By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NAPA, Calif — No, Tony Romo didn’t make the cut. He didn’t even come close. No, Adam Scott didn’t retain the lead he had the first round of the Safeway Open. He didn’t come close.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NAPA, Calif. — So there’s a Masters champ tied for first place after a round of the Safeway Open, and a British Open winner a shot behind? Those guys, in order, Adam Scott and Francesco Molinari, are pros.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The New England Patriots are 3-0. So are the 49ers. This is fact, not an attempt to compare.
Copyright 2019 The Maven
By Art Spander
OAKLAND — There’s something different about September baseball, something special. If you’re in the pennant race, and the Athletics very much are.
They won another one Wednesday, not easily, even against a team with the second worst record in the American League, Kansas City.
The A’s scored a run in the 11th, the only run of a 1-0 game, another walkoff win, another confidence builder.
There are bad teams in the majors, but in truth there are no underdogs. It’s all in the pitching, and the Royals had that. So did the A’s, which is why Oakland stayed ahead in the wild card scramble.
At the right time they also had the hitting, Mark Canha doubling home Jurickson Profar. That it was also Canha T-shirt giveaway day seemed appropriate.
Tuesday evening the score was 2-1. That was followed by the Wednesday shutout. Two games and only one run allowed.
You’ve heard the axiom that if the other team doesn’t score it’s impossible to lose. And if it scores only one run, your chances of losing are reduced enormously.
Pitching wins, and from starter Homer Bailey, who was replaced in a 0-0 game after 7 innings, through the three relievers who followed him — J.B. Wendelken earning the victory — the A’s had tremendous pitching.
Now they have a sense of what might be accomplished.
“We played really well against New York and Houston,” said Bailey. “We know if we can kind of get to the dance, we can do something.”
Yes, getting to the dance is a phrase normally used in connection with college basketball, the NCAA tournament, but Bailey is excused. After recording a season high 13 strikeouts, he can say almost anything he wishes.
Bailey came to the A’s from the Royals in a July trade. His best pitch is the split-finger fastball that has batters swinging at what they can’t hit.
“Homer’s much more consistent with his split now,” Royals manager Ned Yost told MLB.com. “He doesn’t miss much to lefties. Curveball was good. He spotted his fastball extremely well. I didn’t see him miss a location all day.”
There was morning rain Wednesday at the Coliseum. Batting practice was called off, and because the field was wet the start was delayed for 28 minutes.
When play finally did begin, however, it virtually flew, eight innings requiring only two hours. Of course, with no runs and few runners, a game should move along.
Whether the 16,714 fans cared doesn’t matter, but most still were around at the final out and waving those Canha T-shirts in celebration.
“They played us tough,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said of the Royals. “You could see they were attacking our weak points, but in the end we got the big hit.”
The big hit and the big win. The focus has changed now, for Melvin, for the Athletics.
“The finish line’s in sight,” he said. “You can talk about winning a series early in the season, but now each game is important. Guys step up. It’s a different animal now. Ten games to go. We know our work is cut out for us. We have to try to win every game, not just win a series.”
The A’s won this series from K.C. after a stumble. They came home with six straight wins, a great road trip, very much in control of the wildcard berth. Six straight wins. Then a return to Oakland and a blown ninth-inning lead. Yikes.
But this is a solid Oakland team, one that has beaten the Yankees and Astros. No panic, and lately almost no runs allowed.
The A’s have three games on this last home stand of the regular season, all against the Rangers. Then one more week on the road.
“This is fun,” said Melvin. “I’m even watching scoreboards.”
The rest of us are watching the A’s.
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND — That was the real world, the NFL. That was the team that came within an overtime loss of reaching the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs. That was the quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, who was the NFL offensive player of the year.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
SAN FRANCISCO — Andre Iguodala got the biggest ovation. Or rather, the video of him congratulating Bruce Bochy did. The preceding one, Joe Pavelski, the longtime member of the Sharks, offering his video appreciation, also drew a sizable cheer.
As we’ve known since February, since before spring training of a season now nearing its end, “Boch” — as he’s called on the billboard on the left field fence at Oracle Park, his nickname preceded by “Thank you” — the Giants manager will retire.
For another couple weeks it still will be Bochy’s team, in a matter of speaking. He’s doing what he always did, deciding on the lineup, bringing in relievers, if with some players who in effect are auditioning.
Wednesday night the Pirates beat the Giants, 6-3, in one of those auditions.
Brandon Belt was a starter. So was Brandon Crawford. Names from the past.
Kevin Pillar and Stephen Vogt, also in the lineup, are proven major leaguers, and in the few months since he came in trade Mike Yastrzemski very much seems to have become one.
As for the others, Mauricio Dubon, Jaylin Davis, Corban Joseph — three weeks ago he was on the A’s playing against the Giants — and starting pitcher Logan Webb, does anyone have a clue?
“Webb had good stuff,” said Bochy. And gave up seven hits and four runs in 4.2 innings.
San Francisco dropped to a 70-76 record. Attendance was announced as 26,627. That’s tickets sold. Maybe 18,000 were in the park. Maybe.
Difficult days and nights for a franchise that won three World Series in five years, that had announced sellouts for seven years plus.
Worse, the Dodgers just won their seventh straight pennant (but so far no World Series). It’s the 1980s all over again, Bad teams — well, teams that aren’t very good — and bad crowds.
Which leads to the eternal question, to wit: Now what?
Change, that’s what. Change that’s evident in the front office, change that’s evident with the reduction of ticket prices and change evident with roster.
All supposedly leading to change in results.
To bring the Giants back to where they were as recently as 2014. To bring fans back to Oracle. Those rows of empty seats look terrible.
Farhan Zaidi was hired a year ago from the Dodgers (he helped win some of those pennants) to be the Giants' president of baseball operations, the guy who’s supposed to bring the team back to life and back up in the standings — they’re roughly 20 back of those Dodgers, which perhaps doesn’t seen awful only when compared to 40 back in 2017.
Zaidi told us there was no quick fix. Is there a slow one?
A few weeks ago the Giants seemed to be making progress: a 500 record, 65-65, on August 29. Then, a plummet.
Possibly the present doesn’t matter. Possibly only the future matters. Accomplishments or lack of same will be noted in coming seasons.
The Dodgers may overwhelm you, home run after home run, but the Giants will have to pester you.
No matter who runs the team, it's the ballpark, Oracle, that dictates the style. The Astros or A’s will hit more home runs in a week than the Giants in a month.
Of course, an occasional homer would be advisory. Those 2-1 games are nerve-wracking and not always with the Giants in front.
In February, even before pitchers and catchers reported, Zaidi told Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times he intended not only to change the Giants' roster but also the culture.
And even before pitchers and catchers reported, various forecasts saw the Giants winning anywhere from 74 to 78 games, totals that unless San Francisco plays like it did in July seem relatively accurate.
Zaidi, through his metrics (he graduated from both MIT and Cal), helped the Dodgers find a couple of less touted players, Chris Taylor and the guy who ruins the Giants, Max Muncey.
“Nobody was writing about those guys when we traded for them,” Zaidi told McCullough. “And really a lot of the organizational success with those guys was not necessarily their acquisition but giving them the opportunity.”
There will be plenty of opportunities with the Giants, that’s for certain.
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NEW YORK — The match that seemed destined to last forever showed what we already knew, that Rafael Nadal is one of the all-time tennis greats and what we now know, that Daniil Medvedev has the skills and resilience to be the same.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NEW YORK — It’s not accurate to say Serena Williams failed again, unable for a fourth straight time to win that ultimate tournament, the one that ties her for the Grand Slam record.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NEW YORK — History. Such a small word with large connotations. A word that Serena Williams cannot escape — until she becomes historic. Until she wins that 24th Grand Slam.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NEW YORK — She did it impressively and quickly, with surprising grace as well as unsurprising power. Serena Williams moved around the court like she owned it (why not, it’s in her homeland?) and Thursday night moved into the finals of the U.S. Open championship. Again.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NEW YORK — The juxtaposition of headlines was thought-provoking. “WORST LOSS EVER!” screamed the back cover of the New York Post. That referred to the Mets, who blew a six-run lead in the ninth, not to Roger Federer, who let a lead get away at the end.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NEW YORK — It has to be more than just the tennis, the simple act of knocking a ball back and forth over a net, even though the skill, the hand-eye coordination, is remarkable.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NEW YORK — They booed Novak Djokovic the other night. Because he had an injured left shoulder. He tried to play his fourth-round match of the U.S. Open against Stan Wawrinka, made it into the third set and then quit, or retired as it’s officially designated.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NEW YORK — David Goffin was the other guy. The one who had no chance. The one who as much fell victim to his own inadequacies — “You don’t know why you are missing everything,” sighed Goffin — as to Roger Federer’s superiority.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
NEW YORK — So what do we call DJ LeMahieu? The Bronx Bummer? One swing and the Oakland Athletics fell victim to the law of inevitability, Yankee Stadium variety.
The A’s had played the Yankees four times over the last couple of weeks and won every game. Meaning they were overdue to lose. And in the most agonizing of methods, which is appropriate in baseball.
If you banged your head against the wall for every defeat in major league ball, where at the minimum you’ll drop 60 games a season, you wouldn’t have a wall. And maybe not much of a head either.
Yes, A’s manager Bob Melvin did a bit of what should have been or could have been Saturday after the leadoff and walkoff home run in the 11th by DJ LeMahieu gave the Yankees a 4-3 victory.
Didn’t the A’s leave the bases loaded in the seventh, eighth and ninth? When that happens, even if you scored a run in the seventh, there’s trouble.
Didn’t Aaron Judge soar above the fence in right field in the 10th to steal a probable home from Oakland’s Matt Chapman — "All Rise” is Judge's slogan in New York — after he homered in the eighth to the game?
And didn’t Melvin ruminate about all that? “Chapman has a homer unless you’ve got a 10-foot outfielder in right field,” he mused. (To be accurate, Judge is only 6-7, but a little exaggeration is acceptable.)
This game was a disappointment for the A’s. And a joy for the Yankees, especially since it was played before 44,412 fans in one of the landmark venues in sports.
Sure the ballpark isn’t the exact one — the House That Ruth Built, erected in 1923, where the Babe and Lou Gehrig, and Joe DiMaggio and Mickey played. But this one, finished in 2009, is across the street. And still the only proper way to get there is on the No. 4 subway, with dozens of fans in pinstriped Yankee attire. One was a shrine, the other is a monument.
Everybody knows Yankees history, including ballplayers. New York hasn’t won a World Series for a while, but they are one of the best clubs in the game, a standard by which other teams rate themselves.
“We played really well,” said Homer Bailey, the A’s starting pitcher. He has a sense of perspective. But after going 5.2 innings, allowing two home runs to Gary Sanchez, only two other hits and striking out nine, what Bailey didn’t have was a win or a loss.
“You got two good teams going at each other,” said Bailey. “You can’t win every game. You’re going to lose some tight ones. Sometimes that’s just how it goes.”
Melvin, as a manager who’s trying to keep young players believing, did find the upbeat side of a game that from the Oakland viewpoint would have been at the least a semi-downer. No, you’re not going to sweep the Yankees, so move on was Melvin's idea.
Leaving the bases loaded in three consecutive innings and a total of 15 for the game? “You’re always looking for a silver lining,” said Melvin. “We loaded the bases, which means we're grinding out walks and putting runners in scoring position, not going out one, two three.”
He also liked the relief performances of Blake Treinen and Lou Trivino, even though Trivino, after keeping the Yankees scoreless in the 10th, gave up LeMahieu’s game-winner in the 11th.
“He was good,” Melvin said of Trivino, “other than that one pitch.”
Let’s let it stand right there.
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NEW YORK — It was a day to get up early in the city that never sleeps. Roger and Serena went from late night to daylight, tough for the TV ratings but great for the fans who on a Friday when the temperature reached 86 degrees were at the U.S. Open.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NEW YORK — Sometime tennis is actually about the game. But usually it’s about the personalities, the gimmicks, the controversies, the comparisons and virtually everything other than the results of a given match, unless Roger, Rafa, Novak or Serena are playing — and Thursday in the U.S. Open none of them was.
Copyright 2019, The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NEW YORK — Roger Federer lost a set. Venus Williams lost a match. Time isn’t on their side, but they understand, even if the rest of us don’t.
Copyright 2019 The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
NEW YORK — Yes, if you can make it here, you’ll make it anywhere. It’s New York, where the heat isn’t bad this year — only in the mid-70s Tuesday — the traffic heading to Billie Jean King Center is terrible and the tennis is terrific.
Copyright 2019 The Maven
By Art Spander
For Maven Sports
OAKLAND — There were handshakes and, thinking about how quickly 30 years had gone, headshakes. There were joyful words about those who returned, guys you know like Eck, Carney, and Rickey, and mournful talk about those who had passed on, guys you knew like Hendu, Bob Welch and Tony Phillips.
Copyright 2019 The Maven