Two Gold Sox named ALL-GWL
The Yuba-sutter Gold Sox saw two of their players named to the All-great West League team, the league announced.
Catcher Jacob Terao (University of Portland) and outfielder Brody Clifford (Dixie State University) were both named to the ALL-GWL second team.
Terao appeared in 37 games for the Gold Sox and batted .281 with six home runs to go with 22 RBIS and 23 runs scored.
Clifford batted .301 with seven home runs, 36 RBIS and scored 52 runs in 55 games.
Both players also represented the Gold Sox at the 2018 GWL All-star Game.
Cole Carder (Medford Rogues) was voted the league’s Player of the Year, Justin Sterner (Chico Heat) was the Pitcher of the Year and Fred Ludwig (Chico Heat) was the Manager of the Year.
The awards were based on voting by the league’s managers.
OAKLAND – Even the hottest team in baseball can have a bad day.
For the A’s, things went wrong from the first pitch on Wednesday afternoon.
Shin-soo Choo homered to left off starter Edwin Jackson to open the game and things never got much better for the A’s, who lost 4-2 to the Texas Rangers in front of 13,139 fans on the final day of what was otherwise a sparkling homestand.
Jackson, who was 4-2 with a 2.58 earned run average in 10 starts since being signed as a free agent by Oakland in late June, was gone by the fifth inning, trailing 4-0. The A’s had won his four previous no-decisions, but a bid for the club’s 22nd comeback win since mid-june ended when Nick Martini struck out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth.
Oakland lost for just the third time on this nine-game homestand, during which it took two of three each from Seattle and World Series champion Houston to grab a share of first place in the A.L. West.
Wednesday’s loss, coupled The A’s Khris Davis is hit by a pitch by the Rangers’ Cory Gearrin during the seventh inning of Wednesday’s game.
with Houston’s victory in Seattle, dropped the A’s one game behind in the divisional race. They remain 4½ games ahead of Seattle for the second wild-card.
The loss was just the 15th for the A’s in 57 games since June 15.
The A’s play at Minnesota tonight to open a seven-game road trip that also includes three at Houston. Oakland, 37-25 on the road this season, is seven games into a stretch of 20 straight days with a game.
The A’s beat the Rangers 9-0 and 6-0 to open this series, but stifled by Texas left-hander Mike Minor, who allowed just one hit through six innings and faced the minimum 18 batters, thanks to a pair of double plays.
The A’s never got a runner past first base until reliever Cory Gearrin came on in the seventh. After retiring the first two batters, Gearrin walked Matt Chapman and hit Khris Davis with a pitch. Stephen Piscotty then doubled down the right-field line, scoring Chapman and prompting Rangers manager Jeff Banister to bring in left-hander Alex Claudio.
Matt Olson was 4 for 6 lifetime against Claudio, but struck out to end the rally.
The A’s cut it to 4-2 in the eighth when Pinder singled off reliever Chris Martin, took second on a short wild pitch and scored on Jed Lowrie’s pinch-hit double to right.
The A’s final bid died in the ninth despite some serious drama involving Rangers relief pitcher Jose Leclerc. Chapman walked and took third on a twobase wild pitch, but with two out Olson walked and Pinder was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Martini struck out to end the game.