Author: jeremy2878

By Jeremy Harness

Madison Bumgarner made sure that at least one Bay Area baseball team held on to a big lead in a playoff game.

A night after the A’s suffered a massive collapse in the American League wild-card game, the Giants stomped all over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League’s play-in, 8-0, at PNC Park.

Bumgarner had all his stuff working all night long, and that left the Pirates without any answers and spending all nine innings chasing his pitches to no avail. In all, the big lefty surrendered only four hits and one walk while amassing 10 strikeouts in a thoroughly-dominant complete-game gem.

The Giants will now head to Washington to face the National League East champion Nationals in the five-game Division Series, which starts Friday.

“Nothing special, just trying to make pitches,” Bumgarner said. “Last time against those guys, I didn’t do a good job of that. I was behind in the count a lot, putting those guys in a lot of good situations to hit in. (Wednesday) night, we were able to get ahead and make pitches.”

In the top of the fourth, the Giants loaded the bases with nobody out against Pittsburgh starter Edinson Volquez, before the right-hander hung a breaking ball in front of the plate to shortstop Brandon Crawford.

Crawford didn’t miss it, and he sent the mistake into the first few rows of the right-field bleachers to become the first shortstop in MLB history to hit a grand slam in the postseason and give the Giants an instant 4-0 lead, and all the runs that Bumgarner needed.

At the same time, the blow sucked the life right out of the once-lively crowd at PNC Park, and it was never the same again.

The only other real noise the crowd generated was in the eighth inning, as the Pirates got a small ally going against Bumgarner, which he quickly extinguished to bring the audience back down.

“With all the great shortstops that have played before, that’s pretty special,” Crawford said. “I’m happy to be able to do it.

“The last thing on my mind was probably hitting the home run,” he continued. “I was just trying to hit something good enough to get Pablo (Sandoval) home (from third base). I figured that would be good enough for Madison.

It certainly was, and Bumgarner took it from there.

Meanwhile, Volquez lasted only five-plus innings while giving up five runs on five hits, and it only got worse for the Pirates from that point on.

After scoring another run off Volquez in the sixth, the Giants taxed Pittsburgh’s bullpen for two more runs in the seventh and one more in the eighth. By that time, most who had occupied the luxury seats behind the plate were long gone, never to return.

By Jeremy Kahn

After three straight losses in the United States to open the 2014 season, the Oakland Raiders traveled to London and suffered the same results.

Ryan Tannehill threw two touchdowns, as the Miami Dolphins defeated the Raiders 38-14 at Wembley Stadium.

On the afternoon, Tannehill went 23-for-32 for 278 yards and those two touchdowns passes against a Raiders defense besieged by injuries.

Tannehill found Mike Wallace for a 13-yard touchdown pass, and also found Dion Sims for a 19-yard touchdown pass. Lamar Miller scored two rushing touchdowns, and cornerback Cortland Finnegan returned a Raiders fumble 50 yards for another touchdown.

With both Sio Moore and Nick Roach out with injuries, the Raiders sent Kaluka Maiava; however he was injured on the Dolphins first series of the game.

Derek Carr drove the Raiders down the field on their initial series, as he found James Jones for a 30-yard pass play.

Just plays after the Carr to Jones pass play, Carr found Brian Leonhardt for a three-yard touchdown to give the Raiders a quick 7-0 lead.

Matt McGloin was forced to come into the game in the third quarter, as Carr was forced to leave the game with injuries to both his left ankle and left knee.

McGloin was the backup; because Matt Schaub did not make the trip to London after the birth of his child.

By Jeremy Harness

Look at it this way: At least the Giants have a chance to clinch a playoff spot at home.

That’s because you can forget about the Giants somehow coming back to win the National League West over the highly-paid, dysfunctional Los Angeles Dodgers. The Dodgers ran away from the Giants on Wednesday, using a big sixth and eighth inning to lock up the division crown, 9-1, at Dodger Stadium.

There was one ironic twist to Wednesday’s game. Former Giants closer Brian Wilson, who put the finishing touches on the 2010 World Series, was on the mound for the final out for the Dodgers to close out the division race.

Tim Hudson was really up against it, as he faced National League MVP candidate Clayton Kershaw. Even though Hudson hung tough for five innings and even held a 1-0 lead into the fifth inning, but Kershaw did not give up a single run the rest of the way while the Dodgers blew the game open.

The Dodgers tied the game at 1-1 after Carl Crawford was hit by a pitch, and then Kershaw hit one against the infield – and outfield – shift that ended up going all the way to the wall and scored Crawford.

In the sixth, Yasiel Puig hit an opposite-field solo homer, and that they added three more runs in that inning to pretty much seal the deal, even though the Dodgers added four more runs in the eighth, thanks to the Giants’ relievers not being able to locate home plate at all.

“He threw great,” Bochy said of Hudson. “He kept us there, gave us a chance. He did a great job.

“You’ve got to play perfect ball to beat (Kershaw),” he continued. “He’s so tough. They played great. It’s a great year for them.”

This comes at a time when the Giants may not be entirely focused on baseball. On Monday, as the Giants and Dodgers were getting ready to start this three-game series, it was reported by CSN Bay Area beat writer Andrew Baggarly that reliever Sergio Romo and coach Shawon Dunston got into a heated argument, which caused manager Bruce Bochy to intervene.

From there, it was reported the Giants, as a team, decided that they were going to boycott Baggarly. In fact, as Bochy was getting ready to address the media during his pre-game interview session Tuesday, outfielder Angel Pagan swooped in and cut the session short as Baggarly showed up.

Pagan, meanwhile, has the time to be concerned with what is reported about the team, since he has since been shut down for the rest of the season with a back injury that never really went away during the course of the year.

The Giants better turn it around quickly. Their magic number is only one in order to clinch a playoff spot, and they have the San Diego Padres coming into AT&T Park for a three-game series that wraps up the regular season. However, this is the same Padres team that swept the Giants right out of Petco Park last weekend.

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – Ryan Vogelsong gave the Giants every opportunity to win Wednesday night. However, when it was all said and done, he was not the one who got the official credit.

The right-hander was magnificent, throwing 6 2/3 innings of shutout ball at the Arizona Diamondbacks while giving up only two hits, striking out three and overcoming a season-high five walks as the Giants scooted away with a 5-0 win at AT&T Park.

The win – the eighth straight home win and the longest such streak since winning nine straight in 2011 – allowed the Giants to stay within 2½ games of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West race while remaining on top of the NL’s wild-card standings with a four-game advantage over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Vogelsong had a lot to do with that Wednesday night.

The problem was that, although they made a number of very nice defensive plays behind him, his teammates did absolutely nothing for him on offense – a theme that has been disturbingly common in Vogelsong starts – while he was in the game.

To be exact, Wednesday marked the seventh time in 15 home starts this season that he has not gotten a single run of support.

Sadly enough, even though he did almost all the work, someone else ended up getting the “W” attached to his record.

Vogelsong was taken out with two outs in the top of the seventh, and Jean Machi retired Jordan Pacheco to end the inning and preserve the scoreless tie.

“He pitched a great game, which is what we needed,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He was getting a little out of sync (in the seventh), so we figured we get someone going, in case something happened.”

The Giants were up against a tough out in starter Josh Collmenter, who entered Wednesday’s game with a 3.81 ERA. Collmenter tossed six scoreless innings and surrendered only three hits while striking out three and walking two.

In the bottom of the inning, the Giants finally strung some hits together to break the deadlock, as soon as they were able to get into Arizona’s bullpen.

Hunter Pence led off the inning by getting a walk off reliever Oliver Perez before the next batter, Gregor Blanco, who has really found a home for himself in the sixth spot in the lineup, smoked one down the right-field line off Perez.

When right fielder Alfredo Marte could not initially handle the ball cleanly after tracking it down, Pence was able to motor home from first to put the Giants ahead.

They weren’t done, however. After Brandon Crawford legged out an infield single, pinch hitter Matt Duffy smacked one the other way past Marte, bringing in Blanco. Crawford soon scored on a wild pitch while Duffy would scamper home on a sac fly to give the Giants a suddenly-commanding 4-0 lead.

The Giants tacked on another run in the eighth, when Travis Ishikawa singled in Pablo Sandoval, who had doubled with one out and moved to third on an infield single by Pence.

NOTES: The Giants surpassed the three-million-fan attendance mark for the 2014 season Wednesday night, marking the fifth straight year that the club has drawn more than 3,000,000 fans to AT&T Park.

By Jeremy Harness

The Giants will by no means have it easy this weekend as they try once again to get over the hump in the National League West.

As they sit a full two games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers going into Friday night, the Giants have the Detroit Tigers, who are in a battle for their own division title – the American League Central – waiting for them as they prepare to kick off a three-game series at Comerica Park in Detroit.

The Giants will have perhaps their best pitcher going right now to start things off on Friday night. Jake Peavy may have a less-than-superb 4-13 record, but three of those wins have come with him in a Giants uniform in the past two months.

Peavy will take the mound opposite Detroit right-hander Rick Porcello (15-9), who sports a 3.10 earned run average. On the plus side for the Giants, Porcello didn’t exactly have a stellar outing the last time he pitched.

Porcello was ripped by the Chicago White Sox for six runs on 11 hits over 6 2/3 innings this past Sunday. However, he didn’t get a lot of help from his defense, which committed four errors behind him in the process.

On Saturday, Madison Bumgarner takes the ball against Tigers lefty David Price, for whom the Tigers traded just before the trade deadline in order to bolster their already-stacked rotation with the ultimate goal of winning the World Series.

To close things out, Tim Hudson (9-9), who has had an up-and-down first season with the Giants, will oppose Detroit’s Kyle Lobstein.

If that’s not enough to put the Giants in an uphill battle, the Dodgers have a three-game series against Arizona (58-81), the last-place team in the NL West that will pay a visit to Dodger Stadium and pretty much has nothing to play for at this point of the season.

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – Monday night saw Buster Posey ejected after an egregious strikeout call, which set off all kinds of bad vibes from the Giants, particularly manager Bruce Bochy, following a loss to the Colorado Rockies.

Fast forward two days, and rather than sulking about it, he has let his bat do the talking in a huge way. After slugging a pair of home runs to spark Tuesday night’s win, Posey sent the sellout crowd at AT&T Park home happy again with a walk-off two-run homer that just made it over the left-field wall to give the Giants a dramatic 4-2 win over the Rockies Wednesday night.

Before that, however, closer Santiago Casilla made things quite interesting after inheriting a 2-1 lead in the ninth inning. Starter Tim Hudson fired eight solid innings at the Rockies and was in great shape to go the distance after throwing only 87 pitches, but Casilla rendered all of that meaningless.

He hit Drew Stubbs with the first pitch he threw and then gave up a double to Justin Morneau that scored Stubbs and tie the game at 2-2, which compelled Sergio Romo to get up to the bullpen and start warming up. He intentionally walked Corey Dickerson with one out, but quickly got himself out of the inning by getting Michael McHenry to ground into an inning-ending double play to set the stage for Posey’s heroics.

Hudson (10-9) was forced to endure a tough no-decision after surrendering only one run – a solo home run to Dickerson in the fifth inning – on four hits, walking only one and striking out eight.

“He was locked in tonight,” Bochy said of Hudson, who lowered his ERA to 2.90. “He’s a pleasure to manage.”

The Dodgers also won Wednesday night, but the Giants did get one form of a one-up on their eternal rivals. Their win gave manager Bruce Bochy his 1,600th-career managerial victory, passing up longtime Dodgers skipper Tommy Lasorda for sole possession of 19th place all-time.

“I’m very fortunate,” Bochy said. “I’m lucky to be doing what I’m doing. Sure, it goes on your record, (but) it’s all about the support that I’ve had over the years. I appreciate being able to do what I love to do for this long.”

After having a pair of opportunities go by the wayside early on, the Giants finally hit paydirt in the fourth inning. After they were able to put runners on first and third with one out, Gregor Blanco laid down a perfect bunt down the first-base line, which Morneau could not handle at first base and allowed Matt Duffy to score and give the Giants a 1-0 lead.

The Rockies, however, took advantage of a rare mistake by Hudson to tie the game in the top of the fifth. He left a fastball up in the zone, and Dickerson made him pay for it by sending it directly into McCovey Cove.

In the process, Dickerson became the only player in Rockies history not named Carlos Gonzalez to hit a ball into McCovey Cove on the fly for a home run, otherwise known as a “splash hit.”

The Giants broke through again in the seventh, after Angel Pagan and Hunter Pence each coaxed walks out of reliever Brooks Brown to lead off the inning. With one out, Posey ripped a single into left field to bring in Pagan.

Posey didn’t do all of his damage at the plate, however. In the top of the eighth, he followed up his go-ahead single by cutting down D.J LeMahieu, who had singled and was attempting to steal second with one out, with an outstanding throw that he placed right on the bag.

By Jeremy Harness

While the night before was good all the way around, Thursday was more of a mixed bag.

While they were more than thankful for the opportunity to finish the game from Tuesday that was halted by rain, to go along with a grounds-crew gaffe, the Giants could not make it all the way back in a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field.

That game was finished off late Thursday afternoon, and they had only had about 40 minutes to bounce back for the rubber match. That did not turn out to be a problem at all.

Madison Bumgarner took the ball Thursday night and, even though he had to endure a three-run first inning from the Cubs, held on and did not allow a single run for the next six innings that he was on the mound.

In all, he gave up seven hits in seven innings while striking out 12 hitters. Meanwhile, his offense got hot around him and gave him plenty of run support, making it much easier to digest that rough initial frame.

In particular was catcher Buster Posey, who went 4-for-4 and smacked his 14th homer of the season to pace the Giants’ offense and allowed the team to take the three-game series from the Cubs.

It came at a great time, too. The Dodgers did not give up any ground in the National League West, as they rallied part the San Diego Padres to keep their division lead to three games.

Injury-wise, though, the Giants are struggling to stay afloat, and the news got worse on Thursday. According to reports, infielder Ehire Adrianza’s recovery from a strained groin has been very slow, and it is expected to sideline him until the end of September and is likely out for the season.

Meanwhile, catch Hector Sanchez suffered his second concussion of the season in a minor-league game, and there is no timeline on when he is expected to return.

However, there is a little more optimism concerning first baseman Brandon Belt and his return from a concussion, as he is reportedly expected to return in time for the stretch run.

By Jeremy Harness

Oh, how quickly things can turn around.

The night before, the Giants must have felt that the baseball gods were working against them, but less than 24 hours later, they were feeling the exact opposite.

They filed a protest with Major League Baseball following the incident on Tuesday night, which saw a 20-minute rain storm turn into a four-hour rain delay due to the fact that the grounds crew at Chicago’s Wrigley Field could not get the tarp down in nearly enough time.

As a result, the game was called, which was ruled a 2-0 win for the Cubs after only four-and-a-half innings of play. The odds were stacked against them, since the last time a team had won a game protest was way back in 1986.

However, moments before first pitch Wednesday, the Giants got word that they had won their protest. As a result, the loss has come off the record for now, and that the two teams will play the remainder of that game on Thursday before their regularly-scheduled contest.

The Giants used that positive momentum by going out Wednesday and burying the Cubs, 8-3, as starter Jake Peavy continued to pitch very well and now has a two-game winning streak.

Unlike the better part of his Giants tenure, the Giants’ offense gave Peavy plenty of support. They pounded starter Edwin Jackson for seven runs on eight hits in only 2 2/3 innings.

Peavy took it from there. He went seven solid innings and, although he surrendered 10 hits, he minimized the damage very effectively and gave up only two runs while striking out eight hitters and not walking a single batter.

Joe Panik, who is quickly establishing himself as the team’s possible long-term solution at second base, had three hits to increase his batting average to .295. Meanwhile, Travis Iskikawa, long considered to be a 4-A player (too good for Triple-A but not quite good enough for the big leagues), also collected three hits while driving in three runs.

To make things even better, the Dodgers fell to the San Diego Padres Wednesday night, which narrowed the Dodgers’ lead in the National league West to three games.

By Jeremy Harness

The Giants desperately need to get some kind of momentum, and they really need to get it pretty quickly. They are losing ground in the National League West in trying to catch up to a team that surpasses them in talent, not to mention payroll.

Lo and behold, here come the Philadelphia Phillies, the team that sits in last place in the NL East, and who will pay a visit to AT&T Park for a three-game series that will either give the Giants a real chance to get back into the division race or sink them further into the abyss.

As it stands right now, the Giants are 5½ games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers, who kick of a three-game home series of their own on Friday against Milwaukee, a team that certainly has something to play for, since they are on top of their division, the NL Central.

In other words, if there is a chance for the Giants to make up some real ground in the NL West race, this is it.

They will have the right guy to start things off, for sure. The Giants will send lefty Madison Bumgarner (13-9) to the mound to face Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels (6-6).

However, the Giants may be catching Hamels at the wrong time, as the lefty has not surrendered a single run in any of his last five starts, while going at least seven innings in each of them. Overall, he has a 2.37 earned-run average.

In addition, Bumgarner has not been his normal self at home. In the last two months, he sports a 1-3 record with a 6.99 ERA at AT&T Park. The Giants will need to have him put those struggles to an end very quickly, or they could get those “here we go again” feelings, which is something to avoid at a time like this, particularly in a division race that is quickly getting away from them.