The only two California major league teams with winning records entering today square off at the Coliseum in the final two games before football destroys our pristine field. Actually it wouldn’t be a bad idea for a third team to join them, temporarily, this afternoon.
It’s It would have been Southpaws Galore if the A’s stuck to the stated plan:
Tonight at 7:05: Manaea vs. Rich Hill
Wednesday at 7:05: BRETT! Fiers vs. Clayton Kershaw
Tonight’s game may be accompanied by a few notes of “Rich Girl”, “She’s Gone” and “Kiss on My List” floating over from the show next door.
Besides Hill, we welcome back John Axford and Max Muncy. I don’t know if Muncy would start either night vs. a lefty although he’s done well against them in limited PAs.
Fiers is facing Clayton.
I think you meant this is the last series until the Raiders gift us with the annual dual purpose Coliseum home field advantage .
Hey Soaker, got any recommendations for definitive Tahoe air quality sources? I’m finding significant discrepancies between airnow.gov and purpleair.com. Trying to gauge whether the weekend DL Bliss trip is doable.
I’m not aware of a reliable one at the lake. The Gardnerville Ranchos gauge is reliable, and that’s just off to the east over the Carson Range so it’s a close-enough proxy. Air quality has ranged between not-good and awful for the last couple weeks, “awful” being when I’m sitting inside the house and smelling smoke from 100 miles away. It’s hard to guess what it would be like this weekend because it depends on the fires’ behavior and the wind conditions. This afternoon’s report is:
Anecdotally I’ve heard we’re getting a ton of vacation cancellations and I can’t argue with that decision.
What makes it hard to gauge is how widely the AQIs seem to vary even among close areas. Contrast the 96150 zip (So. Tahoe CA including DL Blissl with 96145, the area just a bit further north along the CA side of the lake. Right now 96150 reads green/ healthy while 96150 reads orange/ bad.
And how much it can change in a couple hours if the wind changes, which it always does around 1-2 p.m. Gardnerville was “hazardous” in the wee hours this morning and the air is milky here but doesn’t seem that awful to me. It’s those early morning hours when there’s no wind and the smoke settles to the ground that are the worst of the day.
This afternoon got an “awful”. I was out for a while, it was hot, it was smoky, screw it, there’s plenty of beer in the fridge.
Where exactly was awful today? I’m working to pin down these AQI models. They mostly have consistently had the thin strip of the SW corner of the lakeshore, including DL Bliss and Emerald Bay, as a lot better than SLT proper and the Gardenerville area.
Livermore was ridiculous. The fires may as well have been in Dublin there was so much smoke in the air.
Thanks, and go As.
I was on my local forest trails, not too far from the casinos, which is what I’m limited to right now with the knee issue, but I seriously doubt Emerald Bay is significantly better than what I see here. I don’t have much of a view but my measure is the snowboarder slope at the top of Ski Run which I can see from here at my computer chair, and that’s barely visible through the haze.
As it turns out the air is quite reasonable.
Yesterday and today have been by far the best since I got back from Denver.
Felix vs. Bartolo is not exactly the battle of aces it once was.
The King might have to abdicate after this one.
He just gave up a three-run homer in the fourth to put the Mariners behind 8-4, and Servais left him to face Gallo, who singled, and he is STILL in.
12-inning game last night explains that.
They have to be looking at taking him out of the rotation though.
This feels like a swan song.
He plunks Chirinos and he’s STILL in.
Yeah, Felix’s only throne nowadays is porcelain.
Though Seager’s gift of 4 unearned runs isn’t helping
Follow-up:
Ooh, Ross Detwiler, just who a contending team wants on the mound in August. One thing they could do as a last chance is throw Felix in Oakland next week and hope the sight of the Green and Gold unis brings him back to life, for one start at least.
Was it ever? Were they ever aces at the same time?
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If manaea can get through 4 we should be ok
What the hell happened? I just tuned in.
When you push the game to extras in the bottom of the 9th, giving up 5 in the top of the 10th is … disappointing.
If the potential wild card game is against the Yankees, I’d start Cahill or even Fiers (at home) over Manaea.
It has to be a match up thing, all 10 pitchers on the roster will be used
Apart from overperforming his peripherals, he’s looked considerably worse the last few starts.
I would go with 2 each from Treinan, Trivino, Familia, and Petit, not sure about the other inning…
Luzardo
Ah, right. Give him two, and do a L/R inning with Petit and Manaea.
I don’t get the boos for puig
Yeah that bothers me.
are they saying PUUUUUUIIIIIIIIIGGGGG?
Wtf Pinder’s lawn dart
I thought anderson wasn’t pitching this series?
It ain’t the plate umpire’s fault. Manaea is all over the place.
A viable long reliever instead of Hatcher would’ve been perfect for tonight.
machado wears 8 in honor of kobe? Gross
Dallas Braden having to explain the concept of a window of contention to Glen and Ray.
Hmmm, I missed Pat Venditte in my welcome-back list. He was just activated today.
Jesus fucking fuck.
Sonny Gray pitching extras.
He got the win.
It’s starting to feel like Hall and Oates (with Train!) was the better choice tonight.
hall and oats is never the answer
Hall and Oates: Not even once
Goddamnit extend that man.
Why couldn’t You Make My Dreams Come True tonight? I guess there was a Manaeater that got in the way.
Mercy. Seattle already got hammered today.
There was a play in that one where Profar was on 2B with 2 out, Andrus up and Andrus hits a grounder to Seager, who trots over to step on third for the third out forceout. Except, nobody was on first. Whereupon Beltre got a base hit to drive in Profar. That series was kind of a disaster for Seager.
Imagine the look on Profar’s face when that happened. Wait. Is there a force? Was I not paying attention?
Am I out of touch? No, it’s the Mariners who are wrong.
Amusingly, it seems to have been scored as a fielder’s choice.
Call it Defensive Indifference.
Broadcast team of Roxy and John Farrell tonight on ESPN Radio, huh. I guess I’ll give them a try.
OK Fiers, you’re the ace now.
this is an odd feeling
Semien’s throwing still makes me nervous, though less so than a couple years ago, but he’s a magnet for the line drives.
They had to really dig to put together an A’s Max Muncy highlight reel.
The two things I missed about the 2018 A’s were:
1. Treinen and Trivino
2. I’ve been told all these years that a team can’t win without quality starting pitching, and that’s just not true anymore.
Nevertheless I’d like to see one starter who can slam the door for 7 innings most of the time, and maybe Fiers is the guy.
why don’t they kick him out?
I think the ump knew he called him out on a ball for showing him up. Wasn’t going to toss him on top of that (yet).
Credit to the ump for committing to it and calling that shit a strike for the rest of the night apparently.
Nice
Seems like a quick hook for Fiers.
I get that Bob thinks he can get 11 outs from Trivino, Familia and Treinen tonight, but man that’s a lot to ask.
Yeah but the contact vs Fiers was getting louder that last inning plus.
Fail. A bloop, but still, fail.
lets get lo a win next inning. he hasn’t had one in a while
i meam famila
He needs to keep up with the other team leaders.
catch the damn ball
Jed needs a few days off
both sides are getting lucky today
Many sides, many sides
I thought puig swung at those pitches? Did he get better?
The Dodgers are annoying. Their hitters have the same type of at bats ours do.
agree
I’ll take it; granted Kershaw isn’t what he was a few years ago but it’s still nice to win one of his starts. Roxy and Farrell were OK until Farrell got into the stuff about how it’s so much easier for Treinen in Oakland than Washington because there’s not as much pressure out here. Grrr…
kershaw only struck out 2, and “one” of them was chapman
His curveball wasn’t working at all tonight. And his velocity seems to have fallen to Manaea-esque levels.
Still, a split between Hill/Kershaw is more than acceptable, and this series definitely felt like a potential WS matchup.
only two total strikeouts as well
The A’s traded for Fiers on August 6. According to Slusser, he didn’t clear waivers. The A’s claimed him.
As I understand it, you have two days to complete a trade after a waiver claim, so the earliest the A’s claimed him was August 4.
As of August 3, Seattle had waiver priority over the A’s. They also knew that the A’s were trying to get Fiers.
Fiers’ contract is not bad, and the Tigers did not seem interested in giving him up for free anyway, so there would have been very little risk to putting in a blocking clam.
So my question: What is Jerry Dipoto doing? Was he asleep at the switch, or is this some “honor among theives” business?
There are two days to make a claim, and then another two days to complete the trade.
So he could have been waived on August 2 (and before Seattle played that day?), and if priority is based on that day’s standings(?), there would have been nothing Seattle could do. (And speculating even further, Detroit knowing that they were already close to a deal with Oakland before the deadline, could have been motivated to start the process that day knowing how close the standing were.)
I thought priority was based on the date of the claim not on the date of the waiver, in which case Seattle could have put one in on Aug 3 and won. Maybe that’s wrong.
It’s also confusing why Detroit wouldn’t have put him on waivers Aug 1 or the evening of July 31 knowing the situation as you describe and wanting him to get to Oakland.
Edwin Jackson is apparently a big fan of Cold War liberal hawks.
Someone needs to tell Phegley that’s taken.
I guess Laureano isn’t participating?
They should give him the generic “Kid” nameplate.
Nor Anderson.
thats my favorite
I think Anderson should have gone with McCarthy on his jersey, given their persisting twitter friendship.
I guess be thankful Luzardo isn’t up to be Perle or Wolfowitz to Jackson’s Scoop.
For the most part our nicknames suck. Capt. Barrell and maybe Manaealator only decent ones.
Jackson should be Merc or Mercenary.
Action
we playing the mariners that weekend?
Uh
Hoo boy is this going to require some nose-holding.
i bet they figure out a way to keep Hatcher too.
Wtf???
I don’t see a bit of WTF in it. It’s pretty logical. Fiers can maybe go 6 innings, all other starters go 4. They have Treinen, Trivino, Familia and now Rodney at the back end, Petit, Pagan and (sort of) Buchter in the middle and whoever’s left as long relievers (I’d think Mengden and Montas will get into that part, certainly in September).
But Rodney, despite a high K rate and a long career as a closer, has never really been good, apart from one year in TB when he magically stopped walking everyone.
My general feeling is we knew a while ago they needed bullpen depth and they got it without trading Cespedes and Russell.
Slusser says:
So yay that he is not Hatcher. And that he is not pitching in important situations. And that all we gave up was a DUI+TJ guy.
But
That, rather than the nothing we gave up, seems like the not inconsiderable risk here, when the reward is a marginal improvement in your eighth-best reliever.
you would think this would have been worked out. I don’t know if they can work things like that out beforehand.
I don’t see it that way at all. If the team is winning a lot, there’s plenty of room for Trivino and Rodney in the 8th and Treinen and Familia in the 9th on alternate nights. Or something like that, probably backing those four guys into the 7th for 7 or 8 outs fairly often. Pagan and Kelley work the 5th and later when the A’s are down.
Agreed. Rodney is no Treinen, but if it means we don’t feel compelled to use our best dudes up 3 runs in the seventh inning, or whatever, I think it’s a clear win for little cost.
He’s an improvement over Hatcher but the whole experience of watching him pitch is very Koch and Balfour-esque. Though I suppose it’s easier to tolerate that in the 6th or 7th than the 9th.
I wonder how many times he and Edwin jackson have been teammates?
Twice I can find – a full season on the 2009 Tigers, and 10 days on the 2016 Padres.
They missed by a month on the 2015 Cubs (Jackson released on 7/27 and Rodney acquired from the Mariners on 8/27)
In 2016 Jackson was released by Marlins on June 2nd and signed by Rodney’s Padres on June 20th. Then on June 30th Rodney was traded from the Padres … to the Marlins.
you are a national treasure
hear, hear
you are a global treasure
or the 4th in New york on october 3
Filling the much-needed void left by the loss of Casilla.
i really don’t understand
NOT SUPERINTENDENT CHALMERS!
Holy shit, the mariners are going to blow a 6-0 after 2.5 and 8-2 lead ater 5.5. On a day Paxton pitches
It does seem like we should be rooting for the Mariners in those games, but who knows. I mostly root for 18 innings.
If you had told me even a month ago that I would be rooting for the M’s to hang on Id have said youre crazy.
Are you allowed to do the arrow BS in the 4th inning?
i hope so. That grew on me. its just too weird. Also better than pointing to sky jesus
Just once I want someone to point down when they get to first.
Looking at the minor league affiliation agreements list for the first time in a while, I missed the Diamondbacks’ renewal of their agreement with the Reno Aces a while back. The Astros will be taking Round Rock, the Rangers will get the San Antonio team that’s moving from Colorado Springs and the Mariners are not leaving Tacoma. That leaves the Nationals and Brewers homeless with Fresno and Las Vegas available.
The only other question is whether the A’s will leave Nashville for Las Vegas. If they did, the Nationals would move into Nashville. The Nashville ownership isn’t taking the Brewers back; they kicked them out in 2014 and that’s how the new ballpark became available to the A’s after they were booted from Sacramento. The deadline for resolving all this is sometime in September.
I don’t disagree, but I will still give Fresno a punchers chance. They have turned the perception of the club around the last few years and Giles is a Clovis boy.
I’d predict they stay in Nashville.
The Sacramento River Cats got an attendance bump in 2015 when the Giants started there, but they’ve dropped every year since then and this year they are about 13% below what they were drawing in the A’s final year there.
I’ll personally take either Fresno or Las Vegas because those two teams come to Reno for two series each year, while the Sounds and Aces play only one series each year and that alternates between the cities so the Sounds only come here for one series every other year. It seems like the A’s get along with the Nashville ownership and are happy with the facilities there; now Las Vegas can finally compete on facilities so it may depend on how the A’s get along with the Howard Hughes Corporation, which owns the ballclub (to be named later; they’ll be something other than the “51s” in 2019) and the “Downtown Summerlin” development the new ballpark is adjacent to.
Last I looked at attendance, I think Nashville was doing well with the a’s, that has to count for something, right?
A question could be if Nashville thinks the Nats would be a better fit since the parent club is closer.
Eovaldi being pulled with a game score of 2!
.359/.447/.590 in the 10 previous games vs. the A’s this year.
Loaiza not likely to be a part of the A’s remaining 50th Anniversary celebrations.
Holy shit there are some people with FEELINGS about Fernando Rodney in this world. You’d think A’s fans would have learned to be okay with a black guy who has fun playing baseball by now, but no sir.
I started liking his schtick during some WBC
I can put aside previous impressions and tolerate just about anybody if they’re wearing Green and Gold. It went the other way a bit with Brett Lawrie; I’d never thought much about him one way or the other as a Blue Jay, but he got to Oakland and whew, what a jerk.
I cheered for Kenny Rogers, it still feels dirty, yet I’d do the same again.
And obviously Matt Holliday is just the WORST.
never.smiled.
Those early Mariners road uniforms, oh man. A couple of the guys are wearing matching shoes; I see the swoosh on Leake’s shoes but they look like Keds.
My oh my