Author: jeremy2878

SAFEWAY OPEN: Piercy maintains leads through rain-soaked Friday

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By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: Scott Piercy walks up the fairway after hitting from the second tee of the Silverado North Course during the second round of the Safeway Open in Napa on Friday

NAPA–With rain coming into the area for Friday’s play at Silverado Resort and Spa, scores were supposed to go up a little bit. In fact, when players were allowed to lift-clean, and place their balls to give themselves a favorable lie on the course, things actually picked up.

After setting a course record with a 10-under 62 during Thursday’s opening round of the Safeway Open, Scott Piercy kept things going in the second round. The 37-year-old did not record a single bogey on Friday and even came through with an eagle on the par-5 ninth hole.

Piercy, however, was not able to get through his entire round. There was a nearly two-hour rain delay that did not allow the players in the field to finish their rounds before the sun went down. As a result, they will finish their second round first thing Saturday morning – given that the weather holds up – and will start their third round later that morning.

According to local weather reports, there is a 30 percent chance of rain as early as 8am PST and will steadily increase well into the afternoon and early evening, so it remains to be seen if the third round will be completed, as delays are expected at this point.

When play resumes Saturday morning, Piercy will pick things up on the 13th hole and will hope to extend his lead even more. He does have company, though, as Johnson Wagner trails him by only a pair of strokes, picking up five shots in his abbreviated round Friday, as he was able to get through 14 holes before sunset.

One of the rookies on the tour, J.J. Spaun, who made his debut as a full-time PGA Tour player after earning his card by finishing in the top-25 in the Web.com Tour last season, got himself in the mix with a five-under 67 in the second round and is currently tied for seventh place, as he was one of the few players who was able to finish his round before the rain got serious enough for the delays to occur.

Meanwhile, Phil Mickelson is tied for 10th after shooting a three-under 69 after fighting off two straight bogeys at the first as well as the second holes.

 

Safeway PGA Open: Piercy sets pace with course record

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By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: Scott Piercy follows a shot below the fairway up onto the green of the Silverado Resort North Course during the first round of the Safeway Open golf tournament Thursday

NAPA–The story of the Safeway Open going into the tournament surrounded the disappointment of the sudden withdrawal of Tiger Woods, leaving many befuddled and scratching their heads.

Scott Piercy, who is not nearly as big a name as Woods, was not flying under the radar at the conclusion of Thursday’s opening-round events, as his blistering round left people’s heads scratching as well.

Piercy certainly had a round to remember on Thursday, posting a 10-under 62, which is good enough for a course record and a two-stroke lead.

Starting on the 10th hole on Thursday, Piercy got off to a roaring start on his first nine holes, recording six birdies without a single bogey, including five birdies in a six-hole stretch.

He did come back down to earth during his second nine, as he dropped a pair of shots but kept the birdies rolling in.

With bad weather, including heavy rain as early as Friday and possibly through the weekend, getting ready to roll through the area, the key for the players is to get the birdies while the weather is still calm, and that is exactly what Piercy did.

As well as Piercy played, however, only two shots behind him is England’s Paul Casey, who made a big run in this past season’s FedEx Cup playoffs, which concluded only three weeks ago.

He kept himself in the running with a bogey-free 64, a round that featured eight birdies. He only hit six of the 14 fairways on Thursday, but that was easily overshadowed as he hit 17 of the 18 greens in regulation, giving him plenty of birdie opportunities throughout the round.

Meanwhile, another headliner of the week, Phil Mickelson, who was one of the heroes of the Ryder Cup won by Team USA two weeks ago, did not get off to as good a start. He finished his opening round with a three-under 69, which is still good for a tie for 22nd.

He is currently tied with Emiliano Grillo, who won this tournament last year, also shot a three-under 69.

 

SAFEWAY OPEN: Tiger withdraws, says game is not ready

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By Jeremy Harness

AP file photo: Tiger Woods as vice captain at the Ryder Cup golf tournament at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska Minn from Sep 29th photo will not be participating in the Safeway Open this week

NAPA–There were hundreds of people in the Bay Area – not to mention the promotors of the event itself – who were highly anticipating the return of Tiger Woods to the PGA Tour at this week’s Safeway Open.

However, despite this anticipation and commercials that featured Woods as the highlight of this upcoming event, Woods announced his decision to withdraw from the tournament Monday morning.

The reason behind the decision was not due to any physical ailment, which is surprising since he has struggled mightily with assorted injuries, such as an ongoing condition with his lower back. Rather, he stated that his game is not at the level that is satisfactory to his being able to compete at this point.

He also said that he also plans on withdrawing from the Turkish Airlines Open next month, which he had intended on playing until Monday.

“After a lot of soul searching, and honest reflection, I know that I am not yet ready to play on the PGA Tour,” Woods said in a statement released Monday afternoon. “My health is good and I feel strong, but my game is vulnerable and not where it needs to be.

“It’s not up to my standards, and I don’t think it would be up to yours.”

Woods was last seen as one of the vice captains for Team USA in the Ryder Cup, which was held a little more than a week ago and saw the American team beat Europe for the first time in eight years.

However, as a player, he has become less and less relevant with each tournament that he plays. He has either withdrawn due to a back injury, or he has shot 80 or above – which he did in three of the past 16 competitive rounds he has played in the past two years – while being engulfed in issues with his short game as well as inaccuracy off the tee.

However, this was great news for an up-and-coming star on the tour. With Woods’ withdrawal, Max Homa, the Cal grad who spent last season on the Web.com Tour , got into this week’s field as the first alternate.

 

San Francisco Giants-Chicago Cubs NLDS report–Giants look to end Cubs’ hopes again

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By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon (left) and San Francisco Giant pitcher Matt Moore (right) converse prior to game one of the NLDS at Chicago’s Wrigley Field on Friday night

The Giants have had a stretch that saw them win three World Series titles in five years. The Chicago Cubs have waited 108 years to claim that elusive championship.

That pretty much sums it up right there, and because of that, the pressure is expected to fall much more on the Cubs – who clinched the National League’s best record and home-field advantage for the postseason – than the Giants at this point.

This sets up a best-of-five National League Division Series that starts Friday night inside of Wrigley Field

One more advantage that the Giants seem to have on their side is rhythm. While the Cubs wrapped up their spot in the playoffs earlier on and then focused on keeping their guys healthy, the Giants had to battle during the final week of the regular season in order to make it to this point, with each game having playoff implications.

Then came Wednesday night, which saw the Giants having traveled across the country to face the Mets in the NL’s wild-card, winner-take-all game. Madison Bumgarner stifled the Mets to the tune of a complete-game shutout to add to his ever-growing status as possibly the greatest postseason pitcher the game has ever seen.

Johnny Cueto (18-5, 2.79 ERA), as expected, will take the hill for the Giants and will go up against Jon Lester (19-5, 2.44 ERA), who, unlike many of his Cubs teammates, has World Series championship experience from his years in Boston.

Lester also has some pretty good recent history against the Giants. He shut down the Giants on Sept. 2 at Wrigley by limiting them to a run on only three hits, walking two and striking out four.

Cueto, meanwhile, had an outstanding performance in his most recent start against Chicago. Two days after Lester’s gem, Cueto gave up only a run on five hits to the Cubs over seven innings. However, he was saddled with a no-decision when his bullpen, which was quite known to do over the course of the second half of the season, gave up the lead.

 

MadBum shuts down Mets as Giants advance

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By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner delivers the pitch in the first inning against the New York Mets at Citifield in the NL Wild Card game

Every other year, the Giants seem to have guys who rise to the occasion when the stakes are at their highest. Some, such as Conor Gillaspie, come through in their first taste of postseason action in the least likely of situations.

Others, such as Madison Bumgarner, simply do what they’ve always done when the bright lights are on.

The two teamed up Wednesday night, as Gillaspie’s three-run homer broke a scoreless tie in the top of the ninth inning to make Bumgarner’s four-hit complete-game shutout stand up, and the Giants topped the New York Mets, 3-0, in the National League’s wild-card game.

With that, the Giants earned a date to Wrigley Field to face the Chicago Cubs, for a five-game Division Series that starts Friday night. Jon Lester is expected to start for the Cubs, and that even though the Giants have not officially announced a starter, Johnny Cueto is very likely to take the ball.

But that does not happen if Bumgarner doesn’t do what he is accustomed to doing at this time of year.

In the process, he had to out-duel Mets starter Noah Syndergaard, who held the Giants scoreless over the seven innings that he was in the game.

“He’s got a focus that is hard to describe,” catcher Buster Posey said. “To come out and do what he did (Wednesday) night is pretty special. This is up there with the rest of his postseason performances.”

“As good as Syndergaard was – he was almost unhittable – there was still a calmness in the dugout, because we knew that Bum was going to give us a chance, and he did just that.”

The game remained scoreless until the ninth inning, when the Mets brought in closer Jeurys Familia, and the Giants took advantage when he ventured up in the strike zone. Brandon Crawford got things started when he ripped a double into the gap in left-center, and Joe Panik followed that up with a walk two batters later.

Conor Gillaspie, the next batter, saw a mistake pitch from Familia and wasted no time in sending it into the bullpen behind the right-field fence to push the Giants into the lead.

“As fired up as I was (after the hit), that (reaction) comes out once every 10 years,” Gillaspie said. “That’s just not my personality at all. But looking back, I’m glad I did it. That was definitely the biggest hit of my career.”

From that point, it was pretty much a no-brainer as to whether to leave Bumgarner in to finish things off and send the Giants to Chicago. The lefty then proceeded to close out the Mets by doing what he did for the previous eight innings.

Cueto, Giants bunt their way past Rockies

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By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: San Francisco Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto squares around for a bunt that scored two runs in the sixth inning on a throwing error against the Colorado Rockies Thursday night at AT&T Park

SAN FRANCISCO – The recipe for winning in the postseason – as the Giants are very well-versed in by now – involve great pitching and an offense that knows how to manufacture runs. Both of those were on display Thursday night.

For a team that has struggled with these for long stretches, particularly in the second half of this season, the Giants sure looked like they have not missed a beat, this being essentially a sink-or-swim final week of the regular season.

Johnny Cueto, whom the team added to provide some stability behind ace Madison Bumgarner, came through once again despite a rocky start. He came through with his bat as well as on the mound – he surrendered only two runs on nine hits over seven innings – in a (7-2) win over the Colorado Rockies at AT&T Park.

The Giants currently own the second wild-card spot in the National League by a full game over the St. Louis Cardinals. Meanwhile, they trail the New York Mets, who did not play Thursday, by a game.

The final three games of the season – the first of which will be played Friday night, with Bumgarner on the mound – will be played against none other than the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have already locked up the NL West crown but would love to knock the Giants right of the playoff picture this weekend.

The night did not start very well for the Giants. That’s because Charlie Blackmon hammered Cueto’s first pitch down the right-field line for a double. Two batters later, Nolan Arenado, a budding Giant-killer, ripped one down the left-field line to bring Blackmon in and give Colorado a 1-0 lead.

However, the Rockies weren’t done with Cueto just yet. After he struck out another Giants tormentor in Carlos Gonzalez, Cueto misplaced an inside fastball and caught too much of the plate, and David Dahl made him pay by smoking it into the gap in right-center to score Arenado.

Cueto got in some more trouble in the third and the damage would have been worse had he not picked Daniel Descalso off first base. He gave up a Gonzalez double and a walk before striking out Tom Murphy to end the inning.

However, he settled down quite nicely and did not allow another run to come across, allowing his offense to get on track and eventually overtake Colorado.

The Giants played a little small ball in the fourth to tie the game. After Hunter Pence’s double put runners on second and third with nobody out, Brandon Crawford’s grounder brought in a run before Joe Panik with two outs scored the other.

Two innings later, they used their bunting game to scoot past the Rockies.

After Crawford made it to second on a throwing error to lead off the inning, Angel Pagan laid down a perfect bunt that hugged the third-base line to not only advance Crawford to third but also get himself on board. Two batters later, Conor Gillespie’s sac fly to deep left brought Crawford home and gave the Giants the lead.

The next bunt came from an unexpected source. Cueto, who could not execute this task two weeks ago, got one down the third-base line well enough to force Arenado to hurry his throw. As a result, his throw was way wide of his target and skipped into the bullpen in right field and allowed two runs to score.

After Cueto exited after the seventh, the bullpen came in and pitched a perfect eighth. The Giants then added a pair of extra runs in the bottom half to put the finishing touches on the series, which saw them take two of the three games.

San Francisco Giants Thursday game wrap: Giants buy time, finally beat Padres 2-1

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By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: San Francisco Giants closer Sergio Romo thanks heaven after the last out against the San Diego Padres on Thursday night at Petco Park

The second half of this season has been an obvious disaster for the Giants, as they still have a chance to become the first team in baseball history to have the best record in the majors in the first half and the worst one in the second.

However, the Giants were able to put that to rest for at least one night, as Jeff Samardzija’s seven shutout innings led the way in a 2-1 win over the San Diego Padres Thursday night at Petco Park.

In the process, the Giants kept pace with the New York Mets, who also won on Thursday, as the two teams are now tied atop the National League wild-card standings.

Thursday was a landmark win in the sense that, even though the Giants had pretty owned the Padres in the past few years and had beaten them in every matchup in the first half, it was the first win against them in the second half.

Prior to Thursday, the Giants had been swept by the Padres in each of the two series that the two teams had played against each other in the second half.

To break this string, Samardzija gave up only four hits and striking out nine hitters without walking a single one. It was his second solid inning in a row, as he held the Cardinals on Saturday to only one run on five hits over 6 1/3 innings but had to settle for a no-decision.

This time around, however, he did not have to settle for that. The Giants scored a pair of runs in the eighth inning, thanks to RBI hits from Angel Pagan and Hunter Pence.

The bullpen took over for Samardzija in the bottom half of the eighth, and at first, it looked as if the Giants were heading down a familiar, desolate path after Alex Dickerson launched a solo homer off Derek Law. However, Will Smith steadied the ship immediately following that, retiring two batters to get the Giants out of the inning.

The Giants may have found a solution at closer, even if it is on a temporary basis. Sergio Romo picked up the save Tuesday night in Los Angeles, and he came in again on Thursday and pitched a scoreless ninth to preserve the one-run victory.

 

Stanford runs USC into ground

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By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: Linebacker Casey Toohill celebrates with teammate Mike Tyler as the Stanford Cardinal win their second game this season on Saturday over the SC Trojans at Stanford Stadium

STANFORD – Stanford head coach David Shaw said that once his team gets a two-score lead in the second half of a game, the goal is to run the ball. It’s really that simple.

That worked out quite beautifully for the Cardinal (No. 7 AP/No. 6 USA Today), to the tune of 47 carries for 295 yards that pointed the way to a 27-10 win over USC in its Pac-12 opener Saturday night at Stanford Stadium, sending a clear message to the rest of the conference in the process.

The Stanford offensive line appeared to start the process of taking the fight out of the Trojans as early as late in the second quarter, when the Cardinal marched 57 yards on eight plays – all of which were running plays – while using up 4:25 of time to do so. The drive culminated in Christian McCaffrey’s 1-yard plunge to give the Cardinal a commanding 17-3 lead, an advantage that they carried into halftime.

“I think our MO is pretty much set in stone,” Shaw said. “We’re going to be physical. We talk about intellectual brutality, (and) we’re trying to end the game with the ball in our hands.

“We try to put pressure on the guys up front – offensively and defensively, on our team – to end the game for us.”

Playing Stanford, particularly with an relatively-unproven starting quarterback in Ryan Burns – who completed nine of only 15 throws for 109 yards – requires keeping a close eye on McCaffrey, a Heisman Trophy candidate who has had particularly big games against the Trojans. However, late in the first quarter, USC somehow failed to do this, and Stanford made the Trojans pay.

McCaffrey took advantage of a blown coverage in the secondary, ending up wide open on a wheel route when free safety Marvell Tell III lost track of him and watched as the all-purpose back streaked 56 yards untouched for a score that gave Stanford an early 7-0 lead.

He finished with 260 all-purpose yards, the eighth consecutive game that he has amassed at least 200, which is an ongoing NCAA FBS record. If that wasn’t enough for USC to handle, Stanford welcomed back sophomore back Bryce Love, who missed the Sept. 3 season-opening win over Kansas State with a lower-body injury.

Love, who is said to have more top-end speed than McCaffrey, had 11 carries for 51 yards on Saturday.

“I think we’re one of the most dangerous, most dynamic offenses in college football today, and I think that shows,” big-play receiver Michael Rector said. “We have Christian to make plays, we have Bryce who can make plays, and myself, and (receiver) Francis Owusu. There are so many people on the field that can make you pay in different ways.”

Added Shaw: “It was good to get Bryce out there again. He’s explosive, he’s fast. He’s one shoe-string tackle away from running away from everybody.”

Despite all of this, the Trojans still clawed their way back into the game at the start of the second half. Thanks in much part to a 38-yard completion to tight end Tyler Petite, they went right down the field on the Stanford defense and capped things off when Ronald Jones punched in from a yard away.

By the third quarter, USC was a bit more focused on McCaffrey – 195 all-purpose yards in the first half probably had something to do with that – but Stanford countered that with a little trickery. The Cardinal faked an inside run to No. 5, and when Rector took the end around, he zoomed around the corner and beat everyone to the end zone for a 56-yard score that re-established command for the Cardinal, 27-10.

“We saw that they were doing a lot of corner blitzes and safety blitzes when we’re running the run play, so we thought we fake (the inside run) and then run around the end and catch them asleep,” Rector said.

The Trojans had their opportunities to stay in the game, however.

As USC got close to the red zone early in the fourth quarter, receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster had a touchdown pass bounce off his hands, and two plays later, it was forced to give up the ball after failing to covert a 4th-and-1 at the Stanford 18.

Stanford gave the ball right back to USC after Adoree’ Jackson intercepted Ryan Burns at the Trojans’ 26-yard line, but the Trojans could not make much headway. They gained only one first down before being forced to punt after failing to get in field-goal range.

USC made one last run at the end zone in the final minutes, but that, too, was thwarted when backup quarterback San Darold’s pass was deflected and intercepted by Noor Davis in the end zone.

Stanford will be further tested in the next two weeks, as they face a UCLA team next Saturday that has rebounded nicely from a season opening loss at Texas A&M before going on the road to play No. 8 Washington, which boasts arguably the nation’s best defense.

San Francisco Giants Thursday game wrap: Much-needed win for Cueto, Giants

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By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: San Francisco Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto gets a handshake from catcher Buster Posey after the Giants victory over the St Louis Cardinals at AT&T Park on Thursday night

SAN FRANCISCO – After getting swept by the San Diego Padres, a team that they handled quite flawlessly in the first half but cannot figure out a way to beat in the second half, the Giants needed a jolt of energy to get things back on the right track.

They got it Thursday night in the form of the St. Louis Cardinals, a team with which they have had as long a history as any team in the National League, particularly in the past seven years.

It also helps when your starter had given up two runs or less in four of his previous five starts. Johnny Cueto used that momentum to his advantage on Thursday in leading the Giants to a 6-2 win at AT&T Park, a win that kept them on top of the National League West wild-card standings.

The division-leading Los Angeles Dodgers fell to Arizona on Thursday, which means that the Giants now trail by four games in that race.

With all of the problems that the bullpen has experienced, Cueto eliminated that worry, at least for one night. He went the distance while giving up only a pair of runs on five hits, walking only one batter and striking out seven.

“He really got better as he went,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “They chipped away at him, but he settled down. I think he smelled (the complete game), and he turned it up.

“He pitched very efficiently, too. He threw strikes and used his defense. He just pitched a beautiful game.”

The Giants’ offense, which has struggled mightily in the second half of the season as well, went a long way to give Cueto enough cushion to go the full nine.

It started in the opening inning, when Hunter Pence saw a pitch from starter Adam Wainwright that he liked and launched it into the left-field bleachers to give his team a quick 2-0 advantage

In the process, Pence extended his hitting streak to nine games.

However, the Cardinals got to Cueto, scoring a run in both the second and third innings to tie the game. In fact, the damage could have been much worse – the Cardinals had runners on the corners with only one out in the fourth – but Cueto buckled down.

He then got Kolten Wong to pop out to second before striking out Wainwright to keep the score knotted.

Cueto then got a huge dose of redemption at the plate. In his first at-bat, he had failed to get a bunt down with a runner on third with only one out, and the Giants ended that inning with that runner still there.

In the fourth inning, in the very same situation, that all changed. After a pep talk with third-base coach Roberto Kelly, Cueto took a full swing at the first pitch he saw and hit a fly ball into right field, just deep enough to score Brandon Belt and re-gain the lead for the Giants.

Angel Pagan then kept the tide going, quickly following with a single up the middle to bring in Eduardo Nunez to extend that lead to 4-2.

Of course, with the well-documented struggles of the bullpen, no lead is really safe for the Giants these days, particularly with the lead only being two runs. So Denard Span made it a little easier to breathe in the bottom of the seventh, when lined a two-out single off reliever Matt Bowman to score a pair of runs and further extend the lead.

With said bullpen troubles, it was to the absolute delight of the crowd of 41,210 when Cueto took the mound at the start of the ninth inning. That crowd went home with a slightly more jovial mood than was the case the day before after the man with the funky, deliberate delivery retired the Cardinals in order.

San Francisco Giants-Arizona Diamondbacks preview–Giants can hit that panic button right now

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By Jeremy Harness

AP file photo: San Francisco Giants Madison Bumgarner throws against the Chicago Cubs Sun September 3 at AT&T Park goes to the hill Friday night against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field

If the Giants hope to reach the postseason for the fifth time in seven years, they will have to start winning. And they will have to do it very quickly.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have begun to sprint away from them, amassing a five-game lead in the National League West that only figures to grow at this particular juncture, and they are even losing their grip on the NL’s wild-card spot.

At press time, the Giants hold an ultra-thin half-game advantage over the New York Mets, who themselves are riding a five-game winning streak – including prevailing in eight of their last 10 contests – and are poised to take over that final playoff spot.

At this point, there is no confidence in the bullpen whatsoever, a far cry from the feeling that the Giants gave off during their three World Series runs. The offense is by means a sure things, either, but that it hardly news to a team that has ridden its pitching staff to its historic championship run.

Help may be on the way, however. See, the Giants will head to Arizona to face the Diamondbacks, who are near the bottom of the National League West with a 58-81 record, for a three-game series that starts Friday night.

In addition, they will send left-hander Madison Bumgarner (14-8, 2.51 ERA) to the mound against Arizona’s Rubby De La Rosa (4-5, 4.15 ERA).

Bumgarner, just like the Giants themselves, started the second half very sluggish in losing his first three decisions following the All-Star Game.

However, unlike his team, he eventually snapped out of his funk. By virtue of his six-inning, five-hit conquest of the Chicago Cubs and their ace, Jake Arrieta, on Saturday, he has now won four of his past five starts and has re-established his dominance at the top of the Giants’ rotation.

This appears to be the best opportunity for the Giants to regain their confidence as well as to re-establish their relevance in the playoff picture. If they come up short in the Southwest, they will be fighting a further-uphill battle that, chances are, they will not have the stuff to overcome.