Uncategorized

In for John Hickey …

One win and a Rangers loss. Or two wins and to hell with the Rangers. The A’s are on the doorstep of a second straight A.L. West division title, it’d definitely going to happen, and maybe the only surprising thing about that is that so many of them are unprepared for the scenario of a possible clinch Saturday, which would involve beating up on the Twins again and then waiting around — perhaps several hours — to see if the Rangers lose again to Kansas City.

As I wrote in the game story, the A’s have never really encountered this kind of clinching situation in their Oakland history. In 1992, they clinched the division on an off-day, and everybody simply gathered at a sports bar in Jack London Square to celebrate, according to clubhouse manager Steve Vucinich. But winning and then waiting? Never. So it should be intriguing to see what they do.
Continue Reading →

In for John Hickey …

Struggling reliever Ryan Cook worked in the bullpen well before the game under the observation of Bob Melvin and Curt Young. The A’s know they have to get Cook straightened out before the playoffs, but Melvin is confident that will happen.

“If you remember, he went through one of these last year and he got through it,” Melvin said. “He’s a competitor and it bothers him when he’s not contributing how he’d like to. So he’s going to fight his way through it, and he’ll get through it. Sean Doolittle went through a little bit of a tough time, and so will Cookie.”
Continue Reading →

The first baseman will host a live chat from Anaheim as his Oakland Athletics close out the regular season and prepare for the playoffs.

Not much to say for this one other than the fact that despite a 12-1 shellacking to the Angels, the A’s still reduced their magic number to 7 with Texas’ latest loss (the Rangers may never win again, it appears).

Have to say, though, the Mike Trout home run in the eighth inning off Pedro Figueroa was worth the price of admission, one of the longest blasts I’ve ever seen at the Coliseum, and I go back to the Kingman/McGwire/Canseco days. It hit off a window of a luxury suite in straightaway center, some 30 feet above the 400-foot sign. It was traveling on a line when it caromed off the glass, so one can only surmise how far the ball might have traveled unimpeded. Even to the point of where it struck the window, it was measured at 421 feet from home plate (and that doesn’t account for the height).

Jarrod Parker didn’t have it on this night, but it appears he might have still been feeling some after-effects of the illness that derailed him Sunday and he was pitching with an extra day’s rest. That’s good for most pitchers this time of year, but Parker has had such a magnificent rhythm pitching every five days, and he admitted afterward it felt like it’d been forever since he was out there.

So it’s 19 consecutive starts without a defeat, good for second in franchise history dating back to 1901. Not bad. Parker was 9-0 during that run but the A’s were only 12-7. It’s probably fitting that Parker didn’t equal or surpass Lefty Grove’s phenomenal run in 1931, when he went 21 starts without a defeat. After all, Grove actually won all 21 of those starts with 20 complete games. He also made 10 relief appearances during that streak. He was 31-4 that season.

With apologies to Parker, numbers like that deserve to remain No. 1.

–
Don’t forget our live chat with outfielder Josh Reddick Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. — a rare chance to connect with an A’s player online.

Have your questions ready Oakland as A’s fan-favorite Josh Reddick joins us for a live chat.

In Minnesota last night, a young fan in the stands mistakes the ball for a tasty treat.

In for John Hickey …

Just 20 more to go. No one can predict how the American League West is going to play out, but when you get an effort like Dan Straily provided Saturday, you have to feel like your chances just got a lot better. Straily has arguably been Oakland’s most unpredictable starter, but you simply can’t ignore the fact that he is 3-0 since Kurt Suzuki has returned to the team.

For my money, it’s not coincidence. When you think about how many young pitchers the veteran catcher has helped nurture to prominence, you can’t help but believe there is method to Bob Melvin having had Suzuki behind the plate for all three of Straily’s starts since he’s been back.

Nothing against Derek Norris or Stephen Vogt, but Suzuki is a take-charge guy behind the plate and he knows how to maximize a pitcher’s strengths. He seems to have made a quick connection with Straily, who has been very confident and much more in control of his repertoire in recent starts. Part of that is maturity, of course, but it’s clear Suzuki understands that if Straily can just command his fastball and get ahead in counts, he can use his unreal slider as an out pitch.

While making sure to praise all of the A’s catchers and say that he feels comfortable pitching to any of them, Straily relayed a story that tipped off Suzuki’s edge. He said Suzuki came to him the first time he caught him and told him not to worry about bouncing his slider in the dirt, that if any of them got away, they would be completely on him. Suzuki, of course, is one of the best, if not the best, at blocking balls in the dirt, so Straily may have a bit more confidence snapping off that pitch knowing it’s not going to carom to the backstop. He’s been throwing some filthy ones lately. The one he struck out Brett Wallace with in the sixth inning Saturday, in particular, was an absolute beauty.

In my game story, I fashioned a case for Straily as a late-rush Rookie of the Year candidate. He has as many wins as any A.L. rookie starter. He’s made more starts, pitched more innings and struck out more batters than any other rookie starter, and he’s dropped his ERA to 4.15, which is close to his season low. The bet here is that Detroit shortstop Jose Iglesias is probably going to win the award, and Tampa Bay starter Chris Archer is probably a close second, but at least Straily has worked his way into the conversation.

Saturday may have been his best start yet and even though the A’s only gave him two runs of support — solo homers by Yoenis Cespedes and Jed Lowrie (both bombs) — he pitched coolly and confidently and made those runs stand up through seven innings. One walk and very few three-ball counts, too. Two hits. Seven strikeouts.

It’s a heck of a sign, particularly knowing that Straily’s next turn will be in Arlington against the Rangers next weekend. I was on the road trip in which Straily outdueled Yu Darvish in Texas, so he’s obviously not intimidated by pitching there. But you can bet Suzuki will be behind the plate for that one.

In for John Hickey …

Whew, like my iPhone, still trying to get my internal main battery charged up after covering the closest you can come to a perfect game without actually throwing one Friday night in San Francisco. Fortunately, I also covered Dallas Braden’s perfect game in May of 2010, so personally, I can live with the result. In fact, I may actually have seen something rarer. There have been 23 perfect games in major league history and I’ve seen one of those. But there have only been 12 perfect games broken up with two outs in the ninth and now I’ve seen one of those. And I was also on hand Nolan Ryan’s seventh. So I think my bucket list is complete on no-nos, perfectos and near-perfectos.

It’s interesting that A’s manager Bob Melvin had some insight into Yusmeiro Petit. He managed him in Arizona for a couple of seasons.

“I do remember him pitching some good games in San Francisco,” Melvin recalled. “That’s a good ballpark for him. He can keep the ball in the middle of the field. It’s a big park there. He’s able to keep the ball off the barrel of the bat when he’s good, and he mixes his pitches up. He’s got a little crossfire to him across his body, and there have been times when he’s been really good. Hats off to him, that was a terrific performance yesterday.”

Melvin also spoke to why Petit hasn’t been able to find a stable home in the majors.

“I think it’s because of some consistency issues with him,” he said. “He’ll be good at times and then he won’t be at time. His problem when I was with him is getting the ball up in the zone, and when you don’t throw that hard your fastball is fairly straight. You can give up some homers. But from what I see, he’s pitched pretty well. When he’s down in the zone, he’s much more difficult to deal with.”

–Melvin said Grant Balfour, who threw 37 pitches in a rocky ninth inning Friday, isn’t available today against the Astros and Sunday will depend on how Balfour feels. While Balfour has lost a bit of stuff in recent outings and hasn’t been all that sharp, either, the manager isn’t too worried.

“He may be trying to overthrow his fastball a little bit,” Melvin said. “He had three days off. If you really look at how the inning went down, there’s an infield hit, a potential double play ball, a poke to right. He didn’t walk anybody. So granted his stuff may not have been as crisp as it was earlier in the year, but there are going to be periods of time when struggle a little bit and it’s not just the closer. It could be anybody, but it’s more magnified when it is the closer because he’s the last line of defense.”

Sean Doolittle went through a similar rough patch recently and now seems to be back in form.

“You have to stay confident with those guys and sometimes you have to let them fail,” Melvin said. “But sometimes it’s a little easier to make an adjustment with a setup guy than the closer.”

–Coco Crisp is not in the lineup, but it’s a schedule day-after-night off day.

“This day was on the docket for him,” Melvin said. “We try to be careful with him and keep him healthy. He plays hard, and he plays that style every inning of every game, so we’ve gotten ourselves in trouble at times maybe pushing him a little too far, with the wrist on top of that. So it’s always difficult to do, it’s not like I enjoy giving him a day off at this point in time, but we feel it’s the prudent thing to do. We have a game tomorrow and then another off day after that, then 16 in a row. Again, it’s difficult to do, but sometimes you have to do difficult things.”

Jed Lowrie’s the leadoff man, and here are the full lineups:

OAK: SS Lowrie, CF Young, 3B Donaldson, LF Cespedes, 1B Freiman, 2B Callaspo, DH Norris, RF Choice, C Suzuki. RHP Straily (8-7, 4.38)

HOU: SS Villar, 2B Altuve, RF Crowe, DH Castro, 3B Dominguez, LF Carter, 1B Wallace, C Pagnozzi, CF Barnes. LHP Oberholtzer (4-1, 2.79)

HOU:

Have to make a quick exit, so here’s tonight’s game story …

In the 13 days prior to Monday, the A’s played four of the best teams in the American League, posted a 9-4 record, and looked every bit a baseball club on an express train to the playoffs.

Monday night, however, the train jumped the tracks a bit. Oakland played the worst team in the A.L., the Houston Astros, and looked far less full speed ahead in a 3-2 defeat before an announced Coliseum crowd of just 11,569.

The A’s have to hope this curious setback was an anomaly rather than a trend against teams under .500 and out of the postseason picture. Other than their three-game series against the Texas Rangers next weekend in Arlington, the A’s play 19 of their final 22 games against also-rans.

After winning their first 10 games of the year against Houston, the A’s have now lost four of six to the lowly Astros, and three of four to them in Oakland. On this night, they were done in for the most part by right-hander Brad Peacock, a pitcher they included in the trade for infielder Jed Lowrie and had already beaten twice this season.

Peacock (4-5) gave up just three hits, one walk and struck out nine through the first seven innings against a team that pummeled Texas’ Yu Darvish little more than 24 hours before. But the A’s were quick to say Peacock’s effort was not a fluke.

“I had the opportunity to catch Peacock a lot in the minor leagues, and he has the capability to have pretty good stuff,” said Josh Donaldson. “I think we let him get a little comfortable early. The longer the game went, the stronger he got.”

Manager Bob Melvin agreed.

“(Peacock) was getting ahead of us and we probably didn’t make the adjustment until it was a little bit late,” he said. “Once he got ahead, his stuff was much better than we’ve seen.”

But were the A’s flat after their great run?

“I don’t know, I don’t think we came out blazing,” Donaldson said. “It was just one of those days where … I don’t what happened. Come back (Friday) and try to get a win.”

The A’s finally did stage an offensive rally in the eighth inning that chased Peacock, but it came up a run short from tying the game, and then Oakland was shut down by Houston’s fourth pitcher, Josh Fields, in a 1-2-3 ninth.

The meager offensive output ruined another terrific start by rookie right-hander Sonny Gray, who pitched eight innings and retired 20 of the final 21 hitters he faced. He walked one and struck out seven.

But the Astros jumped on Gray (2-3) for six hits and three runs in the first two innings on a two-out RBI single by another former Athletic, Chris Carter and then notched two more runs in the second.

Gray recorded an opening strikeout but then gave up consecutive singles to the No. 8 and 9 hitters, L.J. Hoes and Matt Pagnozzi. He struck out Jonathan Villar for the second out, but Altuve singled to left to bring home Hoes and left fielder Cespedes allowed the ball to carom hard off of his glove into the bullpen and Pagnozzi scored as well.

“I’ve got to do a better job earlier in the game,” said Gray. “I kind of got us off to kind of rough start and we were digging ourselves out of a hole the whole game. They didn’t hit the ball hard, but I wasn’t executing my pitches, especially in the second inning.”

Melvin said his young pitcher could have received more support both in the field and at the plate.

“We didn’t play really great behind him,” Melvin said. “We were a little in-between on a couple of plays and those things end up costing you in close games. But then he settled in really nicely, similar to what he’s done here recently, which was pitch very well.”
–

Quick note: Melvin was not available to the media until well after the game, but he said later he had to deal with a personal matter not relating to the game.

Have questions about the Oakland A’s? John Hickey will provide all the answers during a live chat.