Giants sweep A’s in first act of Bay Bridge Series

The Giants host the Brewers starting Monday night and the Oakland A’s open a quick two-game series against the L.A. Dodgers starting in L.A. on Tuesday before coming home to face the Cleveland Indians for a weekend series on Thursday. A’s manager Bob Melvin announced after the game that RHP Jesse Chavez would replace LHP Drew Pomeranz as Wednesday’s starter in Los Angeles. Every San Francisco starter except second baseman Joe Panik had at least one hit.

With 71 pitches through four innings, it appeared Bumgarner would have another abbreviated afternoon. “Made him work. They had a good approach tonight”.

With a sellout crowd on its feet, Marcus Semien couldn’t check his swing on a 3-2 pitch and Casilla recorded his 25th save in 29 chances. Sometimes you have to give the hitters credit.

The bullpen for the A’s wouldn’t fair well either as the Giants’ Pence, Brandon Belt and Peavy clawed for three more runs off of Fernando Rodriguez and Eric O’Flaherty in the fifth inning.

“Good series for us”, said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. “He’s really been consistent since he’s been back”.

His homer was but a single jab in what turned into a tense pitching duel.

Nationals 9, Pirates 3 – Michael Taylor had a homer and three RBIs and Gio Gonzalez won his fourth straight decision to lead Washington over host Pittsburgh. Leadoff hitter Billy Burns did not start after fouling a ball that hit him in the groin on Friday.

Saturday saw the A’s Chris Bassitt, recently called up go up against one of the games best in Madison Bumgarner.

Of course, Hudson spent his first six seasons recording 92 of those wins as a member of the A’s after being drafted by the franchise in 1997. He lined a double off the bricks to score Pence, and the Giants added another run when A’s third baseman Brett Lawrie threw away a routine grounder by Peavy. He did win his 300 with us.

Colabello’s bases-loaded, two-run single off Seattle closer Carson Smith in the top of the ninth inning finished off a Toronto comeback from three runs down. The A s got a pair of two-out run scoring singles before he escaped the inning and he worked around a leadoff single in the fifth inning to become eligible for the win. It was a 1-1 game when the Giants broke through in the sixth on a two-out rally.

Zobrist was a home run shy of the cycle and walked in the eighth. “You could see early on he was tracking the ball and seeing it as well as he ever has”.

Sunday saw the A’s Kendall Graveman go up against a former Athletics’ standout Tim Hudson. ESPN will televise the August. 23 game at Pittsburgh, pushing back the first pitch to 5:08 p.m. PDT.

Cooney (1-0) gave up five hits and two earned runs in an efficient 74-pitch stint.

I enjoyed my time with him, Bochy said. “That’s why I’m out there, that’s my job, to get our team deep in ballgames”.

“If I was cheating, I’d hope that I’d have a little better stuff than I was throwing out there today”, Hudson said.

Peavy departed after allowing a single to Billy Butler in the seventh and George Kontos, who had stranded all 26 inherited runners this season, finally saw his impressive streak end as Sogard hit an RBI single. 237 against Hudson during the day compared with.

By comparison, last year the A’s had 98 home runs at the All-Star break with three players, Moss 21, Donaldson 20, and Cespedes 14 leading, all of whom are no longer on the A’s roster. “But overall I thought he threw the ball well”, Bochy said. “[The Giants] were swinging the bats great, got seven hits and a couple walks in an inning and a third, and then to come in and shut them down like that was terrific”. We’re getting timely hits.

Ben Zobrist homered for the A’s, who lost their third in four games.