run at the plate. Mark Canha struck out, but it wasn’t over just yet. With Matt Chapman batting and the bases loaded Trevor Hildenberger unleashed a wild pitch that brought Stephen Piscotty home to score.

With the A’s win and the Rays’ loss, the A’s magic number to clinch a Wild Card birth is one game.

The A’s will wrap up their series versus the Twins on Sunday afternoon at 1:05 pm PDT. Trevor Cahill (6-3, 3.77 ERA) will be on the Oakland mound and his opponent will be Minnesota’s Kyle Gibson (8-13, 3.78 ERA).

MLB The Show podcast with Matt Harrington: Can Yanks open up the lead in the Wild Card?; If not, A’s can help it; Tribe, Red Sox set for postseason; Puig’s home gets burglarized again

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Photo credit: @TheRitaGarcia

On the MLB The Show podcast with Matt:

#1 The New York Yankees are sitting on the top of the AL Wild Card standings by 1 1/2 games. They host the struggling Baltimore Orioles and can capitalize if they can win at least two out three.

#2 The A’s open a three-game set Friday versus the Minnesota Twins at the Oakland Coliseum. The A’s are in second in the AL Wild Card race and will have to win almost all their remaining games to catch the Yankees. Even at 1 1/2, the Yankees keep pulling away each time the A’s start to get close.

#3 The Houston Astros are closing in to clinch the American League West title. The Astros have a 3 1/2 game lead. The Astros are projected to win 102 at the pace they’re going.

#4 Teams that have already clinched? The Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox. Of these two teams, Matt tells us who will go the deepest in the playoffs.

#5 Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig’s home in Encino, Calif. was burglarized for the fourth time. This time the thieves made off with $170,000 in jewelry. Puig was on the field when the theft went down.

Matt Harrington does the MLB The Show podcast each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Jaime Jarren at the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum & Hall of Fame Wall at the Coliseum

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Photo credit: Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

By: Amaury Pi-Gonzalez

Jaime Jarrin has been the Spanish voice for the Los Angeles Dodgers for over half a century. As you can see, Jarrin is standing at the popular Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame wall conveniently located at the Club Level entrance of the Oakland Coliseum, the home of the Oakland Athletics.

Jarren is pointing at the flag of Ecuador. Ecuador is his country of birth. Aside from Jarren, other folks love to stop by the same area to take pictures of the colorful wall.

Amaury Pi-González serves as the Vice President of The Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum and Hall of Fame, a nonprofit organization that was founded in San Francisco in 1998.

Click the link for more information: http://www.hispanicheritagebaseballmuseum.org/

Davis’ Second Homer Leads to A’s Walk-off Win Over Twins 7-6

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Photo credit: @Athletics

By: Matthew Harrington

The Oakland A’s inched, or rather walked off a step closer to a playoff berth, coming from behind to beat the Minnesota Twins 7-6 in 10 innings at the Coliseum on Friday night. Khris Davis hit a pair of home runs, including the game-winner, to cut the A’s magic number to three games.

Davis crushed his league-leading 45th homer to deep center field with no outs in the bottom of the 10th, erasing the sting of a blown 4-0 A’s lead. Blake Treinen strengthened his Cy Young candidacy by picking up the win after allowing no hits over the ninth and 10th innings for his eighth win of the year. Matt Magill wound up the loser after finishing off the ninth inning by standing a pair of runners, but failing to retire Davis to start the 10th.

Davis knocked in a pair of runs in the bottom of the first on his first homer of the game, a two-run shot off Twins starter Jose Berrios. A couple of sacrifice flies had the A’s up 4-0 with opener Liam Hendriks and long reliever Chris Bassitt out of the game after five innings of combined work.

The Twins plated six runs in a lengthy sixth inning, knocking around Lou Trivino (four runs) and Shawn Kelley (two runs) to take a 6-4 edge, but Mark Canha returned fire in the bottom of the frame with a two-run shot of his own off reliever Gabriel Moya. Berrios was charged with one of the runs, ending the day with 5 2/3 innings of work and five runs (four earned).

Ryan Buchter and Jeurys Familia pitched scoreless seventh and eighth innings, respectively, to open the door for Treinen. Treinen handle his part, as did Davis, to help the A’s keep pace with the New York Yankees in the top AL Wild Card chase. New York, by virtue of beating the Baltimore Orioles Friday, leads the race for home field in the one-game playoff by just a game and a half. Oakland will send the leading candidate to pitch in the contest, Mike Fiers, to the mound Saturday night at 6:05 pm PDT against Minnesota.

Oakland A’s podcast with Joey Friedman: No mercy rule as A’s circle the bases all afternoon against Angels

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Photo credit: @Athletics

On the A’s podcast with Joey:

#1 There’s no mercy rule and the Los Angeles Angels badly needed it during this series with the Oakland A’s. On Wednesday, the A’s treated the Angels like it was some kind of sandlot game with a 10-0 win. The next day, Thursday, the A’s wore out the Angels 21-3.

#2 Angels manager Mike Scioscia, who is rumored to be close to announcing his retirement, had to wish that would come sooner after the A’s wasted no time scoring runs, five in the third, seven in the fourth inning, six in the sixth, and three more in the seventh.

#3 The Angels’ only bright spot was a home run in the sixth by Mike Trout off A’s pitcher Edwin Jackson, but that was a blip on the Angels’ scoring radar.

#4 The A’s lost four of the last five games before the series with the Angels. The A’s showed us in the last two games that they can break out the bats giving the A’s that confidence again.

#5 The A’s host the Twins for three. The Twins are second in the AL Central, but not in the Wild Card hunt.

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

Despite obvious flaws, Shohei Ohtani continues to shine for the Angels

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Photo credit: @AngelsRadioKLAA

By Mizhuo Takagi

OAKLAND — Despite him missing 2/3rds of the season as a pitcher and the Los Angeles Angels having a losing season, two-way phenomenon Shohei Ohitani has proven his abilities and remains a candidate for the AL Rookie of the Year award.

Ichiro Suzuki was the sensation when he made his Major League debut with the Mariners in 2001, and the high-volume contact hitter not only won the AL Rookie of the Year, but also the AL MVP. 17 years later Ohtani crossed the ocean from Japan, but he is totally different. He is a slugger and a pitcher who can throw the ball over 100 miles per hour.

Ohtani made his debut as DH on March 29, and as a pitcher on April 1. Both debuts occurred in Oakland and the lucky fans in the Bay Area got to watch him hit and pitch.

Ohtani’s two-way endeavor brought excitement to both sides of the Pacific. In fact, there were approximately 200 Japanese reporters and crew members on Opening Day and 100 to 150 through the season when he plays at home.

Ohtani was met with skepticism, but he was named AL Player of the Week on April 8, and later AL Rookie of the Month for April.

When Ohtani’s right elbow injury was reported in June, disappointment spread. It was like, “the dream is over!” But he came back after missing six weeks with the injury and one of the two dreams is still alive. He continues to hit homers and contribute to production.

On September 2, Ohtani became the first player to hit 15 homers and pitch 50 innings since Babe Ruth. Now, he has extended the number of HRs to 20. He received his second career Player of the Week honor on September 10.

Ohtani played DH during three-game series against the A’s from September 18 to 20, and there were Ohtani fans all the way from Japan who stopped by Oakland just to watch him play.

Osamu and Noriko Suzuki, who used to live in Menlo Park in 2001, visited the Bay Area to watch Ohtani play. His first season in the MLB may be a let down, but they felt relieved rather than disappointed.

The Suzukis said, “We were worried about his injury, but he is hitting well and even a Rookie of the Year candidate. It could have been a better season, but I think he has a great season and we are happy for him.”

Japanese college student, Taku Shibata, and his three friends were all decked out in Ohtani t-shirts in Oakland.

Shibata said, “I hope he will continue to play two-way as long as he can. It would have been awesome if I could watch him pitch too, but I will definitely come and watch him when he recovers from injury. He is truly a star for my generation.”

If Ohtani undergoes Tommy John surgery, he will likely not return to the mound until 2020. It has been reported that he has not made any decision yet and is trying to look at other options. So many pitchers have gone through Tommy John surgery, but there is no example nor two-way player like him.

That’s Amaury News and Commentary: Angels Manager Mike Scioscia Likely to Say Goodbye

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By: Amaury Pi-González

OAKLAND, Calif. — Chances are very good that this week was the last time we will see Angels manager Mike Scioscia as manager with the Angels at the Oakland Coliseum. During their last home stand of the season and during the penultimate game at Angel Stadium on Saturday, September 29, the Angels will give everybody in attendance a Mike Scioscia bobblehead, a sellout of 45,000 is expected.

As a manager, Scioscia led the Angels to their only World Series championship on 2002 against the San Francisco Giants.

Scioscia is the all-time managerial leader in wins, games managed and division titles. He also was honored as the American League Manager of the Year Award in 2002 and 2009.

I have very good memories and experiences with Scioscia. Not only did I have the privilege of calling the 2002 World Series for the Giants, but during the past eight seasons, I traveled to Anaheim to do the Spanish play-by-play for the Angels at Fox Sports Network with my good friend José Mota, who does commentary. Mota is bilingual and as qualified as anybody I have ever met in baseball.Although this season the Spanish Fox Sports West production of the Angels ceased to exist due to a business decision by Disney, who acquired a ton of regional sports networks, including Fox Sports West. Anyhow, you can still see Mota during pre and post games for the English Fox Sports and sometimes on Angels’ radio and other MLB outlets.

There were many times where I have interviewed Scioscia in Spanish (Scioscia speaks conversational Spanish) for the Fox Sports’ Angels pregame in Anaheim. He was always available to talk baseball. A man that was in the Los Angeles area was always thought to be the perfect manager for the rival Dodgers, a team he played for 13 seasons from 1980-1992. He was arguably one of the best defensive catchers of any generation. To try to score on a close play at the plate against Scioscia was a tough thing to do, he was Fernando Valenzuela’s first and foremost catcher. Fernando has always told me great things on how Scioscia guided him when he was a Dodgers rookie. Preston Gómez, a great pioneer manager and lifetime baseball man, once told me: “Scioscia era el hombre que los Dodgers debían de haber firmando de manager.” Translation: “Sciosica was the man that the Dodgers should have signed as their manager.”

On March 29th when the Angels played the A’s at the home opener in Oakland, Scioscia told me this: “I really like my ballclub this year.” Unfortunately, injuries to his pitching staff, many Tommy John surgeries–all while the news broke that Japanese rookie sensation Shohei Othani, who could be the Rookie of the Year in the AL, was also told he had to submit to the surgery.

The Angels’ best player in the game is Mike Trout. Scioscia and Trout have the ultimate respect for each other. They are both huge fans of the Super Bowl champions Philadelphia Eagles. Trout was born and raised in southern New Jersey and Mike Scioscia hails from Pennsylvania. Obviously, Scioscia’s team was not the one that was going to chase the Houston Astros or even contend for a Wild Card spot.

Scioscia could write his own ticket. I do not know what he will choose to do after his managerial life, but whatever he does, he will be just as good as he has been as the Angels manager for the last 19 seasons–the longest tenured manager in the MLB. He could possibly take an advisory position and assistant to Angels owner Arturo “Arte” Moreno. I can easily see that.

Listen to A’s home games in Spanish on KIQI 1010AM/990AM in San Francisco/Oakland/San José/Sacramento/Stockton.