Author: jeremy2878

By Jeremy Harness

NAPA – After missing a three-foot putt, it is very tough to come back and re-focus in a short period of time. But that’s exactly what Emiliano Grillo needed to do for his first PGA Tour win on Sunday.

The 23-year-old Argentine came back from two strokes behind – as well as the aforementioned short-putt miscue on the first playoff hole – and beat Kevin Na on the second playoff hole to win the Frys.com Open at Silverado, the opening event of the 2015-16 PGA Tour season, with only a half-hour of daylight to spare.

“There are no words to explain this,” said Grillo, who became a member of the tour five weeks ago with a win in the Web.com Tour finals. “This is the greatest moment of my life golf-wise. It’s been an incredible journey in the last five weeks.”

He was in perfect position to win it on the first playoff hole, after stuffing his pitch shot to three feet while Na was faced with a daunting 50-footer. However, he missed the short putt to give Na, who two-putted for par, a reprieve.

“I hit a perfect putt; I don’t know why it didn’t go in,” Grillo said. “My caddie asked me (if I was) 100 percent, and I said yes. I want to win it.”

Na, meanwhile, failed to capitalize on the second playoff hole. After finding the fairway, he chose to hit his driver from the short grass – the biggest risk-reward shot as there is in golf – and ended up mis-hitting the shot and hooking it behind a tree, leaving him an almost-impossible up-and-down for birdie, which he did not convert.

Grillo took advantage of Na’s mistake and hit his approach shot to about four feet. This time, however, he drained the putt to take the title.

“I hit probably five or six drivers off the deck this week, and I hit it perfect every time,” said Na, who missed his opportunity to collect his second PGA Tour win. “The driver is the only club that’s going to get me far enough right, past the front, where I can have an aim to win.

“The only thing is it was dark, and the ball was above my feet.”

The victory capped off a crazy day at the top of the leaderboard. As Grillo got to the 18th-hole, there was a five-way tie for the lead at 14-under par, but he broke that deadlock by draining a 45-footer for birdie. Na, who played directly behind Grillo and saw the brief celebration, then responded by getting up and down for his own birdie to set up the two-man playoff.

At the start of the day, there were 11 players within two shots of the lead, and by the time the final pairing of Brendan Steele and Andrew Loupe reached the turn, the logjam that was the top of the leaderboard got even more crowded.

Grillo, playing two groups ahead of the leaders, picked up three shots in the first six holes to vault into the lead at 15-under. However, he dropped a shot at the par-5 ninth but got it right back at the 10th before offsetting two bogeys with a pair of birdies, including the bomb at the 18th to put him in the playoff.

Meanwhile, Justin Thomas, who was three strokes back going into Sunday, made a climb of his own and closed to 14-under and almost made a 40-footer at the 18th that would have put him in the playoff with Grillo and Na.

Tyrone Van Asweg started the day four shots back and almost was not able to play due to what was later diagnosed as severe dehydration and vertigo that morning. He was taken to the hospital and was in the emergency room an hour before his scheduled tee time.

“Thank goodness there was a slight fog delay, and that gave me an extra 20 minutes to get here, (put) clothes on, try and get some food, and (get) on the practice tee,” Van Asweg said.

Despite all of that, he didn’t seem to miss a beat once he put a club in his hands. He roared right into the mix with a four-under 68, a round which saw him pick up two shots on the front nine and two more on the back, including a birdie at the par-5 18th to finish at 14-under.

The leader heading into Sunday was Steele, who bogeyed the third and fourth holes but got both of those shots right back when he chipped in for eagle at the par-5 fifth. He then birdied the 10th hole to grab a one-shot lead.

That would not last long, however. His tee shots, which had regularly found the fairway throughout the week, began to go wayward and ended up costing him. Errant drives on holes 12 and 13 resulted in bogeys that dropped him to a stroke off the lead.

It only got worse for Steele, who never regained his momentum and ended up finishing with a four-over 76. This has been a common theme for Steele, who averaged a score of 71.26 in the final round last season.

By Jeremy Harness

After his opening-round of 63 that catapulted him into the early lead, Brendan Steele has simply held firm without letting his game fluctuate. As a result, he has maintained a razor-thin lead that is in place now.

Steele shot a three-under 69 to give himself just enough room to end Saturday’s proceedings with a one-stroke advantage on the field heading into the final round.

He made his headway on the front nine, birdieing two of the first five holes before suffering a bogey at the eighth. However, just as he did on Friday, he made back-to-back birdies at the ninth and 10th holes to get things right back on track.

The 32-year-old then parred the remaining eight holes to secure his spot at the top of the leaderboard heading into Sunday.

“Sundays are always tough,” said Steele, who has been on the tour for five years now. “Fridays, when you’re hanging around the cut line, and then Sundays when you’re in the lead, those are the two toughest times.

“That’s when character kind of comes out.”

On Sunday, Steele, whose only win on the PGA Tour came in the 2011 Valero Texas Open, will be paired with Andrew Loupe, who himself shot a nine-under 63 to get himself into that final group with a realistic chance to come away with his first PGA Tour win.

“Just keep the pedal to the metal,” Loupe said when asked about his mentality on Saturday. “That’s all I was trying to do. Everything just kind of felt a little bit locked in in my warmup.

“Brendan is playing great. He shot nine-under the first round. You can make birdies out here, but if you’re a shade off, you can make bogeys easily.”

Also right in the mix is Kevin Na, who has some experience being in contention in major tournaments and made it to the FedEx Cup Tour Championship the last two years. He fired an eight-under 64 by recording four birdies on the front nine and following that up with two birdies and an eagle on the back nine to head into Sunday with some real momentum.

“(Sunday), I bet they’re going to set up the golf course pretty difficult,” Na said. “There will still be plenty of good scores out there, so (I have to) keep the foot on the gas pedal.

“The course was there for the taking a little bit today, and I took advantage of it.”

By Jeremy Harness

He did not shoot a 63 like he did in the opening round, but Brendan Steele will certainly take it.

The veteran tour player still shot under par nonetheless, and after Friday’s second round at Silverado, he remained on top of the leaderboard by two shots by firing a two-under 70.

As he did in the opening round on Thursday, he got two birdies on the front nine, including one on the very first hole. However, one of those birdies was offset when he bogeyed the par-4 third. However, he birdied the fifth hole to get things back on track quickly.

He birdied holes 10 and 12 as well as the 14th, but he was also brought down by two bogeys at the 13th and 15th holes.

Also keeping pace is Jhonattan Vegas, the Venezuelan native who earned his Tour card back by finishing in the top 25 on the Web.com Tour, who fired a one-under 71 to finish Friday’s proceedings two shots back of the lead.

Making a big move on Friday was Wil Wilcox, who fired a five-under 67 to tie him with Vegas at nine-under par as the weekend rolls around.

He recorded five birdies on the round and did not make a single bogey to make a steady climb toward the top of the leaderboard. He had back-to-back birdies on the third and fourth holes to start his ascent toward the top, and then finished the front nine with a birdie on the par-5 ninth.

It did not stop there, as he also birdied the par-4 10th, and four holes later, he picked up another shot by birdieing the 14th.

Among those who did not make the cut after two rounds was Zac Blair, who was in the final pairing with eventual champion Sang-moon Bae in last year’s tournament here. He shot 75 and 77 in the opening two rounds, and it was evident early on that he did not have the same rhythm that he did in last year’s run.

By Jeremy Harness

Brendan Steele grabbed the early lead in this week’s Frys.com Open at Silverado by firing a 65, which was good enough for a one-shot advantage over Jhonattan Vegas.

His round featured nine birdies and zero bogeys and really kicked it into high gear on the back nine. He recorded back-to-back birdies at the fifth and sixth holes to get things started, and then got two more in a row at the 11th and 12th.

After a par at the par-4 13th, Steele closed out the round by stringing together five consecutive birdies to send a statement to the rest of the field.

Vegas, meanwhile, had previously been on the PGA Tour but had to earn his card back by finishing in the top 25 on the Web.com Tour this past season.

He himself got off to a very good start on the front nine, making a birdie on the very first hole, and then seizing control for the moment with an eagle at the par-5 fifth.

He recorded five birdies on the back nine, but a poor iron shot at the par-4 14th led to a bogey that ultimately cost Vegas at least a share of the lead.

No matter what transpires the next few days, this tournament is guaranteed to have a new champion. Sang-moon Bae, who won last year’s tournament by going 15-under par, is currently serving in the military in his native South Korea after representing the international team in this year’s President’s Cup, which was also held in South Korea.

Rory McIlroy, who is quite familiar with being in the winner’s circle in Northern California after winning the Cadillac Match Play Championship at San Francisco’s Harding Park last season, is in the hunt but did not finish the way that Steele and Vegas did.

He finished the front nine a three-under, but thanks to a bogey at the 13th, he picked up only one shot on the back side and finished with a four-under 68 to go into the second day of the tournament three strokes back.

By Jeremy Harness

STANFORD – It appears now that Stanford is back to the form that it showed in winning the Pac-12 championship in 2013.

The latest installment, however, did come against a team that was, to say the least, not exactly firing on all cylinders.

Arizona traveled to Palo Alto without their vital components on both sides of the ball, as quarterback Anu Solomon missed the game while recovering from a concussion he suffered in last week’s loss to UCLA. After returning from a knee injury, star linebacker Scooby Wright sprained his right foot in that same game and is expected to be out several more weeks.

The end result was a beatdown in Stanford’s favor, a 55-17 win at Stanford Stadium that kept the 18th-ranked Cardinal (4-1) undefeated in Pac-12 play.

Christian McCaffrey led the way in gouging the Wright-less Arizona defense with 156 rushing yards, 113 of them coming in a first half that saw Stanford send a clear message that it was the dominant team, while the Cardinal defense held Arizona to 102 total first-half yards, most of which came on one drive in the second quarter that netted a field goal. The Wildcats (3-2, 0-2 Pac-12) finished with 314 total yards, but most of that came when the game had already been decided.

The only thing the two teams had in common was the fact that neither turned the ball over once.

McCaffrey got his game going right away. His first touch of the game was a 12-yard run for a first down and eventually led to a field goal, and on Stanford’s second possession, the sophomore running back dashed the Arizona defense for a career-long 49-yarder. On the very next play, quarterback Kevin Hogan used his legs to get out of trouble and complete a 19-yard pass on the run to Trenton Irwin to the Wildcats’ 19.

However, the Wildcats defense tightened up and eventually forced the Cardinal to settle for another field goal.

Stanford finally cashed in on their third drive by running and throwing to their tall tight end, the two long-standing staples of the Cardinal offense. After McCaffrey picked up 12 yards and a first down, Hogan found Devon Cajuste down the middle for 32 yards to the Arizona 9-yard line. Two plays later, McCaffrey punched it in to give the Cardinal a 13-0 lead.

Hogan completed 17 of his 19 passes and finished the game with 217 passing yards and threw for two scores along the way, while his running game did the heavy lifting.

Without Solomon manning the controls, Arizona could not get its offense on track in the first half and did not get into Stanford territory for the first time until early in the second quarter. At that point, the Wildcats embarked on a 20-play, 73-yard drive but blew a great scoring opportunity in the process.

Jerrard Randall, a redshirt senior who started in Solomon’s spot and finished 178 yards on 15-of-28 passing and a touchdown, missed a wide-open Nate Phillips in the corner of the end zone from the Stanford 8, and the Wildcats settled for a field goal to narrow the Cardinal’s lead to 13-3.

Arizona, however, got things moving slightly after halftime, getting into the end zone on their first possession of the second half, courtesy of a 15-yard touchdown throw to Johnny Jackson. Late in the quarter, the Wildcats scored again, this time cashing in with a 1-yard dive by running back Nick Wilson.

However, Stanford answered each Arizona touchdown with one of their own, and by the end of the third quarter, the Cardinal were increasingly getting runs in huge chunks with their backups on the field. Immediately following the punch-in by Wilson, Barry Sanders, Jr. bolted past the demoralized Wildcats defense for a 65-yard touchdown that extended Stanford’s lead to 48-17.

The Cardinal will now enjoy the benefit of a bye week, and they will play Oct. 15 at home against a UCLA team that was shocked by Arizona State on Saturday.

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – If the Giants are dejected about missing the playoffs, they sure didn’t show it Wednesday night.

A night after being eliminated from playoff contention and having to watch the hated Los Angeles Dodgers celebrate their clinching of the National League West on their home field, the Giants pulled things back together and showed they are still in it until the very end with a where-was-this-last-night? 5-0 win over the Dodgers at AT&T Park.

It’s pretty safe to say that the acquisition of starter Mike Leake has been far from what the Giants had in mind as they were trying to chase a playoff spot upon trading for him two months ago.

The right-hander was 2-5 in his nine starts with the Giants this season, which is still hard to believe given the fact that he arrived in San Francisco riding a four-game winning streak and gave up only two runs during that stretch.

Nonetheless, he closed out his season in style Wednesday night and reminded Giants fans of what he showed in Cincinnati, even though it was a little too late to make a difference. He threw a complete-game, two-hit shutout at the Dodgers by keeping the ball on the ground. He closed the game out in the most fitting way, as he got Corey Seager to bounce into a double play to ensure that he will have at least a winning record (11-10).

“I would say that this was his best game,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “A (two)-hit shutout, it’s hard to beat that. He really pounded the strike zone, he mixed it up, and he did a really good job of working the game plan.

“We think a lot of him. That’s why we acquired him.”

Matt Duffy made sure that Leake got some runs to work with early on, as he turned on a first-inning fastball from Dodgers starter Mike Bolsinger and sent it over the wall in left-center for a two-run homer to put the Giants ahead.

Two innings later, after Angel Pagan led off with a walk and then stole second, Kelby Tomlinson brought him in with a double down the right-field line. Pagan, however, was unaware that Tomlinson had hit the ball at first, as he had already taken off for third on a steal attempt and stayed there for a few seconds before realizing that the ball was rolling into the right-field corner.

The Giants added a run in the seventh – Nick Noonan’s first major-league home run – as well as the eighth, courtesy of an RBI single by Jarrett Parker, which especially proved crucial in helping Bochy make a pitching decision.

“That was a big hit, to allow you to stay with your starter a little bit longer to allow him to get a shutout,” Bochy said.

The Giants have one more game against the Dodgers before closing out the season with a three-game series at home against Colorado.

By Jeremy Harness

The late, great Yogi Berra once said that “it ain’t over till it’s over,” but……..

After the Giants’ bullpen blew yet another lead and was directly responsible for their second loss in a row, a 5-4 walk-off defeat at the hands of the San Diego Padres, the team is in a near-impossible spot right now.

A night after Jake Peavy was victimized by his relievers after a dominant performance, Madison Bumgarner was denied his 19th win of the season after going seven strong innings and leaving with a 4-3 lead.

Sergio Romo took the ball in the eighth but gave up a run-scoring double to Matt Kemp, the second time in as many nights that he has surrendered a lead.

In the ninth, Michael Broadway took over for Romo and promptly yielded a leadoff double to Derek Norris, and then after Melvin Upton, Jr. sacrificed pinch runner Travis Jankowski over to third, Alexi Amarista sent one near the warning track in left to bring in Jankowski and send the Giants packing.

“It shows you how tough it is to get a win sometimes,” Bochy said of Bumgarner. “He did all he could. (But) give (the Padres) credit, they fought back and had a couple of big hits.”

To make things worse, the Dodgers came back from an early deficit to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, and by virtue of their win the Giants’ loss, their magic number to clinch the National League West is down to three. Meanwhile, the Chicago Cubs are one win – or one Giants loss – away from locking up the final NL wild-card spot.

By Jeremy Harness

In the World Series-winning years, the Giants’ bullpen got big outs in crucial games. On Wednesday, they did the exact opposite, as the shoddy relief was the key ingredient in a 5-4 loss to the San Diego Padres at Petco Park.

Jake Peavy tossed six shutout innings and left the game holding a 2-0 lead, as he stifled his former team in giving up only four hits while walking only one batter and striking out four.

However, things got messy almost right away when the ball was taken out of Peavy’s hand. Cory Gearrin took the ball in the bottom of the seventh and immediately gave up a single and a walk without getting anyone out. Josh Osich took over and struck out the next two batters, but then he surrendered a double to Yangervis Solarte to score both runners and tie the game.

The Giants went back on top in the eighth with Jarrett Parker’s solo homer, but Sergio Romo, who has been very good out of the bullpen with a 2.92 ERA entering Wednesday, surrendered a two-run double to Travis Jankowski to give the Padres a one-run lead.

The Giants appeared to be firmly in the driver’s seat in the top of the ninth, as Buster Posey reached on right fielder Matt Kemp’s fielding error, and Brandon Crawford went the other way down the left-field line to put runners on second and third with nobody out against perennial All-Star closer Craig Kimbrel.

All the Giants had to do at this point is make contact a couple of times, and the lead was theirs once again. However, they couldn’t even do that, and for at least a half an inning, they got away with it.

Mac Williamson, who had his first major-league at-bat at the time, and Kelby Tomlinson each struck out. Trevor Brown appeared headed down a similar path, but Kimbrel bailed the Giants out by uncorking a wild pitch that nearly missed Brown’s head and ricocheted off the backstop. Posey reacted very quickly and was able to beat Kimbrel’s tag to the plate to tie things up.

It was not to be, however. George Kontos surrendered a one-out double to Kemp and then intentionally walked Melvin Upton, Jr. Two batters later, Jedd Gyorko singled off Santiago Casilla to score the winning run and drop the Giants further down in the National League West standings.

This blow could prove to be the fatal one, as the Los Angeles Dodgers won Wednesday, dropping their magic number to clinch the division to five. Things do not look any better in the wild-card scenario, as they now face a 9 ½-game deficit there.

By Jeremy Harness

After a month of floundering and losing ground gradually, the Giants are now starting to hit their stride, which has been a common theme for a team that has won three World Series titles in five years, a team that starts getting the bounces going their way at the right time.

However, the Los Angeles Dodgers are not cooperating with the Giants’ plans, as they have continued to win themselves and currently hold a 7 ½-game advantage over the Giants in the National League West.

Neither are the Pittsburgh Pirates or the Chicago Cubs, as the Giants are 6 ½ games out of the second and final wild-card spot, which was the route the Giants had taken to win their previous two titles.

These are substantial deficits, especially given the fact that there are only two weeks left in the season.

Of course, the Giants have not been mathematically eliminated from postseason contention, so all they can do at this point is keep playing. The Giants hope to keep their winning ways going in a three-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks that starts Friday night at AT&T Park.

Madison Bumgarner (18-7, 2.91 ERA) will take the mound in this series opener and faces Arizona’s Rubby De La Rosa (12-8, 4.75 ERA). The numbers seem to bode very well in the Giants’ favor, as they have won 12 of their past 16 home games, including five of the six games on this current homestand.

The reason why this is important is after a brief road trip to San Diego and a series across the bay in Oakland, the Giants have a four-game home series against the Dodgers, a scenario that they have had great success this season, as well as a three-gamer at AT&T Park against Colorado to end the season.

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – Although nice to see, the events of Wednesday night did not do nearly enough to affect the bottom line.

In almost the same manner that the rain that covered the entire Bay Area did not put a dent in the staggering state-wide drought, the Giants’ victory over the Cincinnati Reds did not move them much closer to a playoff spot come October.

The Dodgers also won Wednesday night, and the Giants remained 7 ½ games behind them in the National League West, and they are also 6 ½ games back of the Chicago Cubs for the second wild-card spot.

Nonetheless, starter Jake Peavy had himself a brilliant night at the plate as well as on the mound. He went six-plus innings and gave up only a pair of runs on seven hits while walking only one batter while striking out eight, as the Giants continued to keep their slim chances of a postseason berth alive with a 5-3 win over the Reds before 41,383 soaked fans at AT&T Park.

Peavy shut out the Reds for the first five innings before surrendering a run in the sixth, after which manager Bruce Bochy went to visit the mound to check on him. He finished that inning with no further damage and convinced Bochy to let him start the seventh.

However, he was promptly greeted by back-to-back doubles to start the inning, forcing the skipper to take the gritty right-hander out. Corey Gearrin and Javier Lopez were able to retire the next three batters in order to shut the threat down and pave the way for Peavy’s seventh win of the year.

“He threw the ball very well,” Bochy said. “He was hitting his spots. He’s going to give you everything he’s got; he’s going to leave it all out on the field. That’s why I have so much confidence in him. He’s not going to beat himself.

“What a great job he did.”

He also helped himself out with the bat, as he belted only the third home run of his career, a solo shot off Reds reliever Collin Balester in the fourth inning that also marked his first homer in more than eight years.

“I think we need to work on his (home-run) jog,” Bochy joked. “He was sprinting around there pretty good.”

He got some major help at the plate from Marlon Byrd, whom the Giants picked up four weeks ago from these very same Reds in order the soften the blow that was struck when the injury bug continued to tag Hunter Pence.

Now, Byrd is not going to make Giants fans forget about Pence by any means, but he is doing quite an admirable job in his absence nonetheless. The right fielder, who has been handy with the bat for most of his career, hit the ball hard off Reds pitching with a double and a triple in his first two at-bats of the game while driving in a run and scoring another.

He hit another screaming line drive deep to right field in the fifth inning, and it took a great running catch by Jay Bruce to prevent another extra-base hit.

The Giants tallied a run in each of the first two innings to give Peavy and early cushion, and that led to a quite-eventful third inning.

Known primarily for his offense, which was clearly on full display Wednesday, Byrd made a very nice sliding catch to take a hit away from Skip Schumaker to start things off. Unfortunately for the Giants, the carryover effect wasn’t very good at all. Two batters later, Angel Pagan charged a two-out line drive from Jason Bourgeois and made a dive for it, but the center fielder whiffed as the ball skipped all the way to the wall and allowed Bourgeois to roll into third.

Peavy, however, quickly nullified the mistake by striking out Bruce to end the inning.

Byrd wasn’t finished. After Brandon Belt led off the bottom half of the third with a single, he bounced one off the wall in the deepest part of right-center to bring Belt in and extend the Giants’ lead to 3-0.