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OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Oakland Athletics have found a location for their modern new ballpark, announcing plans Wednesday to build near Jack London Square along the water.
Team president Dave Kaval had hoped to finalize a site by the end of the year, and the A's settled on the Howard Terminal site. The team's new downtown offices will have a view of the project, including right from Kaval's large corner window.
The A's appear determined to go ahead with this location despite....
Quote:
BART General Manager Grace Crunican has all but slammed the door on the idea of building a station near Oakland’s Howard Terminal — the waterfront location that Mayor Libby Schaaf has been promoting for a new A’s ballpark.
It’s not a “viable alternative,” Crunican told the team, for two main reasons.
For starters, it would be located between the West Oakland Station — gateway to the Transbay Tube — and the Oakland Wye underground connector downtown that’s used by four separate lines. It’s the most heavily trafficked section of BART in the East Bay.
BART is the bay Area Rapid Transit...the subway. One of the great conveniences of the Coliseum is that there is a BART station across the street. The place where they have chosen to locate the new stadium has very heavy traffic congestion and not a huge amount of nearby space for parking. The new place may be great, but I anticipate trouble getting there and back.
Stephen Piscotty had the first official run, RBI, and home run of the 2019 season with a 2 out solo homer in the first (Mariners Jay Bruce would record the seasons official first hit with a 2 out infield single in the top of the first), and Marcus Semien would have an RBI single in the second to put the A's up 2-0, but new catcher Nick Hundley would end the inning and scoring threat with a double play. Mariners would take the lead for good in the 3rd: Tim Beckham lead off with a single, advanced to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Dee Gordon's single. A hit by pitch and a walk would load the bases, and new Mariner Domingo Santana would unload them with a grand slam to put the M's up 5-2. Khris Davis would have his first homer of the year to cut the lead to 5-4 in the bottom half, but the Mariners would get the run back in the 4th on a Mitch Haniger sac fly. Ryon Healy would have a 2 out RBI double just out of the reach of the diving LF Chad Pinder to put the M's up 7-4, and Beckham would follow with a 2 out homer to center to make it 9-4 and complete the scoring for the M's on the day in the 5th. Matt Chapman would tally the final 3 runs in the 7th with a 3 run homer. Marco Gonzalez (1-0) allowed 4 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits (2 homers) with 1 walk and 4 strikeouts, Cody Gearin (1st hold), Zac Rosscup (1st hold) combined to pitch 1.2 hitless innings with a walk and a strikeout, and strikeout, and Hunter Strickland (1st save) pitched a 1-2-3 9th with 2 strikeouts. For the A's Mike Fiers (0-1) takes the loss allowing 5 runs on 4 hits (1 homer) with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts.
Game 2 of the season, and of the Japan series takes place in a couple hours actually. Yusei Kikuchi (ML debut) signed over from Japan in the off season will make his MLB debut in his home country taking the ball for the M's, while new A's pitcher Marco Estrada (7-14, 5.64 last year with Toronto) takes the ball for the A's after signing with the A's as a free agent in the off season. Game time will be at 5:35 AM eastern, 2:35 am in Oakland, and 6:35 PM across the Pacific in Tokyo.
Ryon Healy and Mitch Haniger would have homers for the M's in the first 3 innings to go up 3-0. Marcus Semien would have an RBI single in the 5th, and Matt Chapman would reach on an error to make the score 3-2, but the M's would get the run back in the 7th on a Jay Bruce sac fly scoring Healy. Khris Davis would tie up the game in the 7th with a 2 out single. A's had the bases loaded with a chance to win in the 11th, but Davis struck out, and Domingo Santana had the game-winning RBI on a bases loaded force out in the 12th. Yusei Kikuchi allowed 2 runs (1 earned) on 4 hits with a walk and 3 strikeouts in 4 2/3, Dan Altavilla had a walk and hit allowed in 1/3 of an inning, Zac Rosscup (1-0) struck out the side with 1 hit and 2 walks in a scoreless 11th inning, and Hunter Strickland (2nd save) locked down his second save of the season with a 1-2-3 9th with a strikeout. Marco Estrada allowed 3 runs on 5 hits (2 homers) with 1 strikeout and 0 walks in 5 innings, and Ryan Buchter (0-1) allowed 1 run on 1 hit with a walk in 1/3 of an inning taking the loss.
The state side opener is currently in the 8th inning with a 4-0 lead over the Angels. Trevor Cahill (7-4, 3.76 in '18 with the A's) starts for the Angels against Mike Fiers (0-1, 15.00) with the game time scheduled for 4:10 (1:10 in Oakland, but since I type this up from Connecticut I will be putting eastern time on the start times). Mariners start their state side opener with a 4 game series at Safeco (err T-Mobile Park damn sponsorships!) against the World Series champion Boston Red Sox.
Angels had a mini 2 out threat going in the 2nd when Albert Pujols got hit by a pitch with 1 out, and after a Zack Cozart pop up, Pujols got to 2nd on a wild pitch, but Tommy La Stella ended the inning on a fly ball to left. The A's would get on the board in the bottom half as Jurickson Profar, in his home A's debut lead off with a triple, and scored on a Chad Pinder sac fly. Robbie Grossman had a 1 out single in the 3rd, stole 2nd, and after Matt Chapman walked, Grossman would score on a Stephen Piscotty double. The Angels would hold the A's at bay as Chapman got thrown out at home on a Khris David grounder to 3rd and Profar flied out to left. Mike Trout lead off the 4th with a walk, went to second on a Justin Bour ground out, but Andrellton Simmons and Pujols flied out to end the inning, and the A's would get the 3rd run of the game on a Marcus Semien homer. La Stella had a 1 out double in the 5th and following a Jonathan Lucroy walk, Peter Bourjos ended the inning with a double play. A's would get a 6th inning lead off homer from Davis for the final run of the game. Kole Calhoun had a 2 out 8th inning single, and Trout followed with a single with the runners moving up a base on an error by Ramon Laureano, but Bour would fly out to end the threat. Trevor Cahill (0-1) allowed 4 runs on 6 hits (2 homers) with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts in 6 innings. Mike Fiers (1-1) had 2 strikeouts, 3 walks, and a single hit allowed in 6 innings of work.
Game 2 of the series takes place on Friday evening. Marco Estrada (0-0, 5.40) makes his home Oakland debut against new Halo's pitcher Matt Harvey (7-7, 4.50 last year with the Mets & Reds), with first pitch slated for 10:07.
Of course the most gripping question related to the A's this season is....
....Can Khris Davis hit exactly .247 for the fifth consecutive season? He is off to a pretty good start, batting .231 at the moment, so the goal is well in sight. It's tough at this stage of the season to assert pinpoint control over your average. For example, Davis is 3 for 13 at the plate, .231, but if he had gotten a single extra hit, 4 for 13 would zoom him up to .308.
First scoring threat came from the Angels in the 4th inning. Following a ground out from Kole Calhoun and a Mike Trout fly out, Justin Bour struck out but got to first on a wild pitch by Marco Estrada, Andrellton Simmons followed with a single, and Albert Pujols walked to load the bases, but Zack Cozart would get the 4th out of the inning....which ended the inning for good on a force out to second. A's would have their first scoring threat in the 5th, but like the Angels would get left off the scoreboard. Kendrys Morales, playing his first game in Oakland after coming over in a deal that was consummated right before the start of the season, and Jurickson Profar started the inning with walks against Matt Harvey, and Marcus Semien would load the bases on an infield single, but Harvey would end the inning with a 0 as he struck out Ramon Laureano and induced Nick Hundley to ground into an inning ending double play. Trout had a 1 out single, went to second on a Bour walk, but Simmons ended the inning with a double play ball. Matt Chapman had a 1 out double in the 6th, and following a Stephen Piscotty fly out, Khris Davis got the A's on the board with a 2 out homer. Jonathan Lucroy, and new Angel Brian Goodwin started the 8th with back-to-back single off of new A's pitcher Joakim Soria, and the Angels got on the board with a Calhoun double. Following an intentional walk to to Trout to load the bases, Ryan Buchter would walk Bour to force in a run and tie the game at 2, and the Simmons followed with a 2 RBI single giving the Angels the lead for good, but the A's would avoid any further damage as Pujols hit into a double play, and Cozart ended the inning with a ground out. Goodwin and Calhoun would have back-to-back 2 out singles in the 9th which set the stage for Trout to drive in the final Angels 2 runs with a double. Estrada allowed 2 hits with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts in 6 scoreless innings, Lou Trivino (1st hold) had a 1-2-3 7th, Soria (0-1) had an awful debut as all 4 batters he faced reached base and scored and his line was 4 runs on 3 hits with an intentional walk, and Ryan Buchter (1st blown save) walked the only batter he faced which forced in the tying run. Harvey allowed 2 runs on 4 hits (1 homer) with 3 walks and 1 strikeout, Hansel Robles (1-0) had a hit and 2 strikeouts in a scoreless inning, and Ty Buttrey (1st hold) had 2 hits with a strikeout in a scoreless inning.
Game 3 of the series goes on Saturday. Felix Pena (3-5, 4.18 in '18) starts for the Angels against Brett Anderson (4-5, 4.48 last year) with game time slated for 9:07.
Matt Chapman had a 1 out double in the 6th, and following a Stephen Piscotty fly out, Khris Davis got the A's on the board with a 2 out homer. .
The A's would have been shut out had it not been for an extremely strange decision by Angels second baseman Tommy La Stella. Chapman had sent a hard hopper into the gap between center and right, Calhoun picked it up, whirled about and made a perfect strike toward second which would certainly have nailed Chapman...except....for reasons no one watching could fathom, La Stella cut the throw off at the edge of the outfield grass. He turned around, realized his mistake and tried to hustle the ball to Simmons at short, but it was far too late by then. In that Chapman was the only baserunner at the time, cutting the ball off at all made no sense, and cutting off a throw which appeared to be on line and on time to get Chapman...utterly inexplicable. Had they nailed Chapman, then Piscotty's flyball would have ended the inning before Davis came to the plate.
The A's would have been shut out had it not been for an extremely strange decision by Angels second baseman Tommy La Stella. Chapman had sent a hard hopper into the gap between center and right, Calhoun picked it up, whirled about and made a perfect strike toward second which would certainly have nailed Chapman...except....for reasons no one watching could fathom, La Stella cut the throw off at the edge of the outfield grass. He turned around, realized his mistake and tried to hustle the ball to Simmons at short, but it was far too late by then. In that Chapman was the only baserunner at the time, cutting the ball off at all made no sense, and cutting off a throw which appeared to be on line and on time to get Chapman...utterly inexplicable. Had they nailed Chapman, then Piscotty's flyball would have ended the inning before Davis came to the plate.
Last year At Bat usually had highlights of plays like that, but this year there's none. Since I'm not in the area obviously, I was listening on radio going back and forth between this game, Padres/Giants, and the NCAA games, and unfortunately I wasn't on the A's game when that play happened, so I could only comment on what I saw on the At Bat play-by-pay commentary, and unfortunately that summary doesn't tell you whether that ball is cut off.
Justin Bour walked to lead off the Halo's second and Jonathan Lucroy followed with a single. Kole Calhoun hit into a force out to put runners at the corners with 1 out, and Brett Anderson got Peter Bourjos to strike out, and David Fletcher to line out to keep the Halo's off the board. Mike Trout doubled with 1 out in the 3rd, went to 3rd on Andrellton Simmons' grounder, but got stuck there when Albert Pujols ended the inning with a ground out. Josh Phegley and Robbie Grossman would single with 2 outs in the bottom half, and Matt Chapman followed with a hit by pitch to load the bases. Stephen Piscotty drove in 2 to make it 2-0, but Khris Davis flied out to Trout to prevent any other runs from scoring. Kendrys Morales walked leading and 2 batters later Mark Canha hit his first homer of the year to put the A's up 4-0. Marcus Semien had a 2 out single in the 6th and Canha followed with a walk, but Phegley lined out to end the inning. Fletcher reached on a Jurikson Profar error to begin the 8th, Zack Cozart doubled, Trout hit a sac fly, and Simmons singled to make it a 4-2 game. Simmons would get to 2nd on a passed ball, Pujols single moved him to 3rd, but Blake Treinen would get Bour to strike out and Lucroy to pop up. Felix Pena (0-1) allowed 4 runs on 4 hits (1 homer) with 1 walk (1 hit batter) and 3 strike outs in 3 2/3. Anderson (1-0) allowed 3 hits, 2 walks and 4 strikeouts in 6 scoreless innings, and Treinen (2nd save) had 1 hit allowed and 2 strikeouts in a scoreless 1 2/3.
The A's will go for the series win on Sunday afternoon. Frankie Montas (5-4, 3.88) goes for the A's against Tyler Skaggs (8-10, 4.02) for the Angels with game time slated for 4:07.
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2019: 0-0
