Chicago White Sox : 1 | 6 | 4
Oakland Athletics: 8 | 8 | 0
By Lewis Rubman
OAKLAND — After escaping from Minneapolis, where over 13 inches of snow had caused the postponement of their last three games, the Chicago White Sox must have felt as if they’d be transported to the beach at Waikiki when they took the field Monday evening at the Oakland Coliseum under partly cloudy skies and the thermometer showing 53 degrees.
When he took to the mound, Chicago’s starting pitcher, Reynaldo Pérez, hadn’t thrown a ball in anger in eight days since pitching seven innings of two-hit ball without giving up an earned run, but still managed to lose 1-0 to Detroit. The involuntarily well-rested righty brought an impressive ERA of 0.69 with him to the Coliseum.
Pérez picked up where he had left off back on April 8, holding the A’s scoreless for the first three innings. Then, Matt Olson blasted Pérez’s first offering in the fourth into the right field seats above the Stanley Tools sign to end an 0-for-12 slump and give the home team a 1-0 lead. They tacked on another run in fifth when Khris Davis’s two-out double to center drove Matt Joyce in from second to stretch the A’s lead to two runs.
Pérez finished his night’s work by striking out the side in the sixth. He needed only 13 pitches to retire Matt Chapman, Mark Canha, and Stephen Piscotty, in that order.
Atrocious fielding in the seventh and eighth frames cost the Pale Hose any chance they might have had to salvage the game. Luis Avilán relieved Pérez to start the seventh and immediately walked Jonathan Lucroy on a 3-2 count. Matt Joyce laid down a bunt between the mound and first base. First baseman José Abreu fielded, and then bobbled the ball, which was grabbed by Avilán, who threw late to second sacker Yoan Moncada, covering first. Joyce was credited with a sacrifice, Abreu was charged with an error, and the A’s had runners on first and second with nobody out. Marcus Semien’s single to right loaded the bases and set up the next scene in Chicago comedy of errors.
Jed Lowry smacked a hard ground ball to shortstop Tim Anderson, just what Avilán needed to get a double play and minimize the damage Abreu’s miscue had cost him. But the ball skipped through Anderson into left field, where it was fumbled by Leury García, who had just entered the game to replace Nicky Delmonico. Lowrie scored on Anderson’s error, which also allowed Semien to move on to second. He advanced to third on García’s error.
Danny Farquhar came in to replace the put-upon Avilán and did so in splendid fashion, striking out Olson—who, in spite of his home run, went down swinging for the third time in the game—and then closing out the A’s by getting Khris Davis, Oakland’s other RBI producer so far, to ground into a 6-4-3 double play. After seven innings, the A’s led 5-0.
The Green and Gold put the game out of reach in the eighth through a combination of their hitting and Chicago’s continued ineptitude in the field. Christ Volstead surrendered a walk to Chapman to open the inning and then a single to center by Mark Canha, sending Chapman to third. Adam Engel juggled the ball in center, which allowed Canha to reach second.
Piscotty also singled to center, bringing in Chapman with Oakland’s sixth tally and advancing Canha to third. He didn’t get any further because Lucroy’s Volstead fielded Lucroy’s comebacker to mound and fired the ball to his catcher, Welington Castillo, who tagged Canha out before the A’s center fielder could scamper back to third. That was Volstead’s last act of the game, but the runs soon to be scored by Piscotti and Lucroy, the runners he left on base would be charged to his account.
Manager Rick Rentería removed Volstead and replaced him with Aaron Bummer. who walked Semien and gave up a single to Lowrie, which drove in the A’s final two runs of the game. He also got the two outs needed to end the slaughter.
Meanwhile, Mengden was magnificent. He held the South Siders scoreless on five hits through eight innings, striking out six and giving up but a single walk. In this, he was aided by some nifty fielding, including an inning-ending double play that occurred in the second frame when, with Yolmer Sánchez on first, Anderson hit a sharp ground ball to Chapman at third, who threw the batter out at first. Sánchez, who had reached second, kept on running, expecting to arrive safely at third, but a perfect throw by Olson to Semien, who was covering the bag, retired daring and resourceful Sánchez.
Mengden lost his shutout and complete game when Abreu hit a 400-foot homer to center to lead off the ninth, and Yusmeiro Petit came in to set the remaining White Sox down in order. Mengden got the well-deserved win. He’s now 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA. The loser, López, is 0-2 with a 1.42 ERA.
The two teams will match up tomorrow at 7:05 pm PT with Miguel González facing Trevor Cahill.
Felix Hernandez made his 47th career start against the A’s on Sunday. From his perspective, this may have been the most frustrating.
Hernandez allowed just five hits, no walks and during one stretch, retired 13 batters in a row. He worked into the seventh inning for the first time this season, baffled the A’s with a couple of changeups, and picked off Marcus Semien, caught breaking from a base in the first inning.
Or did he?
First base umpire Carlos Torres thought not, seeing King Felix react to yelling from his dugout with a quick turn, and slightly disjointed throw to first that had Semien hung up in a rundown. Torres immediately declared a balk, but that was changed once the umpires huddled and reversed his call. A video replay showing Hernandez’s feet close up reinforced the changed call. Call it baseball’s version of a do-over as Semien was allowed to return to first as if nothing happened at all.
“I stepped off the rubber,” Hernandez said. “I don’t know what happened there. It was a weird play.”
“They’re trying to get it right, so it kind of worked out either way for us, based on the fact that Marcus was picked off,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin. “So if they’re saying that they got the call wrong, then they can’t call Marcus out. So I understand where they were going with it.”
Hernandez–vindicated, but bewildered by the sequence–started the next batter, Jed Lowrie, with three, consecutive balls. With 11 hits, including three homers already on the road trip, Lowrie was an obvious candidate to be swinging 3-0. Hernandez misread the situation, and saw his grooved fastball deposited into the right field bleachers.
“I didn’t know he was going to swing because he’s so patient, but he did swing and it cost us the game right there,” Hernandez admitted.
If Lowrie made King Felix pay, then A’s starter Sean Manaea was sent to collect, by fiercely protecting the early two-run lead, and turning it into a 2-1 victory, good enough to allow the A’s to avoid being swept in the three-game series.
Manaea allowed just two hits in seven innings, and one run on Taylor Motter’s solo shot in the fifth. But in the pressure of a one-run ballgame, Manaea held up, retiring the final seven batters he faced after failing with Motter.
The outing marked the third time in four starts this season Manaea has pitched into the seventh inning. Saying this could be Manaea’s finest season yet would be an understatement. The 26-year old allowed the Mariners two hits on Sunday with Kyle Seager’s fourth inning single joining Motter’s blast. Manaea walked two, doubling his walk total (four allowed) on the year.
Last season Manaea walked 55 in 158 innings. This season, he’s on pace to surpass 200 innings pitched for the first time while dramatically lowering his walk total. His struggles early in ballgames have subsided as well. And Manaea’s ERA? Low and getting lower, with it currently standing at 1.63.
“Where I am now, solo home runs aren’t going to kill you,” Manaea said. “That’s just kind of the mindset.”
“He saves the bullpen,” said Melvin of Manaea. “He’s pitched great and won games for us. He’s had a heck of an April, for sure.”
On Sunday, the bullpen saved the bullpen as well, quite an upgrade on two meltdowns earlier in the roadtrip. Ryan Buchter got the first two outs of the eighth, and Blake Treinen followed with the final four outs of the ballgame. Neither reliever allowed a hit.
The A’s open a six-game home stand Monday at 7:05pm with Daniel Mengden facing Reynaldo Lopez of the White Sox.
photo by @EspnStatsInfo: Shohei Ohtani who leads Major League Baseball with an on base percentage of .800 and also has held hitters while pitching to a .180 batting average
MLB The Show podcast with Daniel Dullum
1 I’m a believer! Ohtani rocks! His hot start is making waves back in Japan.
2 A’s 50th anniversary game coming up on Tuesday – on the house.
3 Giants’ Jeff Samardzija lit up in rehab start.
4 Rare baserunning goof robs D-Back of first home run.
5 Derek Jeter skipping the upcoming Marlins-Yankees series in New York.
KTVU FOX 2 photo: Rendering of an Oakland A’s waterfront ballpark under the lights a dream that has had some stop gaps for A’s team president David Kaval who is trying to build it at Howard Terminal
By Amaury Pi Gonzalez
OAKLAND–According to Forbes Magazine,which is considered the Bible for finance in all industries, the Oakland A’s are #26 among all 30 major league clubs in total valuation worth about $1.02 billion; followed by #27 Kansas City,#28 Cincinnati,#29 Miami and Tampa Bay #30 are the four teams below the A’S The real big boys are the top three: New York Yankees valuation of $4 billion, followed by the Los Angeles Dodgers $3 billion and the Chicago Cubs $2.9 billion.
An interesting situation is that of the Miami Marlins, with a valuation of $1 billion, yet they were sold this past October for $1.2 billion. Yes, The Fish are swimming deep in debt and in very shallow water in attendance. The New York Yankees generated the most in revenues last year $619 million. Forbes professionals specializes in appraising the estimate of worth among most industries.On this recent 2018 list all major league teams except the Tampa Bay Rays had evaluations upwards of $1 billion. The Tampa Bay Rays $900 million, and they are last. A lot of things are taken into consideration on these evaluations, like size of the market, debt by the team, revenue projections and potential plans for the team(in this case of the A’s a new ballpark) plus other factors.
In the case of the Oakland Athletics, who have a valuation of a little above $1 billion, they also have the lowest payroll, #30 of $69 million this season. Commissioner Manfred had said repeatedly that he wants the A’s to stay in Oakland, and with the move of the Raiders to Las Vegas and the Warriors to San Francisco within two years, the A’s are all but assured they will stay in Oakland. The possibility of a new ballpark for the Athletics with or without a Gondola are good.
They probably have odds in Vegas about that also and my guess will be like 10 to 5 odds, that they will build a new park someplace in Oakland. The Howard Terminal is the front runner, with the Oakland Coliseum as the “pinch hitter”if the Terminal strikes out. The San Francisco Giants valuation is $2.85 Billion. Every year teams valuations go up. The average team worth is $1.645 billion, which is 7% more than in 2017.
Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the play-by-play Spanish announcer for the Oakland A’s and is the vice president of the MLB Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum and does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.com
The Seattle Mariners rallied in a five-run seventh inning to beat the Oakland A’s 7-4 and continue a three-game win streak. Matt Chapman hit a solo homer for the green and gold and Khris Davis had a pair of dingers, but Mitch Haniger’s four RBIs and Daniel Vogelbach’s first homer sunk the A’s.
Oakland took a 2-0 lead off Mike Leake after the first on Davis’ third homer of the year, but the M’s rallied in the bottom of the inning to tie the game off starter Andrew Triggs. Matt Chapman continued his Monstrous 2018 by taking Leake deep for his fifth long ball of the year in the top of the sixth inning for a 3-2 lead.
The Mariners broke the tie in the seventh inning after Yusmeiro Pettit picked up a quick two outs to start the frame. Jean Segura singled, chasing Petit in favor of Danny Coulombe. Coulombe walked Robinson Cano, leaving the game for Chris Hatcher. Hatcher coughed up a three-run homer to Mitch Haniger, adding to Haniger’s RBI base hit in the first for a 5-3 lead. Kyle Seager singled and Daniel Vogelbach, DHing for an injured Nelson Cruz, took Hatcher deep for the 7-3 edge.
Khris Davis homered again off Juan Nicasio in the top of the eighth, but Edwin Diaz closed the game out for his fifth save of the year. Couloumbe (0-1, 2.57 ERA) was saddled with the loss, Hatcher with a blown save while Dan Altavilla (1-1, 1.50) picked up the win for his clean top of the seventh inning. Andrew Triggs didn’t factor into the decision, but exited the game in line for the win after the A’s scored in the top of the sixth. He threw five innings of five-hit, two-run ball.
Up Next: The A’s and Mariners meet again Saturday night at 6:10 pm PT.
When Charlie O. Finley, the controversial but successful businessman and owner of the Oakland Athletics, told me in 1977: “Yes, you can broadcast in Mexican,” little could he have envisioned that Hispanics would be the largest minority in California and in the United States some 40 years later.
I never really knew if Finley believed Mexican was an actual language when in fact it’s a nationality. Today, there are 33 different countries in Latin America and the Caribbean–most of them with Spanish as their main language. In Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, Portuguese is the official language. So, regardless of what Finley believed, the fact remains that he was an old school baseball owner who was much involved with his team as he had a passion of the game. He could talk baseball with the best of them. He was an insurance magnate, and when he became involved with baseball as owner, he challenged tradition and changed the game in many ways, especially the marketing with his loco promotions. By the way, the classic A’s Front Office was just a handful of folks–mostly his relatives–who actually used the three World Series trophies to file the mail.
This is what Glenn Dickey wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle about Finley in 1996: “The irony of Charlie Finley’s life was that everybody seemed to focus on what he did poorly and ignore what he did well. His promotions were farcical, often disastrous, but the man put together a baseball team that was the only non-Yankee team to win three straight World Series for the American League.”
But among his many crazy promotions–like the live mascot, a mule called Charlie-O–my all-time favorite was Harvey the Rabbit. And this season, the A’s brought the rabbit back. We now see this mechanical rabbit prior to each game at the Coliseum.
The original Harvey the Rabbit was something special. He was a mechanical rabbit who rose from the grassy ground behind home plate near the umpire with a basket full of baseballs for the umpire to put in play.
Among Finley’s promotions
Orange baseballs: Tried in a few exhibition games, but hitters found it too hard to pick up the spin.
Hired Stanley Burrell (who would later gain worldwide fame as rapper MC Hammer) as Executive Vice President when he was just a teenager to be his “eyes and ears.” Burrell would called Finley on the telephone to give him exclusive updates of what was happening in the game. Sometimes, Burrell will bring us coffee or soda to our broadcasting booth. Burrell was a great kid.
Offered players $300 bonuses to grow mustaches during the championships. For star Hall of Fame relief pitcher Rollie Fingers, the handlebar mustaches he grew for Finley became a trademark.
Finley lived in Chicago, where he died in 1996. He was a great salesman who made a fortune. His flamboyant marketing revolutionized baseball. He changed the traditional uniforms that were white and gray with black shoes and dressed his A’s with Green and Gold uniforms with white shoes, allowed facial hair, which has been making a comeback in baseball in recent years.
Finley owned and operated the Kansas City and Oakland A’s for 20 years. He would come to Oakland for a series of games, sit behind the A’s dugout many times wearing a green blazer and waving an A’s pennant on his right hand. He was passionate and involved like George Steinbrenner was with the New York Yankees years later.
More often than not, Finley would be in his “owners box” at the Coliseum. You could see his reactions to the game. When the team lost, he would not be happy and depending. When they lost, he would be furious. I remember him walking by the press box many times with Sarge (bodyguard) and his friends and/or associates screaming and complaining about a play, an umpire or even his own manager.
Finley was not what they call “politically correct” today. He said what he had in mind. After winning three consecutive World Series, he refused to pay his players millions of dollars to stay with the A’s. So one by one, Catfish, Reggie, Campy and others said “adios” to Oakland.
Finley was the A’s owner as well as their Numero Uno fan. Seldom an owner dominates such way that becomes the face of a franchise, but he was that man.
The only owner today among professional sports that reminds me of Finley is Dallas Mavericks billionaire owner Mark Cuban, but aside from Cuban, who also appears on TV on Shark Tank, most baseball owners today are not like Finley. Depending on what you like, that could be good or bad for the game of baseball.
The Oakland A’s play the Seattle Mariners this weekend in Seattle. The A’s are 5-8 to start the season and have yet to win a series against an opponent. They went 1-3 against the LA Angels to start the season. They split a four-game series with the Texas Rangers and went 1-2 against the Angels last week in Anaheim. Angels’ rookie sensation Shosei Ohtani beat the A’s twice. The A’s then split a two-game set with the Los Angeles Dodgers,
The Mariners are in third place in the AL West with a record of 6-4. So far, they have played the Cleveland Indians, San Francisco Giants, Minnesota Twins, and Kansas City Royals. The series against the A’s will be the first against an AL West opponent.
The teams have announced the pitching matchups for the weekend series. The A’s will send Andrew Triggs to the hill Friday night. Triggs will be making his third start of the young season. Triggs has a record of 1-0 with an ERA of 2.53. In his last start against the Angels, Triggs went 5 2/3rds innings and allowed just 2 runs and 4 hits as he was credited with his first win.
Mike Leake will go for the Mariners. Leake, the former St. Louis Cardinal and San Francisco Giant, owns a record of 2-0 and has a 3.00 ERA. Leake has pitched 12 innings so far and has beaten the Indians and the Twins.
On Friday night, Kendall Graveman will make his fourth start. Things have not gone well for Graveman as he is 0-2 and has an ERA of 9.45. In his three starts, he has pitched a total of 13 and 1/3rd innings and has allowed four runs in each of the starts. Seattle’s lefty Marco Gonzales will oppose Graveman. Gonzales beat the Giants in San Francisco but struggled in his last outing against the Twins. His record stands at 1-1, and his ERA is 7.27.
Sunday will see a matchup of two very good pitchers. The A’s Sean Manaea (1-2, ERA 1.74) has pitched well in all three of his starts. He took the loss Tuesday night against the Dodgers. He gave up home runs to the first two hitters he faced,, but settled down and left the game trailing 2-0. The A’s offense was impotent against the Dodgers and gave him no run support as the A’s fell 4-0.
The Mariners ace, Felix Hernandez will handle the pitching chores against. Hernandez must salivate when he sees the guys in Green and Gold. King Felix has a career record of 25-9 in 46 starts. Felix is 2-1 so far and has beat the Royals last Tuesday, despite giving up three runs and six hits in 5 2/3 innings of work.
The Mariners will be without the services of Nelson Cruz (sprained right ankle), former A’s player Ryon Healy (Grade 2 right ankle sprain), outfielder Ben Gamel ( Right oblique sprain), and catcher Mike Zunino (left oblique sprain.)
The Mariners still have a potent lineup. Robinson Cano will be at second, Jean Segura at short, Kyle Seager at third, and Daniel Vogelbach will be at first base. Dee Gordon, in his first season in Seattle, will be in center field, Mitch Haniger will handle right field, and either Guillermo Heredia or Ichiro Suzuki will play left. The catching chores will be handled by David Freitas or Mike Marjama.
The Mariners’ closer is Edwin Diaz, and the bullpen consists of Dan Altavilla, Chasen Bradford, Nick Vincent, our old friend Marc Rzepczynski, Casey Lawrence, Juan Nicasio, and James Pazos.
The A’s offense got going Wednesday night in Los Angeles when they put 16 runs on the board and recorded 21 hits. They have a powerful lineup with Marcus Semien, Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, and Jed Lowrie handling the infield tasks. Matt Joyce will be in left against right-handed pitchers, Trayce Thompson will be in center, and Stephen Piscotty will be in right. Jake Smolinski and Mark Canha will be the backups. Jonathan Lucroy will handle the catching, but Bruce Maxwell will probably play in one of the games.
This would be a good time for the A’s to win a series and get closer to the .500 mark. The A’s know they can hit with power. Hopefully, they will continue the heavy hitting and not play they way they did last Sunday and Tuesday when they scored just one run and nine hits in 18 innings of action.
Photo credit @OAKA’S: The Oakland A’s Matt Chapman (26) welcomes Jonathan Lucroy (8) home after smashing a homer at Dodgers Stadium on Wednesday night
On the Oakland A’s Podcast with Jerry Feitelberg:
#1 The A’s on the current road trip started out with the Anaheim Angels and on Sunday faced almost perfect pitching against Shohei Ohtani, who nearly threw a perfect game against the A’s. The A’s on Tuesday had to face the Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu, who nearly no hit the A’s, but things on Wednesday turned around as the A’s hit for 16 runs and 22 hits.
#2 The A’s, who had seen some good pitching, got to get a jump on Dodger starter Alex Wood, scoring two runs in the top of first to get their offense started early in Wednesday’s contest.
#3 In the middle innings, the A’s jumped on the Dodgers for five runs in the fourth and then again two runs in the sixth.
#4 The A’s open a three-game series starting Friday night in Seattle. Are the Mariners a team still trying to figure it out or do they have a shot at making things interesting this season? However, former Athletic third baseman Ryon Healy is on the disabled list.
#5 The A’s are encouraged by home runs from Khris Davis, Matt Chapman, and Jed Lowrie in Wednesday’s game.
The Oakland Athletics, who had scored just one run and had but nine hits in their last two games, snapped out of their collective slump and battered Dodger pitching for 16 runs and 21 hits to earn a split of the two-game series.
The A’s were playing by National League rules as they were able to score early and often as they showed that when they are hitting as they did Wednesday night, they can be a formidable opponent.
The A’s scored twice in the first inning. Mark Canha singled with two out. Khris Davis, playing left field, hit an opposite-field dinger to put the A’s in the lead 2-0. For Davis, it was his second big fly of the year and the first since opening day. The Dodgers got one back in the bottom of the first to cut the deficit to one.
The A’s scored five times in the top of the fourth. The Dodgers countered with a run in their half of the inning, but the A’s were rolling at this point 7-2. The A’s scored nine more runs in the last four innings of the game to ice the win. LA scored two in the sixth and one each in the eighth and ninth.
Game notes- Daniel Mengden went five innings and allowed 4 runs, 3 earned, 7 hits, 5 strikeouts and no walks as he won his first game of the campaign and improved to 1-2. Dodger starter lefty Alex Wood’s line was 3, and 2/3rds innings pitched, and he gave up 7 runs on 7 hits. He also struck out five and did not issue a walk.
Hitting stars for Oakland were Marcus Semien, Matt Olson, Khris Davis, Matt Chapman, Jonathan Lucroy, Jed Lowrie, and Daniel Mengden. Semien was 2-for-5, and he had 4 RBIs. Olson, who did not start the game, finished the night with 3 hits and one RBI. Davis had three hits, including a homer, and 2 RBIs. Chapman was 2-for-6, and he had a tater in the 8th with a man on, and he finished the night with 3 RBIs. Jed Lowrie also had three hits including a three-run homer in the ninth and a total of 4 RBIs for the game. Lucroy had three hits, and Mengden knocked in a run with a single.
The Dodger attack was led by Matt Kemp and Yasmani Grandal. Grandal hit a solo home run in the fourth inning off Mengden.
The A’s used four pitchers to improve to 5-8, and they are in fourth place in the AL West. The Dodgers drop to 4-7, and they are residing in fourth place in the NL West/
The A’s are off on Thursday and are on their way to Seattle to face the Mariners. The Mariners are off to a good start with a record of 6-4. The A’s are hoping that their hitters will stay hot this weekend.
