Category Archives: Mid Series Reports

Led by New Acquisitions, Giants Win with Bats, 12-3, and Cueto, 2-1, in Milwaukee

06 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Mid Series Reports, Opening Day, Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , ,

Blissed-out is how to describe us here at Giants Baseball Corner.

The Opening Day game in Milwaukee was a perfect display of what our new lineup is capable of in terms of hitting – and came with the surprise of power! We kept moving ’em along and driving ’em out. 4 Home Runs, 12 runs on 15 hits!

Denard Span came out of the gate hitting with purpose. He is fascinating to watch at the plate: so precise. His stance is crazyfoot, his approach insanely deliberate, his sudden crouch during wind-up reminds me of a tennis star poising for a return.

Denard Span had 5 RBIs on Opening Day – which hadn’t been done since Barry Bonds more than a decade ago.

AND NO GIANT IN THE HISTORY OF RBI RECORDS HAS EVER HAD 5 RBIs IN HIS DEBUT!

The HRs by Duffy, Span, Panik and Posey were awesome. You must have seen by now that the last three were back-to-back-to-back.

Madbum looked like he was working things out, gave up 5 walks and even walked in a run, but in the end had 6Ks and got the win because of the massive power of the offense.

Game 2 was a defensive display, a 2-1, hard fought battle behind the debut of Johnny Cueto – who was very good. He was precise, workmanlike, fast and unpredictable, yet totally in control.

Some excellent defense from Panik, Crawford and Duffy was backed up by Bcraw’s first homer and double of the season. Everybody is hitting, folks!

AND WE BATTED THE STARTING PITCHER IN THE 8-spot in BOTH GAMES AND IT HAS ALREADY PAID OFF!

Cannot wait to see you all at the park on Thursday, this season is starting off just about perfect.

Giants Maintain Best Record in Baseball with Most Series Wins

29 Thursday May 2014

Posted by in Mid Series Reports

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

The Giants took 2 of 3 from the Cubs on their visit to AT&T. I didn’t get a chance to write about it because I was out fishing and KAYAKING MCCOVEY COVE! – woo hoo.

I am posting a video of that as my next post, but wanted to add  this as a placeholder. The Giants took the Cubs series 2-1 to continue their dominance of both leagues – best record in baseball and the most series wins in both leagues.

Really looking good headed to St. Louis today for four against a tough National League opponent.

Lincecum and Vogelsong Continue Giants AL Dominance

25 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in Mid Series Reports

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Minnesota Twins are tied for second in the AL Central but have a .500 record because it’s a division dominated by the powerful Detroit Tigers. Their power hitter Joe Mauer has been struggling terribly, but still, they have Kurt Suzuki and Eduardo Escobar batting above .300.

Tim Lincecum had a crazy outing on Friday – at one point Andrew Baggarly noted he had 55 balls and 55 strikes, matching his number. He ended up with six walks, five strikeouts and gave up five hits. Bruce Bochy described him as “bobbing and weaving,” but when it was all said and done, despite letting a lot of Twins on and having to pitch out of jams, Lincecum and the Giants won 6-2.

Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Hicks homered again – it’s starting to look like the Panda is back. Andre Reynier asked about Brandon Hicks in the comments and so we reflected on how well the young man has played in place of Marco Scutaro. It’s looking more and more like Scoots may never return – the back may have just  given out – so the question of Hicks’ effectiveness season-long becomes important.

Andre feels Hicks might be considered another excellent pick up by Brian Sabean, and at first blush, I agree. He has been technically exacting in the field and powerful at the plate. However, he has also made some “rookie mistakes” – like when he missed the bag legging out a double and was called out, andthere have been a couple of flippant throwing errors here and there.

The question is whether or not he can sustain the play through 162. I have no idea if he can, but even Brandon Crawford has sustained drop off in the second half over a couple of years. We shall just have to wait and see. But right now, it is working and it’s fun to watch the DP’s and homers-a-flying.

Game Two of this series was Epic Ryan Vogelsong. If we are talking about Panda like he’s back, it is starting to feel even more true for Ryan Vogelsong, who is dropping Quality Starts like it’s 2012 again.

Last night Vogey was dominant through seven. he nearly finished the 7th, but was forced from the game by silly throwing error. he would have had the last out, but flipped the ball to first too casually. Bochy, to his credit, evaluated the lapse correctly and immediately pulled Vogey in favor of our bullpen. (Though they gave up a homer before closing it out).

The Giants played their style of ball. Good Starting Pitching, crisp defense, just enough runs and taking advantage of opponents mistakes led to a 2-1 victory for Vogey, that could have been a shutout, save for a homer hit off Machi in the ninth. Machi closed it out and got the save.

Hoping to sweep today! Go Giants!

Suspended By Hail and Rain, Giants and Rockies Rubber Match Ends Deadlocked 2-2 in Sixth

22 Thursday May 2014

Posted by in Mid Series Reports, midgame posts

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The game has just been called due to the weather. Hail stones and rolling electrified thunderstorms suspended this one, tied 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth, with David Huff on the mound for the Giants, a runner on for the Rockies. The game will be resumed at that point during one of the first three days of September when the Giants visit Colorado again. whew!

TWEET: Suspension of series by hail and rain, has something poetic about it. Like two teams too equally matched to conclude.

This has been a tense couple of days and the road trip ends, fittingly, without conclusion, suspended, in limbo and somehow still tense.

This year the Rockies and Giants seem fated to do battle down to the wire. One wonders what the records will be like in that first week of September, in the home stretch of the season. Are these three and a half remaining innings going to be incredibly significant?

And what about the idiotic way in which clowning around by the dugout and Santiago Casilla led to four weeks on the DL for Casilla and the Giants having to call up George Kontos? This was a weird week. Three HBP’s in game one, and after his retaliation plunking (for hitting Tulo) Bumgarner got into it verbally with the Rockies as he ran up the line. Romo getting tagged.

Still, the Giants have to be happy with the trip. They got the Rockies to play by the Giants’ tempo. It still really feels like the Giants won both of these … just one hanging slider away from four up on the Rockies.

Giants pitching tamed the hard hitting Rockies in their park, at altitude. The game plan was intact and the Giants had a shot at taking both and indeed all three of these games.

Looking forward to the Giants coming home this weekend for some Inter-league ball – so we get to make fun of their pitchers swinging the bats – followed by a visit from our historic rivals, dating back to the 1800’s, everybody’s second favorite team (’cause they’re never a threat to anybody’s first) the Chicago Cubs.

Marlins Continue Hitting AT&T, Take Two From Giants

18 Sunday May 2014

Posted by in Mid Series Reports

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

After the come-from-behind victory in game one, the Giants were forced into another come-from-behind situation in game two, when Yusmeiro Petit was burned by Marlins bats for four runs in the first four frames.

In fact, the very first batter Petit faced, Christian Yelich, ripped a line drive home run. The day already felt long. But Petit evoked three consecutive fly balls for outs and looked for the most part, together.

In the bottom of the first, Pablo Sandoval not only extended his hitting streak to 7 games, but added an RBI, doubling in Pagan to tie the score, 1-1. But the Marlins bats went to work on Petit after that, culminating in the four-run 4th that chased him from the game.

To their credit the Giants clawed their way back and tied this one 5-5, But Santiago Casilla imploded in the top of the ninth allowing the Marlins to knock in two more for what would be the final score, 7-5, Marlins.

Miami got 14 hits and seven runs in this one. Beat us up. What is it with their bats and our park? Man, I hope we don’t see them in the playoffs.

After game two, the team, fans and broadcasters didn’t seem too concerned. After all, Petit was making an emergency start for the staff ace, Tim Hudson. He was chased, the Giants responded, and the bullpen was due, maybe even overdue, to blink, after weeks of successful shutdown work. So O.K. put it behind us, get a good night’s sleep and move on.

But then came last night’s 5-0 shutout loss for Tim Lincecum … featuring Brandon Hicks missing first base on a one-out double that had advanced Sanchez to third. Reviewed. Out. … Ugh. Oh, and a missed tag at the plate by Hector Sanchez added to the Giants woes.

Tim Lincecum had a quality start, went six and allowed just three runs, but the Giants couldn’t get anything going against the Marlins Tom Koehler. Rough outing.

Now the brows start furrowing, as the home stand is at 3-3, with today’s game being the difference between tying or losing the series to these Marlins in our park, again – and winning or losing the home stand.

Ryan Vogelsong goes for the Giants vs. Jacob Turner. Luckily Turner’s not great (0-1, 6.75ERA). But the bigger question is whether we can play sharp ball and defend against the Marlins bats that love AT&T Park.