Results tagged “oakland”

Every Tuesday and Thursday, we'll be posting events that are going on sale during the current week. This Thursday post only collects the latest announcements, so definitely check the Tuesday post for any you may have missed.

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness – we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week.

The Eagles lost their first preseason game last night, 16-10 to Oakland in the Hall of Fame Game, and we aren't sure whether to complain or not.

Best of the week is compiled and edited by Seattlest's Dan Gonsiorowski.

Just over a day till the weekend starts officially. We can't wait. No really. Thus, the headline.

Just as fans were coming to terms with the Phils missing the playoffs, they switched to Fox and saw that their next big hope, the Philadelphia Eagles, were quickly on their way to a mediocre 2 - 2 start to their season. The Eagles, who followed up a tough opening night loss to Atlanta with two wins over the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders, went down quickly to the Kansas City Chiefs, who pounced on them early and built up a 17 - 0 lead. A Sheldon Brown interception return for a touchdown sparked the team, but a missed extra point and a kickoff return by Chiefs return man Dante Hall for a touchdown quickly deflated them.

David Akers sat crying on the sidelines after yesterday's afternoon game against the Oakland Raiders. He stood crying on the field, as well. And he walked on the sidelines, crying. There was a lot of crying going on, basically. But the good kind. Well, the good, torn hamstring kind.

Quite frankly, Stephen A. Smith has his finger dug into the neck of this fine city (we think that the neck is located somewhere in Northeast Philly), taking its pulse and converting into prose that reminds us of rainbows. And so, what Stephen A. says is gospel around these parts. Just look at Sunday, for instance: in the Inquirer, Smith took the Eagles to task for their poor offense and the Eagles responded with a poor offensive showing yesterday afternoon, beating the 49ers by a mere 39 points.

Normally, coming off the all-star break with a win over a pretty tough team like the Marlins would warrant praise; however, we can't help but feel worried by the Phils’ performance last night. The style of play that the Phillies demonstrated was the same thing that gave them the 12-1 homestand and made them lose on the road to Seattle and Oakland: taking advantage of the deficient left field wall at Citizen’s Bank Park and hitting homeruns that would be merely pop-flies in any other park. This style might serve them well in the short term while playing at home, but it is not sufficient to make them a winning team.

I’ve always been a person of extremes. I believe you should jump in head-first or don’t even bother putting on your bathing suit – and by that I mean, “Don’t swim,” not “Swim naked.” And that is why it’s infuriating to me to see the Phillies be a perpetually mediocre team. If they win a game, they lose the next. I wish that they would either win or just concede the season and become the worst team in baseball. Then, at least they would have some distinction. Last night’s game was a perfect illustration of my point: the Phils decimated the Pirates in the first game of the series and then went on to get shutout last night. What will it take to get a little consistency? Last night started off downhill when, in the first inning, starting pitcher Jon Lieber was struck by a line drive ball on the same elbow where he received Tommy John surgery – a ligament reconstruction procedure – earlier in his career. Later, X-Rays would show no fracture. Lieber will be further examined to determine whether he will make his scheduled start against the Nationals on Sunday. This game should have been titled “The Kip Wells Show,” because that’s exactly what it was. Struggling Pittsburgh pitcher, Kip Wells, was determined to prove himself last night, and came up big. Wells struck out 12 and allowed only 4 hits. He even contributed to the scoring with an opposite field double, from which he would later score. It just seems incomprehensible that this is the same Phillies team that won the game before this one by a score of 12-1. This sort of inconsistency has been present all season. For example, in early June the Phils swept the (at the time) first place Texas Rangers. Shortly after, they went on to lose series against the horrible Seattle Mariners and Oakland A’s. The Phils will battle mediocrity again tonight, as the sure-to-lose Vicente Padilla takes on the Pirates’ Mark Redman. I’ll start writing about the loss now.