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Lowrie’s Walk-Off Single, A’s Stay Alive

Published

11 years ago

September 6, 2014

Oakland, CA – It was familiar, it’s something they’re used to and today they fought back to victory. In a much need win, the A’s rallied back in the ninth inning behind Jed Lowrie’s walk-off single to beat the Astros 4-3 and even the series while staying alive in the pennant race.

“We’ve won many games like that this year, so hopefully they remember the feeling” said manager Bob Melvin. “It hasn’t been a great feeling, and we haven’t looked like we’ve had the fight that we normally do. We’re not playing very well all the way around, so hopefully a game like that can spur something.”

Down by two runs headed to the bottom of the ninth. Josh Donaldson leadoff with a single and Adam Dunn flew out to center field. Derek Norris singled up the middle and Billy Burns came in to pinch-run for him. Josh Reddick doubled of the center field wall and tied the game after driving in two runs.

“I made it look harder than it was,” Reddick said. “I knew where everyone was playing, I just got conscious about the ball and it wasn’t hit super hard. I kind of hesitated for a second, then hit third, and the next step after third I tripped over myself so, I had to gain my footing again, so I made it a lot closer than I should’ve. But it doesn’t matter how you do as long as you cross the plate before the ball gets there.”

Closer Chad Qualls unraveled in the ninth allowing Oakland’s offense to dominate. Lowrie who fell behind on Qualls, 0-2, found an opening and hit a single driving in Reddick for the win. Lowrie recorded his first walk-off RBI this season and the team recorded their nine walk-off win of the season.

“I feel like if you don’t experience that, then you never really had the A’s experience,” Lowrie said. “That’s something you welcome, not in many situations, but in that for sure.”

“It’s been happening all year, and I’m tired of it,” said Qualls. “Four of my five losses are against them, four of my five blown saves are against them. I’m over it. On the words of Pedro Martinez, ‘In 2014 the Oakland A’s are my daddy.’ What do you want me to do?”

The A’s scored their first run in the third. An error at shortstop allowed Sam Fuld on, Eric Sogard followed with a single and Coco Crisp hit a single to load the bases off Scott Feldman. Brandon Moss’ sacrifice fly scored in their first run making it a 1-0 game but Josh Donaldson hit into a double play to end the inning.

“I was able to attack the strike zone early, ” Scott Kazmir said. “Throwing my cutter a little bit more which helped me out a lot. The sixth and seventh inning, a couple of pitches, didn’t get the result I wanted and it cost me. But a win like this is something that can kick start us and give us that push that we need.”

Kazmir allowed his first hit in the sixth, a bloop single to Carlos Corporan to leadoff the inning. An infield single from Jonathan Villar put two on with no outs. Robbie Grossman’s sacrifice fly moved Corporan to third. Jose Altuve’s double RBI put the Astros up 2-1. Altuve’s extended his hitting streak to a career-high 13 games.

In the seventh, Kazmir loaded the bases with three walks. He was chased off the mound and the bullpen came in. Dan Otero took over, Grossman hit a sacrifice fly extending the Astro’s lead 3-1. And that would be it for Houston. Oakland’s defense shutdown their offense for good.

“Anytime you go into the ninth winning 3-1 it’s tough when they come back and win the ballgame,” said Astro’s manager Tom Lawless. “But that’s baseball.”

The A’s are in a tight race, they are 5 1/2 back from first place in their division behind the Anaheim Angels who play tonight. They are 2 1/2 games up on the Seattle Mariners in the Wild Card race, the Mariners also play tonight. After this win, Oakland has regained their confidence back and will continue to take it one game at a time.

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Fighting to Keep Blackness

BlackPressUSA NEWSWIRE — Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C.

Published

1 week ago

March 7, 2025

Oakland Post

By April Ryan

As this nation observes the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama, the words of President Trump reverberate. “This country will be WOKE no longer”, an emboldened Trump offered during his speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night. Since then, Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter this morning that “Elon Musk and his DOGE bros have ordered GSA to sell off the site of the historic Freedom Riders Museum in Montgomery.” Her post of little words went on to say, “This is outrageous and we will not let it stand! I am demanding an immediate reversal. Our civil rights history is not for sale!” DOGE trying to sell Freedom Rider Museum

Also, in the news today, the Associated Press is reporting they have a file of names and descriptions of more than 26,000 military images flagged for removal because of connections to women, minorities, culture, or DEI. In more attempts to downplay Blackness, a word that is interchanged with woke, Trump supporters have introduced another bill to take down the bright yellow letters of Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., in exchange for the name Liberty Plaza. D.C. Mayor Morial Bowser is allowing the name change to keep millions of federal dollars flowing there. Black Lives Matter Plaza was named in 2020 after a tense exchange between President Trump and George Floyd protesters in front of the White House. There are more reports about cuts to equity initiatives that impact HBCU students. Programs that recruited top HBCU students into the military and the pipeline for Department of Defense contracts have been canceled.

Meanwhile, Democrats are pushing back against this second-term Trump administration’s anti-DEI and Anti-woke message. In the wake of the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, several Congressional Black Caucus leaders are reintroducing the Voting Rights Act. South Carolina Democratic Congressman James Clyburn and Alabama Congresswoman Terry Sewell are sponsoring H.R. 14, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Six decades ago, Lewis was hit with a billy club by police as he marched for the right to vote for African Americans. The right for Black people to vote became law with the 1965 Voting Rights Act that has since been gutted, leaving the nation to vote without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. Reflecting on the late Congressman Lewis, March 1, 2020, a few months before his death, Lewis said, “We need more than ever in these times many more someones to make good trouble- to make their own dent in the wall of injustice.”

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Oakland Post: Week of March 5 – 11, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of March 5 – 11, 2025

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March 7, 2025

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Rep. Al Green is Censured by The U.S. House After Protesting Trump on Medicaid

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question.

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1 week ago

March 6, 2025

Oakland Post

By Lauren Burke

In one of the quickest punishments of a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the modern era, Congressman Al Green (D-TX) was censured by a 224-198 vote today in the House. His censure featured no hearing at the House Ethics Committee and his punishment was put on the floor for a vote by the Republican controlled House less than 72 hours after the infraction in question. Of the last three censures of members of the U.S. House, two have been members of the Congressional Black Caucus under GOP control. In 2023, Rep. Jamal Bowman was censured.

On the night of March 4, as President Trump delivered a Joint Address to Congress, Rep. Green interrupted him twice. Rep. Green shouted, “You don’t have a mandate to cut Medicare, and you need to raise the cap on social security,” to President Trump. In another rare event, Rep. Green was escorted off the House floor by security shortly after yelling at the President by order of GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson. Over the last four years, members of Congress have yelled at President Biden during the State of the Union. Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor-Greene was joined by Republican Rep. Lauren Bobert (R-CO) in 2022 in yelling at President Biden. In 2023, Rep. Greene, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), and Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) yelled at Biden, interrupting his speech. In 2024, wearing a red MAGA hat, a violation of the rules of the U.S. House, Greene interrupted Biden again. She was never censured for her behavior. Rep. Green voted “present” on his censure and was joined by freshman Democrat Congressman Shomari Figures of Alabama who also voted “present”.

All other members of the Congressional Black Caucus voted against censuring Green. Republicans hold a four-seat advantage in the U.S. House after the death of Texas Democrat and former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner yesterday. Ten Democrats voted along with Republicans to censure Rep. Green, including Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, who is in the leadership as the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. “I respect them but, I would do it again,” and “it is a matter of conscience,” Rep. Green told Black Press USA’s April Ryan in an exclusive interview on March 5. After the vote, a group of Democrats sang “We Shall Overcome” in the well at the front of the House chamber. Several Republican members attempted to shout down the singing. House Speaker Mike Johnson gaveled the House out of session and into a recess. During the brief recess members moved back to their seats and out of the well of the House. Shortly after the vote to censor Rep. Green, Republican Congressman Andy Ogles of Tennessee quickly filed legislation to punish members who participated in the singing of “We Shall Overcome.” Earlier this year, Rep. Ogles filed legislation to allow President Donald Trump to serve a third term, which is currently unconstitutional. As the debate started, the stock market dove down over one-point hours from close. The jobs report will be made public tomorrow.