Author: jeremy2878

AP File Photo: San Francisco Giants executive vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean during an MLB National League Division Series Game 3 Baseball game between the Chicago Cubs and the San Francisco Giants Sunday October 10, 2016 at the AT&T Park, San Francisco Ca. The San Francisco Giants defeated the Chicago Cubs 6-5. (Bill Nichols Images via AP)

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO–Brian Sabean executive vice president of the San Francisco Giants recently came out and said that the Giants’ season thus far has been “embarrassing,” and that his team has suddenly forgotten how to win.

 Who can blame him?

 Outside of the Philadelphia Phillies, the Giants have been the laughingstock of the major leagues. They currently own the second-worst record in baseball, which is even more astonishing considering that this team was in the postseason last year.

 And oh yeah, there’s that whole three-championships-in-five-years thing.

 Let’s cut to the chase here. Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford, Joe Panik and Madison Bumgarner aren’t going anywhere any time soon, since one has cemented his legacy as a World Series hero and one of the greatest playoff pitchers in history, one is a budding star and the other stars are locked into long-term deals.

 Meanwhile, right fielder Hunter Pence and reliever Mark Melancon have full no-trade clauses, so they will be sticking around as well, while Brandon Belt is under contract for four more guaranteed years.

 Now there are some familiar names who could be playing for other teams by the end of this season, including starter Johnny Cueto as well as Matt Cain.

 Cueto may be the first to go. The righty is technically signed for four more years at $21 million per season, but he can opt out after this season and receive a buyout. He has expressed a desire to return to the American League to finish his career, and with the way things are going now, it’s hard to believe that Cueto would want to hang around this rapidly-sinking ship.

 Cain could follow him out the door. That is, if anyone wants him at this point.

 Cain’s gigantic six-year, $127.5 million deal comes to an end after this season, and even though a $21 million club option is in place for next season, it’s hard to imagine the team picking that up. The trick is to find a team that will be willing to gamble – albeit a half a season – on a guy who is coming off a major elbow surgery and is having a subpar 2017 campaign.

 Cain, meanwhile, is being moved to the bullpen to make room for Bumgarner, who is expected to make his return to the Giants’ rotation Saturday in San Diego. If he performs well out of the bullpen – manager Bruce Bochy said that he is expected to be the team’s long reliever – that will likely peak the interests of contending clubs in need of a reliever who can also be a spot starter.

 So although there is almost no chance that the Giants make the playoffs this year – they were among the first teams to be taken off the books for this year’s postseason – the remaining few months of this season should be interesting, if not spectacular.

Detroit Tigers shortstop Dixon Machado (49) is greeted by left fielder Justin Upton, center, and right fielder J.D. Martinez after the Tigers’ 6-2 win over the San Francisco Giants in a baseball game, Thursday, July 6, 2017, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

By Jeremy Harness

 The San Francisco Giants, at least for the moment, have returned to their losing ways.

 The Giants, after evening their series with the Detroit Tigers the night before, were forced to swallow a tough 6-2 loss to the team that they beat in the 2012 World Series Thursday afternoon at Comerica Park.

 They simply could not do much of anything against Detroit starter Anibal Sanchez, who threw six innings and gave up only a pair of runs on five hits to the Giants in picking up his first victory of the season (1-0). He also struck out eight hitters and did not walk a single batter.

 Their task got even more daunting as they fell behind early, as the Tigers’ bats didn’t miss their wake-up call against starter Chris Stratton. Detroit put five runs on Stratton in the first three innings, including a three-run second inning that was highlighted by Dixon Machado’s two-run homer.

 After falling behind 5-0, the Giants finally got some momentum in the sixth inning, getting a pair of runs off Sanchez, as Joe Panik scored Denard Span with a triple and eventually scored on Hunter Pence’s groundout.

 Detroit, however, had an answer in the bottom of the eighth to round out the scoring. Nicholas Castellanos gave the Tigers a four-run lead with a single to center that scored J.D Martinez.

 No Giants player got any more than one hit on Thursday, while the Tigers had a pair of guys who had two hits in Castellanos and Alex Presley. Presley, meanwhile, also had two RBI.

 Stratton went 6 2/3 innings and gave up five runs on six hits, walking five and striking out only one batter, as his season record fell to 0-2 and his ERA went up to 9.00.

The Giants will not have much time to recover, but they will return home for a three-game series with the Miami marlins, a series that starts Friday night at AT&T Park.

San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Ty Blach throws during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers, Wednesday, July 5, 2017, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

By Jeremy Harness

The Giants have been winning in more ways than one these days.

 They have now won seven of their last eight games, following a 5-4 win over the Detroit Tigers inside of Comerica Park behind a strong effort by starter Ty Blach.

The lefty went six innings and surrendered three runs on six hits, walking one and striking out a pair to run his record to 6-5.

 The Giants raced out to a 5-0 lead after four innings, but they had to withstand a comeback by the Tigers in seventh inning, which saw Blach get chased from the game. However, Steven Okert, Cory Gearrin, Hunter Strickland and Sam Dyson, who got the save by pitching a perfect ninth inning, combined to keep Detroit off the scoreboard.

 And it keeps getting better for the Giants.

 To add to their good fortunes, the Giants will soon get star lefty Madison Bumgarner back in their rotation. The four-time All-Star currently has a target date of next Saturday, July 15, to return to major-league action.

 Bumgarner, who has been out since April after he crashed his dirt bike, an accident that caused a partially torn ligament in his left shoulder as well as a bruised ribcage, made a rehab start in Triple-A Sacramento and threw 62 pitches in the process.

 He has had hiccups en route back to the big club, however. Bumgarner made a start for Single-A San Jose Wednesday and was knocked around by the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. He gave up nine earned runs on nine hits and only lasted four innings. He also gave up a whopping four home runs to the Class A hitters.

 According to reports, he is scheduled to make another rehab start Monday night against Modesto.

AP File Photo San Francisco Giants’ Johnny Cueto against the New York Mets during a baseball game in San Francisco will start against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday June 30th at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, date of photo Saturday, June 24, 2017. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

By Jeremy Harness

It’s almost as if the Giants are telling us not to be so quick to call 2017 a lost season.

That’s because just as they were playing as bad a brand of baseball as they have all season – and it has been pretty bad, mind you – they showed a flash of greatness that has not been seen at all this year.

On Wednesday, the Giants finished off a three-game sweep of the National League West-leading Colorado Rockies, which marked the first time they have swept a team in a series this season.

Prior to that series, the Giants had lost 14 of their past 16 games, losing in every way imaginable.

With that in mind, they still have a very long way to go if they hope to turn this season completely around. The Giants are still stuck in last place in the NL West with a 30-51 record, which puts them four games behind the San Diego Padres, who are plenty used to occupying the division cellar.

The Giants will head to Pittsburgh to take on the Pirates in a three-game series that starts Friday night at PNC Park.

Johnny Cueto (5-7, 4.20 ERA) will go head-to-head with Pittsburgh righty Gerrit Cole (6-6, 4.11 ERA) in the series opener.

Cueto has dropped five of his last six decisions, but he is coming off a solid outing last Friday against the Mets, during which the only run he gave up was a solo home run to Wilmer Flores, while his teammates’ bats went unsurprisingly quiet.

Cole, on the other hand, enters Friday’s matchup on a roll. He has gotten victories in each of his three starts and winning four of his last five. In the three-start win streak, he has given up only a single run in each of those starts, getting wins over Colorado, Milwaukee and St. Louis.

Atlanta Braves first baseman Matt Adams (18) follows though on a solo-home run in the fourth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants Thursday, June 22, 2017, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

By Jeremy Harness

 The Giants endured a rain delay of nearly an hour and a half on Thursday and gave a very good account of themselves from an offensive standpoint, but their pitching woes reared their ugly heads again to dump the Giants.

 The pitching gave up the bank once again, and despite a furious comeback by the Giants, it cost them in the end, as they concluded a road trip that saw them lose six of the seven games away from AT&T Park with a 12-11 loss to the Atlanta Braves inside of SunTrust Field.

 Matt Cain (3-7) is looking more and more like a guy who is seeing his days as a starting pitcher being numbered with each start. He surrendered seven runs on 10 hits over only four innings before being taken out due to sheer ineffectiveness.

 On the plus side, Kyle Crick made his major-league debut on Thursday and fared very well in the process. He gave up only one hit and pitched 2 1/3 innings. By then, however, the damage had already been done, as the Giants had already given up 12 runs.

 Several Giants had multi-hit games on Thursday, and Buster Posey had three hits, including a solo homer in the second inning off Atlanta starter Jaime Garcia. Posey, who played first base on Thursday while Nick Hundley was behind the plate, also touched Braves pitching with a pair of doubles and drove in three runs.

 Now that the miserable road trip is over, the Giants will now head back home in time for a three-game series with the New York Mets, with Ty Blach (4-4) taking the hill for them in the opener, in the hope of getting his team back on track.

 Johnny Cueto will face a stern challenge on Saturday, as he will take on Mets star Jacob DeGrom, while the struggling Matt Moore will take the ball for Sunday’s series finale before the Colorado Rockies come to town for a three-game series.

Atlanta Braves left fielder Matt Kemp (27) is doused after hitting a two-run walk-off home run against the San Francisco Giants during the 11th inning of a baseball game early Thursday, June 22, 2017, in Atlanta. The Braves won 5-3. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

By Jeremy Harness

 Here’s how bad things have gone for the Giants this year. On the rare day that Jeff Samardzija has a quality outing for the Giants – which he did on Wednesday – his teammates find a way to not make it stand up.

 Samardzija has undoubtedly had his share of struggles this year, but he managed to put all of that to the side Wednesday, as he threw seven innings of six-hit, three-run ball at the Atlanta Braves. He also did not walk a single batter while striking out eight of them, giving his change a chance to win for the first time in a while.

 However, it was not meant to be. But really, how many times have we said that this season?

 First of all, the Giants could not support him with any offense, as he left the game trailing 3-1. Braves starter Sean Newcomb, Samardzija’s counterpart, gave up only a run on three hits, discovering the holes in the Giants’ bats that so many other teams have found this year.

 The Giants’ however, mounted a comeback on Atlanta’s bullpen. They scored a run in the eighth against Arodys Vizcaino to narrow the lead to a single run, and then tied the game in the ninth off closer Jim Johnson, whom A’s fans remember not-so-fondly, as Hunter Pence launched a solo homer over the center-field wall.

 The Giants went quietly in the 10^th and 11^th innings, and the Braves’ bats struck one last time. This time, Cody Gearrin was the victim, as former Dodger and Padre Matt Kemp tagged him for a two-run walk-off homer in the bottom of the 11^th to send the Giants to a 5-3 loss Wednesday night.

 The Giants have now lost 10 of their last 12 games, meaning that it is probably about the time that the team may think about waving the white flag on their disintegrating season, thus turning them into likely sellers at the trade deadline when they have grown accustomed to being buyers.

 They have one more game to play in Atlanta, to be played Thursday night, before they head back to AT&T Park for a three-game series with the New York Mets before they welcome the Colorado Rockies for a three-gamer immediately following that series.

To no one’s surprise, the Giants currently sit in last place in the National League West, as they are 2 ½ games behind the San Diego Padres with a 27-47 record. They currently own the second-worst record in the majors, with the Philadelphia Phillies bringing it up the rear with a 22-48 mark.

Teammates hug Colorado Rockies’ Raimel Tapia, center, after his single off San Francisco Giants relief pitcher Hunter Strickland drove in the winning run in the ninth inning of a baseball game Thursday, June 15, 2017, in Denver. The Rockies won 10-9. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

By Jeremy Harness

 Just when things were really turning around, the Giants had it taken right away from them in an instant. Such is the case for the team’s sorry season thus far.

 The Giants were very game in making a dramatic late-innings comeback, but the Colorado Rockies thwarted that effort with a walk-off single to earn a 10-9 win at Coors Field Thursday night.

 Matt Moore continued his miserable season on Thursday, giving up a whopping eight runs on 11 hits and pitched only three innings, walking two hitters while striking out seven in the process.

Had it not been for the Giants tying the game in the ninth, Moore would have been tagged with his eighth loss of the season against only two wins, with an ERA of 6.00. He has dropped three straight decisions and has seen losses in four of his last five.

 Meanwhile, Jeff Hoffman (4-0) was in line for his fifth win to start the season, after surrendering only a single run on seven hits. He went five innings and walked three and struck out two, and he left the game with a comfortable 8-1 lead.

 However, the Giants began to tee off on Colorado’s bullpen starting in the seventh inning, when Buster Posey launched a two-run homer off Scott Oberg.

 In the eighth, the Giants exploded with a five-spot, which was highlighted by Brandon Crawford’s three-run shot off Colorado reliever Jake McGee, which cut the Rockies’ once-sizable lead to a single run. The Giants made it all the way back in the very next inning, handing Greg Holland his first blown save of the year with a run to tie the game.

Those good feelings didn’t last very long, however. Hunter Strickland could not keep the Rockies from scoring in the bottom of the ninth, and when Raimel Tapia’s single brought in Mark Reynolds, the crowd in Colorado has a lot to cheer about, and Strickland was tagged with his second loss of the year.