Tag Archives: play

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.

Timmy Goes Six, Fans Seven, Giants Beat Padres 4-3

20 Sunday Apr 2014

Posted by in Commentary

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

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

As I Stepped Into the Pub, Buster Hit a 2-Run Homer …

It was incredible. The sun was shining into the doorway and as my foot hit the bright rectangle of light on the floor in the doorway, I heard the crack of the bat! I turned to the screen and saw Posey put Tim Lincecum ahead early. 2-0 Giants.

Timmy stayed in ’til the 7th giving up three runs, the last a solo shot in the 7th to bring the Padres within a run, 4-3. Then the bullpen handled the business, though Romo was shaky in closing and that made it interesting. Lots of crisp defense, double plays. Great game.

It was very much like last year today against the Pads:  A Timmy Quality Start (@SD4/21/13) in which he struck out 8 and got the shutout. Except there was more action on the basepaths. Buster made a tag at the plate that was called “safe” then reversed when challenged. He also gunned down a runner trying to steal second with a fluid rise and extremely accurate throw. MVP-type day for Gerald.

I started up this blog again with a mic check because of the torture of this past week.

Matt Cain remains my favorite Giant for seven years now and I feel terrible that we struggle to provide even two runs when necessary to get him these wins. #CainedAgain has become a thing. (sigh) Once again this week Cain was great. Bumgarner, too. Huddy – near perfect. and then the bats? (cricket sounds).

In that piece last year, I came up with what I see as Bruce Bochy’s basic formula for victory for the pitching/batting mix of our team, our budget and our pitcher’s ballpark. Thought I’d apply it to today’s game just for kicks.

1. Pitching

a. quality start  – Timmy, with a 2-run lead hung in there for a quality start (“one pitch too many” Marty said, and I like it). 7 Ks. Marty called it “acceptable, but I’d say not only consistent – look at the performance one year earlier (link above) – but he looked like he was in control and doing what he wanted to be doing. He kept the ball down. They swung at balls in the dirt because they assumed it was going to rise. Tim looked stable. Should NOT have sent him out there for the 7th. Should have left Matt Cain in the other day, should NOT have left Timmy in today.

b. stable relief pitching – Pen was good. Machi did his job. It was Affeldt’s first start and Jeremy was good. Looked solid, comfortable and handled it: 3 up 3 down.

2. sharp defense – must make mention of Hicks-to-Crawford-to-Belt 4-6-3 DP! beautiful! Hicks was textbook. Way too good to make a “Brandons” joke.

3. situational hits for “just enough” runs – Timmy’s bunt was perfect. That is the baseball we’ve been missing: bunts, sacrifices, moving guys  over and driving ’em in. Once Pagan did drive him in, however … back to (cricket sounds) not another hit!

4. take advantage of opponents mistakes – not many of these today.

HOWEVER

I think this year “just enough runs” is NOT going to cut it. We desperately need more: more situational hits to move people along, more hits with RISP, more early leads and more runs, in general.

GM Brian Sabean should be commended for doing what we all hoped: namely going after and locking up bats we can afford, including a true platoon in left with the addition of Morse. Torres/Blanco wasn’t a platoon since they’re so similar, so Mr. Sabean got a power guy, a hitter to pair with Blanco. He signed everybody. So that even without Marco Scutaro:

WE HAVE SIX GUYS WHO COULD POTENTIALLY HIT .300!

POSEY, PENCE, MORSE, SANDOVAL, PAGAN AND BELT

and Crawford, Blanco and Sanchez should be able to hit at least .230

An important point is that our pitchers are decent hitters, arguably good hitters. This is going to mean a whole lot against the American League in our pursuit of wins.

Recently I’ve read articles LA is using millions to go after “pitchers who rake.” We don’t need to.

Our defense shows brilliance one day and then utter idiocy the next, but it’s early and they seem like a crisp, capable group. Scutaro was struggling to make plays at the end of the year. To his credit, Hicks is a sharp addition. Love Brandon Hicks.

Happy Birthday Brandon Belt. My wish for you is that you are graced by the spirit of my second favorite Giants 1B, Long George High Pockets Kelly.  A HoFer who led the league in RBIs twice – once driving in 136 runs – and led the league in homers with 21 in 1921, thereby keeping Rogers Hornsby from the Triple Crown.

Brandon, High Pockets won two World Series, just like you. The Giants need to use the trip to Colorado to get the bats going again. Looking forward to altitude homers.

 

D’Backs Series Recap(1-2), Snakes Outlast Giant Gameplan

25 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by in Series Recaps

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

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

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.

The SF Giants Should Hire Usain Bolt to Pinch Run

04 Sunday Nov 2012

Posted by in baseball, S.F.

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

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

After listening to fans of Usain Bolt talk during the Olympics about using him as a wide receiver or kickoff returner in American Football, it suddenly struck me there may be a better fit for his crossover to commercial US sports:

The San Francisco Giants should hire Usain Bolt to pinch run.

He would never bat, never face a pitch. Why not teach the Jamaican how to position himself, when to run, how to turn the corner and how to slide?

He’d be used in the exact way Bochy used Darren Ford in ’10 and ’11:  to manufacture runs in key innings, in late innings and extra-inning games on the road, for our generally run-depleted squad.

Darren Ford’s exploits, which gained him the nickname The Bullet, are well remembered by fans of the current two-time World Series Champion SF Giants.

Most famous was his game-winning run in the 2-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies in September during our run to the division lead in 2010.

“With the game tied 1-1 in the eighth, Mike Fontenot drew a walk. Fontenot runs fine. Ford, however, might be one of the fastest guys on any big league roster. Ford ran for Fontenot and broke for second, and was standing on the bag, when Colorado‘s Ubaldo Jimenez fielded Tim Lincecum‘s quite average sacrifice bunt.” reads this b/r piece on the play.

But in Spring of the following year, Bochy used Ford to do it again.

Usain Bolt might be a very effective pinch runner if he can be taught the mechanics of base-running. Willie Mays stole home 5 times, Jackie Robinson 9 times … how many do you think Bolt could take if he could be put in position? Think squeeze play.

Bay Area Sports Guy hosted a piece on how important base-running is to the SF Giants just before this season started, but anybody who understands baseball and what just happened with the Giants versus the Tigers will get it, so please comment and spread the discourse.

Here’s the man, doin it:

Usain Bolt as solely a pinch runner – a specialist position. Inexpensive, but possibly very effective in tight games, when you have great pitching and defense. Discuss amongst yourselves.

Go Giants!