23 Wednesday Apr 2014
Posted in Post Game Blasts
Angel Pagan went 0 for 5 with 3 strikeouts. Franklin Morales outdueled Madison Bumgarner and a solo shot from Hunter Pence was all the scoring the G-men could come up with.
They gave up two homers, which was just enough to suffer another loss despite another excellent pitching performance.
Giant bats are fast asleep and the team has sunk in the standings to third behind Colorado
07 Friday Jun 2013
Posted in Series Recaps
In Melky Cabrera’s first game back at AT&T Park he received boos and catcalls, but still hit well.
However, the day belonged to Tim Lincecum, Andres Torres and Sergio Romo as the Giants won 2-1 on seven strong innings from Timmy, a great 8th by Affeldt and a good save by Romo. Torres’ 2-run homer that continued his ownage of Johnson was the game winner.
Giants 2, Blue Jays 1
In Game Two, Cy Young Award-winning knuckleballer R.A. Dickey mowed down the Giants and Barry Zito gave up 8 hits and 4 runs, but didn’t look too bad. The story was Dickey, who was nearly unhittable and in command.
Blue Jays 4, Giants 0
03 Monday Jun 2013
Posted in Commentary
02 Sunday Jun 2013
Posted in Series Recaps
Tags
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.
26 Sunday May 2013
Posted in Series Recaps
The Rockies won the first game 5-0 and it seemed their recent success against the G-men was going to continue, but the G-men stormed back to score 13 runs in the next two games to win 6-5 and 7-3 behind pitching by Cain that settled in after a mini-freakout.
20 Monday May 2013
Posted in Series Recaps
after stealing
Game 1: Giants 8, Rockies 6
the Giants made numerous errors and endured horrible pitching that made the end of the road trip miserable.
Game 2: Giants 9, Rockies 10
this one was painful as the Giants almost came back but fell short.
Game 3: Giants 2, Rockies 10
a blowout
Game 4: Giants 0, Rockies 5
a shutout.
ugh.
18 Saturday May 2013
Posted in Commentary
16 Thursday May 2013
Posted in Series Recaps
The Giants traveled to Toronto for two games and upon arrival Bruce Bochy gave Melky Cabrera his World Series ring. Fans discussed whether he “deserved” it or not – which bugged me.
Melky became a new father in June of 2012 while with the Giants, but he knew his baby girl was coming in the winter when, worried about how he was going to raise a child after not batting well the previous year, he signed with San Francisco.
Under personal and professional pressure to perform, Melky Cabrera made the very common and all-too-easy mistake of turning to PED’s. It’s understandable; a shame he chose to hide things from people and to behave badly when discovered, but, still I understand why he did it and I thank him for his contributions to the Giants on the field.
The man was the hottest hitting player in baseball, vigorously helped us win the division and was MVP of an All-Star Game that gave us home field advantage against the Tigers in the World Series. Then he tested positive for PED’s.
I think it unkind to berate, disparage and want to punish him by saying he shouldn’t get a ring when previously fans dressed like milkmen and milkmaids in support of him. It takes a lot more than PED’s to hit the way he did. It takes skills – and Melky has them.
As we say goodbye to Canada I say to the diminishing figure of Melky Cabrera in our rear-view mirror, “Thanks, Melk, sorry we couldn’t have you on the World Series team, but feel proud of your ring, we might not have them without you.”
Meanwhile, his team, the Toronto Blue Jays, with the worst record in all baseball and turf instead of grass, destroyed the Giants, who bumbled like idiots in the field, whiffed at the plate and gave up 21 runs in two games.
The Giants lost 10-6 and 11-3 and neither game was ever close.
Ryan Vogelsong had another terrible outing. We should change the order and return to Cain, Bumgarner, Vogey, Zito, Lincecum. This would also be an alternating right-left-right-left-right order. I think it would help Vogey, who is so strict about habits he eats the same thing everyday before a game.
Everybody wants to put Canada behind us after that ugly couple of days. We had a freshly washed ride after the Braves series and this flock of Blue Jays came along and shat all over it. There was a funny line from a fan: “Yeah, but those were Canadian runs – I’m pretty sure with the exchange rate we split the series.” Ha!
14 Tuesday May 2013
Posted in Series Recaps
Tags
AT&T, ATL, atlanta, baseball, braves, Bumgarner, cain, cards, chip, corner, Francisco, giants, kiss, Lincecum, mlb, pagan, park, pence, Posey, recap, San, Sandoval, scutaro, series, sf, shoulder, St.Louis, triple, vogelsong
Save for Ryan Vogelsong’s fifth inning implosion that lost game one of these four with the Atlanta Braves, this series was a smile that became a grin as everything from starting pitching to batting came together.
Starting Pitching
Matt Cain, Madison Bumgarner and Tim Lincecum were all dominant in their performances against the Braves, limiting them to less than a single handful of runs spread across three days and quieting the bats of the Upton family and McCann, Uggla and the Braves’ vaunted rookie Andrelton Simmons.
Only Ryan Vogelsong’s mechanical issues marred what was otherwise an ideal rotation for San Francisco. It might be time to consider changing the order and moving Vogey up to third, so Zito falls between Vogey and Lincecum. I think Vogelsong is suffering for some reason by being in a different position in the order than last year. GBC proposes:
Cain Bumgarner, Vogelsong, Zito, Lincecum
– which alternates lefties as well.
The other starters were golden: Matt Cain found his groove. Bumgarner was typically consistent and had a season-high 11 strikeouts in beating the Braves for the first time in his young career. Tim Lincecum struck out seven and felt he was hitting spots he had been seeking for some weeks, calling it a good start. The team backed him up with three home runs, making the start considerably more comfortable.
Relief Pitching
Because the starters went so deep, the relievers weren’t needed as much in the last three games. But Lopez, Affeldt and Kontos did their jobs well. Romo picked up another save.
Santiago Casilla is needing more rest and it makes sense. I said at the beginning of the year that as a member of the World Baseball Classic Champion Dominicanas, Casilla has played more intense ball than most this spring. We should give him as many days off as possible.
Chad Gaudin could be a problem. He doesn’t look like he has command. Bay City Ball and BASG have commented on this recently as well.
Hitting
wow. multiple home runs including a splash hit on Mother’s Day by Pablo Sandoval, homers by Scutaro, Belt.
Gregor Blanco took over the platoon from Torres amidst game two of the series – starting off as a pinch hitter – and immediately went 2 for 2 and drove in four runs. He was excited to play and ready to go. This platoon reminds me of the one Affeldt and Lopez were in as lefty relievers in 2010 – each pushing the other to perform better.
Against Atlanta, El Tiburon Blanco was 3 for 9 with a double and a triple and he drove in five runs. Torres got rest and some time to calm down, which seems to be an issue when he plays too many games in a row.
Pablo, Pence, Posey and Pagan are all hitting. It looks like it’s straight out of the playbook: leadoff hits, sac flies and bunts to move runners, steals here and there, doubling in runners in scoring position, homers!
Belt is finding his groove. Brandon Crawford cooled a little, but had a double and a couple of rbi’s versus Maholm in Game 3. Marco Scutaro is right back on track. Giants hitting looked GREAT against Atlanta – scored 26 runs over four days!
A turning point series in that we lost out of the gate but then turned it around to win the next three. The team seemed fit and in tune. We now own the second best record in the National League. But the team I have been most afraid of since the beginning of the year, the St. Louis Cardinals, are still better.
The Cards look a lot like us in form and came into our house and took the home opening series. They have a chip on their shoulder: the Triple Kiss that got by poor Pete Kozma.
Right now I am most concerned about our abilities against the Cards, Reds and Nats.
10 Friday May 2013
Posted in Post Game Blasts
The Giants won 8-2 against the HIGHLY TOUTED Braves in a game that was played exactly the way we wanted to play.
Matt Cain went eight innings and turned in his second straight stellar outing after going winless over his first six starts. Cain also drove in a run on a single
Cain helping himself!!!! woo hoo
laugh in the face laugh in the face giants laugh in the face.
10 Friday May 2013
Posted in Post Game Blasts
Mechanics.
Ryan Vogelson struck out seven, but then imploded in the fifth inning giving up two triples to stack more runs onto the home run he had already yielded to McCann.
Everybody’s talking about it, so there’s not much more to add. Relievers added seven strikeouts and defense wasn’t terrible.
I think I might stop doing the daily reports on games and just focus on the series recaps with a few posts in between.
08 Wednesday May 2013
Posted in Series Recaps
Tags
baseball, blown, chase, corner, Francisco, giants, hitting, howard, jimmy, mlb, philadelphia, phillies, pitching, recap, rollins, Romo, Ryan, San, save, Sergio, series, sf, utley
The Philadelphia Phillies came into AT&T Park with a chip on their shoulder. They had just endured a a 12-run loss to the lowly Marlins at home and were eager to prove they were a solid pitching, good hitting team capable of beating the World Champs.
They did just that two nights in a row, behind the pitching of Cliff Lee and Kyle Kendrick and the bats of Chase Utley, who worked Tim Lincecum, and Ryan Howard, who also went yard.
The Giants came back in game three and prevented the sweep, but Sergio Romo blew a save preventing Barry Zito from getting a win after a great outing, and the Phillies forced a 10th inning before it was all over. Andres Torres was the hero tonight with a game-ending single with bases loaded to win it 4-3.
Starting Pitching
Pitching is getting better and though the starters were outpitched by their opponents in games one and two, Bumgarner and Lincecum hung in and lasted long. Bumgarner was stuck with three earned runs that the Giants petitioned to have removed (details). Timmy had 6Ks but gave up critical hits and homers to Utley and looked awkward when struck by a comebacker. Barry Zito was excellent and was robbed of a win by Sergio Romo tonight.
Relief
Relievers were struck with injury and bereavement as Jose Mijares had to leave to pay respects for the passing of his grandmother and Affeldt remained in injured reserve. Mijares got tagged in Game Two, his first game back, but it must have been very difficult to be out there after laying his grandmother to rest. He gave up a homer and two more hits, but managed two strikeouts and just one walk.
Sergio Romo got jacked and blew a save. Romo allowed Jimmy Rollins’ leadoff double, an RBI single to Chase Utley and Delmon Young’s tying sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth.
Hitting
Oh whither did you go lumber and crack? The bats fell asleep all week as the Giants managed only 7 runs. Hunter Pence was effective throughout and Posey, Scutaro and Torres came through in the clutch in game three.
Not much else to report: Phillies beat us good twice and we took back the last one.
08 Wednesday May 2013
Posted in Post Game Blasts
Tags
50saves, AT&T, baseball, blown, corner, giants, goal, mlb, park, philadelphia, Romo, said, Sergio, sf, win
Giants Beat Philly, Avoid Sweep, but this was a ‘blown save’ – words Jon Miller never uses.
The Giants beat the Phillies in the bottom of the 10th on a game-ending line drive by Andres Torres, to make the final score 4- 3, but the story of this one has to be the blown save. Giants were up 3-1 in the top of the tenth when Romo came in for the save and yielded the tying runs that sent it to extra innings.
Romo allowed Jimmy Rollins’ leadoff double, an RBI single to Chase Utley and Delmon Young’s tying sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth. Those are tough batters to face – Rollins was a guy I wanted the Giants to get before I began believing in Brandon Crawford. I argued for it on twitter some time back.
Zito was great, His first pitch was a strike and he never looked back, He saw the box well and had great command. He pitched 7 innings and gave up just one run – a solo homer. It was a shame he couldn’t pick up the win.
Also, the Barry Zito hits keep comin! This time it was an RBI single in the 6th. Hunter Pence continues to impress at the plate, great again against his former team. Blanco was frustrated, Torres came off the bench to get the winning hit. Sandoval and Scutaro damaged the Phils with situational hits.
Bruce Bochy is throwing a crazy number of combinations out every night now. I used to find it maddening, but this is what Bochy does well. The losses are immaterial early in the season and he uses them to tweak the hell out of lineups and to see what players can do.
I approve.
Giants Win 4 – 3.
07 Tuesday May 2013
Posted in midgame posts
07 Tuesday May 2013
Posted in Post Game Blasts
Tags
AT&T, baseball, Cliff, Francisco, giants, hunter, Lee, mlb, park, pence, philadelphia, phillies, San, sf
I didn’t watch or listen to much of this one because it was on at the same time as the Warriors vs. Spurs Game One of NBA Playoffs second round.
Cliff Lee was workmanlike and manhandled our line up – except for Hunter Pence, who had a homer, double and a single and scored the Giants’ only two runs.
Was pleased to see Hunter Pence getting hits – it’s important to have at least one guy who can reliably rattle the cage of a pitcher who is successful against us. We need a guy like that versus Kershaw, Latos, others.
Bumgarner pitched well and left with three too many earned runs. If you didn’t see it or haven’t heard, there was an early-season Marco Scutaro brain-seize-type error that was recorded by the scorer as a hit. The Giants have petitioned to have it scored an error which would remove the runs from MadBum’s ERA.
From what I understand, Scutaro scooped up a potential double-play ball, thought about flipping it to Brandon Crawford for one, then, before he could change his mind and throw out the runner at first, dropped the ball to the infield, so everybody was safe. That’s an error, not a single.
Well, I’ll have more next time.
Go Giants!
06 Monday May 2013
Posted in Series Recaps
That was a great way to close out the Dodger series. I do think it’s important to remember it wasn’t that long ago the mojo was all with LA. Long time fans of the Giants know how frustrating it was. But now, and I say it with pride …
SF MOJO RISING.
This series, at home, more than any, gave me the feeling we’re champs and can stay champs. The Dodgers suck, but we were forced to play long and tight and to beat their ‘pen, and we did it clean and neat.
The comeback that ended in Quiroz’s walk-off was emblematic of our team philosophy. Marty said, “Like 2010, every night a hero,” and it was never more true.
Pitching
Matt Cain finally got a win for the starters and his first of the year. Zito went toe-to-toe with Kershaw. Ryan Vogelsong got jacked for 7 earned runs, but the team battled like mad to win and the bullpen held it down in relief.
Relief
relievers saved the day. Santiago Casilla was HUGE in Saturday’s double come-from-behind win. Our bullpen got the job done. I love Machi, who has stepped in and up.
Hitting
Who’d a thunk it? The Giants bats are HOT. Pablo, Pence, Posey, Blanco, Torres – the hit parade continues.
The Dodgers Series had a tight defensive matchup ending in walk-off, and a back-and-forth contest that ended in an extra inning walk-off, and finally The Big Horse, Matt Cain holding it down.
Let’s go Giants! Eat Up Philly!
04 Saturday May 2013
Posted in Post Game Blasts
04 Saturday May 2013
Posted in Post Game Blasts
Tags
angeles, AT&T, baseball, belisario, Buster, corner, dodgers, ever, first, Francisco, giants, home, hr, LA, los, mlb, MVP, Posey, ronald, run, San, sf, walkoff
Wow.
There were a lot of people calling for it on twitter, asking Buster to hit the walkoff homer like it’s just that easy. The trend is to do it so you can retweet later that you “called it” … which is idiotic. I think maybe we called for ’em just as often in the past – I begged Renteria to hit ’em – but now our boys are coming through when it counts way more often.
Clutch-Fu Panda, Beltdemption and Hustle Pence were joined in the season’s late-inning heroics last night by Buster Posey, who hit a solo home run to win the game 2-1 over the Dodgers. Though its only May, that may have been Buster’s signature Dodger moment thus far in his early career.
It was a classic outing for Clayton Kershaw, pitching for the first time since the passing of his father. The Dodgers’ lefty ace held serve for 7 innings until Buster doubled in Marco Scutaro to tie the game 1-1, but it was Ronald Belisario, the Dodger reliever, who lost it to Buster on a 3-2 pitch, the sixth pitch of the bottom of the ninth.
Posey connected for his first career game-winning RBI of any kind off of Belisario (2-3), who hadn’t allowed a run in his previous four appearances over six innings.
great win.
02 Thursday May 2013
Posted in Series Recaps
Tags
action, baseball, corner, diamondbacks, diego, Francisco, giants, mlb, San, series, snakes, sweep, woo
After opening on the road with a less than stellar performance in San Diego that resulted in a sweep of the Giants by the lowly Pads, Giants fans were eager for big wins in Phoenix to wrap up the road trip.
The Giants did not disappoint, with come-from-behind wins on the strength of clutch hitting, good pitching from Madison Bumgarner and decent outings for Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum.
The Giants found their stroke, and hit homers to win it. Hunter Pence, Brandon Belt, Pablo Sandoval and Angel Pagan all went long to ensure victory.
The trip to Arizona was a series of retribution. The snakes stole two out of three in late and extra innings at AT&T last month, so it was great to sweep them in their park. The Diamondbacks play a very similar game to ours. The two series with them reveal a tough match up. We will be fighting Arizona for the division, mark my words.
But right now it’s time for our nemesis, the Dodgers. Go Giants. Beat L.A.
mtk
30 Tuesday Apr 2013
Posted in Post Game Blasts
Tags
Arizona, baseball, clutch, corner, diamondbacks, Francisco, fu, giants, homer, kung, mlb, pablo, panda, San, Sandoval, sf
Great game. Bumgarner made it a taut chess match til the late innings, and Pablo Sandoval took advantage of J.J. Putz.
Here’s the game winning, two-run homer by Clutch-Fu Panda
28 Sunday Apr 2013
Posted in Series Recaps
28 Sunday Apr 2013
Posted in Commentary
Tags
2009, AT&T, baseball, Betancourt, edgar, Francisco, giants, mlb, park, Rafael, renteria, rockies, San
I took my son to his first Giant game at AT&T Park in mid-September, when he was seven years old, in 2009.
In the two previous days the Giants had pounded Colorado 9-1 and 10-2 in the first two games of a home series pulling themselves within two and a half of the Division-leading Rockies. Matt Cain was on the mound with a chance to shrink the lead and sweep Colorado out of town. It was mid-September.
But Jorge De La Rosa had his best start as a major-leaguer, dominating SF. In the bottom of the 9th inning the Giants were down 4-0 on the strength of two home runs – by Troy Tulowitzki and Ian Stewart. (the first home runs my son ever saw were hit off my favorite pitcher, Matt Cain).
From an ESPN piece on that game:
“The Giants opened the ninth with three straight singles off Franklin Morales, with the first run scoring on Bengie Molina’s hit. Rafael Betancourt came in to protect a three-run lead and got Juan Uribe to hit a grounder to shortstop.
Tulowitzki’s throw to second base was off target for an error, allowing a second run to score and pinch-runner Eli Whiteside to go to third. After pinch-runner Eugenio Velez stole second ….”
And here I have to interrupt because we were there and it was unforgettable.
Two weeks earlier, Edgar Renteria had hit a seventh-inning grand slam off Rafael Betancourt that had helped the Giants complete a previous three-game sweep of the Rockies and tie for the wild-card lead!
The situation was almost exactly the same with Betancourt vs. Renteria: game three, with the sweep and division lead in the balance. The at-bat was pregnant with excitement and anticipation at the yard – my son’s first experience of that beautiful tension, the taut, loud bearing of all of us together cheering, rooting, hoping.
Betancourt got Renteria to pop-up, pinch-hitter Randy Winn to hit an RBI groundout and struck out Schierholtz to end it. It was perhaps his finest hour as a reliever at that point in his career – note he has eight saves and a win in this young season and the 38-year-old has grown into the role.
I hate to say this, but I knew we were going to lose that one – that was who we were … so often.
We never got closer to the playoffs that season. But there were lessons we learned that played out in 2010. And of course, Edgar Renteria won it for us with the homer with runners in scoring position.
As I sat with my son enjoying his first game – and remember this was in 2009, before we won these two world series and our expectations grew so large that APRIL losses like last night’s in San Diego or last week’s versus the D’Backs at home disappoint us so much – as I sat with him waiting for fans to file out I thought, “Sigh, well, I hope I am not burdening the poor kid with Giants baseball.”
Ha! And that lucky kid has seen them win not one, but two world series’ since!
I mention this today because the last few games have felt like slap in the face deja-vu, in this very young season. I know it’s early … but unless we refocus our energy to play crisp defense and start hitting with runners in scoring position, our fate could be the relative anonymity of also-rans.
27 Saturday Apr 2013
Posted in full games
Tags
2-1, baseball, corner, diego, Francisco, funtimes, gbc, knbr, Lincecum, loss, mlb, padres, radio, road, San, streaming, strikeouts, Tim
Argh. It was like looking at us back in 2009 again. The bright side was Timmy’s performance, and last night we tried to stream the game live in Giants Baseball Corner,
so speaking of Tim Lincecum, here’s:
Timmy Getting Out of the Jam and
Tim’s 3 up 3 down 5th inning and
Tim’s excellent bottom of the 7th
all of which were for nought as we could do nothing to get a runner across the plate. Our one run in the game came off a single by Pagan, a stolen base, a hit and a Wild Pitch!
This one was winnable. I was hoping to sweep these guys … and sadly … we just couldn’t get it done.
26 Friday Apr 2013
Posted in Commentary
25 Thursday Apr 2013
Posted in Series Recaps
Tags
Arizona, AT&T, baseball, blog, Brandon, bunt, corner, Crawford, diamondbacks, Francisco, gbc, giants, important, mlb, park, play, quote, recap, sacrifice, San, series, sf, team, teams, winning
With pitching, crisp defense, just enough runs and by taking advantage of their opponents mistakes to win in the late innings … the Diamondbacks beat the Giants at their game.
The Arizona Diamondbacks won two of three in extra innings against the Giants at AT&T Park with alert play after the 7th that the Giants lacked, showing fight, focus and effort.
Arizona’s Didi Gregorius, the Snakes’ rookie shortstop, energized his team with hustle. Twice, late in games, Gregorius took second base because a Giant outfielder was lackadaisical in throwing the ball back to the infield on a shallow base hit, and both times. Gregorius crossed the plate as the winning run.
Home runs were once again costly in this series as the Giants continually fell behind not on situational hits but the long ball. To their credit, the Giants kept coming back from 2-run deficits, but in the end the comebacks weren’t enough.
The Giants fought back to tie Game 1 on a Posey homer and win it on a Belt walk-off base hit in the ninth. They took Game 2 to extra innings on a Belt homer, but fell apart defensively to lose it in 10. Last night’s loss was a carbon copy in the 11th, except for the glaring statistic:
0 for 10 with runners in scoring position.
The brightest positive from this series and really of the season is Brandon Crawford, who wrote in his blog that he has changed his stance and is “standing taller” – which is yielding great results. Here’s a three paragraph pullquote, because it’s great and emblematic of 25 Guys with one Common Goal:
“It’s great hitting home runs, believe me. I had four all last season and have three already this year. But to tell you the truth I take just as much pride in laying down a crucial sacrifice bunt, like the one last night in the ninth inning.
Sacrifice bunts might not get the scoreboard flashing and the water spouting, but they are noticed by your teammates. They know you did your job and that it was a key to winning the game. My job last night was to move Torres into scoring position, just as in the fourth game of the World Series it was to move Theriot into scoring position. In each situation, the next batter got a hit that scored the runner. If the runner is still at first, he doesn’t score.
OK, so laying down the sac bunt isn’t as much fun as getting the winning hit. You’re not in the newspaper the next day or on the highlights that night. But you know what you did. Last night, after everyone punched Belt in the ribs a few times, my teammates congratulated me on the bunt. I point this out to make the point that winning is a team effort. When you stop playing as a team, you stop winning.” – Brandon Crawford
Brandon went 4 for 9 (.444) with a double and a homer in the Arizona series. He has four home runs and remains the number one ranked SS in the majors in fWAR. Importantly Crawford knocked Ian Kennedy out of the game, allowing our current ace, Madison Bumgarner to outduel the D’backs starter who has given us the most trouble over the years.
The second takeaway has to be the redemptive hitting of Brandon Belt after intense scrutiny for his slumping bat. Bochy made a point to spend extra time and it paid huge dividends as Belt won one game from the bench and tied another to take it to extra innings.
Our bullpen performed admirably and indeed is starting to gel.
Uncharacteristically lackadaisical play and simple mistakes by Andres Torres, Angel Pagan, Santiago Casilla and Buster Posey cost us the tight losses.
The D’Backs were more focused in late and extra innings for two games. Reminded me that they beat the St. Louis Cardinals in 16 innings, in their rubber-match, third game of the season to ensure they won their opening series – coming from behind twice to do it. This past weekend at AT&T, they showed it wasn’t a fluke.
There is fight, effort and smart, crisp play happening under Gibson in Arizona. They’ve got good pitching and a decent bullpen (J.J. Putz got tagged, but is likely to settle down as the season wears on).
The Arizona Diamondbacks are whom the Giants will be fighting to win the division.
24 Wednesday Apr 2013
Posted in PreGame GBCs
Tags
analysis, Arizona, AT&T, baseball, corner, critique, Debro, diamondbacks, Francisco, giants, Kraig, match, mlb, park, pregame, rubber, sf, snakes
Local TV personality Kraig Debro dropped in this morning with his supercool new camera mount. We shot today’s pregame GBC using iVideoStick, check it out:
nice to see Kraig – he’s my kind of Giant fan. Check out his cool camera mount/stabilizer … at iVideoStick.com.
Let’s Go Giants! Rough Up Kennedy! Beat The Snakes!
21 Sunday Apr 2013
Posted in Post Game Blasts
Tags
baseball, corner, diego, formula, Francisco, giants, Lincecum, mlb, padres, San, sf, system, Tim
Tim Lincecum mowed down the Padres through six and 2/3, striking out eight, looking very much like the Cy Young Award winning Timmy. Bochy was crisp with his leash in a 2-0 ballgame, pulling Tim with two out and two on in the sixth. Mijares got the last out on a deep pop fly to left, and he and Santiago Casilla set up Sergio Romo, who picked up his Major-League leading eighth save (8-1).
The only runs in the game were the result of a 2-run homer by Pablo Sandoval that just got out of the park.
The formula is simple and when applied effectively, beautiful.
1. quality starting and stable relief pitching
2. sharp defense
3. situational hits for “just enough” runs
4. take advantage of opponents mistakes
Tonight the formula was executed to perfection.
Way to go Giants!
18 Thursday Apr 2013
Posted in Post Game Blasts
Tags
baseball, Brewers, Casilla, Francisco, giants, Lohse, lose, milwaukee, mlb, RISP, San, santiago, sf, vogelsong, win
Game Two was well-played and much more like a normal Giant game – a close, low-scoring, pitchers duel – and sadly, one in which we couldn’t score enough runs to get the win. The Giants left five on base and Pagan, Belt and Crawford, failed to bring runs in with Runners in Scoring Position with two outs: better than recently, but in a tight game, too important to neglect.
Vogelsong looked good, hit his spots for the most part, and while Kyle Lohse dominated the Giants the first time through and had a no-hit, near perfect game going through 5, the whole order made adjustments to make it a game. The Brewers won on a 9th inning bases-loaded single off Casilla.
Brandon Crawford continues to bat well, which is a great bonus thus far this year. I would love to see him hit .300 and win a Gold Glove. He and Sandoval have 10-game hit streaks now. Hunter Pence drove in two runs to give him 10RBI for the season – he’s batting .262.
Santiago Casilla has played more ball than most, having anchored the World Baseball Classic Championship team from the Dominican Republic and while he has had great outings, like last week against the Cubs, last night’s was shaky at best. He was behind in the count a lot and Bochy left him in way too long, given his performance.
I approve of working middle and late relief, but in a tight game, Bochy has to be more responsive, quicker on the trigger.
Today’s a day game, so I’m off to set up the gear in the corner.
Go Giants!
15 Monday Apr 2013
Posted in Series Recaps
Tags
angel, baseball, Bochy, Brandon, brick, cain, Casilla, chicago, corner, Crawford, cubs, early, Francisco, giants, Krukow, matt, mlb, nick, noonan, padding, pagan, pitches, recap, Romo, San, santiago, Sergio, series, sf, spring, wall, wild, wrigley
This was a wild one in the windy city.
Let Cain and Bumgarner go six innings for the quality start and then pull them as standard procedure for a few months, maybe even the whole first half of the season.
This provides two benefits: rest for their arms over the long season and opportunities to develop middle, long and late relief.
One reason I started GBC was to capture memories of crazy weekends that get lost in the rapid, fluid pool of information we all swim through, hoping to memory-hole it prosaically but concisely for reference.
The Windy City
This was the earliest in a regular season that these two clubs ever played at Wrigley Field in the long, storied history of the NY/SF Giants vs. the Chicago Cubs.
The as-yet-unrefurbished park in early Spring and the weather were significant factors. It was 40 degrees when the Giants got off the team bus on Thursday, with icy rain. It was cold, wet, icy and even snowy at moments over the series.
There was no ivy on the wall and the exposed brick damaged Angel Pagan who ran into it and was forced to sit out the rest of one game. This broke up his seven game hit streak. Mike Krukow made an impassioned plea to put padding on the walls at Wrigley. The stadium is currently undergoing a 5-year, $300 million renovation.
There were errors galore in this series, many of which would define the losses for the Cubs.
But an indicator of the conditions is that the errors included Brandon Crawford’s first of the year. The young shortstop has been brilliant and was rock solid barring the error. Brandon is also having continued success at the plate: the weekend series featured his opposite field home run that decided game 1. [Bochy put Crawford in the 2 spot, resting Scutaro – a sweet piece of managing to test out possibilities].
All errors were superseded by the astonishingly bad Wild Pitch/Passed Ball/Balk Parade that lost the last game of the series for Chicago. The hapless Cubs tied a major league record for Wild Pitches in an inning (5) and in the same inning balked in a run! Jon Miller commented, “The last time I saw this many wild pitches was when I watched my ten-year old in a little league game.”
The Giants came from behind in all three victories and though they scored 23 runs in the four games, the lone home run came in the top of the ninth of the last game in dramatic fashion when down a run with two outs in the top of the ninth, ‘The Reverend,’ Hunter Pence, 30 years and a day old, ripped a solo shot to tie the game and take it to the tenth, allowing the Giants to win 10-7 and Sergio Romo to record his seventh save (7-1).
The Giants only loss, in Game Two, came on a pop fly that was carried by the wind of Chicago out of the park – resulting in Sergio Romo’s first missed save.
Since the series was all day games and the last game against Colorado at AT&T was also, the Giants played five straight day games for the first time in 17 years.
A Note on Defense and Nick Noonan
The weather was horrible and it made it hard to play. While the Giants made their share of mistakes, they also performed admirably under the conditions. Great catches by Pagan, Pablo, Blanco and Pence were keys to ending innings.
Nick Noonan’s first start was amazing: it started with his first error, a result of the horrible conditions and one of the first plays of the series, costing the team a run. But he quickly got past it and then shone in his debut going 3 for 4, recording his first hits and earning his first RBI’s.
In 2 games in Chicago, Nick Noonan had 4 hits in 6 at bats, scoring twice and knocking in two runs. In the last game, Noonan pinch hit for Lincecum, and hit a two-run single for the Giants first lead (5-4)! Great work, Nick – MAJOR LEAGUE HIT.
Hitting
The Giants were down and up in the series and developed situational hitting and better performance as the series wore on. They took advantage of Cubs mistakes by the end of the series to win it by being the better team, but they won by slim margins and were forced to fight back with good hitting, base running and defense.
Though the Giants were short on power and struggled with runners in scoring position much of the time, they made key hits.
Brandon Crawford, Gregor Blanco, Hunter Pence and Angel Pagan deserve particular mention. Hunter Pence legged it out to first to prevent double-plays several times. Pagan hustled (he also over-hustled, but that’s what we want from our lead-off man, El Caballero Loco). Crawford’s opposite field home run was a game-winner, but he was equally good getting RBI’s and key hits in the last two games.
Unfortunately, Hector Sanchez is the glaring issue at the plate. But he is a catcher. We are absurdly privileged to have Buster Posey as our catcher – an anomaly in terms of hitting ability. Most teams have a catcher they have to hide in the order because hitting isn’t what they’re on the team to do.
The problem is the absence of his bat coupled with the impression that Tim Lincecum doesn’t want to be caught by Posey. We say there is no conspiracy. Bochy knew he had to rest Posey from catching at least one game in the rotation. Lincecum got matched up with Sanchez early, and it’s better to be consistent, at least at first, especially if there are extenuating circumstances – like Brandon Belt’s stomach virus or Panda’s elbow, or Pagan running into a wall.
Sanchez slumping looks way worse than he is in this context.
Brandon Belt broke out of his slump with a key double in the top of the eighth with two out that gave the Giants the lead in Game Two. Unfortunately the wind carried a pop fly out of the park and Sergio Romo recorded his first missed save.
Starting Pitching
Poor Matt Cain. We had better start a Hall of Fame campaign for The Big Horse now because we have cheated this stable, big, powerful right-hander of run support for Wins for seven years and we did it again in this series – against a weaker opponent! Granted the weather was a factor, but Matt Cain remains winless in the early season.
Madison Bumgarner took his win, but was left in too long, resulting in the two-run homer that marred his otherwise great performance.
Tim Lincecum had his FreakOUT inning but then settled down and retired batters until the Giants could catch up. The formula worked to protect Tim: great defense, situational hitting and taking advantage of Cub mistakes.
Relief
Santiago Casilla glittered in relief Saturday night. The World Baseball Classic Champion pitched two scoreless innings to register his first save of 2013.
George Kontos handled business in Game Four, pitching a scoreless tenth to get the win and set up Sergio Romo, who picked up his seventh save in the bottom of the tenth.
Romo’s sole missed save was burdened with conditional problems – he was forced to go into Game Two suddenly on short warm-up because the Giants took the lead suddenly, with two outs in the 8th on a two-out double by Brandon Belt. Rushed in, Romo dealt and a pop fly turned into a wind-assisted homer.
I blame us:
Want this posted by 9am so I am ending here but wow! What a series with the Cubs in Chicago!
Karthik
12 Friday Apr 2013
Posted in midgame posts
Tags
2, 9th, baseball, celebrating, chicago, comeback, corner, cubs, Francisco, game, giants, inningf, Jon, knbr, Miller, mlb, San, sf, soon, too, wrigley
This is us celebrating too soon.
So Sergio, it was our fault. Ours and the windy city’s..
[love how I don’t hear Jon call Pence safe at first for like three seconds!]
MTK The Writist 