Tag: St.Louis Cardinals

Oakland A’s podcast with Jerry Feitelberg: A’s Mengden demonstrates the evolution of the comeback, shutout Red Birds 2-0

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mercurynews.com photo: Oakland A’s pitcher Daniel Mengden serves up a pitch against the St. Louis Cardinals in a four hit shutout on Wednesday night at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

On the A’s podcast with Jerry Feitelberg:

#1 Oakland A’s pitcher Daniel Mengden is back from his rehab assignment from Las Vegas and pitched a shutout against the St. Louis Cardinals in a 2-0 win.

#2 Mengden pitched for six innings giving up four hits and no runs striking out five. Not bad for his first game of the 2019 season.

#3 Mengden takes over for Frankie Montas’ spot and gets a great performance in after Mengden pitched lights out. The A’s are really looking for someone to also be an effective pitcher as well.

#4 The St. Louis Cardinals players got a chance to honor the St. Louis Blues before the game on Wednesday night by giving the Blues players a ride around the park with the Stanley Cup in the open convertible car.

#5 The A’s are back on the west coast after the St Louis trip and are in Anaheim tonight against the Los Angeles Angels. For the A’s, Tanner Anderson ,who is looking for his first win of 2019 (0-2, 4.20 ERA), and for the Angels, Griffin Canning (2-4, 3.88 ERA).

Catch Jerry on the A’s podcasts each Thursday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

A’s beat the Cardinals 2-0 to sweep the 2-game series

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Photo credit: @Athletics

By Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s, behind Daniel Mengden’s outstanding outing, downed the St. Louis Cardinals 2-0 at Busch Stadium on Wednesday. A’s catcher Beau Taylor hit a solo home run in the fourth, and Matt Chapman homered in the seventh to provide the offense the A’s needed.

The start of the game was delayed a few minutes due to a short rainstorm in the St. Louis area. The Cards gave some time to members of the St. Louis Blues to drive around the stadium with the Stanley Cup. The Blues won the cup for the first time in their history.

Mengden, who was called up from Las Vegas to take Frankie Montas’ position in the starting rotation, pitched exceptionally well. He gave the A’s six innings of work, and he allowed just four hits and no runs. Mengden walked one and struck out five. Yusmeiro Petit worked the seventh, and Joakim Soria the eighth. Both retired the Cardinals in order. Liam Hendriks worked the ninth. With one out, he gave up a double to Marcel Ozuna. Hendriks retired Jose Martinez and Yadier Molina to seal the win for the A’s. Mengden’s record improved to 2-1, and his ERA dropped to 4.09. Hendriks earned his second save. Hendriks is now the closer until Blake Treinen returns from the 10-day IL.

The Card Adam Wainwright also pitched well. He went 6 2/3 innings. He gave up seven hits and two runs. Both runs came on home runs by Beau Taylor (#2) and Matt Chapman (#19). He walked one and struck out nine. He is now 5-7 for the season.

The A’s line was two runs, eight hits, and no errors. The Cards’ line was no runs, five hits, and no errors.

With the win, the A’s are now five games over the .500 mark with a record of 43-38. The Cards drop to 40-39. The A’s picked up a game on the Houston Astros and trail them by seven games. The Texas Rangers won their game, and they lead the A’s by 1 1/2 games in the race for second place in the AL West.

The A’s left for Anaheim after completion of the game. They begin a four-game series with the LA Angels starting Thursday night at 7:07 pm Tanner Anderson (0-2, 4.20 ERA) will go for Oakland, and Griffin Canning (2-4, 3,88 ERA) will pitch for LA.

Time of game was two hours and 46 minutes. 44,871 fans watched the game.

A’s put on a power display to beat the Cardinals 7-3

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Photo credit: @Athletics

By Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s started the six-game road trip with a win over the St. Louis Cardinals 7-3 at Busch Stadium on Tuesday night. The A’s won the sixth of their last eight games and moved four games over the .500 mark with a 42-38 record.

The A’s put one on the board in the top of the second when first baseman Matt Olson bashed his 13th of the year. The lead didn’t last long as the Cardinals plated three off A’s starter Chris Bassitt. The Cards led 3-1 after two.

The A’s plated six in the top of the fifth. Josh Phegley led off with a double. Chad Pinder followed with his seventh big fly to tie the game. Marcus Semien hit a back-to-back jack to give Oakland the lead 4-3. The A’s scored three more in the inning. Matt Chapman and Matt Olson singled to put men on with one out. Cards starter Jack Flaherty retired Ramon Laureano for the second out. Former Cardinal, Stephen Piscotty, singled to drive in Chapman. Khris Davis entered the game as a pinch-hitter, and he came through with a double to drive in Olson and Piscotty. The A’s led 7-3.

Chris Bassitt was relieved in the bottom of the fourth. He went 3 1/3 innings in his shortest outing in 12 starts this year. Bob Melvin brought in J.B. Wendelken to pitch. Wendelken finished the fourth and was the pitcher of record. He was credited with his first Major League win. His record is now 1-1.  The A’s used four more relievers to finish the game. They held the Cards scoreless over the last five innings to seal the win for the A’s

Game two of the two-game series will be played Wednesday in St. Louis. The A’s will start Daniel Mengden, who was recalled from Las Vegas to take the spot in the rotation that was created when Frankie Montas was suspended for 80 games for the use of an illegal substance. The Cards will have the veteran pitcher, Adam Wainwright on the hill. Wainwright is 5-6 and has a 4.50 ERA. It will be his third career start against the A’s.

Oakland A’s podcast with Charlie O: A’s get some light at the end of the tunnel with some pitchers returning

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sfgate.com photo: Oakland Athletics catcher Josh Phegley, right, tags out Tampa Bay Rays’ Austin Meadows, center, at home as umpire Jim Reynolds (77) watches during the third inning of a baseball game in Oakland, Calif., Sunday, June 23, 2019.

On the Oakland A’s podcast with Charlie O:

#1 After the A’s loss of Frankie Montas and Blake Treinen, the A’s are looking at having some pitchers come back and others they will have to wait for and might be able to fill the void with Jesus Luzardo, Sean Manaea, Brian Schlitter, AJ Puk, Jharel Cotton, and Yusmeiro Petit.

#2 The A’s travel to St. Louis for two games starting on Tuesday night at Busch Stadium. The A’s take a 41-38 record to start the road trip and are in third in the AL West. The Cardinals are in third place at 40-37 and just two games out of first place. Charlie O tells us how he sees this series.

#3  Charlie talks about some of the Cardinals that the A’s starters will be facing: first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, third baseman Matt Carpenter, outfielders Marcel Ozuna, Jose Martinez, Dexter Fowler, and Harrison Bader and catchers Yadier Molina and Matt Wieters.

#4 Charlie talked about the odd schedule that had the A’s in St Louis for just two games and they have to fly back to the west coast to Los Angeles for a four-game series starting on Thursday with no day off in between after playing the Cards on Wednesday’s get away game.

#5 Starting pitchers on Tuesday for the A’s Chris Bassitt (4-3, 3.64 ERA), and for the St. Louis Cardinals, Jack Flaherty (4-4, 4.24 ERA). Charlie O clues us in on the matchups.

Charlie O does the Oakland A’s podcasts each Tuesday night at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Preview: A’s-Cards to open 2-game series starting Tuesday night

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photo from the stltoday.com: St Louis Cardinal catcher Yadier Molina congratulates Los Angeles Angels star Albert Pujols in Pujols’ last appearance in Busch Stadium in St. Louis on Sunday.

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s, with a record of 41-38, travel to St.Louis to play two games against the Cardinals. The Cardinals are 40-37 and are in third place in the NL Central. They trail the Chicago Cubs by two games in the race for first place in the division. They are 1/2 game behind the Milwaukee Brewers for second place.

The A’s will be facing a team that is always in the mix for a post-season berth. The Cardinals have a lineup with players that can send the ball out of the park. The key players for the Cardinals are first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, third baseman Matt Carpenter, outfielders Marcel Ozuna, Jose Martinez, Dexter Fowler, and Harrison Bader. The catching chores are shared by Yadier Molina and Matt Wieters.

The Cardinals obtained Goldschmidt from the Arizona Diamondbacks last winter. So far, Goldschmidt is hitting .260 and has 14 home runs and 31 RBIs. Carpenter is having an off-year hitting .218, but has hit 10 dingers. Left-fielder Marcel Ozuna is the big power man on the team. Ozuna, in his second year in St. Louis, has 20 homers and 62 RBIs so far.

The pitching matchups will see Chris Bassitt going for Oakland on Tuesday. Bassitt (4-3, 3.64 ERA) pitched well last week against Baltimore. The A’s are hoping the magic rubs off against the Cardinals. Jack Flaherty (4-4, 4.24 ERA) will be the Cardinals’ starter. On Wednesday, Tanner Anderson will be the A’s choice to pitch, and the Cardinals will counter with the veteran Adam Wainwright.

The Cardinals’ bullpen will feature Andrew Miller and Genesis Cabrera from the left side. Their righties are John Brebbia, Giovanny Gallegos, John Gant, Jordan Hicks, and Carlos Martinez. Martinez has been designated as the team’s closer.

Since the game is being played in a National League Park, the A’s will not be able to use the Designated Hitter. A’s right-fielder- Stephen Piscotty will be making his first trip back to St. Louis. Piscotty was traded to the A’s before the start of the 2018 season.

On paper, the teams appear to be evenly matched. The A’s are having problems dealing with the loss of Frankie Montas and Blake Treinen. Montas is gone for 80 games, and Treinen has been placed on the 10-day IL with a shoulder issue.

The A’s finish the six-game road trip with four with the LA Angels in Anaheim. The Cardinals will play the A’s again in Oakland on August 3rd and 4th.

Cardinals break out the brooms following 9-2 rout of the Giants

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Photo credit: @Cardinals

By Jeremy Kahn

After starting the final road trip of the 2018 season with consecutive victories, the road trip ended up being a nightmare for the San Francisco Giants. In particular, the St. Louis Cardinals.

Yairo Munoz drove in the only run that Miles Mikolas would need with a single that scored Jedd Gyorko, as the Cardinals completed a three-sweep with a 9-2 victory over the Giants at Busch Stadium on Sunday.

Mikolas, who won for the 17th time on the season against just four losses, went seven innings, allowing just one run, walking a batter and striking out eight, as the Cards keep pace for the second Wild Card spot in the National League behind their division rival, the Milwaukee Brewers.

Not only did Mikolas come up big on the mound, but he helped himself out with a single to right field in the bottom of the fourth inning to score Harrison Bader.

The Cards broke the game wide open in the bottom of the sixth inning, as they scored five runs that got started when Bader hit into a fielders’ choice that scored Patrick Wisdom.

Munoz drove in his second run of the afternoon, as he singled to score Yadier Molina and then Andrew Suarez’s day ended and was replaced by Pierce Johnson, Jose Martinez doubled to score Bader and Munoz. Paul DeJong put the capper on the inning, as he singled to score Tyler O’Neill.

Brandon Crawford drove in the lone runs for the Giants in the top of the seventh inning, as he hit a two-run home run that also scored Evan Longoria.

Matt Carpenter hit a two-run home run for the Cards in the bottom of the eighth inning to put the finishing touches on the scoring.

Suarez went five innings, allowing two runs on six hits, walking one and struck out five and saw his record fall to 7-12 in his rookie season.

NOTES: Over their last 12 road games of the season, the Giants went 2-10, that included an 0-6 road trip when the Giants were swept by the Colorado Rockies and the Milwaukee Brewers.

In the month of September, the Giants are 4-16 in their 20 games during the month.

UP NEXT: The Giants return to AT&T Park to host the Padres for a three-game series starting Monday night at 7:15 pm PDT.

Derek Holland begins the Giants’ final homestand on Monday night, as he looks for his eighth win for the season, while the Padres will send Bryan Mitchell to the hill, as he searches for his second win of the season.

O’Neill ends it with a walk-off to lift the Cardinals to a 5-4 win over the Giants

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Photo credit: taiwannews.com.tw

By Jeremy Kahn

Tyler O’Neill ended Saturday afternoon’s game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants with one swing of the bat.

O’Neill smashed a solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the 10th inning, helping the Cardinals to their fifth win in their last six games with a 5-4 victory over the Giants at Busch Stadium.

Mark Melancon served up the O’Neill home run, as the Cards smacked their team record eighth walkoff home run of the season.

It was the ninth home run of the season for O’Neill, as they remain in the second spot for the National League Wild Card game and remain behind their division rival, the Milwaukee Brewers for the top spot.

The win by the Cards gave the victory to closer Carlos Martinez, who improved to 8-6 on the season, while Melancon drops to 0-3 for the Giants, who have dropped their last three games.

Adam Wainwright made just his third start of the season for the Cards, as he went 6.1 innings, allowing four runs on eight hits, walking no one and striking out six.

Things were looking good for the Giants, as they led the Cards 4-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning, but Yadier Molina tied up the game with a two-run home run off of Giants starter Dereck Rodriguez.

Aramis Garcia came up with a big hit in the top of the seventh inning, as he gave the Giants a 3-2 lead. Garcia picked up four hits on the afternoon for the Giants.

Garcia went 4-for-4 on the afternoon, a career-high and Garcia now has hits in 10 out of his last 12 games.

Gregor Blanco extended the Giants lead up to 4-2, as he grounded into a fielder’s choice that scored Garcia.

Molina tied up the game with his 19th home run of the season off of Rodriguez, whose day ended following the Molina home run.

Rodriguez went six innings, allowing four runs on seven hits, walking one and striking out two and he will make one start next weekend against the Los Angeles Dodgers at AT&T Park.

This was the first time since his second major league start against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park on June 9 that Rodriguez allowed three or more earned runs in the same game. Rodriguez went 15 consecutive games without allowing three runs or fewer.

Joe Panik picked up three hits and drove in a run for the Giants.

NOTES: Garcia is the first Giants rookie since Austin Slater on June 15, 2017 against the Colorado Rockies on June 18, 2017, to have a four-hit game in his rookie season.

The four-hit game by Garcia came one day after the rookie struck out four times in the same game. Garcia is the first to accomplish this feat since Hunter Pence did it from July 22-24, 2015 and only the second Giants player to do it since 1913, this according to STATS, LLC.

Garcia is only the fifth rookie in major league history to strikeouts four times in a game, and then four hits in the game. He joins Andre Ethier of the Dodgers in 2006, Travis Hafner of the Cleveland Indians in 2003. Roberto Meija of the Colorado Rockies and Craig Paquette of the Oakland A’s also in 1993.

Panik made his professional debut at first base, as he started the game at first base and it was the first time that Panik started there on the minor league or the Major League level.

UP NEXT: The Giants and Cards wrap up their series Sunday at 11:15 am PDT.

Andrew Suarez puts an end to the road trip and the Giants 2018 road schedule, as he takes the Busch Stadium mound for the first time in his Major League career, while Mike Mikolas takes the mound for the Cards.

Adams hits a big home run; Cardinals beat Giants 5-3

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Photo credit: @Cardinals

By Jeremy Kahn

Matt Adams hit a big home run for the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2014 National League Championship Series, and he came up with a big hit in the opener of their three-game series against the San Francisco Giants.

Adams, who hit a home run off of Hunter Strickland in the bottom of the eighth inning in Game 2 of the 2014 NLCS hit a two-run, pinch-hit double off of Tony Watson in the bottom of the eighth inning, as the Cardinals defeated the Giants 5-3 at Busch Stadium.

Harrison Bader got the eighth inning rally started with a two-out walk off of Mark Melancon, then Yairo Munoz singled before Melancon was replaced by Watson, who gave up the two-run double to Adams.

Reliever John Brebbia struck out the side in the top of the eighth inning to pick up his fifth win of the season for the Cards, while Carlos Martinez, who was celebrating his 27th birthday notched his fourth save in as many opportunities.

Marcell Ozuna drove in the first run of the game for the Cardinals, as he singled to drive in Matt Carpenter in the bottom of the first inning.

Chris Shaw tied up the game in the top of the third inning, as he drew a walk against Cards starter John Gant to score Evan Longoria.

It was a big night for Longoria, who went 3-for-5 on the evening for the Giants, who have lost 14 out of their 18 games, including a season-long 11-game losing streak.

Gant did not get of the third inning, as he went just 2.2 innings, allowing one run on four hits, walking three and striking out three and threw 67 pitches in those 2.2 innings.

Kolten Wong gave the Cards the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning, as he singled off of Madison Bumgarner to score Bader.

Wong came up with his second hit and second run batted in in as many innings, as he singled off of Bumgarner in the bottom of the sixth inning to score Jedd Gyorko.

Bumgarner pitched six innings, allowing three runs on eight hits, walking one and striking out five.

The Giants tied up the game in the top of the seventh inning, as Gregor Blanco singled to score Austin Slater and then Longoria tied up the game with a ground ball to first base that scored Alen Hanson.

NOTES: Brandon Belt is done for the season, as he underwent surgery to clean up his torn meniscus and cartilage damage in his right knee. This was the second surgery of the season for Belt, who underwent an emergency appendectomy on June 2 after he left the game against the Philadelphia Phillies. Belt should be ready when the team meets again in Scottsdale, Ariz. in February at their Spring Training Complex.

This season, Belt hit .253 with 14 home runs and 46 RBIs for the Giants.

UP NEXT: The Giants and Cards continue their series with game two Saturday at 10:05 am PDT.

Dereck Rodriguez goes for his seventh win of the season, as he takes the mound against Adam Wainwright, who looks for his third win of the season for the Cards. Wainwright is 6-7 against the Giants in his career, while Rodriguez will face the Cards for the second time in his career. Rodriguez faced the Cards on July 6, where he did not fare in the decision of a 3-2 Giants victory.

Giants to face Cardinals; could play spoiler in St. Louis

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Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Harness

The San Francisco Giants are fresh off of taking two of three games from the San Diego Padres, but they have a new challenge on their hands as they head into the weekend.

They will now travel to St. Louis for a three-game series with the Cardinals, a series that starts Friday night at Busch Stadium.

Unlike the Giants, the Cards definitely have something to play for at this time of the year.

St. Louis currently holds an 84-69 record and currently hold the second wild card spot in the National League. If the playoffs started today, the Cards would travel to Milwaukee for a one-game elimination against the Brewers, who they trail by three games.

The National League Central crown is not completely out of the question, but chances become dimmer as the games go by. The division-leading Cubs are 5 1/2 games ahead of the Cardinals and only 2 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Brewers.

However, the Cards’ playoff spot is far from guaranteed. In fact, they only sit a game and a half in front of the Colorado Rockies for the last playoff spot.

For the Cards, the mission to stay in the postseason race continues Friday night against the Giants. Madison Bumgarner (6-6, 3.14 ERA) will take the ball for the Giants on Friday against Cards righty John Gant (7-6, 3.53 ERA).

Gant has won four of his last six decisions, but he got shelled in his last outing. He surrendered six runs on six hits, including a pair of damaging home runs, in only 4 1/3 innings as the Cards were routed by the Dodgers, 17-4.

Giants rookie Dereck Rodriguez (6-4, 2.30 ERA) will go Saturday afternoon against Cards veteran righty Adam Wainwright (2-3, 3.72 ERA).

Giants’ Andrew Suarez (7-11, 4.24 ERA) will hope to start turning things around on Sunday as he takes the mound against Cards righty Miles Mikolas (16-4, 3.01 ERA), who has won five of his last six decisions, including each of his last three.

Samardzija looks good, despite Giants’ hard-fought 3-2 loss to Cardinals

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Photo credit: @mlbtraderumors

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO — With the exception of one bad inning, it was a sufficient return for Jeff Samardzija to the San Francisco Giants’ starting rotation before game three versus the St. Louis Cardinals.

Carlos Martinez helped out his own cause, as he doubled in the top of the third inning, as the Cardinals defeated the Giants 3-2 before a crowd of 39,606 at AT&T Park on Saturday afternoon.

Martinez’s double scored Kolten Wong, who singled to lead-off the inning, went to second on a Francisco Pena ground out and then scored on the Martinez double.

With the loss, the Giants have lost five out of their last six following the sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks from June 29 to July 1.

During this six game stretch, the Giants are hitting .167, as they are 31-for-186 at the plate against the Colorado Rockies and the Cardinals.

The Cardinals added two runs in the top of the fourth inning, as Dexter Fowler hit a sacrifice fly that scored Marcell Ozuna. After the Ozuna singled with one out in the inning, Paul DeJong then singled Ozuna to third base.

Wong picked up his second hit in as many at-bats, and then Francisco Pena drove in DeJong with a sharp single of his own.

Through the first three games of the series, Wong has multi-hit games in all three games and is batting .500 (6-for-12) with a double, triple and two runs batted in.

Brandon Belt drove in the Giants’ lone run of the afternoon in the bottom of the sixth inning, as he doubled off the right field wall to score Gorkys Hernandez, who led off the inning with a single.

Belt got back in on the act in the bottom of the eighth inning, as he singled off of Cardinals reliever Jordan Hicks, who replaced Martinez in the bottom of the frame.

Alen Hanson singled with one out, went to second on a Hicks wild pitch and then scored on Belt’s third hit in four at-bats.

The 41 runs batted in by Belt lead the team, as he drove in both runs in the one-run loss.

Martinez went seven innings, allowing one run on six hits, while walking no one and striking out three, as he improved to 6-4 on the season.

Samardzija ended up going five innings, allowing three runs on seven hits, walking just one and striking out three, as he fell to 1-5 on the season.

This was the first game all season that the Giants’ top three starters of Madison Bumgarner, Johnny Cueto and Samardzija were active at the same time. Bumgarner missed 60 games, Cueto missed 70 games and Samardzija missed 53 games.

NOTES: Bumgarner will take the mound on Sunday, as the Giants look to salvage the finale and he attempts to raise his record to 2-3 on the season. The Cardinals will look to take the series, as they will send Jack Flaherty to the mound, as he looks to improve to 4-4 on the season.

As expected, Joe Panik was placed on the 10-day disabled list with a left groin strain, and the contract of Chase d’Arnaud was purchased from Triple-A Sacramento.

To make room for d’Arnaud on the 40-man roster, Hunter Strickland was transferred to the 60-day disabled list.

With Samardzija coming off the disabled list, Chris Stratton was optioned to Sacramento. Prior to being optioned to Sacramento, Stratton was 8-6 on the season with a 4.93 earned run average.

Since the 2017 season, the Giants have lost six out of their last eight games against the Cardinals, and have been outscored 48-23 during that stretch.

UP NEXT: The Giants and Cardinals conclude their four-game series on Sunday afternoon at 1:05 pm PDT.