Bay Area Buzz 9/24: Bumgarner vs. Puig, Sonny Gray, Raiders LBs, Frank Gore
Bay Area Topics
Bumgarner vs. Puig
"Instead, think about how much fun that fued between Yasiel Puig and Madison Bumgarner promises to be over the next, what, five years? More?When a reporter jokingly suggested the two should become friends because they will see one another so much, Bumgarner said, “I don’t think that’s in the cards for us.”Bumgarner lost what might be his final regular-season start when he allowed a Justin Turner homer to start the first inning and a two-run Matt Kemp homer later in the frame.What happened between the homers enlivened the ancient rivalry.The benches cleared briefly when Bumgarner hit Puig on the foot while trying to bury a two-strike cutter. Puig, who also was hit by Jake Peavy on Monday night, sat at the plate and craned his neck to stare at Bumgarner.For the second time in 2014, the two got into a shouting match. Bumgarner yelled first. When home-plate umpire Adrian Johnson started walking toward the mound to quiet the pitcher, Puig rose, walked behind Johnson and started yelling back.Bumgarner then flung his glove to the ground and waved his arms as if to say, “You want to go? Let’s go.” That’s when the benches emptied.Manager Bruce Bochy blamed it on Bumgarner’s anger over allowing the Turner homer and Puig “creating a little drama” by sitting at the plate and staring. Bumgarner also took exception to Puig’s stare.“He turned around and looked at me like he had something in mind,” Bumgarner said.Nobody on the field could have thought that Bumgarner was trying to hit Puig on the foot with a two-strike breaking pitch. Lest there be any confusion, Bumgarner said, “He’ll know if it’s on purpose, which that one wasn’t. I’ll make sure of that.”"
"Gray (13-10) is 0-3 in his last six starts. The right-hander has one victory in 11 starts since a 5-0 July that earned him AL pitcher of the month honors.Of Trout’s 13 games with three or more strikeouts, three are against the A’s. Gray struck out eight of the first 11 batters he faced.“That was terrific,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He was up for it today. You could see when he came in the dugout there was a look in his eye he was going to get after it.”…“We lost. Whatever I did wasn’t good enough tonight. It doesn’t matter,” Gray said."
Raiders Linebackers
"Miles Burris didn’t practice Wednesday because he has a walking boot on his foot and Sio Moore was gingerly working on a side field, according to reports. Moore missed the New England game with an ankle injury. Nick Roach, who Burris has replaced in the middle, still didn’t appear to be at full speed, according to reports. He hasn’t played since Aug. 22 in the preseason because of a concussion. The fact Roach hasn’t been cleared nearly five weeks after suffering the concussion has to be a concern for the Raiders, as well as for Roach.Untill any of these players dramatically improve, it appears Kaluka Maiava and undrafted rookie Bojay Filimoeatu would start with rookie Khalil Mack, as they’re the only healthy linebackers on the roster. The Raiders also have undrafted rookie Spencer Hadley on the practice squad. Clearly, this is a major issue for Oakland for this week."
"In Sunday’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals, Frank Gore carried the ball six times for 10 yards. Neither total stacked up to what the veteran running back is used to tallying.According to offensive coordinator Greg Roman, however, the limited touches were a result of the San Francisco 49ers game plan – at least at first.The team hoped to utilize its depth at wide receiver early on to set up the ground game in the second half.“I think Frank knew going into the game, we kind of outlined our game plan that we were going to start the game out a certain way and see how it went,” Roman said Tuesday on KNBR.…“In a perfect world, you’re letting Frank and the offensive line take over the game at the end of the game,” Roman said, “but we weren’t in that situation, so we were never really able to transition into that.”"