Results tagged ‘ Grant Balfour ’
Balfour finishes off Astros in (near) empty stadium
Not many fans stayed around on a Monday night to see the 9th
By the time Grant Balfour struck out the last Astros’ hitter there weren’t too many fans left in the cold and miserable Coliseum to see it. The A’s got their 10th win at a trot getting 6 runs in a slow first inning to beat Houston 11-2.
Grant obviously wanted the workout – he doesn’t get many Save opportunities these days – and he completed the 9th in a 20 pitch 1-2-3 outing. Still he looked as intense as ever.
Balfour – Still all the rage in Oakland
Grant Balfour continues to amuse them at the Coliseum it seems.
Kids who spend Father’s Day at the ball park with dad get to take home a Grant Balfour Raging Gnome.
Grant’s contract expires at the end of this season. You would have to think that the A’s would be keen to sign him for a few more years, no doubt pushing up his $4 million salary. His fans below would reckon he was worth every $.
Balfour throws another scoreless 9th – but no Save
The score was tied 3 all in the 9th when Grant Balfour, as planned, came on to pitch. After all that is what he is paid to do. He faced 4, allowed a lone hit and retired the Tigers in his one inning.
That’s how the score remained until Josh Donaldson’s walk off home run in the 12th gave the A’s their 9th straight win. But no win or save for Grant, but a job well done.
Why does Grant Balfour only have 1 Save so far this season?
So far this season Grant Balfour has only 1 Save despite Oakland’s 8 wins.
As the Chicago Tribune pointed out this week he has 19 consecutive save opportunities, so what’s the problem this season for Grant that only 1 of those 19 has come in 2013?
It’s simply a case of the A’s offence being too good. They have too big a 9th inning lead to qualify for Save situations as they lead the League in runs scored. Sort of reminds one of the 1980′s A’s under the colourful Billy Martin and “Billy Ball”.
Now if they could just fill that antiquated Coliseum with fans!
Balfour closes out the 9th on the Angels
With a 9-5 lead and so no Save situation Grant Balfour threw a scoreless 9th against the Angels on their opening night in front of a packed stadium.
It wasn’t exactly what he would have liked, giving up a single and a walk, but in 21 pitches he shut down the middle of the Angels line up with his usual combination of 94MPH fastballs and a slider which the patient Angel hitters were wisely leaving alone.
The A’s have now won their last six games on the backs of some aggressive long ball hitting.
Grant Balfour gets his 1st Save
Save No 1
In a surgical 1-2-3 inning A’s closer Grant Balfour dispatched the Astros with ease to record his first Save in the A’s 6-3 win.
Looking as intense as ever and constantly mumbling to himself a fidgety Balfour threw his usual mix of 94-95mph fastballs with some sliders and off speed pitches to record two fly balls and a strike out in this his first Save opportunity.
The A’s have won both games of this series and will be looking to sweep the Astros tomorrow.
Grant Balfour’s season starts with a HR and a Double
Fans of Oakland Athletics pitcher Grant Balfour react as he enters the baseball game against the Seattle Mariners in the ninth inning Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
It wasn’t quite the start that Grant wanted. He began with good fastballs (94) against the Mariners’ Michael Morse who had hit a 2 on 2 out HR in the third. But his third fastball got too much of the plate and Morse put it deep over CF for his 4th RBI. The next hitter pounded a double to left CF but that was all the Mariners would get off Grant as he settled in and with 2 groundouts and a weak fly ball he finished the inning without further damage.
The fact that he was brought on in the 9th with the A’s down 6-1 would indicate that the A’s we’re keen for Grant to get some work in due to his limited work during Spring Training following knee surgery. With the final score 7-1 Grant did not feature in the result and the workout will have been good for him in preparation for a Save opportunity.
Still Grant was not mumbling pleasantries as he walked off the mound proving he has lost none of his famous fire.
Spring Training – Aussies in action – George, Kandilas, Kennelly, Moylan (dropped), Welch
Peter Moylan is the latest to be sent back to the minors
It’s not been a good week for Aussie potential major leaguers with Travis Blackley and Josh Spence being sent down. Now comes news that the Dodgers have dropped Peter Moylan to the minor leagues. That leaves only Grant Balfour and possibly Liam Hendriks as our representatives in The Show. Disappointing.
A number of minor leaguers got some playing time in the final games of Spring Training today. David Kandilas got a good run with the Rockies going 0-1 and a walk and a run. Both Matt Kennelly and Stefan Welch went 0-2 and rookie Darryl George didn’t get to bat but got to play at third late in the Rays’ game today. This no doubt softened the disappointment he felt when he was unable to crack a place in a full season team and has to return next week to extended spring.
Spring Training – Aussies in action – Balfour charged with first run of spring
Grant Balfour took the mound for his fourth appearance of the spring Friday night against the Giants at AT&T Park.
Balfour entered the game in the eighth inning and allowed a leadoff triple to Nick Noonan before yielding a run-scoring single to Angel Pagan. He allowed one run on two hits in an inning of work. He also struck out two as his ERA rose to 2.25 this spring.
Source:cbssports.com
Spring Training – Aussies in action – Balfour, Blackley, Moylan, Oeltjen
Travis’ spot on the opening day roster is looking a little less certain
For the Aussie A’s (Balfour/Blackley) it was as Charles Dickens once said “the best of times, the worst of times”.
Grant Balfour had the best of times throwing a 1-2-3 7th inning against Cleveland. He’s looking good for the opening day roster. But perhaps Travis Blackley is not looking as good as he was at the start of spring with another below par outing today when he blew the Save in the 9th and then went on to collect the Win in the 10th. We know he is not happy with the number of runs he has given up recently. He said this on twitter after today’s game:-
@Travis_Blackley: I had quit dipping for 4 weeks, 6 days, 1 hr and 32 mins. Over that stretch I’ve been crap. Im bout to jump off the wagon now #bringonthe0′s
His line today was 2INN, 4H, 3R, 1BB, 2K and a 14.21ERA. We would like him to have a healthy ERA but we hope he stays off the dip and has a healthy mouth as well.
Peter Moylan had a good outing when he threw the 9th for the Dodgers against the Rockies. He faced 5, gave up a hit and struck out one. He also intentionally walked a lefty to get at a righty who he struck out to finish the inning.
Trent Oeltjen walked for the pitcher in the 8th today. Encouraging to see that the Angels are keeping him with the team in the dying days of spring training.
