Tag: Oakland A’s

A’s can’t survive a night of bullpenning and home runs; Rays win 7-5

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment
Tampa Bay Jake Bauers
Jake Bauers hit the game-winning 3-run home run for the Rays Photo: @RaysBaseball

By Charlie O. Mallonee

If the Tampa Bay Rays were in the National League, they would be in the fight for a spot in the Wild Card game. They are not a walkover team anymore. The Rays have an 81-66 record this season. Unfortunately for the Rays and their fans, they play in the American League East where the Boston Red Sox have clinched the division with a 102-47 record to date, and the Yankees are in second place with a 91-57 record.

The Rays brought their “A game” on Saturday night as they handed the A’s their second loss on this six-game road trip 7-5. The game featured 21 hits, 4 home runs, 14 runners left on base, 15 strikeouts and 12 pitching changes over 3 hours and 19 minutes.

The loss was very costly for the A’s in their chase for the AL West crown and the home field advantage in AL Wild Card Game. The Astros beat the D-Backs 10-4 on Saturday and increased their lead over the A’s to 3.5 games. The A’s elimination number is now 11.

The A’s (90-59) had the opportunity to move within a half-game of the Yanks for the top Wild Card slot because the Bombers lost to the Blue Jays 8-7 on Saturday. Because Oakland lost, they remain 1.5 games behind New York in the second Wild Card spot.

More Bullpening
It was another bullpenning game for the A’s. Liam Hendriks was “the opener” on the mound for Oakland. He pitched one inning, allowing one hit and striking out one.

Dean Kiekhefer took over in the second inning and things did not go well for him. He gave up two runs (both earned) on three hits. The big blow came when Brandon Lowe hit a two-run homer with one on and no outs. Ryan Dull had to come in to close out the inning.

Chris Bassitt was the “featured pitcher” of the game. He worked 3.0 innings giving up one run (earned) off two hits. He struck out three Rays and walked two.

Yusmeiro Petit was the next man up. Petit gave up a run (earned) off one hit.

The brightest spot of the night for the A’s may have been the performance of reliever Fernando Rodney in the seventh inning of the game. Rodney has really struggled recently but not in this game. Rodney gave up no runs while he struck out one and walked one.

Jeurys Familia would have rather stayed in the hotel. Familia was brought in to pitch the eighth inning. He only gave up one hit, but it was a go-ahead three-run homer by Jake Bauers that ultimately proved to be the game-winning hit. Familia (8-6) was tagged with the loss.

A’s with the bat

  • Matt Chapman went 3-for-5 and hit his 23rd home run of the season in the ninth inning off Sergio Romo.
  • The other Matt (Olson) had a 2-for-3 night at the plate and he hit his 27th homer of the year in this game.
  • Marcus Semien had a 2-for-4 night including a run scored. He was also involved in an incident with the home plate umpire that eventually caused A’s manager Bob Melvin to get ejected.

Rays’ notes

Tampa Bay Kelvin Kiermeier
The Rays Kevin Kiermaier hit a key triple in the game Photo: @RaysBaseball
  • The Rays went bullpening as well on Saturday. Ryne Stanek was the opener and then Yonny Chirinos was “the featured pitcher.” He lasted 5.1 innings.
  • Andrew Kittredge (2-2) was the eventual winner of the game.
  • Bauers not only hit a home run, he recorded four RBIs in the game.
  • Brandon Lowe had two RBIs, two runs scored in addition to his home run.
  • Kevin Kiermaier hit a triple and posted two RBIs

Up next

The A’s will send RHP Mike Fiers (12-6, 3.29 ERA) to the mound to face the Rays’ RHP Diego Castillo (3-2, 3.31 ERA) in the Sunday finale at 10:10 AM PDT.

Khris Davis proves to be the difference in A’s 2-1 win over Rays in 10 innings

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Photo credit: @Athletics

By: Ana Kieu

Last night, the red-hot Oakland A’s were stunned as the lowly Baltimore Orioles snapped their six-game win streak with a 5-3 win.

So what’s new? Well, the A’s traveled to Tropicana Field to take on the Tampa Bay Rays for a three-game series starting Friday night.

The A’s broke open a scoreless deadlock in the top of the fourth inning. Matt Olson singled on a ground ball to Willy Adames. Matt Chapman scored on Olson’s play. As a result, Khris Davis went to second. The A’s were on the board 1-0.

The Rays, however, gave the A’s a hard time in the bottom of the fourth inning. Joey Wendle, a former Oakland Athletic, singled on a line drive to Mark Canha. Tommy Pham scored on Wendle’s play. The Rays tied the ballgame 1-1.

Shawn Kelley helped the A’s get out of a jam in the bottom of the sixth inning. The game remained in a 1-1 tie.

The 1-1 score continued to stay put and the game had to be decided in extra innings.

Khris Davis proved to be the difference as he homered on a fly ball to right center to give the A’s a 2-1 lead over the Rays in the top of the 10th inning.

A’s Blake Treinen (7-2) was the winning pitcher. Rays’ Jaime Schultz (2-1) took the loss.

Notes

Up Next
The A’s and Rays continue their series with game two Saturday at 3:10 pm PDT.

Oakland A’s podcast with Joey Friedman: A’s looking to use “bullpenning” to give pitchers some rest; Will use “bullpenning” for Saturday to rest Cahill

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Photo credit: @NBCSAthletics

On the Oakland A’s podcast with Joey:

#1 The A’s are getting done in all sorts of ways. They scored 10 runs in the third inning of Wednesday’s game and used some of their call ups the rest of the way to beat the Orioles.

#2 The A’s have been going to “bullpenning” and openers. Joey takes a look on how that has been working.

#3 The Orioles just couldn’t do anything with the A’s lineup in that third inning as the O’s starter Andrew Cashner was lit up for eight runs and eight hits in just two short innings.

#4 A’s starter Trevor Cahill is receiving treatment for his upper back and most likely will miss his turn to start on Saturday in Tampa Bay. Cahill’s situation is day-to-day and A’s manager Bob Melvin is considering “bullpenning” again starting Liam Hendricks, who started on Wednesday.

#5 The A’s have lost 10 pitchers since May for 13 different injuries, which did not include Cahill’s injuries.

#6 The A’s started Brett Anderson on Thursday night a game that was going to be a day game because of Hurricane Florence moving onto the East Coast, but the forecast for Thursday night subsided for rough weather and the A’s and Orioles concluded the series as scheduled.

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

Orioles snap the A’s six-game winning streak with a 5-3 win

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Photo credit: @Orioles

By Jerry Feitelberg

One of the great things about baseball is that one never knows what is going to happen in any game. Things that are expected to happen go awry and things that one expects to happen don’t. The red-hot Oakland A’s were expected to beat the hapless Baltimore Orioles Thursday night. Since June 16th, the A’s had the best record in baseball and everything was going their way. They entered the game against the O’s with expectations of winning and sweeping the three-game series and extend their winning streak to seven games. That did not happen as the O’s pounced on A’s starter Brett Anderson. Anderson was making his first start since coming off the 10-day DL, and he just wasn’t able to get his “A” game going.

The O’s put two runs on the board in the bottom of the first inning. The first two O’s hitters, Cedric Mullins and Jonathan Villar, singled. Trey Mancini was retired on a ground out to A’s shortstop Marcus Semien. Mullins and Villar advanced to second and third. Tim Beckham singled to drive in both runners. The O’s had an early 2-0 lead.

The A’s right fielder Stephen Piscotty homered to right to cut the gap to one, and the A’s trailed 2-1 after two innings of play.

The O’s plated two more in the bottom of the fourth. The O’s put together two singles and an Anderson wild pitch to put men on at second and third with one out. John Andreoli hit a low roller that Anderson fielded. He threw awkwardly to home but the throw was offline, and the O’s had their third run of the night. Valera singled to make it 4-1.

The A’s scored another run in the fifth. A Semien double followed by a Nick Martini single made it 4-2. The A’s made it a one-run game when they scored another run in the top of the eighth. The O’s extended the lead to two as they got the run back in their half of the inning and led 5-3.

The A’s failed to score in the ninth and lost to the O’s 5-3.

Game Notes: Brett Anderson went just three and one-third innings, and he gave up four runs and seven hits. His record is now 3-5 for the year.

Stephen Piscotty hit his 24th homer of the year to extend his hitting streak to 14. He has also hit 39 doubles.

The A’s are now 3.5 games behind the Houston Astros for first place in the AL West and 1.5 games behind the Yankees in the race for the first Wild Card slot.

Up Next: The A’s travel to Tampa Bay to face the Rays for three games starting Friday at 4:05 pm PDT. The Rays have been playing well, so the A’s cannot afford to take them lightly.

Oakland Athletics podcast with Jerry Feitelberg: A’s shouldn’t take road trip with a grain of salt; A’s provide medical update on Sean Manaea; plus more

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Photo credit: @Athletics

On the A’s podcast with Jerry:

1. The A’s beat the Orioles 3-2 in game one of the three-game series, but the O’s might play spoiler in the series finale, a.k.a. game three.

2. A’s pitcher Mike Fiers remains undefeated with the Green and Gold 5-0.

3. If you’re an A’s and Sharks fan, you should prepare for the Sharks’ 2018-19 season with an A’s and Sharks mashup scarf you can get at the September 18th game. You can purchase a special ticket at athletics.com/sharks.

4. A’s fans, don’t miss out on the A’s last Play Ball event presented by Sutter Health on September 15th at Allendale Park in Oakland. More information could be found at athletics.com/playball

5. The A’s tweeted a medical update on Sean Manaea. He’ll have arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder on Sept. 19 at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in LA.

Jerry does the A’s podcasts each Thursday for SportsRadio Service.com

A’s pummel the Orioles 10-0 to win their sixth in a row

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by Jerry Feitelberg

There was good news and bad news for the Baltimore Orioles Wednesday night at Camden Yards. The good news was that the woeful Orioles held the A’s scoreless in eight of the nine innings played. The bad news is that Oriole pitchers were pounded in the third inning as the A’s put ten runs on the board when they pummeled Orioles’ starter Andrew Cashner and reliever Cody Carroll for ten runs on ten hits and two walks. The A’s used five pitchers in the game and kept the O’s of the board and limited to just one hit as the A’s won their sixth in a row by a score of 10-0.

The A’s kept pace with the Houston Astros in the race for first place in the AL West. The A’s remain three games behind the Astros. They did pick up a game on the New York Yankees as the Yankees lost 3-1 to the Minnesota Twins. The A’s are just one game behind the Yanks for the first Wild Card spot. If the A’s overtake the Yankees, the one-game playoff between the teams will be played in Oakland. Seattle lost and fell 9.5 games behind Oakland in the race for the second Wild Card.

How did the A’s do it Wednesday night? Orioles’ starter Andrew Cashner allowed just one hit in the first two innings that he pitched. The third inning was a different story. Cashner failed to retire a single hitter in the third. Cashner did not record an out in the third as the A’s put eight on the board before O’s skipper Buck Showalter replaced him with Cody Carroll. The A’s ended the inning scoring ten runs on ten hits and two walks. They sent fifteen men to the plate in their biggest inning of the year. The key hits were provided by Matt Chapman and Matt Olson. Chappie had a double and a single in the inning to drive in three runs. Matt Olson also drove in three when he blasted his 26th bomb of the year over the left field wall. Jed Lowrie singled to drive in his 90th RBI, and Khris Davis drove in his 110th of the year to tie him with his total of last year.

The A’s used Liam Hendriks as the “opener.” Hendriks pitched one inning. He was followed by Daniel Mengden who threw five scoreless innings and was the winning pitcher. He is now 7-6 for 2018. The O’s Andrew Cashner went two-plus innings, and his record fell to 4-15

The A’s improved  89-57 for the year and Baltimore is 41-104.

The A’s go for the sweep on Thursday. Hopefully, the game will be played as Hurricane Florence is near landfall.

The A’s will send lefty Brett Anderson to the hill. Anderson will be coming off the 10-dl. He hasn’t pitched since August 27th. He is 3-4 with a record of 4.02. His opponent will be Dylan Bundy. Bundy is 7-14 and his an ERA of 5.58. Bundy is healthy but has been ineffective the last two months. Bundy has surrendered a club-record 37 home runs this season.

That’s Amaury News and Commentary: Pitchers Are Bigger, Stronger and on the DL More Than Ever

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Photo credit: @NBCSAthletics

By: Amaury Pi-González

If the A’s advance to the postseason, they will not be able to depend with their No. 1  starter, Sean Manaea. He will have arthroscopic surgery to repair a left shoulder impingement on September 19. A’s manager Bob Melvin said that Manaea will be sidelined through 2019.

Just a few years ago when I asked Melvin in Spring Training about Manaea, he told me wonders about the then-rookie pitcher. Jharel Cotton missed this 2018 season with Tommy John surgery as well as the A’s top pitching prospect A.J Puk. Pitchers are having all kinds of surgeries–primarily Tommy John–to the point where it’s very common. No team is immune to injuries. Young pitchers mostly throw 95 mph and they are bigger and stronger than ever. Conditioning is the best it has ever been. Nutrition is much more advanced than ever. Plus we now know more about the human body, so people are living longer than ever. Yet, few teams can escape these injuries to their pitching staffs.

One of my favorite pitchers was the Phillies’ Robin Roberts, who would throw 300 or more innings each season, just like Nolan Ryan or Jaime Moyer. Moreover, Vida Blue pitched for 17 years, and in eight of those years, he hurled between 224 to 312 innings per season. Not to mention, Moyer pitched for 25 seasons, and in 10 of those seasons, he easily went over 200 innings.

Juan Marichal completed 244 career games, going the distance. Most recently, Pedro Martínez pitched for 2,827 inning in 18 seasons. Jim Palmer pitched a total of 3,948 innings over 19 years with the Orioles, and never gave up a grand slam. Bartolo Colón has pitched for 3,459 2/3 innings and counting in his 21-plus seasons, and he has easily pitched over 200 innings per season. None of these guys were near 6’4″ and 235 lbs.

Many established pitchers as well as rookies in the MLB would travel to Cuba, Puerto Rico, México, Venezuela and vice versa to pitch in the Winter Leagues. They reported to Spring Training the following year and continued their long careers–most of them free of surgeries. There was always tendinitis, tired arms and ailments like that, but the names of the surgeons were not as famously known back then. Pitchers used to run a lot and did not lift weights. Teams did not have a state of the art gym at each park like they have today with all types of supplements and vitamins along with qualified physiotherapists. Tommy John surgery has a high success rate, but around 20 percent of pitchers never make it back.

It is a never ending debate. Should they limit pitchers to 100 pitches per game? Are they training the wrong way? And there are many other questions without definite answers.

This is one of my favorite quotes. It is from Liván Hernández, who pitched for 17 years and in many seasons threw over 200 innings, “A mi no me preocupa la cantidad de lanzamiento que yo hago, lo que quiero es ganar el juego para mi equipo, si ellos quieren contar mis lanzamientos, está bien, en Cuba solo Dios sabe cuantos lanzamientos yo hacía por salida.”

Translation: “I am not worried how many pitches I throw, what I want is to win the game for my team, if they want to count the pitches I make, that is fine, in Cuba only God knew how many pitches I made every time I started a game.”

Notes: Tommy John pitched for 26 years from 1963 to 1989, winning 288 games while losing 231. He pitched for the Indians, White Sox, Dodgers, Yankees, California Angels, A’s and Yankees. Despite not being in the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., his name is mentioned much more often than all the combined pitchers that are in the HOF.

Headline Sports with London Marq: Raiders might quit Oakland due to city’s lawsuit; 49ers just ran up against very good team in loss; Chair umpires call for boycott of Serena matches

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Photo credit: usatoday.com

On the Headline Sports with London:

#1 The City of Oakland plan to sue the Oakland Raiders for financial impact loss to the city. The Raiders have said if the city continues with the suit, the team will pull up stakes and find a temporary site to play until their new stadium is ready.

#2 There was a lot of expectation on the Raiders on Monday night and a lot of hype on the return of head coach Jon Gruden and the trade of star Khalil Mack going into the regular season, but Oakland took a convincing 33-13 loss to the LA Rams on Monday night.

#3 How badly was the loss to the Minnesota Vikings for the San Francisco 49ers 24-16? Did Jimmy Garoppolo show promise despite the loss?

#4 Tennis chair umpires are calling for a boycott for future matches with Serena Williams. Tennis officials are upset due to the lack of support for chair umpire Carlos Ramos that umpires said Williams labeled Ramos a sexist, a thief, and owing Williams an apology for violation calls. But tennis chair umpires point to her unsportsmanship-like conduct in her U.S. Open match.

#5 Wild card races have the Oakland A’s and the New York Yankees most likely heading to a one-game playoff at the end of the regular season. The A’s have won five straight, but looking ahead-how do you see this one-game match up possibly in New York between the A’s and Yankees?

London Marq does the Sports Headlines each Wednesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland A’s podcast with Charlie O: A’s have wacky schedule playing in AL Eastern cities in September

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Photo credit: @Athletics

On the A’s podcast with Charlie O:

1) The schedule has the A’s in Baltimore and Tampa Bay this week with Minnesota in Oakland next week as the division race comes down to the wire. How can that happen?

2) The A’s have been testing using “bullpening” as a way to pitch their way through games. Liam Hendriks has twice been used as the opener. Is this concept worth pursuing?

3) Who will the starting rotation be for the A’s in the playoffs?

4) Can the A’s win the playoffs with a so-so starting rotation and a monster bullpen?

5) Sean Manaea is going to have arthroscopic surgery. How concerned are you about this?

Charlie O covers A’s baseball each Sunday and podcasts A’s each Tuesday night at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

A’s beat the Orioles 3-2 for their fifth win in a row

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Photo credit: mlb.com

By Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s started the six-game road trip on a winning note as they downed the hapless Baltimore Orioles 3-2 at Oriole Park on Tuesday. The Orioles–who have traded away many of their stars–gave the A’s a tussle, but the A’s produced enough offense to record the win.

A’s starter, Mike Fiers, gave the team six innings of four-hit pitching. He made just one mistake when O’s shortstop Jonathan Villar hit a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth.

O’s starter, Alex Cobb, went only two innings as he had a flare-up of a blister on his pitching hand and as unable to continue.

The O’s brought in Mike Wright to pitch the third inning. The A’s put three on the board on the strength of three hits and two walks. The rally started when A’s catcher reached on a walk. Lucroy went to second on a groundout off the bat of Ramon Laureano. Third baseman Matt Chapman doubled to right field to drive in Lucroy. Jed Lowrie walked to put two men on with one out.  A’s DH Khris Davis singled to drive in Chapman with the second run of the inning. Lowrie stopped at second. Wright struck out Matt Olson for the second out. The next hitter, Stephen Piscotty, singled to drive in Lowrie to give the A’s a 3-0 lead. Piscotty extended his hitting streak to 12 games.

The O’s got on the board when Villar homered off Fiers in the bottom of the sixth.

A’s manager Bob Melvin turned the game over to his bullpen for the last three innings of the game. Fernando Rodney pitched a scoreless seventh inning. Melvin called on Lou Trivino to pitch the eighth. The O’s rallied to score a run and make it a 3-2 contest. O’s second baseman Breyvic Valera singled to get things going for Baltimore. Trivino retired Corban Joseph for the first out. He struck out Cedric Mullins for out number two. Valera got into scoring position when he successfully stole second. Jonathan Villar knocked in his second run of the night with a single. Orioles first baseman Trey Mancini line a shot to center that looked like it would drop and Villar would be able to score. A’s center fielder Ramon Laureano had other thoughts. Laureano was playing shallow and was able to make a sensational diving catch to end the inning and save the game for the A’s.

Melvin brought in Jeurys Familia to pitch the ninth. The A’s had used closer Blake Treinen in the last three games at the Coliseum and had the night off. Familia responded by pitching a perfect ninth inning to earn his first save as an Athletic. The A’s won 3-2.

Game Notes: With the win, the A’s improve to 88-58. They are now 54-21 in their last 75 games.

The O’s drop to 41-103.

The A’s remain three games behind the Houston Astros as the Astros beat the Tigers Tuesday night. The A’s picked up a game on the New York Yankees in the race for the first Wild Card slot. The Minnesota Twins beat the Yankees 10-5.

Fiers improved to 12-6 for the season and is 5-0 with Oakland. Wright took the loss for Baltimore.

Stephen Piscotty was 3-for-4 and has now hit in 12 straight games. Khris Davis has now driven in 109 runs, which is good for second in the AL.

The A’s recalled pitcher Frankie Montas from Nashville as the A’s are two pitchers short for the five-man rotation.

The A’s also announced that lefty starter and ace of the staff, Sean Manaea, will have arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder September 18th. The procedure will be performed by Dr. Neil ElAttrache at the Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe clinic in Los Angeles. Manaea will not pitch again this season and may be lost for the entire 2019 season as well. The A’s will give updates on his condition after the surgery is performed.

Time of games was two hours and 45 minutes, and there were 9,545 hardy souls watching the game under very cloudy skies.

Up Next: Game two of the series is Wednesday at 4:05 pm PDT. Liam Hendriks will be the “opener” for the A’s, and he will be opposed by the O’s Andrew Cashner.