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M.T. Karthik

~ works, thoughts, events of 1977 – 2017

M.T. Karthik

Tag Archives: Louis

Giants Come From Behind, Hit With RISP, Beat Cards in St. Louis

30 Friday May 2014

Posted by mtk in Commentary, Post Game Blasts

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baseball.st., Cardinals, commentary, Francisco, gia nts, Karthik, League, Louis, mlb, mtk, nl, one, San, series, sf, win

This was the game where I began to wonder if we might have this. We might have the division because we are a real team … built from good guys.

I was worried because St. Louis is a baseball town and they’ve won the most titles in the National League, and their … culture, their actual baseball culture is so much better than ours – I don’t mean our best versus their best, I mean our current fans versus their perennial ones.

[I am not DONE complaining about this, you people need to CHANGE].

But this team shows a flexibility and a stick-to-it-iveness that is quite impressive. Giants came from behind twice with power from Morse (doing what we hired him to do) and Pablo Sandoval – wow, the cowboy boots shift is turning crazy now – who hit for an RBI for the 9th consecutive time, with a homer, which has brought comparison to Barry Bonds from everyone.

It is interesting to remember that Bonds arrived in SF from Pittsburgh at the age of 28. Pablo Sandoval will be 28 this August. What if Pablo’s “Barry Years” lie ahead?

(Just tweeted the shit out of that line)

Vogelsong pitched well, the ‘pen continues to impress and Romo continues to be a little shaky. He gave up a run in the ninth and had runners on who, crossing the plate, could cost the game. He wrestled his way out, inducing a pop up to end the game and I tweeted:

TWEET by @giantsbaseballcorner : “I don’t mind Romo struggling a bit against a decent team on the road and fighting his way out of it. #ElMechon #sfgiants 17th save. Builds.”

Moments later Ray Woodson tweeted he would spend the post game show trying to calm down the Romo Angst. My reply was:

TWEET by @giantsbaseballcorner : “Romo angst is typical of the non-baseball playing bandwagonning dumbasses who now occupy our park claiming to feel “tortured”

and I still feel that way this morning.

But it did lead to a discussion for me about the word “torture” and why it offended me when taken on as a badge after Krukow said it. It was true when Kruk said it about 2010.

It was “Torture” for the fans who have watched for five decades as the G-men kept getting close and failed to win the World Series in San Francisco. It was torture for anyone who watched ’02 …. ’93 …. ’89 … ’62.

But after we finally won, the word for the first win in SF was “RELIEF”

See, it can’t really be “TORTURE” again until 2068.

If we don’t win the World Series until 2068, that summer would be torture. Use of the term before then is insulting to long time fans – well at least to me.

 

Series Recap: The Cardinals Have “Figured Out” Matt Cain

02 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by mtk in Series Recaps

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2013, baseball, busch, cain, Cardinals, doubleheader, giants, june, Louis, matt, mlb, recap, sanfrancisco, series, sf, St., stadium

Crazy double header in which the Cards scored an obscene number of runs off Matt Cain for the second time in a row in, specifically, the third inning – representing some adjustment they are making to a habit he has that allows them to shell him for hits the second time through the order. Ouch.

That said, in the final game of the series the Giants got back to basics, played crisp defense and got a GREAT start from Chad Gaudin. This win was important for many reasons, maybe later I’ll get into some of those but it was:

Cardinals 15, Giants 1 in the doubleheader as they won 8-0 and 7-1.

Giants 4, Cardinals 2 – Chad Gaudin gets the win in his first start of 2013.

Revenge of the Cardinals Series Two Recap (1-2)

08 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by mtk in Series Recaps

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baseball, beaten, cardinal, celebrating.excessive, celebration, Comcast, effort, excessive, Francisco, giants, home, Louis, mlb, opener, opening, San, series, sf, St., thrashing

Sunday’s fiasco of onfield baseball effort by the Giants on ring ceremony day was frustrating for many reasons for fans who, like me, prefer playing  baseball to celebrating victory.

Giants Baseball Corner proposes a different view of our Giants than that promoted relentlessly by Comcast – the broadcaster I hold principally responsible for the excessive in-season ceremonies and schmaltzy, non-baseball content with which fans now waste their time.

I don’t mean to sound like a crank – but the soccer-momming of baseball makes it less enjoyable to me, and I think to some other fans as well, I’d rather be talking about squeeze plays than surfing Deloreans, rather be talking strengths and weaknesses of opposing pitchers than of the outfits on fans at the stadium. But the entertainment industry is wired differently – it’s why listening to FOX Sports during the World Series is almost unbearable.

All of this has emerged from the success of the team as we have at last become World Series Champions, but instead of adding to the value of those victories, Comcast and these overproduced ceremonies make us look kitschy, immodest and less classy. It makes us look like a superficial, self-centered team that couldn’t care less about anyone else – an arrogance of 49er fans that was never a part of being a Giant.

The St. Louis Cardinals must have been boiling in their dugout as we partied and gushed, bloviated and gave out bling.

The Cardinals began their season on the road with back-to-back series against Western Division foes. They split these to start the season .500 when they go back at home for their own opener. They showed real fight in the Sunday night game last week, the Diamondbacks season opening series, which ended in a scrappy, 16-inning fight in which the Snakes came back not once but twice to force extra innings and finally win it late at night.

Coming off that loss and forced to watch the Giants long-running designed-for-television celebrations, the Cards came ready to play and to make a mockery of our effort. The series with the Giants clarified the difference in attitude between the two teams at the moment of the contest. The Giants managed one run in their victory by virtue of a bases-loaded walk, stranded double-digit runners in scoring position and melted down in the face of hard effort by a Cards team that wanted to win.

They looked more focused and hungrier. We looked satisfied and uncaring.

Result: Cards win 2-1 with a crushing 14-3 explosion in our “pitchers park” to back their high-paid ace Adam Wainwright while we watched our Big Horse melt down the second time through their order – they’d figured him out.

I am not against celebrating – I just wish we could do all our celebrating in off-season and let the regular season be for playing baseball.

In baseball terms, exactly as exciting and thrilling as the opening series on the road against the Dodgers was, the home opener and the opening series at AT&T Park was miserable. Comcast better quit celebrating and let the G-men get going. They aren’t just going to give us the third one.

Cardinals Back Against Our Wall

06 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by mtk in PreGame GBCs

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Tags

#BeatSTL, against, backs, baseball, Cardinals, Francisco, giants, Louis, mlb, our, San, sf, St., wall

The National League Championship Series last year was between the winners of the two previous World Series and both teams relied heavily on defense – and in particular, pitching. Relief pitching. Specialist pitching. Pitching.

When Barry Zito broke the spirit of the Cards with the Giants backs against their wall, and then subsequently The Triple Kiss, Hunter Pence’s broken bat double that escaped Pete Kozma, buried them, a viper found solace in their bosom. The St. Louis Cardinals tears were lost in rain. This is a team that really wants to beat us

In the offseason, Adam Wainwright signed a deal like what we gave Matt Cain in 2011, guaranteeing he’ll retire a Card. He’s their Big Horse. The Cards have been on the road to start the season and lost a 16 inning outing Sunday in Arizona to go under .500. So the Giants are facing the St, Louis Cardinals’ ace with their back against the wall to return home for their opener even.

Matt Cain was saved the enduring embarrassment of a loss because the Giants can’t provide him run support for the umpteenth time in six  years, because George Kontos took the loss on the freak swing by Kershaw. That said, Matt Cain needs a Home Win, Dammit.

The rubber match should be a very good one, and I expect this one to have more runs. Cain will scatter 4 runs across 7 innings, so WE HAVE TO TAG WAINWRIGHT. Giants 9 – 4 is what I want to see. Cain goes 1 – 0.

Brandon Belt, we need some offense.

Go Giants. Go Matty.

#BeatSTL

Home Opener – Zeets TCB

05 Friday Apr 2013

Posted by mtk in Post Game Blasts

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Tags

AT&T, Barry, Cardinals, giants, home, Louis, opener, park, San.Francisco.st., sf, Zito

GBC Recap – The Opening Series v. LA (2-1)

04 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by mtk in Series Recaps

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16, 2013, angeles, Arias, Arizona, baseball, Bumgarner, cain, Cardinals, Casilla, champion, chavez, classic, corner, diamondbacks, dodgers, Francisco, George, giants, gold, hunter, inning, Joaquin, Kershaw, Kontos, Lincecum, los, Louis, Madison, matt, mlb, opening, pablo, pence, platinum, ravine, recap, reliever, Romo, San, Sandoval, santiago, Sergio, series, solid, St., stellar, Tim, world

It took a perfect outing from one of the best lefties in baseball – including the first home run he ever hit in his life  – to mar what was otherwise an excellent opening series for the San Francisco Giants.

The Giants looked crisp off the mound and decent at the plate, hitting in rotation situationally and even manufacturing runs. The biggest issue at the plate is we are once again on pace to lead the league in hitting into double plays! But it’s early and that stuff will hopefully start to winnow out. Pitching – particularly Cain, Bumgarner and Romo – was stellar.

The Giants won the series 2-1 over their NL West division rivals the Los Angeles Dodgers to take an early season lead in what will likely be a fight for first place in the division with Arizona. The Diamondbacks made a statement in last night’s game – a scrappy, hard-fought, come-from-behind, 16-inning win over the St. Louis Cardinals to start their season 2-1 as well.

Pitching

Starting pitchers did not allow a single earned run.

Cain was, typically, Big Horse consistent and stable. Bumgarner was intensely precise and Lincecum used balls and walks liberally, but stayed on top of his game.

Madison Bumgarner’s performance was platinum. He had tight, controlled movement and dominated the Dodger lineup. It was great to see from the young, powerful Big Country Mad Bum.

Relief

Bruce Bochy showed smart sensitivity pulling Cain in the first game. Cain and Lincecum are the eldest on our very young staff, and both got pulled before the 7th. This is how to develop middle and late relief and to protect starters’ arms over the long season.

Over the course of the last two years Bochy has slowly shown an increasing willingness to use the bullpen rather than risk fatigue – either of arms in the long term or of minds on the mound in the short term – with our starting pitching. This has culminated in the masterful use of a committee of late relief and closers last year down the stretch.

It’s important because our most significant problem (as pointed out most clearly by Bay City Ball) is depth at Starting Pitching. If one of our big 5 goes down, we’d have to adapt fast.

That said, poor George Kontos …

Image

shake it off homes. freak swing by the opposing pitcher.

Before that Kontos had an excellent 7th inning and looked ready to work the middle and pass the ball over to one of our capable lefties before Romo. It was a shame it shook out like that. We believe in you George, it was a solid outing before the guy decided he wanted to make history in LA.

In a way George, we needed you to take that hit because a LOT of us really don’t want Matt Cain getting any more losses in tight games than he has to. The poor guy has suffered his entire career with win-loss records beleaguered by our inability to produce runs. You took those runs that night so Matty wouldn’t get them and the loss and we appreciate it.

Casilla’s wild pitch, Lincecum’s, others’ can be chalked up to the season being very young and we should be honest and expect more sloppy working it out in the first month or so.

In Casilla’s case especially, the guy is coming off winning the World Baseball Championship – The Dominicans ran the table! and he was overwrought and excellent in relief. (Haft has details on Casilla’s effort).

The guy has played more ball under pressure than most this year – Casilla gets a one month pass.

(DR vs. Japan would’ve been interesting)

TWEET

Casilla’sWP:coming off winning the WBC,beating PR to do it,more ball under pressure than most this year – Casilla gets a one month pass.

Sergio Romo was SOLID GOLD. and he tweeted throughout including one which read that his “goal” was 50 saves! That was exciting to read.

I hope you make it my man … That’s What’s Up!

Batting

Shutdown performance by Kershaw was followed by a solid job of hitting by the Giants in game 2, specifically by Joaquin Arias, but as YahooSports pointed out “The Giants scored their first run on three consecutive one-out hits, including Arias’ RBI single.”

Situational hitting and manufacturing runs was the story of the offense and this continued to game three when Crawford and Pagan joined in on the action. But the team added homers by Pablo and Pence! Thrilling stuff to see the offense coming together – power, contact, base-running (I’m excluding el caballero loco on that last one). Pagan leading off, Scutaro, Pablo and Posey behind him is going to work well.

The problem remains that too often the Giants destroyed opportunities by hitting into double plays. It is the beginning of the season and on any other team I wouldn’t bat an eye, but we have a historic problem that reaches back several years in this regard. Maybe bunt practice in order to take advantage of squeeze chances would help in other situations as well. If we aren’t going get a lot of hits, or score a lot of runs we have to at least keep runners on the paths and continue to manufacture runs as we have been doing the last year and change.

Defense

Infield

With Brandon Belt falling sick, Bochy had a chance to do more moving of the chess pieces. Arias on first and Sanchez behind the plate yielded and didn’t, had succeses and problems, but more I was happy to see this kind of constant moving about of players. I am of the mind we need a flexible team offensive scheme.

(Hec or Bus)ter at plate

Belt, Posey, Arias or Panda at first

Arias, Panda or Scutaro at third

Blanco or Torres in LF.

It’s flex-offense. I love Bochy for this team approach and have no problem with half a season going by with pieces moving in concert or individually to suit opponent, weather, interleague and etc. I have come around on this. Used to chew my nails to shreds over Bochy’s calls, now I see a logic in it. We can recreate units to suit. Cool.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Brandon Crawford also known as @bcraw35 continues to rock short. Golden Glove campaign [BCrawGG13] required.

Outfield

Hunter Pence still looks like a crazy-eyed wild man going after balls. I trust him … and yet … it makes me nuts to see Pence and Pagan still doing the chipmunk act from the old Looney Tunes cartoons .. “After you.” “No, After You. “No I insist.” (ball drops to the field). I know Pence has only been out there a few months for us, but he and Pagan have to work that out because problems we saw last year continue. Pagan manhandled CF again. LF hardly saw any action at all so the platoon was untested.

All told an excellent series for the Giants and a great way to launch Giants Baseball Corner. I will be posting Series Wrap-ups like this whether I post full series game for game or not. Feel free to comment, feedback etc. best is on TWITTER, in my opinion.

Sorry to everybody but particularly to Julian for over tweeting while getting GBC set up.

All are welcome here where we are focused on the relentless flow of the positive river.

Karthik

M.T. Karthik

This blog archives early work of M.T. Karthik, who took every photograph and shot all the video here unless otherwise credited.

Performances and installations are posted by date of execution.

Writing appears in whatever form it was originally or, as in the case of poems or journal entries, retyped faithfully from print.

all of it is © M.T. Karthik

a minute of rain

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