Category: San Francisco Giants

San Francisco Giants relief pitcher George Kontos stands on the mound as seagulls fly over AT&T Park in the 11th inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres Friday, July 21, 2017, in San Francisco. San Diego won the game 12-9. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Matt Szczur entered the game in the fifth inning, and he came up with the biggest hit of the night in extra innings.

Szczur picked up his fourth hit of the game in the top of the 11th inning, helping the San Diego Padres to a 12-9 victory over the San Francisco Giants before a sellout crowd of 41,145 at AT&T Park.

Szczur’s base hit off of losing pitcher George Kontos scored Hunter Renfoe from third base after Renfroe led off the inning with a single against Kontos. Erick Aybar then walked, and the two advanced an additional 90 feet on a Luis Torrens sacrifice bunt.

Aybar scored the Padres second run of the inning on a Jose Pirela single and that was the end of the night for Kontos.

Szczur scored the third Padres run of the inning, as Carlos Asuaje singled for the fourth time on the evening.

All the scoring began in the game by the Giants in the bottom of the first inning.

The Giants scoring began in the bottom of the first inning, as Denard Span doubled, went to third on a wild pitch and then scored on a Brandon Belt single off of Trevor Cahill.

The scoring did not stop with the Belt single, as Brandon Crawford drove in both Belt and Buster Posey with a single to right field. Crawford advanced all the way to third base, as Renfroe’s throw was went over the head of Cory Spangenberg at third base.

Crawford scored the last and final run of the first inning, as Hunter Pence lashed a double to right field.

The four runs scored by the Giants in the first inning were their most in an inning since scoring five times on June 30 against the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park.

Padres closer Brandon Maurer got the first two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, but that is when the wheels began to fall off for Maurer.

Buster Posey walked, went to second on defensive indifference and then scored on a Crawford single to bring up Conor Gillaspie, the hero of the 2016 wild card game.

Gillaspie tied up the game with one swing of the bat, as he hit a pinch-hit home run onto the arcade that sent the AT&T faithful into a frenzy. It was the first home of the season for Gillaspie, and his sixth career pinch-hit home run.

Jeff Samardzija was cruising all night long until the fifth inning. Samardzija ended up allowing five runs on eight hits, while walking just one and striking out three in 4.1 innings of work; however, Samardzija did not fare in the decision.

This was the 15th consecutive start that Samardzija walked one or fewer batters in a game. The last time Samardzija walked more than one batter in a game came on April 23 against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field, when he walked three in a 5.1 innings of work.

Cahill went 3.2 innings, allowing six runs on seven hits, while walking four and striking out just one and like Samardzija, he did not fare in the decision.

Pence added a run-scoring single in the bottom of the third inning that scored Belt from second base, after Belt led off the inning with a walk against Cahill.

The Pence single off of Cahill that scored Belt came one-half inning after the Padres got on the board. Franchy Cordero came within inches of his fourth home run of the season, but he was able to leg out a long triple. Cordero was able to score on a Cahill groundout to Crawford.

In all, Pence went 3-for-4 on the evening with two singles and a double against Padres pitching. Thru the first two games of the series, Pence 4-for-8 against Padres.

Hector Sanchez hit his fourth home run of the season against the Giants, as he led off the top of the fourth inning with a solo blast to straightaway centerfield against Samardzija.

This was the third home run for Sanchez since last Saturday night, as he hit a walk-off home run off of Stephen Okert, helping the Padres to a comeback 5-3 victory. Sanchez then hit another one on Sunday off of Samardzija in a 7-1 Padres victory.

The Giants chased Cahill in the bottom of the fourth, as they added another run with the help of shoddy Padres defense and Cahill’s second wild pitch of the game.

Gorkys Hernandez led off the inning with a single, advanced to second on a Samardzija sacrifice bunt and advanced to third base, when Aybar was unable to hold onto the Cahill throw and Hernandez advanced to third base.

Hernandez eventually scored the Giants sixth run of the evening, as Cahill uncorked his second wild pitch of the game with Posey at the plate.

Following the Posey walk, Padres manager Andy Green made a double switch, as he pulled Cahill in place of Craig Stammen and Szczur went to centerfield.

The double switch worked out for the Padres in the top of the fifth inning, as Szczur led off the inning with a double over the head of Hernandez and then scored on a Pirela single. Pirela then went to third on a Asuaje single that brought Wil Myers to the plate as the potential tying run.

Myers ended up grounding into a Fielders’ Choice, as Samardzija fielded the ball and threw to Posey, who tagged out Pirela.

Sanchez then hit a duck snort down the third base line that scored Asuaje from second base and Myers ended up stopping at third to cut the Giants lead down to just two runs.

That was the end of the line for Samardzija on this night, as Bruce Bochy went to the bullpen and brought on Josh Osich.

Spangenberg cut the Giants lead down to one run, as he grounded out to Panik and Myers scored easily from third base.

That would be it for Osich, as Cory Gearrin came on and was able to get out of the jam, as he got Renfroe looking for strike three to end the frame.

Gearrin was unable to hold onto the lead, as Asuaje hit a single to right field that easily scored Cordero from third base; however, Szczur was thrown out by Pence and called out for running outside the baseline between second and third base.

Myers gave the Padres their first lead of the night, as he led off the top of the seventh inning with a towering home run to straight away centerfield.

Szczur came up his third hit in as many at-bats in the top of the eighth inning, as he tripled to lead off the inning and then scored a huge insurance run on a Pirela triple that looked like Pence was going to catch; however, he was unable to hold onto the ball.

Pirela then scored the Padres second run of the inning, as Asuaje singled.

NOTES: Matt Moore looks to get the Giants back into the win column on Saturday afternoon, as he takes the mound for his 20th start of the season. The Padres will counter with Luis Perdomo, who will be making his 17th start of the season.

tacomaathletic.com photo: Former San Francisco Giants pitcher John Pregenzer circa early 1963 in a Tacoma Giants uniform

By Tony the Tiger Hayes

SAN FRANCISCO–He was a Giant?

John Pregenzer may be obscure to modern day Giants fans, but in his brief stint with the Orange & Black in the early 1960s, the husky reliever was the toast of the town, for being, well…obscure.

The professorial looking right-hander with a thick neck and even thicker eye glasses, caught the imagination of the city after, “O’Hara”, compiler of the Chronicle’s popular “Question Man” column, publicized Pregenzer’s humble baseball pedigree.

According to legend, the Giants had acquired the 6-foot-5, 250 pound pitcher from Pittsburgh in 1960 for a measly $100. The “Question Man” – who in reality was a woman – wondered why she couldn’t pick up a pitcher herself at the same cut-rate price as the Giants did.

As Pregenzer’s legend expanded, a fan club was established that grew to some 3,000 members. Among the hijinks was a baked pheasant testimonial dinner held in his honor where the husky hurler was presented a scroll proclaiming him honorary mayor of Fresno.

Why was he a Giant?

Well, initially, there was that alleged $100 transaction. Once in Giants hands, Pregenzer showed he was more than a farmhand. In Single-A Springfield in 1962, he went 14-9, with a 2.85 ERA. By the start of the 1963 campaign Pregenzer, 30, broke camp with the club, compiling a 4.82 ERA in nine outing before retuning to the minors. 1964 saw another return to the Giants and more action, as he went 2-0, with a 4.91 ERA in 13 relief outings. Overall he pitched in 22 games equalling 27.2 innings for SF.

Before & After

Clearly the Wisconsin native was not viewed as a prospect when he was signed by Pittsburgh at the advanced age of 25 in 1958. But he kept the dream alive by never giving in to the doubters. The first two batters he faced in a major league game were future Hall of Famers (the Cubs Ron Santo and Ernie Banks) and Pregenzer retired them both. Pregenzer pitched a couple more seasons in the Giants farm system before moving on to the real world. In eight minor league seasons he was 66-49, with a 3.67 ERA.

He wasn’t Billy O’Dell. But…

Pregenzer won his only two big league decisions and coincidently both in Pittsburgh against the club that unloaded him for the price of a nice dinner.

In the first win, Pregenzer retired two more future Hall of Famers (Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell) in 1.1 innings of relief work in a 2-1 win at the Steel City (8/2/64). In the second victory he retired yet another future HOFer (Bill Mazeroski in one inning of action in a 9-6 win (9/7/64) at fabulous Forbes Firld.

Giant Footprint

After his playing days ended Pregenzer became a school teacher in Tacoma, he stayed active in baseball as a youth sports referee.

 

 

San Diego Padres’ Hunter Renfroe, left, heads for home plate after hitting a two-run home run off San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Madison Bumgarner, right, during the second inning of a baseball game Thursday, July 20, 2017, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – In the top of the ninth inning of Thursday night’s game, the umpiring crew stared a monitor for two-and-a-half minutes, trying to decide if San Diego third baseman Cory Spangenberg was successfully picked off of first base.

It probably took less time for a parole board in Nevada to make its decision to grant O.J. Simpson his early release from prison Thursday morning than it took for the crew at AT&T Park to determine that Spangenberg was, in fact, out.

Unfortunately for most of the announced “sellout” crowd of 41,166, that play could not turn the tide of a game that the Giants eventually dropped to the Padres, 5-2, in a season that has just seemed to drag on very slowly.

Starter Madison Bumgarner’s undoing was, really, two bad pitches. The first came in the second inning, as Hunter Renfroe touched Bumgarner for a two-run homer that hugged the left-field corner but stayed fair long enough to give the Padres a 2-0 lead.

The fatal blow came in the seventh, as Spangenberg took a fastball from Bumgarner (0-4) that caught too much of the plate and sent it into the seats to give San Diego a lead they would not relinquish.

Those two bombs accounted for all four of the runs that the big lefty surrendered on Thursday. He gave up only six hits and walked only one batter while striking out five others.

“You look at the numbers, and even though they weren’t great, but he threw the ball (well),” manager Bruce Bochy said. “A couple of mistakes left the ballpark.”

In the meantime, with the exception of one inning that saw them tie the game, his teammates could not solve Padres starter Jhoulys Chacin (9-7), who is now 3-0 against the Giants this season. In doing so, he went six innings and gave up only a pair of runs on four hits, striking out four hitters and walking only one.

“He has a long history of pitching very well against us,” Bochy said. “Next to (Clayton) Kershaw, I don’t know who’s tougher on us.”

After falling behind 2-0, the Giants got one of those runs back in the sixth when Denard Span knocked in a run with a flare single into right-center.

One batter later, Span came around and scored after Eduardo Nunez smacked a single into left to tie the game at 2-2. It appeared that the Giants were poised to take the lead, especially after Nunez advanced to second on a balk and then momentarily stole third.

However, his momentum took him off the bag, and third baseman Cory Spangenberg took advantage of this by maintaining his tag. Third-base umpire Cory Blaser saw this the whole way and promptly called Nunez out, ending the Giants’ surge.

In the top half of the seventh, Spangenberg tagged Bumgarner and chased him right out of the game.

After Erick Aybar singled after a prolonged at-bat, Spangenberg cleared the wall in right center – the deepest part of the ballpark at 421 feet – to give San Diego a 4-2 lead.

San Diego tacked on another run off Giants reliever George Kontos in the eighth, when slugger Wil Myers lined a single into left to score Jose Pirela, who had led off the inning with a single of his own.

The Giants made a charge in their half of the eighth, using a two-out rally to load the bases. However, lefty reliever Brad Hand got Buster Posey to fly out harmlessly to deep right to end the inning and keep the Giants down three.

NOTES: The Giants are expected to be reunited with an old friend in a very short period of time. Third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who had a big hand in all three of the Giants’ World Series titles, was recently released by the Boston Red Sox, and the Giants are expected to sign him to a minor-league deal once he clears waivers.

 

Also, on this day in 1969, starter Gaylord Perry got his first hit of the season, which also happened to be his first major-league home run in a 7-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

 

Giants manager Alvin Dark did not hold Perry’s hitting in high regard, as he said a year earlier that “they’ll put a man on a moon before he hits a home run.” Well, Perry’s home run came just 20 minutes after the team found out that Neil Armstrong had set foot on the moon.

 

San Francisco Giants’ Eduardo Nunez, right, celebrates with teammates after singling to score Kelby Tomlinson (37) for the winning run during the tenth inning of a baseball game against the Cleveland Indians in San Francisco, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. The Giants won 2-1 in ten innings. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

On the Giants podcast with Miguel and Jerry:

1 San Francisco Giants third baseman Eduardo Nunez got the gamer for San Francisco on Tuesday night for a 2-1 win over Cleveland in the tenth inning and is well sought after as the Boston Red Sox was named as one of those teams who interested

2 The win Tuesday helped San Francisco avoid getting into the loss column for the 60th time and the Giants avoided their fourth straight loss

3 Giants pitcher Ty Blach had a great outing against the defending Champs going seven innings, seven hits, and one earned run

4 Manager Bruce Bochy said no to the possibility of switching first baseman Jae Gyun Hwang to third after Hwang’s throwing error on Monday and using Ed Nunez at first base.

5 Matt Cain goes to the mound today against Cleveland he’s struggled in his last few outings and he’s looking to try and get back on the winning track Cain is 3-8

Michael Duca does the Giants podcasts each Wednesday and Jerry Feitelberg does A’s podcasts each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

 

 

July 18, 2017: San Francisco Giants third baseman Eduardo Nunez (10) hit a single to send center fielder Denard Span (2) home to win the game, 2-1 in ten innings, in a MLB baseball game between the Cleveland Indians and the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California. Valerie Shoaps/CSM (Cal Sport Media via AP Images)

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Runs were at a standstill for both the Cleveland Indians and the San Francisco Giants, but in the end, it was a big hit by Eduardo Nunez that saved the day.

Nunez hit a single off of Cody Allen in the bottom of the 10th inning, propelling the Giants to a hard fought 2-1 victory over the Indians before a crowd of 39,151 at AT&T Park.

Conor Gillaspie, on his 30th birthday doubled down the right field line off of Allen and then Denard Span came up with a huge drag bunt that put runners on the corners. Span then advanced to second on defensive indifference with Nunez at the plate.

Just one pitch after the indifference, Nunez knocked an Allen pitch into right field to score pinch runner Kelby Tomlinson easily from third base and the celebration began for the Giants.

Tomlinson came on to pinch run for Gillaspie after he doubled off of Allen to lead off the inning for the Giants, and spark the eventual game-winning rally.

With the one-run victory, the Giants have played 48 games decided by two runs or fewer, tying the Philadelphia Phillies for the most in the major leagues. The Giants were tied with the St. Louis Cardinals for the second-most such games prior to the huge extra inning victory.

This was the first walk-off hit of Nunez’s career, but it almost never happened, as the Giants wasted a huge opportunity in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Brandon Belt, who struck out in his first three at-bats walked against Andrew Miller, then Buster Posey followed up with a walk of his own. After Brandon Crawford flew out to left field for the first out of the inning, Hunter Pence beat out a dribbler up the third base line to load the bases.

Unfortunately for the Giants, they were unable to score, as Allen struck out Joe Panik and then Gorkys Hernandez to fly out to Guyer to strand the bases loaded.

Mike Clevinger pitched a great game for the Indians, as he went six innings, allowing one unearned run on just three hits, while walking two and striking out seven; however, he did not fare in the decision.

Like Clevinger, Ty Blach pitched a great game, as he went seven innings, allowing just one run on seven hits, walking one and striking out there and like Clevinger, he did not fare in the decision.

The Indians broke the scoreless tie in the top of the fourth inning, as Brandon Guyer hit his first triple of the season that scored Bradley Zimmer from second base after Clevinger successfully sacrificed the centerfielder up an additional 90 feet after Zimmer led off the frame with a single off of Blach.

Buster Posey got the Giants on the board in the bottom of the sixth inning, as he singled in Eduardo Nunez from second base. Nunez reached to lead off the inning after Guyer was unable to hold to the Nunez fly ball for an error.

NOTES: Matt Cain takes the ball in the series finale for the Giants, while the Indians will send Carlos Carrasco to the mound.

This will be Cain’s first start against the Indians since the 2011 season, and he is 1-1 with a 3.00 earned run average in 12 innings of work in his two career starts.

Carrasco will be facing the Giants for the third time in his career, and his first since April 25, 2014. In his career versus the Giants, Carrasco is 0-2 with a 3.21 earned run average.

San Francisco Giants third baseman Eduardo Nunez fields a ball during batting practice before the Giants played the San Diego Padres in a baseball game Friday, July 14, 2017, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

On the Giants Podcast with Morris:

1 Giant pitcher Jeff Samardzija got rocked in his outing on Sunday at Petco Park shelled for seven runs on nine hits and now the Giants are looking at possibly shopping him.

2 The Giants might be sellers in trades for third baseman Ed Nunez and Bradon Belt. The Houston Astros have expressed interest in Samardzija.

3 The Giants had that four day break but came back to the second half of the season and in San Diego lost two of three

4 The ex Giant catcher Hector Sanchez had himself a weekend hitting two home runs for the Pads one in each of the games on Saturday and Sunday

5 Giants manager Bruce Bochy and Cleveland manager Terry Francona got to share their heart to heart stories of their heart issues both had stints put in during the season

Morris Phillips does the Giants podcasts each Monday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com