Author: jeremy2878

San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Matt Cain adjusts his cap during the first inning of a baseball game against the Miami Marlins, Wednesday, Aug. 16, 2017, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

By Jeremy Harness

 The Giants’ season continues to go into the tank, and that figures to continue all the way until the end of the year.

 They just concluded a three-game series with the Miami Marlins, and they came up on the short end with an 8-1 defeat at Miami’s Marlins Park, meaning that they lost two of the three games in this series.

 The game could not have gotten off to a worse start, as the Marlins raced out to a 4-0 lead, which was highlighted by Tomas Tellis’ two-run double into shallow left field. At that point, the damage was done to starter Matt Cain, who went only four innings and gave up two earned runs – five total – on five hits.

 He walked only one batter and struck out seven in the process, but he saw his ERA grow to 5.19. Albert Suarez then took over for Cain and surrendered another three run over three innings, walking three and striking out one.

 The Giants had only one run, but it was not due to lack of opportunities, however, as they collected eight hits. Their undoing was that they left runners stranded throughout the game, as they left four runners in scoring position

 Hunter Pence and Jarrett Parker each had a pair of hits for the Giants. However, there were no extra-base hits to be had on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Miami had two doubles and a triple to help boost its offense.

 None of those, however, belonged to Giancarlo Stanton, even though the slugger did have a pair of singles to go along with a stolen base.

 There is some immediate hope on the horizon, however. The Giants will face the Phillies, the worst team in the National League, in a four-game series that starts Thursday night at AT&T Park.

 

AP File Photo May 29, 2017: After being hit by a pitch, Washington Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper (34) approaches San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Hunter Strickland (60) on the mound. San Francisco Giants first baseman Michael Morse (38), second baseman Joe Panik (12) (obscured) and starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija (29) arrive to break up the fight that broke out during the eighth inning in a MLB baseball game between the Washington Nationals and the San Francisco Giants on Memorial Day at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California. Valerie Shoaps/CSM(Credit Image: © Valerie Shoaps/CSM via ZUMA Wire) (Cal Sport Media via AP Images

By Jeremy Harness

 The last time the Giants and the Nationals saw each other, Hunter Strickland drilled Bryce Harper with a fastball, and Harper responded by charging the mound, igniting a benches-clearing incident that saw plenty of tempers flaring.

 It also put one player, Michael Morse, on the disabled list with no real timetable for his return.

 The upcoming series itself, which starts Friday night at Nationals Park in Washington, is not expected to be much of a contest, although the Giants did take two of three from the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs this week.

 The Nationals have pretty much run away with the National League East at this point, and the only thing they are really competing for right now is the NL’s best record. However, they are fighting an uphill battle there, as the Los Angeles Dodgers have a 12-game lead for that top spot.

 The Giants, meanwhile, are enduring a season that they would rather soon forget, as only the Philadelphia Phillies have a worse record in the National League, as they currently sport a 46-70 record.

 The only real intrigue is whether the bad feelings will rear its ugly head again if a player gets hit by a pitch, or if someone slides into a base too aggressively, etc. In that case, it could very well turn into Strickland v. Harper II.

 As for Friday’s opener, Chris Stratton (0-2, 6.63 ERA) will take the hill for the Giants, to be opposite Washington righty Edwin Jackson (2-2, 4.34 ERA).

 In his last outing, Stratton went five innings and surrendered a pair of earned runs on five hits, walking four and striking out another four in a no-decision last Saturday. In the outing before that, he pitched the final four innings of an 11-3 win over Pittsburgh, getting credited with a save in the process.

 Jackson, on the other hand, got tagged with a loss in his last start, a 7-4 loss to the Cubs that saw him give up four runs on six hits, striking out eight but not walking a single batter.

 

AP PHOTO FILE – In this July 21, 2017, file photo, Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Alex Wood throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Atlanta Braves, in Los Angeles. With Clayton Kershaw sidelined by injury, the Dodgers are in need of a dominant left-hander. Baseball’s best team need look no farther than one locker past Kershaw’s in the clubhouse.(AP Photo/Kelvin Kuo, File)

By Jeremy Harness

 The Los Angeles Dodgers are flying high these days, sporting a quite-lofty 71-31 record at press time. They are currently riding a five-game winning streak, and they have aspirations of a World Series title, something that they have not experienced in 29 years.

 The Giants, on the other hand, have recent experience with that, but it sure doesn’t look like it as you watch them play this season. They have the second-worst record in the National League with a mark of 40-63, and one of the remaining question marks is who will be dealt away before Monday’s trade deadline.

 The other question is what exactly Pablo Sandoval will do for the rest of the season, as this will determine what the Giants will do with their prodigal third baseman.

 Shortly after acquiring Sandoval after he was released by the Boston Red Sox after badly underperforming during his short time there, the Giants traded Eduardo Nunez to those same Red Sox for a pair of pitching prospects, so it will be time for Sandoval to show how much he has to give at this point.

 In the meantime, the Dodgers and the Giants will meet at Dodger Stadium for a three-game series that starts Friday night. Matt Moore, who is having a terrible season thus far with a mark of 3-10 to go along with a 5.82 ERA, will take the ball for the Giants in the series opener.

 He has lost each of his past three decisions, including one in Miami on July 7 that saw him give up five runs on 12 hits and last only 3 1/3 innings in the process.

 He will be opposite Dodgers lefty Alex Wood, who is trending in the exact opposite direction. He has a masterful 11-1 record with an ERA of 2.17. However, if there is a negative here, it’s that Wood suffered that one defeat in his last outing, a 12-3 drubbing at the hands of the Atlanta Braves on July 21, during which he surrendered seven earned runs on nine hits over only 4 2/3 innings.

 While the Dodgers continue their quest for that elusive World Series ring, it remains to be seen what the Giants will look like as a team at the end of the season.

 

San Diego Padres’ Hunter Renfroe, left, heads for home plate after hitting a two-run home run off San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner, right, during the second inning of a baseball game Thursday, July 20, 2017, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – In the top of the ninth inning of Thursday night’s game, the umpiring crew stared a monitor for two-and-a-half minutes, trying to decide if San Diego third baseman Cory Spangenberg was successfully picked off of first base.

It probably took less time for a parole board in Nevada to make its decision to grant O.J. Simpson his early release from prison Thursday morning than it took for the crew at AT&T Park to determine that Spangenberg was, in fact, out.

Unfortunately for most of the announced “sellout” crowd of 41,166, that play could not turn the tide of a game that the Giants eventually dropped to the Padres, 5-2, in a season that has just seemed to drag on very slowly.

Starter Madison Bumgarner’s undoing was, really, two bad pitches. The first came in the second inning, as Hunter Renfroe touched Bumgarner for a two-run homer that hugged the left-field corner but stayed fair long enough to give the Padres a 2-0 lead.

The fatal blow came in the seventh, as Spangenberg took a fastball from Bumgarner (0-4) that caught too much of the plate and sent it into the seats to give San Diego a lead they would not relinquish.

Those two bombs accounted for all four of the runs that the big lefty surrendered on Thursday. He gave up only six hits and walked only one batter while striking out five others.

“You look at the numbers, and even though they weren’t great, but he threw the ball (well),” manager Bruce Bochy said. “A couple of mistakes left the ballpark.”

In the meantime, with the exception of one inning that saw them tie the game, his teammates could not solve Padres starter Jhoulys Chacin (9-7), who is now 3-0 against the Giants this season. In doing so, he went six innings and gave up only a pair of runs on four hits, striking out four hitters and walking only one.

“He has a long history of pitching very well against us,” Bochy said. “Next to (Clayton) Kershaw, I don’t know who’s tougher on us.”

After falling behind 2-0, the Giants got one of those runs back in the sixth when Denard Span knocked in a run with a flare single into right-center.

One batter later, Span came around and scored after Eduardo Nunez smacked a single into left to tie the game at 2-2. It appeared that the Giants were poised to take the lead, especially after Nunez advanced to second on a balk and then momentarily stole third.

However, his momentum took him off the bag, and third baseman Cory Spangenberg took advantage of this by maintaining his tag. Third-base umpire Cory Blaser saw this the whole way and promptly called Nunez out, ending the Giants’ surge.

In the top half of the seventh, Spangenberg tagged Bumgarner and chased him right out of the game.

After Erick Aybar singled after a prolonged at-bat, Spangenberg cleared the wall in right center – the deepest part of the ballpark at 421 feet – to give San Diego a 4-2 lead.

San Diego tacked on another run off Giants reliever George Kontos in the eighth, when slugger Wil Myers lined a single into left to score Jose Pirela, who had led off the inning with a single of his own.

The Giants made a charge in their half of the eighth, using a two-out rally to load the bases. However, lefty reliever Brad Hand got Buster Posey to fly out harmlessly to deep right to end the inning and keep the Giants down three.

NOTES: The Giants are expected to be reunited with an old friend in a very short period of time. Third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who had a big hand in all three of the Giants’ World Series titles, was recently released by the Boston Red Sox, and the Giants are expected to sign him to a minor-league deal once he clears waivers.

 

Also, on this day in 1969, starter Gaylord Perry got his first hit of the season, which also happened to be his first major-league home run in a 7-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

 

Giants manager Alvin Dark did not hold Perry’s hitting in high regard, as he said a year earlier that “they’ll put a man on a moon before he hits a home run.” Well, Perry’s home run came just 20 minutes after the team found out that Neil Armstrong had set foot on the moon.

 

AP File Photo: San Francisco Giants’ Madison Bumgarner sits with catcher Tim Federowicz before pitching in his first rehab assignment with the Sacramento River Cats in a baseball game against the Fresno Grizzlies on Friday June 30, 2017, in West Sacramento, Calif. (Jose Luis Villegas/The Sacramento Bee via AP)

By Jeremy Harness

 SAN FRANCISCO–There are a couple bits of good news to arise from the All-Star break. For one, the dreadful first half that the Giants just went through is now over, and it is time to look forward to the second half of the season in order to salvage some dignity.

 Secondly, Madison Bumgarner will soon be back in the starting rotation, which will be a more-than-welcome sight for the Giants and their fans.

 Now the bad news: The Giants have the second-worst record in the major leagues and currently sit in last place in the National League West with a 34-56 record, a place the Giants are not accustomed to, to say the very least.

 The team that the Giants are directly under at this point, the San Diego Padres, will be waiting for them at San Diego’s Petco Park for a three-game series that starts Friday night.

 Right-handed starter Johnny Cueto, who is rumored to be on the trading block – particularly given the fact that he has an opt-out clause in his contract that goes into effect at the end of this season, will take the mound Friday night.

 His last start was not a memorable one by any means. Four days ago, he was taken advantage of by the Miami Marlins, as he surrendered six runs on six hits, as he also walked six batters while striking out only two. He currently owns a less-than-stellar 6-7 record with a 4.51 ERA.

 He will be up against Padres lefty Clayton Richard (5-8, 4.66 ERA), who is coming off an outing during which he gave up only a single run on five hits over six innings of work.

 Bumgarner will make his highly-anticipated return to the bigs the following afternoon, and he will go head up with righty Jhoulys Chacin, who owns an 8-7 mark with a 4.32 ERA. He is also riding a two-start winning streak, during which he gave up only a run and seven hits combined.