Author: jeremy2878

Marlins’ walk-off sends Giants to third straight loss, 5-4

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Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Harness

So much for that positive momentum to start off the month of June.

The San Francisco Giants got off to a great start to the month, even getting their record to above .500 at one point. However, that has momentarily disappeared in one week in South Florida.

The Miami Marlins have sent the Giants reeling, as they have now lost three straight games, the latest coming in a dramatic 5-4 loss at Marlins Park on Wednesday.

The Giants led for most of the game, but Miami kept hanging around and kept themselves in the game before eventually overtaking the visiting team in the bottom of the ninth, as Brian Anderson’s sac fly brought in the winning run.

Andrew McCutchen started things off with a two-run homer to straightaway center field, before the Marlins tied the game up in the fourth with a pair of run-scoring singles. From that point on, the two teams traded runs until Miami got the final say in the bottom of the ninth.

Andrew Suarez got the start for the Giants and had a solid performance. He went five innings and gave up a pair of runs on five hits, walking two and striking out three. It was an improvement from his last outing, when he gave up four runs over only 4 1/3 innings at Washington last Friday.

Meanwhile, Caleb Smith went 6 1/3 innings for Miami, surrendering three runs on eight hits, striking out four and not walking a single batter.

Neither pitcher factored in the decision.

McCutchen had two hits, including the opening-inning home run, while Buster Posey cranked out three hits and crossed the plate twice.

The Giants and Marlins will conclude their series on Thursday at 9:10 pm PDT.

Surging Giants face tough road test

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Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Harness

The Giants had a fantastic first week of June, and they have used that momentum to get themselves right back into the National League West race.

Now comes the hard part.

The Giants have won five of their last six games, all of them played inside of AT&T Park, and as a direct result, the Giants are back to .500 and are only 1 ½ games behind the NL West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks, the team they just took two of three from this week.

Now the Giants will hit the road for a 10-day trip that starts tomorrow in Washington, a city that is buzzing from the NHL’s Capitals winning the Stanley Cup on Thursday. Meanwhile, its baseball team, the Nationals, isn’t playing too bad, either.

The Nationals currently own a 35-25 record and are in a tie atop the National League East with the Atlanta Braves. They have won seven of their last 10 games, but those three losses came against the Braves in a four-game series played last week. They rebounded nicely, however, by sweeping the Tampa Bay Rays in a two-game series.

The Giants will start the series on Friday at Nationals Park with Andrew Suarez (2-4) on the mound against Washington righty Stephen Strasburg (6-5).

Dereck Rodriguez (1-0) picked up his first major-league win on Sunday, giving up a single run to the Phillies in a 6-1 victory, but he will have a daunting task on Saturday when he goes up against Nationals left-hander Gio Gonzalez (6-2).

To cap off the series, southpaw Derek Holland (3-6) will most certainly have his hands full as he faces righty Max Scherzer (10-1).

Giants hope to erase memories of Phillies’ sweep

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Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Harness

The last time the Giants saw the Philadelphia Phillies, it got ugly very quickly and did not get much better for the rest of the series.

The end result was a three-game sweep at the hands of the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, and the Giants hope to make that a very distant memory this time around. They start a three-game series at AT&T Park Friday night.

The Giants (26-30) currently sit four games behind the first-place Colorado Rockies, with whom they won only one of a three-game series at Coors Field, in the National League West. Meanwhile, the 31-23 Phillies are in third place in the highly-competitive NL East, but they are only a game behind the front-running Atlanta Braves.

For the series opener, Chris Stratton (6-3, 4.07 ERA) will take the hill for the Giants opposite Phillies righty Nick Pivetta (4-3, 3.26 ERA). Pivetta was a hard-luck loser in his most previous decision, a 5-3 loss at the hands of the Toronto Blue Jays, during which he went five innings and surrendered only two runs on four hits.

Stratton, meanwhile, has won each of his previous three outings, going five innings in each of them. In his last outing, a 5-4 win over the Chicago Cubs, Stratton gave up three runs on only four hits, walking three and striking out six but gave up a pair of home runs in the process.

On Saturday, Ty Blach (3-5, 4.96 ERA) will face Philadelphia righty Vince Velazquez (4-5, 4.08 ERA). For the Sunday finale, left-hander Andrew Suarez (1-4, 5.65 ERA) will face Phillies righty Jake Arrieta (5-2, 2.16 ERA), who came over from the Cubs and was the Phillies’ biggest free-agent acquisition.

Giants survive Coors Field with late 7-4 win over Rockies

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Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Harness

It did not look good early for the Giants at all, and it looked like so many other horror shows that have been disguised as road games that the Giants play at Coors Field over the years.

However, the Giants survived the rough start and rallied for a comeback win, a much-needed 7-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies that sent them to the airport in a delightful mood as they prepare to head back home.

Nolan Arenado, who has had his share of big games against the Giants, started things off with a three-run homer off starter Derek Holland in the very first inning.

The Giants, however, didn’t take much time to respond at all, as they got two runs in their half of the second inning off Colorado Jon Gray, with Pablo Sandoval singling in a run to narrow the Rockies’ lead to one.

They eventually tied the game at 4-4 in the fourth and chased Gray from the game, when Gorkys Hernandez and Buster Posey each drew bases-loaded walks. The Giants took the lead for good in the fifth, when Evan Longoria’s triple brought in a run, and Brandon Crawford singled in a run.

Nursing a three-run lead in the ninth, Hunter Strickland had to survive a bit of a scare from the Rox, and it started after he struck out Gerardo Parra. The strikeout pitch, however, got away from catcher Buster Posey, and Parra was able to reach base, thus nullifying the out.

Two batters later, Ryan McMahon lined a two-out double, and Strickland had to deal with Arenado, who represented the tying run. However, Strickland was able to get Arenado to pop out harmlessly to second, as his team escaped with the win.

The Giants will now head home to face the Phillies for a three-game series that starts Friday night at AT&T Park. The series opener is set for 7:15 pm PST.

Giants hope to bounce back in Chicago against Cubs

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By Jeremy Harness

So the Warriors and the Giants have something in common after Thursday: they will both hope to get bounce-back efforts after being humbled in the city of Houston.

The Warriors are facing elimination from the NBA playoffs after a loss to the Rockets in the Toyota Center on Thursday and will head home in search of answers. The Giants, on the other hand, had the day off on Thursday and have had a full day to process what happened to them.

Thankfully for the Giants, they don’t have to win their very next game to keep their season alive, but they do need to find a way to get things back on track after dropping two straight games to the Astros at Minute Maid Park.

That starts with a three-game series with the Chicago Cubs inside of Wrigley Field, which starts Friday afternoon.

The Giants will start the series with left-hander Derek Holland (2-5, 4.94 ERA) on the mound against Chicago righty Kyle Hendricks (3-3, 3.40 ERA). Holland has lost two of the last three decisions, the latest being a 6-1 loss at the hands of the Rockies last Friday, during which he surrendered four runs on six hits, walking one and striking out three.

Hendricks, meanwhile, also gave up four runs on six hits in his last outing, a 5-4 loss at Cincinnati last Friday, but he got away with a no-decision. However, he enters Friday’s matchup having dropped two of his past three decisions as well.

Chris Stratton (5-3, 4.92 ERA) will take the ball on Saturday opposite Cubs lefty Jose Quintana (5-3, 4.47 ERA). Stratton has won three of his last four, as he beat Colorado last Saturday, 8-4, after giving up four runs on eight hits.

Quintana has won two of his past three decisions, his last outing being a dominant performance at Cincinnati last Saturday that saw him give up only a single hit over seven innings in a 10-0 win.

To close out the series, lefty Ty Blach (3-4) will take the hill against Chicago righty Yu Darvish (1-3).

Verlander outduels Samardzija in Astros’ 4-1 win over Giants

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Photo credit: @LeopoldusEsq

By Jeremy Harness

The Giants’ up-and-down season continues.

They were facing an uphill battle from the very beginning, since they were going up against Justin Verlander, the man who lifted the Houston Astros to their first-ever World Series title last October.

It didn’t get much better for the Giants on Wednesday, as they fell to the Verlander-led Astros, 4-1, inside of Minute Maid Park. The star right-hander went six strong innings and surrendered only a run on three hits in the process.

He walked only one and struck out nine batters, as he improved his 2018 mark to 6-2 with an eye-popping ERS of 1.08.

Jeff Samardzija continues to struggle to stay in the game as he makes his way back from a pectoral strain he suffered at the start of the season. He failed yet again to reach five full innings – he went only 4 2/3 innings on Wednesday.

He actually matched Verlander for four innings, as the two hurlers put zeroes on the board for the first three frames before the Giants got a run off Verlander in the fourth. Houston evened things up in the bottom half of the inning, when Andrew McCutchen committed a fielding error that allowed a run to score.

The wheels came off for Samardzija in the fifth, when George Springer – who also came up huge for the Astros in the World Series – smashed a two-run homer over the short porch in left field. Carlos Correa followed that up with a run-scoring single to give Houston a three-run advantage that they would not relinquish.

Gorkys Hernandez and Brandon Belt each had two hits for the Giants, while Correa and Springer also had a pair of hits for Houston.

The Giants get a much-needed day off before taking on the Cubs for a three-game series starting Friday at 11:20 am PST.

Rockies outlast Giants 5-3 in 12 innings

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Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – Carlos Gonzalez has a pretty nice track record against the Giants, and that continued Thursday night.

After the Rockies used walks to load the bases in the 12th inning, Carlos Gonzalez brought in two runs with a bloop single off reliever Cory Guerrin just beyond the outstretched arm of second basemen Kelby Tomlinson to break a 3-3 tie and ultimately give Colorado a 5-3 win at AT&T Park.

The Giants put together a rally in the bottom of the 12th, putting two runners on, but the rally fell short with a popout.

The Giants got a nice outing from starter Jeff Samardzija, who went 6 1/3 innings and gave up three runs on five hits. He issues three walks and struck out three, but he did not factor in the decision.

The Rockies got to Samardzija (1-2, 6.94 ERA) in the second, getting three runs off the big right-hander to race out to an early lead. The final blow of the inning came when Samardzija’s pitching counterpart, Chad Bettis, singled in a run.

In the third, however, Samardzija exacted a little revenge by lining a single off Bettis, which moved Austin Jackson to third. A sac fly by the ensuing batter, Gorkys Hernandez, brought in Jackson to narrow Colorado’s lead to 3-1.

Bettis (4-1, 3.12 ERA) went six full innings and surrendered three runs on five hits, walking two and striking out five.
The Giants then used a two-out rally in the sixth to tie it up. Buster Posey drew a walk before Brandon Belt lined one just over the brick wall in right-center.

The hit was initially ruled a double, as the ball ricocheted hard back into the field of play, but the umpiring crew got together and upon review, the ball was found to have cleared the wall and instead hit the railing just beyond it, resulting in a game-tying two-run home run.

Meanwhile, Samardzija settled down very nicely after that turbulent second inning, shutting Colorado’s bats down from that point until he left the game in the seventh. Thursday night marked his longest outing of this brief season. After starting the season on the disabled list with a strained pectoral muscle, Samardzija went 5 2/3 innings in a 6-5 loss to Pittsburgh last Saturday.

Will Smith and Sam Dyson took over for Samardzija and did not allow a single baserunner over the ensuing inning and a third.

The Giants were down to their last out in the ninth when Brandon Crawford’s chopper was just out of the reach of Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino, which Crawford used to leg out an infield single. He then stole second, but Austin Jackson grounded out weakly to third, sending the game to extras.

The Giants and Rockies face each other again Friday night at 7:15 pm PST.

Phillies complete sweep of Giants with 6-3 win

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Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Harness

For the Giants, it’s on to the next one.

They could not possibly get out of Philadelphia fast enough to satisfy them, especially after a 6-3 loss at Citizens Bank Park that completed a four-game sweep at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies.

In case you were wondering, the game was not aired on local television. In fact, the game was broadcast on Facebook Live. This certainly did not help the Giants.

They, however, got off to a promising start to Thursday’s game, as Gregor Blanco hit a solo home run to lead off the game off Phillies starter Vince Velazquez. In the next inning, Alen Hansen hot a two-run shot off Velazquez to give the Giants a 3-0 lead.

However, all that momentum went right out the window in the fourth inning, when Carlos Santana launched a three-run homer off lefty starter Ty Blach to give Philadelphia a one-run lead.

Odubel Herrera gave the Phillies a pair of insurance runs in the fifth and seventh innings with run-scoring singles. Herrera went 3-for-4 on Thursday and boosted his average to .353.

Meanwhile, Velazquez helped his own cause at the plate, as he went 2-for-2 and got his batting average up to .462, while Cesar Hernandez also had a pair of hits for the Phillies.

The Giants will now head to Pittsburgh to face the Pirates for a three-game series that starts Friday night at PNC Park. Like the Phillies, the Pirates have a winning record, so the Giants will have their work cut out for them.

Phillies blast Giants 11-3; SF’s losing streak hits 3 games

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Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Jeremy Harness

The Giants have hit a serious skid, and things got bad in a hurry on Wednesday.

The Philadelphia Phillies jumped on the Giants early and never really let up, and by the time the game was over, starter Chris Stratton was battered and the bullpen did not fare much better in a 11-3 loss at Citizens Bank Park.

Stratton lasted only 4 2/3 innings and gave up five runs on five hits, including a solo homer to Maikel Franco in the fourth inning that gave the Phillies a 3-0 lead. He struck out seven innings but also walked four others.

Franco, meanwhile, had three hits for Philadelphia, as did first baseman Carlos Santana, who had an eye-popping five RBI on Wednesday.

Pierce Johnson was thrashed by the Phils upon taking over for Stratton, as he surrendered six runs on three hits and walking three while only recording two outs.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia starter Nick Pivetta cruised right along in the five innings he pitched on Wednesday. He gave up only four hits and did not surrender a single run, recording seven strikeouts and did not walk one batter.

The Giants didn’t score a run until the sixth inning, when Evan Longoria’s double brought in Brandon Belt. They would add a couple more runs in the ninth inning off the Phillies’ bullpen, but it was too little and much too late at that point.

Longoria and Brandon Crawford each had a pair of hits for the Giants, who will have one last chance to salvage at least one game on Thursday afternoon.

The series finale between these two teams is scheduled for 10:05 am PT.

Giants look to build on positive momentum after 9-4 win over the Padres

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By Jeremy Harness

The Giants have managed to get back to being a winning baseball team. By virtue of their series win against the San Diego Padres, they are now a game above .500, which is certainly a reason to be excited if you’re a Giants fan.

Having won four of their last six games, the Giants, however, will have a test on their hands as they now hit the road for 12 games.

The first stop on their journey will take place in Atlanta, as the Giants pay a visit to the Braves for a three-game weekend series that starts Friday night at SunTrust Park. Chris Stratton (2-2, 3.90 ERA) will take the ball for the Giants opposite Atlanta righty Mike Foltynewicz (2-1, 2.53 ERA).

Foltynewicz is coming off a stellar performance in Philadelphia, as he gave up only a run on three hits over six strong innings in a 4-1 win over the Phillies last Saturday. Meanwhile, Stratton is looking for a comeback after surrendering six runs in only 1 1/3 innings in a blowout loss to the Dodgers last Saturday.

Lefty Ty Blach (2-3, 4.10 ERA) will go for the Giants on Saturday against Brandon McCarthy, a former Athletic who has won all of his four starts this year with a 3.09 ERA. In their last outings, McCarthy beat the Phillies in a one-run, five-hit performance over 5 1/3 innings, while Blach went six innings and surrendered a pair of runs on six hits in a win over Washington.

To close out the series, the Giants will send Jeff Samardzija (1-1, 5.27 ERA) to the mound against Atlanta’s Mike Soroka (1-0, 1.50 ERA).

Samardzija, who has been making his return from injury, is coming off an outing against San Diego on Monday where he surrendered two runs on five hits in a victory while Soroka won his first start of the season on Tuesday by surrendering only a run on six hits to the New York Mets.