Privates :) und Spiel » Once again, McClaren left the training grou

SEATTLE -- The last-place Oakland Athletics fell just short of handing the Seattle Mariners a crushing loss to their playoff hopes.Mike Zunino delivered the go-ahead home run in the seventh inning and Seattle held on for a 3-2 victory over Oakland on Thursday night, keeping the Mariners on the edge of the AL wild-card chase.Oakland lost for the ninth time in 10 games.Seattle is two games behind Baltimore and Toronto with three games to play. The Orioles defeated the Blue Jays 4-0 to pull even atop the wild-card race. Detroit, which was rained out against Cleveland, is a half-game ahead of the Mariners, who have three left against Oakland.We can only control what we do here, Mariners manager Scott Servais said. We need help. We know that. I think everybody thought the way Toronto was playing, theyd probably win two out of three at home. Didnt happen. The way we look at it, were still alive. Weve got to win tomorrows game and again, pray for a little help.Zunino, hitting .139 over his last 25 games, opened the seventh with his 12th home run, sending a 2-2 pitch from Liam Hendriks (0-4) deep over the wall in left to put Seattle up 2-1.Seattle added a run in the eighth on a two-out single by Leonys Martin, a walk to Zunino and Ketel Martes RBI single.Steve Cishek (4-6) came on to stifle an Oakland threat in the seventh with an inning-ending double play and added a perfect eighth. Rookie Edwin Diaz notched his 18th save, despite allowing a run and three hits in the ninth.Oakland starter Kendall Graveman, tagged for eight runs on 12 hits in five innings in his last start against Seattle, gave up just one run on seven hits in 5 2/3 innings.We made an adjustment from the last two times and we started to pitch in tonight, and said if they are going to beat us they are going to have to beat us when we throw fastballs in, Graveman said. That lineup over there, they stack a lot of lefties in on you, and if you start pitching them away they start to see it out there and put some good swings on it. For the most part, I thought we commanded it pretty well tonight.The Mariners took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on three consecutive singles before running themselves out of the inning. Kyle Seager reached on an infield single when Graveman couldnt find the handle on his two-out dribbler along the first-base line. Adam Lind followed with a single to center. Martin singled through the right side, scoring Seager from second. Martin continued for second, but was caught in a rundown. Lind was thrown out at home trying to score on the play.Chad Pinder brought Oakland even in the sixth with his first career home run, a leadoff shot to left for the only run off starter Ariel Miranda.Oakland had runners on first and third with one out in the seventh, but failed to score. Danny Valencia singled to open, but was forced at second on Brett Eibners fielders choice groundout to short. Yonder Alonso then singled Eibner to third. Cishek relieved and enticed pinch-hitter Max Muncy into a ending double play grounder.It came down to situational out bats, Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. We had runners at third with less than two outs, then we hit into a double play and two strikeouts . Our situational at-bats hurt us tonight.VALENCIA CLOSING STRONGDanny Valencia, who double and singled, is hitting .326 over his last 12 games with two doubles, a homer, three RBI and six walks. On the road this season, Valencia is batting .323 (14 for 43).UP NEXT:As: RHP Raul Alcantara (1-2, 5.75 ERA) makes his fifth career start since being called up from Triple-A Nashville on Sept. 5. He faced Seattle on Sept. 11, giving up two runs and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings without a decision.Mariners: RHP Taijaun Walkers up-and-down season seems to be back on the upswing. Walker (7-11, 4.35 ERA) was 2-0 with 1.44 in four April starts, then went 0-5 in May and eventually was sent to Triple-A. Hes 3-1 in his last four starts. Vapormax Bianche In Offerta .ca. Hey Kerry, big fan of yours, just finished reading your book. I think that we all saw the Canucks/Flames line brawl just after puck drop. It was obvious that something was about to happen, even to the referees because the fourth lines were on to start. Vapormax Nere Saldi . Anthony Calvillo, through 20 CFL seasons, was frequently invincible and largely stoic in the heat of competition. But underneath the professional exterior he was, and is, compellingly human. http://www.vapormaxscontateoutlet.it/vapormax-nere-scontate-outlet.html . Kuznetsov, who was selected by the Capitals in the first round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, has been playing for his hometown team Chelyabinsk Traktor of the KHL. Nike Vapormax Nere Scontate . Laudrup revealed Thursday he was notified of his dismissal in "the briefest of letters which gave no reasons why such hasty and final action was deemed necessary. Nike Vapormax Scontate . Listen to the game live on TSN Radio 1050 at 7pm et. The Raptors traded Rudy Gay, Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray to the Sacramento Kings on Monday, in exchange for Greivis Vasquez, John Salmons, Patrick Patterson and Chuck Hayes.From secret board meetings to a PR specialist in crisis management - how Newcastle replaced Steve McClaren with Rafa Benitez... With Newcastle facing relegation and the home crowd calling for McClaren to be dismissed after Saturdays 3-1 defeat at home to Bournemouth, the club have acted.Here, Sky Sports News HQ reporter Keith Downie lifts the lid on developments at the club over the past week which led to the former England boss being sacked and Newcastle appointing a man who was managing Real Madrid earlier this season… Five games which cost McClaren We look at five games which cost Steve McClaren his job Steve McClaren had been under pressure at Newcastle for some time and on Thursday night last week a source outside of the club told me he could potentially lose his job if Newcastle lost to Bournemouth at St James Park on Saturday.However, on the morning of the match, another source, from within the club, said that no matter the result against Bournemouth, hed keep his job. So there was conflicting information going into the game.More than the 3-1 defeat, though, it was perhaps the reaction of the fans which heightened the speculation around McClarens future. Half of the crowd were singing Steve McClaren, youre taking us down, and the other half were singing Youre getting sacked in the morning. Newcastle fans vented their anger at McClaren during the defeat to Bournemouth Interestingly, Keith Bishop was at the game. Hes owner Mike Ashleys PR man - a specialist in crisis management - and would have spoken with members of the board and fed that back to Ashley. Its not unusual to see Bishop around the club - but he is a more frequent visitor when there are problems to deal with.After the game, I was the first to interview McClaren. Stood there in the tunnel, he told me he absolutely would not walk away. I asked him whether he thought hed be in charge for the Leicester game on Monday Night Football on March 14, and he just said he hoped so. At that stage, he knew he was under pressure.Sunday was a day off for everyone at the club, and there were no developments. Previously, when Alan Pardew or John Carver were under pressure, Newcastle have issued statements or made press briefings indicating their support of the manager. There was no announcement made by the club in the wake of the Bournemouth game. McClaren says the negative chanting from the Newcastle fans in their 3-1 loss at home to Bournemouth was justified On Monday, there was a board meeting, attended by three of the four board members.dddddddddddd. The missing person was McClaren, who didnt even know the meeting was taking place.When McClaren was appointed Newcastle manager last summer, he became the first Premier League manager to be given a place on a clubs board. However, the first he knew about Mondays meeting would have been when he read the papers or turned on his TV.The meeting took place near York, with managing director Lee Charnley, the main decision maker at the club, joined by chief scout Graham Carr and club legend Bob Moncur. Its believed they discussed a number of managerial options, with Rafa Benitez and David Moyes the most high profile. McClaren continued to take training this week Injured players were the only ones at the club on Monday - the first-team and McClaren himself returned on Tuesday for training. The manager still hadnt heard anything about his future when he left at 4pm and headed straight for home.McClaren remained in the dark on Tuesday night and returned to the training ground at 8am on Wednesday morning. It was then that he was invited to a meeting with Charnley. That was the first time hed heard from the managing director since Saturdays defeat.However, McClaren left the training ground at 4pm and went straight home. Charnley had asked him to meet him at the stadium but McClaren refused. Instead, they had a quick chat over the phone. McClaren arrived for work as usual throughout the week On Thursday, McClaren came back in to take training and we later interviewed stand-in skipper Jonjo Shelvey, who said the players had let the manager down. Once again, McClaren left the training ground having not heard anything about his future at the club.It seems that on Thursday evening, the deal with Benitez was agreed in principle. Newcastle had been speaking with two English intermediaries about Benitez taking over from McClaren.Charnley phoned McClaren on Thursday evening, asking him to come to the club on Friday - his day off. McClaren told him that if he was only coming in to be sacked, hed rather do it over the phone and not mess around. Rafael Benitez arrives at the Newcastle training ground McClaren would have known he was at risk, given all the speculation around Benitez, and at 10.30am on Friday he received a call from Charnley telling him he had been sacked.Charnley had wanted the deal with Benitez to be all-but complete by the time he sacked McClaren and, at 2pm, Benitez arrived at St James Park to sign his contract. It was the first time Benitez had met Charnley face-to-face and, half an hour later he had become Newcastle manager. Benitez with Newcastle managing director Lee Charnley ' ' '