Oakland

Cespedes home-run not enough, A’s lose to Tigers

Published

11 years ago

October 4, 2013

Oakland, CA – It’s been almost a year when these teams met in the American League Division Series. Fate has brought them back together to kickoff this year’s postseason. The only problem is, this time the outcome wasn’t any different.

The Detroit Tigers took game one of the series with a 3-2 win over the A’s. Ace Max Scherzer pitched a stellar game striking out a total of eleven batters. Only one player was successful in hitting off him and that was Yoenis Cespedes who produced the only runs for Oakland.

“Yeah, they had three pretty good pitchers and their go-to guys to finish out games at least with [Drew] Smyly and [Joaquin] Benoit,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin. “Would have been nice to get them going earlier in the game and try to get Scherzer’s pitch count up. Yet maybe not our best offensive night, but they pitched well too.”

The Tigers took an early lead, Austin Jackson leadoff the first frame with a double and Torii Hunter was hit by pitch that set up Miguel Cabrera’s bloop single up the middle scoring Jackson for their first run.

Prince Fielder followed by grounding into a double play that scored in Hunter and Alex Avila who got the base hit for the final run giving Detroit a 3-0 lead. Bartolo Colon rocky’s start in the first inning was crucial, especially hitting a batter and giving up three runs for the first time this season.

Colon settled down to retire the next five batters before Fielder knocked a ground single to left field. The A’s defense stepped up and kept Detroit from scoring any more runs. In fact, the biggest defensive play in the game came in the sixth.

Omar Infante hit a single to right-fielder Josh Reddick and Victor Martinez was waved in and headed to home plate. No one has been successful in out running Reddick’s arm thus far and Martinez had no chance tonight when he threw to catcher Stephen Vogt for the out. That was the only time Tigers came close to scoring again.

“We just have to forget about this as fast as we can,” Coco Crisp said. “That’s been working for us all year. It’s unfortunate, because we almost pulled it off, but we’ll let this go and start worrying about Mr. Verlander.”

The one person who shutdown Oakland’s offense was Scherzer. He scattered three hits over seven innings, giving up two runs, two walks, and a home run. Those two runs came from Cespedes who hit a triple in the second and blasted a two-run homer in the seventh.

“The first at-bat he caught too much over the plate and the third at-bat, he had a good battle,” Scherzer said in reference to Yoenis getting two big hits off him. “It got to a 2-2, and I didn’t know what pitch to go with, and I thought if I went with my fastball, I could make him go away. That pitch caught too much of the plate and he took it deep and that’s just something that happens. And it’s baseball. It’s pitching and you move on.”

Max relied on his fastball and change-up to stifle a powerful offense. Justin Verlander did the same thing last year to win game four of the ALDS. A good change-up is hard to beat and Scherzer fanned four in a row from the fourth through the fifth frames. The bullpen came in to pitch the final three outs to secure their victory.

“I thought I had a good change-up tonight,” he explained. “I thought that was the difference. I was able to keep them off balance, and it allowed me to pitch deep into the game.”

“We were able to jump on some of his mistakes the last time, and he didn’t make any mistakes this time,” Vogt said. “He was putting his fastball on the corners. He wasn’t missing over the middle of the plate. His fastball-changeup fastball is one of the best in baseball. Good pitching will always beat good hitting.

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WOMEN IMPACTING THE CHURCH AND COMMUNITY

Published

13 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Juanita Matthews

Sister Juanita Matthews

55 Years with Oakland Public School District

The Teacher, Mother, Community Outreach Champion, And Child of God

Juanita Matthews, better known as “Sister Teacher,” is a walking Bible scholar. She moved to California from the great state of Arkansas in 1971. Sister Teacher has a passion for teaching. She has been a member of Bible Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church since 1971. She followed her passion for teaching, and in 1977 became the lead teacher for Adult Class #6. Her motto still today is “Once My Student, Always My Student”.

Beyond her remarkable love for the Lord, Sister Teacher has showcased her love for teaching by working for the Oakland Unified School District for 55 years, all but four of those years spent at Emerson Elementary and Child Development School. She truly cares about her students, making sure they have the tools/supplies needed to learn either at OUSD or Bible Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church.

She’s also had a “Clothes Closet Ministry” for 51 years, making sure her students have sufficient clothing for school. The Clothes Closet Ministry extends past her students, she has been clothing the community for over 50 years as well. She loves the Lord and is a servant on a mission. She is a loving mother to two beautiful children, Sandra and Andre. This is the impact this woman of God has on her church and the community.

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Activism

Oakland’s ‘Green the Church,’ Others, Host a Climate Revival

On April 20, Oakland’s Green The Church California (GTC) and the Center For Food, Faith and Justice will celebrate Earth Day and present a Climate Revival event titled “Growing Healthy Communities From Soil To The Soul” at McGee Avenue Baptist Church at 1640 Stuart St, Berkeley, CA. The day will include inspiring talks, interactive workshops, networking opportunities, and a special panel on Food Sovereignty and Global Food Resilience.

Published

15 hours ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

The revival will take place at McGee Avenue Baptist Church in Berkeley on April 20. Courtesy image.

Growing Healthy Communities from Soil to the Soul in Berkeley

By Y’Anad Burrell

The day will include inspiring talks, interactive workshops, networking opportunities, and a special panel on Food Sovereignty and Global Food Resilience.

The keynote speaker is Rev. Danté R. Quick, PhD, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, N.J. Quick is well known in the Bay Area, having served for more than 10 years as pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Vallejo, CA.

Green The Church, founded in 2010 by Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll, Sr., and headquartered in Oakland, helps galvanize Black churches and their local communities and leaders to address issues critical to populations historically disengaged from conversations around pollution and health, climate change, and sustainability and energy efficiency.

The organization collaborates with major environmental, sustainability, food security, faith, and community-based non-profit organizations, and is committed to “creation justice”—care and justice for God’s people and the planet—and building the Beloved Community.

Environmental justice has long been a pressing concern for communities of color who bear the brunt of pollution and ecological degradation. Climate change exacerbates these issues, disproportionately impacting vulnerable communities. Recognizing this urgency, Black churches across the country are taking action.

With deep roots in the African American community and its commitment to social justice, the Black Church has become an essential advocate for sustainable practices and policies.

Over the past 14 years, in a powerful collaboration with significant environmental, sustainability, food security, faith, and community-based non-profit organizations, GTC has created a cadre of Black churches engaging in the environmental justice, climate, and sustainability movement.

GTC presently works with more than 1,000 pastors and congregations across the U.S., and groups in the Bahamas, Ghana, Nigeria, and the UK, showing that we can make a difference together.

The partnership between environmental justice advocates and the Black Church extends beyond individual congregations. Green The Church provides resources and support for faith communities seeking to address climate change and promote environmental justice.

Through collaboration, initiatives such as energy efficiency programs, solar installations, and environmental education have been implemented in Black churches nationwide. These efforts reduce the carbon footprint and save money on energy bills, benefiting the congregations and their communities.

The involvement of the Black Church in the fight against climate change is not just a participation, it’s a powerful message that galvanizes action across communities.

By integrating environmental justice into their ministry, Black churches are demonstrating that addressing climate change is not only a matter of science but also of social and moral responsibility, inspiring change at a grassroots level.

For more information, go to: www.greenthechurch.org.