Elephant Rumblings: A’s streak ends on blown call; Rodney released, Martini optioned

A’s Coverage:

• Slusser: Shohei Ohtani ends A’s win streak with two-run single in 9th...
• Gallegos: Missed strike call proves costly for Soria, A’s...
• Slusser: A’s release Rodney, send Nick Martini to minors for outfield depth...
• Slusser: A’s Stephen Piscotty’s on-base streak shows shift in focus...
• Gallegos: Phegley eyes first All-Star Game appearance...
• Slusser: A’s Jurickson Profar showing progress defensively...

Best of AN:

• Schmidt: Game #56: — 9th Inning Struggles Snap The A’s Win Streak...
• grover: Oakland A’s 2019 Draft Profile — Greg Jones, UNC-Wilmington...
• Fatrolf’s Tuesday Sketches: A’s Look to Turn Win Streak Up To 11...
• Iversen: Quick Look — Is Josh Phegley an All-Star?

MLB News:

• Salisbury and Seidman: Phillies outfielder Odubel Herrera arrested in domestic violence incident...
• Wittenmyer: No Zo Effect catching up to Cubs, who must face possibility Ben Zobrist might not return...
• Rome: Jose Altuve (hamstring) hopes to return to Astros “pretty soon”...
• 2019 MLB All-Star Ballot is live...

Baseball Interest Stories:

• Clemens: The Astros are Ludicrous...
• Byrne: Sonny Gray Looks Reborn...
• Murphy: The Braves are the class of the NL East, the ball has changed, and more observations from the season so far... ($)
• MLB Mock Draft: The Athletic’s beat writers project the first round... ($)

Today in Baseball History:

• 1886 — The Athletics try to slow the Browns down by loading the base paths with sand. St. Louis captain Charles Comiskey refuses to play and even helps the grounds crew remove the sand. The Browns win the two games, 18 - 1 and 11 - 3, with a total of 14 stolen bases.
• 1981 — A’s manager Billy Martin flies into a rage and heaves two handfuls of dirt on home plate umpire Terry Cooney’s back after being ejected for arguing ball and strike calls. He will be suspended by American League president Lee MacPhail for 7 days.
• 1990 — Rickey Henderson of the Oakland Athletics becomes the American League’s all-time stolen base king. In swiping third base against the Toronto Blue Jays, Henderson steals his 893rd base to surpass the long-standing record set by Ty Cobb.

Best of Twitter:

• Another look at the pitch that decided last night’s game...

• Fun, meaningless fact from the game...

• 50 Cent has some company...