Author: jeremy2878

Milwaukee Brewers’ Jonathan Villar celebrates his home run in front of San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey during the seventh inning of a baseball game Wednesday, June 7, 2017, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

By Jeremy Harness

 The Giants can’t seem to get out of their own way this year, and it has continued to show its ugly head time and time again.

 The latest installment of all that is wrong with this former perennial National League contender was Wednesday night, as the Milwaukee Brewers tagged with a 6-3 loss at Miller Park.

 The Giants have now lost seven of their last nine games overall, and they currently share the NL West bottom spot with the lowly San Diego Padres, as they sport a le4ss-than-stellar 24-37 record.

 Starter Ty Blach (4-3) did not have a very good outing at all. Although he did not walk anyone and struck out three, he gave up five runs on nine hits, and he only pitched six innings to do it.

 The setback snapped Blach’s four-start win streak, which started May 16 and saw him throw at least seven innings in each start. In fact, Blach was coming off his best start of the year, as he threw a complete-game, seven-hit shutout in a 10-0 win at Philadelphia five days ago.

 Meanwhile, Brewers starter Jimmy Nelson (4-3) also went six innings, but he surrendered three runs on seven hits, walking only one and striking out six in the process.

 After Milwaukee jumped out to an early 1-0 lead thanks to a homer by Domingo Santana, the Giants responded with a three-run third inning that was highlighted by Buster Posey’s two-run homer, which game the Giants a 3-1 lead.

 The Brewers used a two-run fourth inning to tie the game, and Milwaukee utilized extra-base hits in innings five through seven to grab the lead for good.

 The Giants and Brewers, who are currently 32-28 and are at the top of the National League Central at this point, will play the final game of this four-game series tomorrow afternoon, as the Giants hope to earn a split, as they took Monday’s opener before losing the next two.

 

San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy blows a bubble in the dugout during the eighth inning of the team’s baseball game against the Washington Nationals on Wednesday, May 31, 2017, in San Francisco. Washington won 3-1. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

By Jeremy Harness

 After a brief winning streak, the Giants have once against hit the skids and have found themselves right back in the cellar of the National League West.

 After getting swept in a three-game series by the Washington Nationals, a series that concluded Wednesday at AT&T Park, the Giants currently share last place with the San Diego Padres with matching 22-33 records.

 The Giants are expected to call up outfielder Austin Slater from Triple-A Sacramento in tome for their three-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies that starts Friday night at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park.

 A Stanford product and an eighth-round draft pick, the 24-year-old Slater had been swinging a hot bat for the River Cats, sporting a .322 average with four home runs while driving in 26 runs in 174 at-bats for the Triple-A club this season.

 Slater is expected to get a good look at left field when he starts his big-league career.

 Thankfully for the Giants, the Phillies are not having a very good season, either. In fact, they have the worst record in the National League with a 17-34 mark, so this will be a very good opportunity for the Giants to get back on track.

 And it will also be a great time for Slater to get his feet wet in the major leagues, and also for the Giants to start to see what will become of its young prospects.

 Meanwhile, right fielder Hunter Pence, who has missed the Giants’ past 17 games due to a left hamstring strain, will start a rehab stint with Class-A San Jose on Wednesday. According to reports, he is expected to play five innings on Wednesday and another seven innings on Thursday.

 

 Chicago Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo hits a single during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants, Wednesday, May 24, 2017, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

 By Jeremy Harness

 The Giants temporarily fixed their road issues by taking two of three from the St. Louis Cardinals and winning the opener of this four-game series at Wrigley Field. However, the Chicago Cubs have given them a reality check in these past two games.

 After the Giants’ victory in Monday’s opener, the Cubs have made their imprint in this series by winning the last two contests, the most recent coming in a 5-4 Chicago win over the Giants Wednesday night.

 Cubs first basemen Anthony Rizzo has been on a tear lately, and he continued that on Wednesday, blasting two solo homers in the first four innings to keep the Cubs in the game before his teammates brought in the runs to win the game in the late innings.

 Chicago used sacrifice flies to get out to a 5-2 lead heading into the ninth inning, but the Giants would not go away so easily.

 Mac Williamson nailed a two-run homer just beyond the railing of the right-field wall off closer Wade Davis to narrow the lead to just a run. The Giants put a runner on second with two outs, but Joe Panik was called out on strikes to end the game when Davis’ curveball was found to have nipped the outside corner.

 Kyle Hendricks picked up his fourth win of the year by going seven strong innings and giving up only a pair of runs on five hits, striking out five and not walking a single batter. Meanwhile, Matt Moore (2-5) was saddled with the loss, as he surrendered three earned runs on seven hits, walking three and striking out four.

 The Giants are currently 11 games behind the first-place Colorado Rockies, who own an astounding 31-14 record at this point. They are now sitting in third place, three games ahead of the cellar-dwelling San Diego Padres.

 The Giants will look to break even in the series Thursday afternoon, after which they will head home to begin a six-game homestand against the Atlanta Braves and the Washington Nationals.

 

San Francisco Giants third baseman Eduardo Nunez (10) and San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Johnny Cueto (47) taking care of a fly ball during a MLB baseball game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California during Wednesday’s matinee. Valerie Shoaps/CSM (Cal Sport Media via AP Images)

By Jeremy Harness

Just as it looked like they would continue to go in the wrong direction, the Giants have found a way to pull things together.

A week ago today, the Giants lost their fourth straight game to the Cincinnati Reds, as they were struggling to find an answer for the team that they came back and beat in the 2012 Division Series en route to a World Series championship.

From that point, however, they would go on take three straight from the Reds to take the four-game series. If that was not enough, they kept things rolling and took two of three from the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.

They did, however, drop a 6-1 contest to the Dodgers Wednesday afternoon, to snap a five-game winning streak. Despite the setback, the Giants have won six of their past eight games. In the process, they have managed to pull themselves out of the cellar of the National League West.

They now face a tough challenge right in front of them, as they hit the road to face the St. Louis Cardinals for a three-game series that starts on Friday, and once they are done in St. Louis, a rematch of last year’s Division Series awaits them as they pay their first visit of the season to Wrigley Field to face the defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs.

The Giants will not only try to keep their winning ways going, but they will also look to put an end to some serious road misery. They are currently tied for the worst road record in the National League, which explains a great deal how they are in fourth place in the West at this point.

To be exact, San Francisco currently holds a 6-15 record away from the familiar confines of AT&T Park.

To help put his team’s road woes to an end, Matt Moore (2-4, 5.67 ERA) will take the hill in Friday night’s series opener against St. Louis’ Michael Wacha (2-1, 3.19 ERA)

San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy, right, greets Denard Span (2) in the dugout after Span’s solo home run against the Cincinnati Reds during the fifth inning of a baseball game Thursday, May 11, 2017, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – After Wednesday night’s proceedings at AT&T Park, one could only ponder which scenario was more likely: That the Giants would hold on for victory against a team that has had their number this year, or they actually sold the game out, as the team told us that they did.

In front of the “sellout” crowd of an announced crowd of 41,193 – there were a considerable number of empty seats around the ballpark that would suggest otherwise – the team that currently owns the worst record in the major leagues took yet another one on the chin, falling 3-2 to the Cincinnati Reds.

The Reds have now beaten the Giants in each of their four matchups this year, while the Giants have lost six of their last seven overall.

The night got off to a promising start, however, after Brandon Belt got a hold of a Bronson Arroyo fastball and sailed it into the garden beyond the center-field wall to give the Giants an early 1-0 lead.

Giants starter Ty Blach turned in a very nice outing on Wednesday and made that slim lead stand up for three innings, but the Reds got to him and squared the game up in the fourth. The first two batters touched him for a single and a double, while the very next batter, Joey Votto, grounded out but also scored the tying run.

Blach, who went seven innings and gave up only two runs on five hits, walking one and striking out two, avoided any further damage and continued to give his team a chance to win. It was a far cry from the last time he saw the Reds last Saturday, when he was torched for eight runs on 11 hits and was out of the game after only three innings.

“You can lose a little confidence with that (previous) start, when you’ve got to pitch against the same ballclub that beat you up pretty good,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “I was proud of him. He did all he could to win that ballgame for us.”

The Giants re-took the lead in the fifth, as Cincinnati starter Bronson Arroyo hung a 2-2 curveball to Denard Span. The center fielder, who was just activated from the 10-day disabled list in time for Wednesday night’s game, quickly deposited it into the seats in right-center to give the Giants a 2-1 lead.

For Span, it was as successful a return as one could hope for, as the veteran collected four hits on Wednesday.

That was the extent of the damage the Giants would inflict on Arroyo, who went six innings and also surrendered only a pair of runs on six hits, walking only one and striking out three more.

Meanwhile, Votto struck again in the sixth, as his RBI single in the sixth brought in Billy Hamilton to even the game up before Cincinnati took the advantage for good two innings later.

Scooter Gennett lined one off the center-field wall off reliever Hunter Strickland to open the eighth inning with a triple. Two batters later, Zack Cozart smoked a double into the left-center gap to bring Gennett around to put Cincinnati ahead, 3-2.

By Jeremy Harness

The Giants have been terrible this year, bad enough to have a firm grasp of the National League West cellar, and things do not look to get any better any time soon.

However, they finally got a taste of victory Wednesday at New York’s Citi Field, as they beat the host Mets, 6-5, to put a merciful end to a five-game losing streak and avoided a three-game sweep at the hands of the Mets.

The Giants found themselves behind early in the game, but they slowly rallied in the late innings before breaking through in the ninth inning.

Hunter Pence tied the game at 3-3 with a sac fly before Christian Arroyo broke the game wide open with a bases-clearing double that scored three runs and gave the Giants a commanding 6-3 lead. Arroyo was among five Giants who had two hits on Wednesday.

However, they did their best to give up the bank, but New York simply ran out of outs. Closer Derek Law surrendered a two-run double to Wilmer Flores in the bottom of the ninth inning, but he was able to hold off the Mets the rest of the way to nail down his second save of the season.

Both starters on Wednesday ended up with a no-decision. Matt Cain went only five innings and gave up two earned runs on only four hits, striking out three and walking a pair while former A’s starter Tommy Milone also went five and surrendered a pair on six hits. He walked two and struck out five batters.

The Giants will now head home and start a four-game series with the Cincinnati Reds, who beat up the Giants like they stole something when they paid a visit to the Great American Ball Park last weekend. To illustrate that point, Cincinnati out-scored the punchless Giants by a count on 31-5, which indicates how hard San Francisco has fallen at this point.

 

San Francisco Giants’ Brandon Belt, left, hits an RBI single as Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal, right, and home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt watch during the 11th inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, May 3, 2017, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

By Jeremy Harness

It’s no mystery that the Giants are severely lacking in the offensive department, but that has not stopped them from winning three World Series in a five-year span.

However, they can’t pitch, either, and that is making things awfully tough on this team to make any kind of statement that they are ready to bounce back from some early adversity.

The stats don’t lie. The Giants currently rank 21^st in the majors in team batting average and are also 29^th in runs scored. To make things troubling, they are also 23^rd in team ERA and have given up the ninth-most home runs in the game as well.

When you add all of this up, the end result is a 11-18 record through Thursday and a place in the National League West cellar. Not exactly what one would expect to see from a ballclub that hopes to contend come October.

The most damning stat is this: The Giants are tied with the Oakland Athletics in having the worst run differential in the game, clearly indicating that they lack the offense as well as the pitching and defense to be able to get it done right now.

The Giants, however, have overcome bad starts in the past as well as endured prolonged bad stretches in order to come away with a world title in the fall (the 2010 season, for instance).

But what is clearly going against the Giants this time is that the mainstay players are getting older and the starting pitching has been largely ineffective at this point.

They have a chance to start turning things around this weekend as they travel to Cincinnati to take on the Reds, who have a 14-14 record and right in the middle of the pack in the National League Central, and are also riding a two-game win streak.

Matt Cain, who will take the ball in Friday’s series opener against Cincinnati veteran right-hander Bronson Arroyo, has been pretty consistent over the course of the season. He overcame a lackluster opening start of the year, during which he gave up four earned runs but came away with a no-decision, to surrender only four earned runs in his previous five starts combined en route to a 2-0 record and a 2.30 ERA.