Headline Sports podcast with Barbara Mason: Big Papi is happy to see his family in the DR again; Rays need Sogard’s bat to get into the wild card race; plus more

Photo credit: @Complex

On Headline Sports with Barbara Mason:

#1 Former Boston Red Sox David Ortiz is back home in the Dominican Republic after suffering a near assassination attempt. He said he’s glad to see his family again and is looking forward to eating his favorite foods again.

#2 Former Oakland A’s infielder Eric Sogard was with the Toronto Blue Jays this season and now joins the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays were looking to boost their lineup. Sogard is hitting .300 this season.

#3 The Oakland A’s continue to battle in the AL Wild Card race they got a walkoff walk on Sunday when A’s hitter Khris Davis walked to force a runner in from third base with the base loaded for a 7-6 win over the visiting Texas Rangers.

#4 San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo will start throwing against the scrimmage defense with pads on and head coach Kyle Shanahan will get an idea how everything should look as far as blocking is concerned.

#5 Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr and wide receiver Antonio Brown are all set to throw and catch and make it happen in camp as they prepare for their first preseason game on Saturday Aug 10th at the Oakland Coliseum against the Los Angeles Rams.

Barbara does the Headline podcasts each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Raiders don’t have a lot of margin for error

by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Raiders have not won in the eastern time zone in something like seven or eight games they’ve had a rough go of it. That cross country trip for the west coast teams is always a difficult one and with the Raiders not being very good that makes it even more difficult. This is a game that the Raiders probably should have won.

They had their chances there certainly was no lack of opportunity in this one they could have won on a lack of occasions but you just can’t turn the ball over in these kinds of games. If your going to win on the road you have to protect the football and the Raiders didn’t. Quarterback Terrelle Pryor fumbled the ball he had an interception and Pryor wasn’t able to make a whole lot of plays in the passing game.

If your going to return an interception for a touchdown and make a couple plays on defense your offense has to support you and Pryor in the last couple of games has not done that. Against the Giants he was 11-26 for only 122 yards with no touchdown passes and really on the ground he wasn’t anymore effective he was only five rushes for 19 yards.

So when Pryor had been effective when he’s been running the ball and that’s opened up things for the pass and that’s made the Raiders successful as a whole. The last two games none of that has happened it might be the team that’s catching up to them. They’ve seen enough tape they know some of their tendencies, they know they’re going to protect against the run.

The Giants forced Pryor to run, they feel like if he’s going to pass the ball he’s not going to win he’s just not accurate anymore. It also didn’t help at the Meadowlands which is a tough place to throw the football because the winds are pretty crazy out there. I don’t think that was any help out there, with the Raiders they have to be successful.

On the ground with Pryor and through the air with Pryor they weren’t either of those and Raiders running back Rashad Jennings had a decent enough game with 20 rushes for 88 yards. That’s not a dynamic offense for the Raiders. They’re looking for playmakers they don’t have a lot of them in fact their biggest playmaker is Pryor if he doesn’t make any plays the offense is really in a tough spot.

The turnovers and the lack of play on offense really hurt them and if the Raiders are going to win these games they don’t have a lot of margin for error and they had a lot of errors so they lost this one to the  Giants.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio