Oakland

A’s sweep Rays, closing in on AL West lead

Published

12 years ago

September 1, 2013

Oakland, CA – No better way to begin the month of September. These past two weeks have felt like playoff baseball. But for the A’s, they have only one thing on their mind and that’s to reclaim first place in their division.

“Scoreboard watching tends to take place around this time, I try not to get caught up in that,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “I pretty much watch one score when it goes up and that’s the Texas score.”

It’s hard not to see Oakland make a strong push for the pennant race after sweeping the Rays 5-1 in the series finale. They are now within one game of the Rangers who they face in a three-game series tomorrow. After today’s win the A’s are 2 1/2 games ahead of Tampa in the Wild Card spot.

“I don’t want the [Wild Card] game,” said Melvin. “You try not to get too caught up in it but you can’t help it. Everybody is, and once you get into September, it feels like the finish line is in sight.”

Both Coco Crisp and Stephen Vogt went deep behind a good day of pitching from A.J. Griffin. Crisp matched a season-high with his sixteenth home run in the first giving the A’s a 1-0 lead. It was his second home run in the past two games.

“No,” Coco replied when asked if he’s playing his best baseball after tying his career-high. “I have 17 stolen bases. I don’t care about home runs, if they go, they go. I’m grateful it’s a home run, but… it is what it is.”

James Loney tied the game in the second with a long ball to right field. That was the only run scored off Griffin. Through seven innings, he allowed five hits, one walk and struck out seven. A.J. recorded his second straight win after being winless in four previous starts.

“I’ve been feeling pretty good,” said Griffin. “The results haven’t been there, trying to become a pitcher I’m not, like a power-pitcher type thing. Today [pitching coach Curt Young] and I found some stuff mechanically, keeping my head on line a bit more, and that helped tremendously. I felt I could execute my pitches and get the ball where I needed it more.”

Oakland took advantage of the errors that plagued the Rays today. Evan Longoria over threw Jed Lowrie’s infield bunt to first base for the out. Lowrie then advanced to third, and was scored in on Brandon Moss’ single to right field in the third.

Tampa tried to rally back in the seventh but had no luck against the A’s dominant defense. With one runner on at second and two outs, Desmond Jennings hit a single to left-fielder Yoenis Cespedes whew threw toward home plate.

Josh Dondalson came off third to catch the ball above the mound. He then fired a bullet to catcher Vogt who tagged Will Myers twice at home plate. Making sure home plate umpire Tony Randazzo called the out.

“I knew the situation, the line drive was hit to my right and I froze,” Myers said. “I should have gotten a better read on it. I didn’t know where the ball was, so I was just trying to avoid the tag. When your not scoring runs, things like that get magnified.”

“I knew he was nowhere near the plate and I had time to go back and get him,” said Stephen. “If that’s a play where he slides in and he’s at the plate, I’m not going to act like I tagged him the first time. So fortunately, he was well off the plate and I had time to go back and tag him.”

Vogt homered in the seventh and Oakland scored two more runs in the eighth. With no starter assigned, Jamey Wright came out of Tampa’s bullpen to make his first start since August 25, 2007 with the Texas Rangers. His outing lasted 1 2/3 innings before the bullpen took over. Wright allowed a leadoff home run to Crisp and two singles. He walked two and struck out one.

“It’s where it all starts with us,” Bob said. “The starters, if they can get deep in games, going against a staff like they have over there, you know your not going to score a ton of runs. The whole series, up until the last inning of this game, felt like a couple of runners on and you don’t know where it’s going. So for the starters to be able to get us deep and pitch that well, really makes it a lot easier to finish out of those games.”

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Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 30, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 3, 2025

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May 30, 2025

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

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May 25, 2025

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Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

3 weeks ago

May 18, 2025

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By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.