What a difference a day (and night) makes.Backed by another sparkling performance by Bartolo Colon, the Oakland A's hit four home runs and thumped the Los Angeles Angels 10-4 to move back into a playoff spot in the AL wild-card race. Colon only allowed an unearned run as he shut down the potent Angels offense over seven innings to move to 9-8 on the year. In contrast to Colon, C.J. Wilson was errant, allowing six runs (three earned) on nine hits and five walks in just five innings pitched. Oakland's onslaught began when Jonny Gomes lined his 12th home run just ...
Going into Tuesday's action, the Oakland A's have found themselves losers of their last three games and six of their last 10.They're trending downwards at the wrong time of the season.In what has been a surprising season to say the least, Oakland sits 5.5 games behind the Texas Rangers for the lead in the American League West and just a half game out of Wild Card contention.Of course, yesterday they owned one of those Wild Card playoff berths.So it goes in Major League Baseball.Over the last 30 days, rookie Yoenis Cespedes has been the only player on the team to ...
After three days of fan-attended practices, the Oakland Raiders returned to a normal practice schedule on Monday. For the first time this preseason the coaching staff allowed players to tackle to the ground, albeit only for a short amount of time, late in practice, during a short-yardage drill. Dennis Allen likes to talk about being consistent and not making the same mistakes repeatedly. On Monday, the team had issues with both consistency and making the same mistakes. The defense beat themselves with offsides penalties and by allowing a few big plays, and the offense turned the ball over a few ...
At the beginning of the season, the Oakland Athletics were among the teams people left out of playoff conversations.Now, nobody can stop talking about the Swingin' A's.Oakland is just 5.5 games out of first place in the AL West, and, if the season ended today, they would earn a wild-card spot in the playoffs. The A's have a very well-rounded team and lots of players who know how to come up with big hits.Even though the A's have been on fire, lots of people think they're pretenders and that they'll fall behind the Tigers and Angels in the wild-card race. ...
Training camp is well under way, which means that impressions have been made and position battles are heating up.As Oakland looks to rebound from an 8-8 season that ended just shy of the playoffs, the Silver and Black are seeing an impressive performance from the team's defense this preseason.The Raiders had brought in free agent Ron Bartell to anchor a redesigned secondary. After working with the first team defense during the offseason, Bartell suffered a hamstring injury a week before camp opened.In his absence, second year CB DeMarcus Van Dyke has stepped up big time.The Associated Press claims that Van ...
They say the playoffs are where stars are made, but training camp? For many people, it's where role players are made.It may sound condescending, but at the end of the day, nobody can make the Pro Bowl in August. That said, however, for a lot of guys, this is the month in which they can get the break they've spent their whole lives working toward.For Oakland Raiders fans, it's also a time of optimism.Three months from now we may forget who Juron Criner is, but hope exists in the belief that we might not. With that in mind, we've identified ...
Rajai Davis' misplayed pop up led to a three run fifth inning as the Toronto Blue Jays held on to beat the Oakland A's 6-5 Sunday at the Coliseum. Davis' gift single led to a two run single by Yunel Escobar and an RBI single by slumping Kelly Johnson off hard luck loser Tom Milone, who dropped to 9-9 on the year. Milone wound up giving up six runs on nine hits while walking one and striking out four in six innings.The game started well for the A's when after a first inning run for Toronto. Derek Norris hit a ...
I have often talked about the reasons I feel the Oakland Raiders are on the brink of a new era, as have a number of fans, and even many of the players.Just a few days ago, the San Jose Mercury News reported that the team's new media guide even touts "A New Era of Excellence."Quarterback Carson Palmer commented, "It's a new regime, top to bottom."I truly believe the Silver and Black will be on top of the AFC West by the time the 2012 regular season is said and done. Of course, many fans of opposing teams, and especially of the ...
The A's have always had the reputation of being a rag-tag band of misfits, and I don't know about you, but that sounds like a bunch of potentially fun drinking buddies to me.That wasn't so much the case in recent years, but over the offseason, Billy Beane and company added some players who brought the wild back to Oakland. If that notion wasn't obvious, all one has to do is look at the way Oakland has won ballgames this year. Claiming their 13th walk-off win of the season in a thrilling 15-inning marathon Friday night against Toronto, they now lead ...
Ryan Cook allowed a ninth-inning game-tying home run for the second straight game. Toronto scored twice in the 11th inning to stun the Oakland A's 3-1 Saturday afternoon at the Coliseum.David Cooper blasted Cook's 1-1 fastball to right center field to tie the game at one. The A's had a chance to win in the 10th inning, but Josh Reddick struck out looking with the bases loaded. Oakland got a great performance from their bullpen until the ninth inning, as starter A.J. Griffin left after just 1.2 innings with tightness in his right shoulder.Jordan Norberto was fantastic, going 3.2 shutout innings. ...