Headline Sports podcast with London Marq: Warriors’ Green looked as the “quarterback” of the team; A’s look to have a better week on 9-game road trip; plus more

Photo credit: @nbastats

On Headline Sports podcast with London:

#1 How key has Golden State’s Draymond Green for this Golden State team? He has been called the quarterback of the team.

#2 Green was called for a foul on the Toronto Raptors’ Pascal Siakam. It was Green who said he would stop Siakam after he scored 32 points on Green in Game 1 and got an earful from rapper Drake on the way back to the dressing room after the game.

#3 What happened to the A’s? They’ve lost five straight games after winning 10 straight and are in Anaheim vs. the LA Angels for three straight games the A’s snapped the losing streak with a win over the Angels on Tuesday night.

#4  The Philadelphia Phillies’ Jay Bruce was added to their lineup for some power, but low and behold former San Francisco Giants outfielder Andrew McCutchen, who tore his ACL and will be out for the rest of the season. The Phillies, who are in first place by a half game over the Braves, will miss McCutchen’s bat out of the lineup.

#5 Back to basketball, how does Golden State handle the absence of a couple of their key players Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant?

London Marq does the Headline Sports podcast each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

A’s Thursday off day report: Preview of A’s-Mariners series starting Friday

By Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s return home after a successful 6-2 road trip. The A’s were beating the Tigers in one game that was suspended due to bad weather. That game will be completed when the Tigers play the A’s in September. The two losses on the trip happened when the A’s played the Mariners in Seattle.

The Mariners and A’s have met four times this season, and the M’s have won them all. The A’s lost the first two in Japan to open the season and the last two in Seattle on May 13th and 14th. The games in Seattle were close. The Mariners won on May 13th 6-5 even though the A’s hit five home runs in that game. They beat the A’s again on May 14th, 4-3. Since that time the A’s won three in Detroit and three in Cleveland.

The A’s have also moved up in the standings in the AL Central. Oakland ‘s record is 25-25, and they are in third place just 1/2 game behind the surprising Texas Rangers. Seattle, on the other hand, played well to start the season but have fallen on hard times. They currently reside in last place in the AL West with a record of 23-29. They have lost 3 in a row and are 3-7 in their previous 10 games.

The Mariners have placed several key players on the 10-day IL. They include second baseman Dee Gordon, first baseman Ryon Healy, pitcher King Felix Hernandez, and third baseman Kyle Seager.

The Mariners still have a potent lineup. First baseman Daniel Vogelbach, DH Edwin Encarnacion, outfielders Jay Bruce, Domingo Santana, and Mitch Haniger all have power, and all of them have hurt the A’s with their bats. Infielder Tim Beckham has also punished the A’s with his power.

The pitching matchups for the series will be the following. On Friday, Oakland will send Daniel Mengden (1-1 3.65 ERA) out to pitch. Mengden is 0-2 with an ERA of 5.89 in four career starts against the Mariners. The Mariners will counter with lefty Wade LeBlanc. LeBlanc, in his last outing against the Minnesota Twins, went 2 and 1/3rd innings and gave up seven hits and seven runs. LeBlanc missed five weeks due to a strained oblique. In two starts against the A’s last year, LeBlanc held the A’s scoreless for eleven innings.

Saturdays’ game will feature Mike Fiers (3-3, 5.05 ERA) going for his fourth win of the year. Fiers has an ERA of 2.53 over his last five starts, and that includes the no-hitter that he had against the Cincinnati Reds. Fiers is 2-2 with an ERA of 6.36 in 10 starts against Seattle. Rookie Yusei Kikuchi (3-1, ERA 3.43) will go for the M’s. Kikuchi is 2-0 with an ERA of 2.03 in his last four starts.

On Sunday, The A’s will have lefty Brett Anderson on the mound. Anderson (5-3, ERA 4.14)is returning to action after he left the game last Monday in Cleveland with a cervical strain. Anderson is 8-5 and has an ERA of 2.38 in 20 games against the M’s. Mike Leake goes for Seattle. Leake is 3-5 for the year and has an ERA of 4.73. Leake is 2-2 against Oakland in nine career starts.

The A’s are playing better as the offense has come alive and the pitching has been better. The A’s have seen improvement from Chris Bassitt, Mike Fiers, and Frankie Montas. Anderson has pitched well, and Mengden is still a work in progress.

Following the three-game series with Seattle, the A’s will face the LA Angels and then host the first-place Houston Astros.

 

Flores hits a walk-off home run to give the Mets a 6-5 win over the Athletics

by Charlie O. Mallonee

The Oakland Athletics have the worst road record (15-31) in the major leagues. It is one of the main reasons they are mired in last place in the American League West and are about to dismantle their team to begin a major rebuilding process.

On Saturday night after jumping out to a 5-0 lead over the New York Mets, the A’s allowed the Metropolitans to claw their way back into the game. The Mets tied the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the eighth inning when Lucas Duda hit a single off Daniel Coulombe that drove Travis d’Arnaud home from second base.

In the bottom of the ninth with two out and the bases empty, Wilmer Flores hit the 1-0 pitch from A’s reliever Simon Castro into the first row of seats in left field to give the Mets a 6-5 win. It was the ninth home run of the season for Flores and the second consecutive win for the Mets (45-50) over the Athletics (43-54).

In the batter’s box

Oakland

• Matt Joyce put the A’s on the board in the first inning when he hit the 0-1 pitch from Zack Wheeler over the center field fence for his 13th home run of the year. Joyce now has 39 RBI for the season.
• Matt Chapman showed off his power hitting by putting a Wheeler pitch into the second deck in left field for his third home run of the year. Chapman also had a sacrifice fly in the game to give him two RBI. He has seven RBI since joining the A’s.
• Catcher Bruce Maxwell hit an RBI-double.
• The A’s scored five runs on 10 hits and left nine runners on base. They were 2-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

NYM

• Flores — who is one of the Mets that does not appear to be on the trading block — went 2-for-5 including that game winning walk-off home run. Flores also hit his 13th double of the year in the game and scored two runs.
• Jose Reyes hit his sixth triple of the season and also scored a run while going 2-for-4 for New York.
• Jay Bruce hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning. It was his 25th home run and it raised his RBI total to 65. Bruce is one the Mets who is expected to be with another team by the July 31 trade deadline.
• Travis d’Arnaud made it safely to base four times in the game. He went 3-for-3 with a walk. d’Arnaud scored a run and added an RBI.
• The Mets scored six runs on 14 hits. They left eight men on base and were 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

On the hill

Athletics

• Starter Sean Manaea pitched well through the first five innings but ran into some real problems in the sixth inning when he gave up four earned-runs. Manaea worked 5.2-innings giving up four runs (all earned) on 10 hits. He struck out two and walked one while allowing one home run. Manaea did not figure in the final decision.
• The A’s relief corps was roughed up in the game. Hendriks gave up two runs, Coulombe was charged with a blown save and Simon Castro took the loss for giving up the game winning home run to Flores.
• Newcomer Blake Treinen was credited with a hold.

Mets

• Starter Zack Wheeler gave up five runs (all earned) on seven hits in 5.0-innings of work. He struck out six and walked four batters while giving up two home runs. He did not figure into the final decision.
• The trio of Mets relievers — Smoker, Edgin and Robles — did not give up a run to the A’s in the final four innings of the game.
• Hansel Robles (6-1) was the pitcher of record when Flores hit the game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth and he was credited with the win.

Up next

The A’s and Mets will meet on Sunday for the third and final game of the series. Oakland will send RHP Daniel Gossett (1-5, 5.79 ERA) to the mound to face RHP Rafael Montero (1-6, 5.40 ERA) who will start for the Mets. Game time is 10:10 a.m. PDT.

Reds edge A’s, 6-5

By George Devine, Sr.August 7, 2013
The A’s will be glad to leave Cincinnati. They lost 6-5 to the Reds in a hard-fought game to end their series on the banks of the Ohio and now head to Toronto. The scoring started in the first as Shin-Soo Choo singled to right, beginning a busy day in the position for Seth Smith, then advanced on Todd Frazier’s walk and reached third on Joey Votto’s base hit to right, scoring when Jay Bruce grounded into a 6-4 force. Josh Donaldson put Oakland on the board in the second with a homer to right, his 17th of the year. In the bottom of the inning Zack Cosart singled to right and scored as Corky Miller hit a double in Smith’s direction. In the home third, Votto singled to right, and scored on a homer hit over Smith’s head by Jay Bruce, his 24th of the season. Cozart walked and scored when Miller doubled to left. In the fourth, Brandon Moss singled to short, then Alberto Callaspo doubled to right, so Moss reached third, scoring on Stephen Vogt’s single to right. In the fifth, Xavier Paul hit a ground rule double to right and scored when Devin Mesoraco singled to third. The Athletics’ last scoring drive was in the sixth, when Jed Lowrie doubled to center, reached third when Moss singled to right and scored as Donaldson grounded a base hit to left. Eric Sogard tripled to right, plating Moss and Donaldson. The winner is Homer Bailey (7-10) and the loser Bartolo Colon (14-4). Araldis Chapman picked up his 27th save of the year. After a travel day, the A’s first game in the Toronto series is at 4:07 p.m. PDT on Friday, August 9, with Jarrod Parker (7-6) facing Esmil Rogers (3-6).