Author: Beaver County Radio

Pirates spoil Bonds’ special night beat Giants 4-0

Williams helps Pirates blank Giants 4-0
By MICHAEL WAGAMAN, Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The Pittsburgh Pirates lead the major leagues with 13 shutouts. Trevor Williams was the starting pitcher in seven of them.
Manager Clint Hurdle doesn’t think it’s a coincidence, either.
Williams and two relievers combined on a six-hitter, and the Pirates blanked the San Francisco Giants 4-0 on Saturday night.
“He sets the tone for things,” Hurdle said. “When that fastball has the finish like it had tonight, that’s when you’re seeing the outings that you see him string together. He keeps everybody engaged.”
Williams (10-8) allowed five hits and walked one in seven innings. The right-hander has allowed two runs over his last 29 innings — a 0.62 ERA.
“It’s the work in between starts,” Williams said. “(Pitching coach Ray Searage) and I highlighted stuff that we needed to work on and made it more process-driven. We recognized right away that it was my four-seam and sinker tonight were going to play.”
Williams had been scheduled to pitch a day earlier, but Hurdle went with Clay Holmes to give the rest of the rotation extra rest.
It worked just fine.
“He’s pitching down in the zone and getting a lot of early contact,” Pirates first baseman Josh Bell said. “He keeps us off our feet and keeps us in the dugout.”
Keone Kela and Felipe Vazquez each retired three batters to complete the shutout.
Bell homered for the second time in three days. Elias Diaz added two hits for the Pirates after coming in as an injury replacement for Francisco Cervelli.
The start of the game was delayed for a ceremony honoring home run king Barry Bonds, who became the 10th player in Giants history to have his jersey retired. Several of his former teammates and managers, including Dusty Baker and Jim Leyland, were on hand.
Williams was warming up in right field when Bonds jogged out to greet the fans in the left field stands.
“I felt like such a jerk out there,” Williams said. “It was weird timing. I felt like all the eyeballs were burning a hole through me.”
Buster Posey and Evan Longoria had two hits apiece for San Francisco. The Giants have lost nine of their last 11 home games.
“You could feel the crowd, the energy. We just couldn’t get it going offensively,” San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. “The three-run homer, that’s a pretty good punch there.”
Bell continued his strong series since coming off the disabled list earlier in the week. He stopped a 0-for-13 slide with a homer on Thursday, and then had three hits on Friday.
After grounding into a double play in his first at-bat Saturday, Bell hit his eighth homer off Ty Blach (6-7) in the fourth. Bell’s three-run drive came after Gregory Polanco bunted for a leadoff hit and David Freese reached on an infield single.
Blach allowed four runs over four innings in his first start since May 27.
DANDY DEBUT
In his first major league appearance since 2016 with Atlanta, Casey Kelly made quite a Giants debut a day after being called up from Triple-A Sacramento.
The right-hander pitched five scoreless innings in relief. He could be a candidate to start Friday at Cincinnati when the Giants need a fifth starter again.
“What a great job he did,” Bochy said. “Really pitched well. He’s been throwing the ball well. That’s why he’s up here.”
WORTH NOTING
The Pirates called up left-hander Buddy Boshers and right-hander Michael Feliz from Triple-A Indianapolis. Right-handers Clay Holmes and Casey Sadley were sent down.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Pirates: Cervelli left in the fourth as a precaution getting hit in the facemask by a foul tip in the first. Cervelli has had concussion issues in the past.
Giants: 1B Brandon Belt (hyperextended knee) began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Sacramento.
UP NEXT
Right-hander Dereck Rodriguez (5-1, 2.34 ERA) pitches the series finale for San Francisco. Rodriguez leads NL rookies in ERA and is tied for second in wins. Right-hander Joe Musgrove (4-6, 3.41 ERA) goes for the Pirates.
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NASA launches spacecraft to explore the sun

NASA spacecraft rockets toward sun for closest look yet
By MARCIA DUNN, AP Aerospace Writer
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A NASA spacecraft zoomed toward the sun Sunday on an unprecedented quest to get closer to our star than anything ever sent before.
As soon as this fall, the Parker Solar Probe will fly straight through the wispy edges of the sun’s corona, or outer atmosphere, that was visible during last August’s total solar eclipse. It eventually will get within 3.8 million (6 million kilometers) of the surface in the years ahead, staying comfortably cool despite the extreme heat and radiation, and allowing scientists to vicariously explore the sun in a way never before possible.
No wonder scientists consider it the coolest, hottest mission under the sun, and what better day to launch to the sun than Sunday as NASA noted.
“All I can say is, ‘Wow, here we go.’ We’re in for some learning over the next several years,” said Eugene Parker, the 91-year-old astrophysicist for whom the spacecraft is named.
Protected by a revolutionary new carbon heat shield and other high-tech wonders, the spacecraft will zip past Venus in October. That will set up the first solar encounter in November.
Altogether, the Parker probe will make 24 close approaches to the sun on the seven-year, $1.5 billion undertaking.
For the second straight day, thousands of spectators jammed the launch site in the middle of the night as well as surrounding towns, including Parker and his family. He proposed the existence of solar wind — a steady, supersonic stream of particles blasting off the sun — 60 years ago.
It was the first time NASA named a spacecraft after someone still alive, and Parker wasn’t about to let it take off without him. Saturday morning’s launch attempt was foiled by last-minute technical trouble. But Sunday gave way to complete success.
The Delta IV Heavy rocket thundered into the pre-dawn darkness, thrilling onlookers for miles around as it climbed through a clear, star-studded sky. NASA needed the mighty 23-story rocket, plus a third stage, to get the diminutive Parker probe — the size of a small car and well under a ton — racing toward the sun.
From Earth, it is 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) to the sun, and the Parker probe will be within 4 percent of that distance at its closest. That will be seven times closer than previous spacecraft.
“Go, baby, go!” project scientist Nicola Fox of Johns Hopkins University shouted at liftoff.
It was the first rocket launch ever witnessed by Parker, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago. He came away impressed, saying it was like looking at the Taj Mahal for years in photos and then beholding “the real thing” in India.
“I really have to turn from biting my nails in getting it launched, to thinking about all the interesting things which I don’t know yet and which will be made clear, I assume, over the next five or six or seven years,” Parker said on NASA TV.
NASA’s science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen, was thrilled not only with the launch, but Parker’s presence.
“I’m in awe,” Zurbuchen said. “What a milestone. Also what’s so cool is hanging out with Parker during all this and seeing his emotion, too.”
Parker, the probe, will start shattering records this fall. On its very first brush with the sun, it will come within 15.5 million miles (25 million kilometers), easily beating the current record of 27 million miles (43 million kilometers) set by NASA’s Helios 2 spacecraft in 1976. Zurbuchen expects the data from even this early stage to yield top science papers.
By the time Parker gets to its 22nd, 23rd and 24th orbits of the sun in 2024 and 2025, it will be even deeper into the corona and traveling at a record-breaking 430,000 mph (690,000 kilometers per hour).
Nothing from Planet Earth has ever hit that kind of speed.
Even Fox has difficulty comprehending the mission’s derring-do.
“To me, it’s still mind-blowing,” she said. “Even I still go, really? We’re doing that?”
Zurbuchen considers the sun the most important star in our universe — it’s ours, after all — and so this is one of NASA’s big-time strategic missions. By better understanding the sun’s life-giving and sometimes violent nature, Earthlings can better protect satellites and astronauts in orbit, and power grids on the ground, he noted. In today’s tech-dependent society, everyone stands to benefit.
With this first-of-its-kind stellar mission, scientists hope to unlock the many mysteries of the sun, a commonplace yellow dwarf star around 4.5 billion years old. Among the puzzlers: Why is the corona hundreds of times hotter than the surface of the sun and why is the sun’s atmosphere continually expanding and accelerating, as Parker accurately predicted in 1958?
“The only way we can do that is to finally go up and touch the sun,” Fox said. “We’ve looked at it. We’ve studied it from missions that are close in, even as close as the planet Mercury. But we have to go there.”
The spacecraft’s heat shield will serve as an umbrella, shading the science instruments during the close, critical solar junctures. Sensors on the spacecraft will make certain the heat shield faces the sun at the right times. If there’s any tilting, the spacecraft will correct itself so nothing gets fried. With a communication lag time of 16 minutes, the spacecraft must fend for itself at the sun. The Johns Hopkins flight controllers in Laurel, Maryland, will be too far away to help.
A mission to get close up and personal with our star has been on NASA’s books since 1958. The trick was making the spacecraft small, compact and light enough to travel at incredible speeds, while surviving the sun’s punishing environment and the extreme change in temperature when the spacecraft is out near Venus.
“We’ve had to wait so long for our technology to catch up with our dreams,” Fox said. “It’s incredible to be standing here today.”
More than 1 million names are aboard the spacecraft, submitted last spring by space enthusiasts, as well as photos of Parker, the man, and a copy of his 1958 landmark paper on solar wind.
“I’ll bet you 10 bucks it works,” Parker said.
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The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Bucs late rally falls short. Giants 13 Bucs 10

Posey, McCutchen lead Giants past Pirates 13-10
By GIDEON RUBIN, Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The San Francisco Giants finally got their offense going, and they needed it to survive another shaky performance from their bullpen.
Buster Posey got four hits, Andrew McCutchen homered against his former team and the San Francisco Giants defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates 13-10 on Friday night.
“They just started swinging with I think more authority,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.
The Giants had lost three in a row and Pittsburgh had won three straight.
Posey broke out of a 0-for-13 stretch with his second four-hit game in less than two weeks. All four hits came in the first four innings as the Giants built a 10-2 lead.
He’s the first Giants player with four hits through the first four innings of a game since the team moved to San Francisco in 1958.
Posey and Alen Hanson each drove in three runs. McCutchen hit a leadoff homer and later drew four walks for a San Francisco team that batted .212 and averaged 2.7 runs over its previous six games.
“They were letting it go tonight,” Bochy said. “It was good to see them have some success, I mean we’ve been shut down, we’ve been due for a game like this where we break it open, even though they came back and made it a game. ”
Francisco Cervelli drove in five runs with three hits for the Pirates. His 11th home run of the season and fourth career grand slam, off reliever Pierce Johnson, closed Pittsburgh within 11-7 in the seventh inning.
Adeiny Hechavarria, playing his second game since being traded from Tampa Bay to Pittsburgh, went 2 for 2 with a home run.
Giants starter Derek Holland (6-8) gave up five runs in 6 1/3 innings.
A big night from the offense allowed him to be more aggressive.
“It’s huge,” Holland said. “The offense is putting in the work, and I’m little bit upset with myself. They put the runs up, I’ve got to keep the momentum on our side.”
Clay Holmes (1-2) was tagged for seven runs in 2 2/3 innings in his third career start.
“Our command was pretty inconsistent throughout the evening,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said. “Clayton was so good the last time out. His fastball command was off and that complicates things.”
HIGH HEAT
Giants third baseman Evan Longoria was hit in the back by a 97 mph fastball by Pirates reliever Kyle Crick in the bottom of the seventh. Longoria initially stayed in the game but was pulled in the top of the eighth. Longoria said he felt fine after the game, but wasn’t certain about his playing status for Saturday’s game.
“I don’t think he had intent,” Longoria said. “He threw a couple more to the backstop and almost hit (Joe Panik), he just obviously didn’t have a very good feel for where the ball was going tonight.”
OFF DAYS
Pirates OF Gregory Polanco struck out as a pinch-hitter. Manager Clint Hurdle said Polanco will get another rest day in Sunday’s series finale.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Giants: 1B Brandon Belt (hyperextended right knee) will start a rehab assignment with Triple-A Sacramento on Saturday, manager Bruce Bochy said. If all goes well, Belt could join the team for next week’s series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles, which starts Monday. … RHP Johnny Cueto, who underwent Tommy John surgery earlier this month, was moved to the 60-day DL. RHP Casey Kelly was selected to the Giants’ Major League roster in a corresponding move before Friday’s game. … RHP Derek Law was optioned to Triple-A Sacramento.
UP NEXT
RHP Trevor Williams (9-8, 3.88 ERA) will pitch Saturday for the Pirates. He has a 2.25 ERA without a decision in two career starts against the Giants. LHP Ty Blach (6-6, 4.28) will pitch for the Giants.
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Man Steals Money Raised To Re-Open Beaver Falls Tigerland Wave Pool

A man is in custody after stealing a donation can from the Tigerland Wave pool from a Beaver Falls gas station. Kenneth Terlecki ran with the can from the A-Plus gas station on Eighth Avenue Monday. The can had about 60-dollars inside to support an effort to reopen the long-closed wave pool. Terlecki’s preliminary hearing is set for September.

Rochester Borough Couple Accused Of Assault Of A Child

A Rochester Borough couple is accused of child endangerment and assault of a child in their care. Ashley Irvin and Gregory Herskovitz are accused of abusing the three-year-old by frequently spanking him to the point of bruising, hitting him with a hairbrush, and grabbing him by the ears. The two are in Beaver County Jail on 25-thousand-dollars bond each.

Scattered Thunderstorms To Dominate The Weekend

WEATHER FORECAST FOR FRIDAY, AUGUST 10TH, 2018

 

TODAY – SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.
HIGH – 81.

TONIGHT – SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS.
LOW – 66.

SATURDAY – VARIABLE CLOUDS WITH SCATTERED
THUNDERSTORMS. HIGH – 81.

SUNDAY – SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS IN THE MORNING
BECOMING MORE WIDESPREAD IN THE
AFTERNOON. HIGH AGAIN OF 81.

Steelers defeat Eagles 31-14 in Pre-Season action

  • Jones, Dobbs lead Steelers over Eagles 31-14
    By ROB MAADDI, AP Pro Football Writer
    PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Malcolm Jenkins went back to raising his fist during the national anthem and Chris Long again put his arm around him as the teammates continue trying to raise awareness about racial inequality, social injustices and systematic oppression.
    Landry Jones and Josh Dobbs each tossed touchdown passes and the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Philadelphia Eagles 31-14 Thursday night in the preseason opener.
    But Jenkins’ decision to resume his demonstration after stopping last December drew most of the attention as the defending Super Bowl champions returned to the field.
    “Everybody is waiting for what the league is going to do,” Jenkins said. “We won’t let it stop what we stand for. I was very encouraged last year with the direction and that obviously took a different turn.
    “I think it’s important to utilize the platform as we can because for whatever reason, we have framed this demonstration in a negative light and often players have to defend why we feel the need to fight for everyday Americans and in actuality we’re doing the right thing.”
    The league and the players’ union have yet to announce a policy for this season regarding demonstrations during the anthem after the league initially ordered everyone to stand on the sideline when “The Star-Spangled Banner” is played, or remain in the locker room.
    Cornerback De’Vante Bausby also raised his fist during the anthem, and defensive end Michael Bennett walked out of the tunnel and walked toward the bench while it played. It appeared all the Steelers stood.
    “Malcolm is always a guy who is doing the work in the community, backing up whatever he’s doing,” Long said.
    The Eagles rested several starters, including quarterbacks Carson Wentz and Nick Foles. Nate Sudfeld threw a pair of touchdown passes and two interceptions.
    Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown sat for the Steelers and Le’Veon Bell still hasn’t signed his franchise tender.
    Jones completed all four of his passes for 83 yards, including a 71-yard TD pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster in the first quarter. Smith-Schuster made a leaping catch over Rasul Douglas at the 33 and ran untouched to the end zone.
    Fitzgerald Toussaint had a 3-yard TD run and a 2-point conversion to give Pittsburgh a 15-8 lead. Dobbs threw a 29-yard TD pass to Damoun Patterson late in the second quarter.
    “We moved the ball successfully,” Dobbs said. “It felt good to be out there.”
    Sudfeld threw a perfect strike for a 63-yard TD to Shelton Gibson and fired a 15-yard TD pass to rookie Dallas Goedert. He finished 10 of 14 for 140 yards.
    “I just ran my route and when I looked back, Nate stepped up and scrambled to my side and was able to hit me,” Goedert said. “A great play by him.”
    Wentz still hasn’t been cleared for contact after having surgery to repair two torn ligaments in his left knee last December. Foles, the Super Bowl MVP, has missed a few practices with muscle spasms in his neck and shoulder.
    Mason Rudolph, a third-round pick competing with Jones and Dobbs for the backup job to Roethlisberger, was 7 of 12 for 101 yards.
    “He did a solid job in all areas,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said.
    ROOKIE REPORT
    Steelers: Safety Terrell Edmunds, a first-round pick, had three tackles. Wide receiver James Washington, second-rounder, caught two passes for 44 yards.
    Eagles: Goedert, a second-round pick and the team’s first selection, had four catches for 66 yards and one TD. He’ll get plenty of opportunities as the second tight end.
    INJURIES
    Ryan Shazier joined the defense in Pittsburgh’s pregame huddle, just 11 months after spinal stabilization surgery. Shazier is out for the season.
    WELCOME TO FOOTBALL
    Eagles rookie Jordan Mailata, an Australian rugby player drafted in the seventh round, got beat for a strip sack on his first series in the NFL. Mailata began the second half at left tackle.
    HONORING FORMER EAGLES
    Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie announced at halftime that two-time All-Pro defensive end Clyde Simmons and three-time Pro Bowl linebacker Seth Joyner will be inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame on Sept. 23.
    NEXT UP
    Steelers: Visit the Green Bay Packers next Thursday.
    Eagles: Visit the New England Patriots next Thursday.
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Pirates hit 3 HRs to back Nova in 10-5 win over Giants

Pirates hit 3 HRs to back Nova in 10-5 win over Giants
By MICHAEL WAGAMAN, Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Ivan Nova had little problem extending Pittsburgh’s streak of strong road starts.
Three home runs, including a milestone shot by David Freese, gave the right-hander all the cushion he needed.
Nova allowed two runs in six innings, Freese hit his 100th career home run, and the Pirates beat the San Francisco Giants 10-5 on Thursday night.
“Guys got balls over the plate and when we had them we nailed them,” Pirates manager Clint Hurdle said “And Nova was spot on through four. Some small misfires in the fifth and then a nice shutdown.”
Nova (7-6) lost to the Giants in May but was sharper this time. He retired the first 11 batters and didn’t allow a hit until Austin Slater’s leadoff single in the fifth. Nova yielded three hits and had three strikeouts.
Pirates starting pitchers have a 2.20 ERA over their last 10 road starts.
“We have good starting pitching,” Nova said. “We have had some guys pitch the way that they’ve been pitching and you just want to follow that. You want to pitch a good game too.”
Rich Rodriguez, Dovydas Neverauskas and Casey Sadler completed the six-hitter.
Adam Frazier added three singles and two RBIs, his fourth multi-hit game in the last six.
The Pirates have won three straight overall and improved to 8-2 in their last 10 at AT&T Park.
Joe Panik and Steven Duggar drove in two runs apiece for San Francisco.
Freese singled and scored on Diaz’s homer in the second then broke the game open with his milestone home run, a three-run blast off Mark Melancon in the seventh.
“I didn’t think it would be here, that’s for sure,” Freese said. “I think I got one here before, maybe just one. For a guy that pounds a ball into the ground, not too bad.”
Diaz and Bell homered off starter Andrew Suarez (4-8) in the second.
Former Pittsburgh star Andrew Cutchen went hitless in four at-bats but made a pair of sparkling defensive plays against his former team.
A five-time All-Star and a Gold Glove winner for the Pirates as a center fielder in 2012, McCutchen threw out Frazier at second after he lined a ball into right leading off the game. In the sixth, McCutchen raced into the alley in right-center and made a diving grab to rob Diaz of extra bases.
Pittsburgh scored five unearned runs in the seventh after back-to-back errors by second baseman Panik and third baseman Evan Longoria.
“You give up five in the seventh, that’s a pretty good punch there,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “That’s where it got away from us.”
LONG TIME COMING
Sadler allowed three unearned runs in his first appearance in the majors since April 12, 2015. The right-hander underwent Tommy John surgery in 2015 and was recalled from the minors on Sunday.
“This has got to be a very special evening for him, the fight, the perseverance and the resiliency to stay in the hunt and get back back and contribute in a major league game,” Hurdle said. “His stuff was clean.”
BONDS RETIREMENT
The Giants will retire the jersey of home run king Barry Bonds during a pregame ceremony Saturday. Bonds will be only the 10th player in franchise history to have his number retired.
ANOTHER BARRY’S BACK
Former San Francisco pitcher Barry Zito threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game. Zito won 63 games for the Giants from 2007-13.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Giants: RHP Jeff Samardzija (shoulder inflammation) threw 40 pitches in a bullpen session and will face hitters next week. … 1B Brandon Belt (hyperextended right knee) ran the bases and took batting practice. … Catcher Nick Hundley is being evaluated for a concussion.
UP NEXT
Giants LHP Derek Holland (5-8, 3.88 ERA) makes his second start against Pittsburgh this season on Friday night. Holland pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings to beat the Pirates on May 13. RHP Clay Holmes (1-1, 3.65) will be called up from Triple-A Indianapolis and will start for Pittsburgh. Hurdle indicated the move was made to give the rest of the rotation an extra day of rest.