Category: San Francisco Giants

Ground zero: Bumgarner homers and Giants sweep the Dodgers at AT&T Park again

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Bum-batter

By Morris Phillips

If you’re going to send a message, why not eliminate room for interpretation.

The Giants did that, sweeping the Dodgers at AT&T Park again, without allowing a run, beating reigning Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw for the second time in less than two months after Kershaw lost only three games all of last season.

Delivering the message’s emphatic conclusion and acting as de-facto Giants’ team spokesman, Madison Bumgarner threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings, and effectively put the 4-0 win away in the third inning with a majestic home run off Kershaw.

“We kind of kid around with the pitchers sometimes that if you want to win the game, throw a shutout and hit a homer,” manager Bruce Bochy said of Bum’s feat.  “He was trying to do that.”

Beat the Dodgers single-handedly?  Yeah, Bumgarner was aiming for that.  But with a subtle dig thrown in.

“He’s the best pitcher in baseball,” the Giants’ ace said of Kershaw.  “To be able to do that and run into one, it’s pretty special.”

Best pitcher in baseball?  And what exactly was that message?  That Kershaw and the Dodgers may be in the conversation, but they still can’t claim to be champions or win big games like Mad Bum and the Giants can.

And now after a terrific start, the Dodgers can’t even claim a special place in the NL West.  Despite being the National League’s pre-eminent offensive team thus far, and being near unbeatable at home, the Dodgers can’t win in San Francisco or shake the Giants.  Los Angeles’ lead was 5 ½ games last week.  Now it’s down to 1 ½ games.

Clearly, the developments were hard for manager Don Mattingly to decipher.  Joc Pederson, the Dodgers’ leadoff man, doubled on one hop off the center field wall on the fifth pitch of the series on Tuesday.  Tim Hudson, the Giants’ starter that night, retired three of the next four batters and escaped.

That escape act continued for another 26 chapters.  The Dodgers compiled 23 hits, including nine hits on Thursday, but they couldn’t cash in.

“You don’t think you’ll come here and not score a run for three games,” Mattingly said.  “I actually thought we had some good at-bats.”

San Francisco Giants Podcast with Jeremy Harness: Lincecum passes Hubbell on all-time list; the Freak more finesse than thrower

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by Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO–San Francisco Giant pitcher Tim Lincecum surpassed former New York Giant Carl Hubbell on the all time strikeout list on Wednesday night. Lincecum needed four strikeouts at the start of Wednesday night to pass Hubbell for fourth place on the list. Lincecum got the four and got a standing ovation for the strikeout which ended the inning.

Looking back on the career of Lincecum he won the Cy Young award in 2009 and 2010 and he had remarkably great stuff and he had some other great pitches but his location wasn’t very good but he was able to get away with it because his fastball was so good that batters had to respect that. Nowadays his fastball doesn’t top 90.

More accurately he now throws around 87-88 MPH so when you lose that much velocity your control becomes that much more important. It been a few years for Lincecum since he had command of his fastball than other pitches. What was happening hitters would sit on the change up and they would hit the snot out of it and Lincecum was getting roughed up.

This year he’s starting to figure it out he’s starting to have very good outings particularly the one on Wednesday night against the Dodgers where he throws seven strong innings and gives up only three hits. It was against a very good Dodgers lineup so when you could do that against a lineup like that you know you have your stuff going.

Lincecum is becoming more and more of a pitcher and is less of a thrower, it was very essential in that part of his career and who knows if he didn’t figure it out who knows where he would be? He may not be on the team if he didn’t show flashes of that past greatness. Lincecum is not going to get behind on pitches.

When Lincecum doesn’t have as much velocity that 90s fastball like he used to have, then you have to locate and if you don’t locate your going to get hit extremely hard. The Giants joined the ranks of the 1960, 1968, 2009, and 2012 teams for having six or more shutouts in the month of May. Thus far the Giants have six in May with back to back shutouts on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and it’s a mark of the successful organization that they are.

Jeremy Harness is a San Francisco Giants beat writer for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Pitching likely to trump hot bats in Dodgers-Giants series at AT&T Park

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By Morris Phillips

Now that the Giants have moved their collective heads above water, the second visit to AT&T Park by the Dodgers gives the defending World Champs an opportunity to do more than catch their breath.

Playoff teams don’t let rough times last, and the Giants have turned the page by following an early eight-game losing streak with a 17-9 stretch that has the team in the mix in the NL West.  The stretch allowed the Giants to catch and pass the Padres, D’Backs and Rockies in the standings and stay in touch with the first-place Dodgers, who haven’t been able to extend their 4 ½ game lead.

Hot bats have propelled the Giants with Brandon Belt on a tear, and Hunter Pence back in the lineup as if he hadn’t suffered a break in his left forearm that cost him the first 38 games of the season.  Impressively, the Giants scored at least eight runs in each of their four wins on the just completed road trip through Houston and Cincinnati.

But a return to AT&T means the Giants—and the Dodgers—will have to find a way without an avalanche of offense.  The cooler than usual night air pervading at AT&T Park is no friend of high-powered offenses as the Giants no doubt know.  In winning 11 of 15 at home, the Giants didn’t score more than six runs in any of the wins.

The Dodgers know too.  In getting swept last month in San Francisco, the Dodgers scored just two runs in each loss, well off their near-historic pace of more than five runs scored per game.   The Dodgers have averaged nearly a run better than any other major league club thus far, but last month in San Francisco that offense evaporated.

Now the Giants attempt to keep their rival struggling with Tim Hudson scheduled to pitch Tuesday, followed by the resurgent Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner on Thursday in a third matchup with Los Angeles ace Clayton Kershaw.  The Dodgers have 3-0 Carlos Frias scheduled, followed by former Athletic Brett Anderson.  Each of the six starters will undoubtedly play heavily to the advantageous conditions in order to control the hot-hitting lineups.

Rookie leadoff man Joc Pederson and emerging hitters Justin Turner and Andy Van Slyke will be front and center on the Giants’ scouting report.  In the absence of the injured Yasiel Puig, the trio has helped to propel the Dodgers offensively, but they aren’t without warts.  Pederson has a heavy strikeout total for a guy that normally bats first.  Turner is hitting .302 at Dodgers Stadium, but went 1 for 9 in the last month’s Giants’ sweep at AT&T.

Van Slyke has forced his way into the Los Angeles outfield mix with a .362 batting average at home, but he too failed to impact the earlier series in San Francisco, where he had two singles in six at-bats.

After Thursday, the Giants don’t see the Dodgers at home until the final week of the season, so if they want to keep the pressure on the division leaders, they’ll need to do it this week.

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Wonderful tribute to Hall of Fame sportswriter Nick Peters

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

SAN FRANCISCO–On Monday, May 18, 2015 at AT&T Park, a Memorial Service was held at 12:30 in the afternoon. Dozens of friends of Nick “The Greek” Peters(1939-2015)were present, many to share their experiences with the Hall of Fame sportswriter. Nick Anthony Peters was born in San Francisco, California, April 1, 1939 and left us on March 23, 2015 in Elk Grove,California. His wife Lise Pointer Peters hosted Nick’s memorial at the Giants Park on 2nd street and King. Lise born in Montreal(Quebec)Canada, where she first met Nick while he was covering the Giants on a roadtrip.

Speakers included lifelong friends of Nick as well as people that worked with Nick Peters covering baseball and other sports. Nick Peters worked for the Berkeley Daily Gazette, the Oakland Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee. Among his career highlights 1962 and 1963 Alaska Sportswriter of the Year, covered the 1976, 1984 and 2004 Olympics. In 2009 inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and in 2010 Abraham Lincoln High School Wall of Fame.

Among the many orators aside from his wife Lise, children and grandchildren, were journalist friends that worked with Nick, like Dave Newhouse, Glenn Schwartz, John Shea and Marcos Bretón. In attendance also ex Giants manager Dusty Baker and Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, plus Arturo Santodomingo, who was the press and traveling secretary for the San Francisco Giants in the early 1960’s, Arturo a pioneer in his own rights, he was the first ever Hispanic to hold that position with a team in Major League Baseball. Art Spander, Duffy Jennings, Robin Carr, Bob Rose, just to mention a few media people,were also in attendance during that cloudy and chilly afternoon in the city.

It was an emotional and funny afternoon(at times)as numerous anecdotes from speakers drew applause from the crowd. In many instances it was revealed and confirmed that Nick enjoyed certain proclivity to driving fast on the freeways, “he loved to drive”said one speaker, as well as collecting sports memorabilia, including baseball cards and he was also a philatelist and numismatist.

Nick Peters(author) chronicled the San Francisco Giants franchise since they first arrived in San Francisco, but he also covered the Raiders, the Warriors and the Athletics.

Nick was a no-nonsense sportswriter who during the 1970’s and 1980’s covering the Giants when they were not winning,Nick always wrote the truth and never sugar-coded a story, he was a hard working newspaper man, who by his own admission during a 15 minutes movie shown at this memorial said: “I worked 12 to 14 hour days”. He is credited with mentoring many other sports journalist, some traveled from out-of-state to be at this emotional memorial tribute to “Nick the Greek”. Al Dougherty, who knew Nick since the 1960’s could not attend but I personally told Nick’s widow Lise that Al wanted to be present and he did sent his very best.

It was said and confirmed that Nick Peters was not a friend of the new technology, that he never sent a Twitter or a Text Message, and when he got his first cell phone he was not very happy that others could find out where he was, as he said “they do not need to know where I am”. By Nick Peters own admission he considered covering the 2004 Olympics in Greece “the highlight of my career”. He was very proud of his Greek heritage. Nick was a Bay Area treasure. May he rest in Peace.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and the TV Spanish voice for the Angels and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Another home run for Belt

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of the San Francisco Giants against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on May 17, 2015 in Cincinnati, Ohio.
of the San Francisco Giants against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park on May 17, 2015 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

By Jeremy Kahn

After not hitting a home run for the first six weeks of the season, Brandon Belt left Cincinnati with three.

Belt hit his third home run in as many games, while Nori Aoki drove in three runs and the San Francisco Giants defeated the Cincinnati Reds 9-8 at Great American Ballpark.

Hunter Pence hit his first home run of the season, as the Giants took three out of four after dropping the series opener on Thursday night on a Marlon Byrd home run in the bottom of the eighth inning.

With the victory, the Giants are now 20-18 and are two games over the .500 mark for the first time since they were 3-1.

After jumping out to a 6-1 lead after two and a half innings, the Reds came all the way to get within one run, as Byrd hit a RBI single, Brandon Phillips was drove in a run when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and then Jay Bruce cut the Giants lead down to 6-4.

Starter Chris Heston was pulled in favor of Yusmeiro Petit, and despite giving up a sacrifice fly to Billy Hamilton, Petit got out of the jam after getting Devin Mesoraco and Zack Cozart to thwart the rally.

In three innings of work, Petit fave up one run on three hits and win for the first time this season.

Sergio Romo struck out Todd Frazier swinging with a runner on third base to end a threat in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Closer Santiago Casilla became just the third San Francisco Giants pitcher to ever have an “Immaculate Inning,” as he struck out the side on nine pitches to pickup his ninth save of the season.

Casilla joins Trevor Wilson and Orel Hershiser to accomplish this feat.

Giants bullpen falters again late

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By Jeremy Harness

The Giants have had their struggles in the late innings, and that trend continued Thursday night.

A night after Houston’s George Springer’s go-ahead solo homer downed them, the Giants again suffered a setback down the stretch in Cincinnati, as Marlon Byrd’s eighth-inning single off reliever Sergio Romo sent them reeling in a 4-3 loss in the opener of this four-game series at the Great American Ball Park.

Byrd did most of the damage against the Giants, as he also gave the Reds their initial lead in the fifth inning with a bases-loaded two-run single off starter Tim Lincecum that ended up chasing him from the game.

Lincecum has had an up-and-down year thus far, and he was sort of in the middle Thursday night.

He gave up three runs on only five hits, but he had to really work in the time that he was in the game. He ended up throwing 99 pitches and did not make it out of the fifth inning, as he also surrendered five walks to offset four strikeouts.

The Giants grabbed the early lead, as Buster Posey – who has some rather-fond memories of this ballpark dating back to the grand slam he hit in the 2012 Division Series to send them into the next round – singled in Gregor Blanco in the first.

Two innings later, Blanco – who went 2-for-2 with a walk on Thursday – scored in a completely-different manner, as he was given a free pass home after a balk by starter Johnny Cueto.

Meanwhile, however, no other player besides Blanco had any more than one hit.

Cueto weathered that brief storm and ended up turning in a solid outing. He went five more innings and did not give up another run, while walking three and striking out nine batters.

Barry Bonds ready to arbitrate baseball: After beating obstruction charges Babo just might be able to prove MLB collusion

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by Morris Phillips

SAN FRANCISCO–After beating the Federal Government on obstruction charges and having those charges overturned at the 9th District Federal Court of Appeals last month former Giants outfielder Barry Bonds could very well could have a shot at proving Major League Baseball colluded against him to keep him out of baseball. Bonds could not find a club to play for after the 2007 season. Bonds who knew of the obstruction charges being in the works wanted to wait for the federal judge’s decision before advancing MLB on the collusion case.

He had a very successful legal team that convinced over ten judges in an arbitration hearing to vote to overturn his single obstruction charge for the BALCO/Steriods scandal and now he wants to demonstrate that with a clear name baseball has no reason to keep him out of work. Bonds has worked only as a Giants 2014 spring training hitting coach since leaving baseball. After completing the 2007 season he sought another contract with the Giants but the team thanked him for his services and the team did not resign him.

With Bonds defensive status in question after the 2007 season and after playing since 1986 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and joining the Giants in 1993 and spending much his career in the National League at 43 years old he was most likely not going to land a job with an N.L. club. He was scouted as slow to get to a ball hit in the gap and his defensive prowess was not at his former all star level at the end of the 07 season.

Bonds name was floated in the off season during the winter of 2007-08 as a possible designated hitter for an American League team. Teams mentioned for consideration were all struggling American League teams who might need a DH, the Kansas City Royals, Chicago White Sox, Texas Rangers, or the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Bonds who many said had a big ego during this period was not interested in playing for teams that were not post season prone.

It turned out to be a long winter for baseball’s all time home run king who finished with a career 762 homers as his phone didn’t ring and he sat and waited for a job somewhere. In a lawsuit filed by Bonds lawyers on Monday Bonds says that MLB owners and it’s properties colluded purposely to keep him out of baseball. Bonds will have to prove that all MLB clubs stated either in emails, documentations, or other forms of written communications to keep Bonds out of baseball.

No one ever really thought that Bonds would be able to get the obstruction charges to be overturned in a federal case which also saw him charged with numerous counts of perjury during his trial none of which he was found guilty for. Bonds is working with his lawyers on the collusion case but according the Players Association Collective Bargaining Agreement Bonds is following up the case with the players union. If the union can not help him he plans litigate independently.

Bonds who this past weekend was inducted into the Bay Area Area Sports Hall of Fame with his former manager Dusty Baker is still struggling to get votes to enter the MLB Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. After much fanfare over his PED use and steroids speculation of his knowledge of using the drug before landing in federal court this was considered to be the crux of why the Baseball Writers of America Association has not voted baseball’s leading home run hitter into the Hall of Fame.

Morris Phillips is a San Francisco Giants beat writer for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants podcast with Michael Duca; Wed May 13, 2015

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by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–The A’s dropped their seventh game in eight games to the Boston Red Sox 2-0 on Wednesday afternoon at the Coliseum. If I’m A’s pitcher Sonny Gray I’m slapping my hitters silly. At one point in that game the A’s were 0-13 with runners in scoring position they made 13 outs with runners in scoring position and that was through six innings.

Three of the five outs that the A’s made weren’t with runners in scoring position they led off the inning. So basically the A’s spent the whole day leaving runners on and not getting them home. Gray pitched very well but there was no reason to allow him to finish the game. With the A’s misfortune and no run support their not going to risk Gray.

The Red Sox starter Wade Miley was very efficient he was effective with the curve ball and he had nine strike outs he was getting guys looking and he was getting guys swinging. Miley had the A’s off stride all day. The Sox first run came on a bloop hit that just hit no mans land in the Burmuda Triangle in left field and of course it happened with two outs and it wouldn’t have to come any other time but with two outs and that’s when it had to come.

San Francisco Giants update: The first game against the Houston Astros on Tuesday night of the series the Giants scored three runs in the second and five runs in the fifth first time they did that all year. It’s beginning to become a very interesting tine for Giants third baseman Casey McGehee too because it’s going to be progressively more and more difficult to keep the bat away from Matt Duffy not to mention out of the line up.

The Astros who came into Tuesday night’s game with a five game lead in the American League West got totally throttled and their not used to seeing that kind of hitting against them. They also saw a virtuoso performance by a young pitcher Chris Heston who got to throw a two hitter for a 2-1 win for the Giants.

The story flipped on Wednesday night as the Astros who were trailing the Giants at one point in the game by two runs 3-1. Giants pitcher Tim Hudson lost command of that lead in the sixth inning when the Astros tied up the ball game 3-3 when Houston’s Luis Valbuena belted a 385 foot homer to deep right center off Hudson. The relief staff couldn’t hold the lead when the Astros George Springer in the eighth ripped one to deep left center to give the Astros the lead and win 4-3.

Michael Duca does weekly commentary on the A’s and Giants each week at http://www.sportradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

San Francisco Giants podcast with Jeremy Kahn: Giants open road trip with huge victory; Babo and Dusty inducted to BASHF

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by Jeremy Kahn

The Giants who are paying a visit to the Houston Astros opened the series with Chris Heston pitching for the Giants threw a two hitter and did it against one of the toughest clubs in the big leagues. It was a complete game for Heston and an 8-1 victory for the Giants and Heston pitched so well he retired the last 22 batters in a row. The Giants have found their niche with the fifth starter in the rotation behind Madison Baumgarner and Tim Hudson.

This was a great night to keep the bullpen rested too with the likes of Santiago Casilla, Sergio Romo, Yusmeiro Petit, Jermey Affeldt, Javier Lopez, and Jean Machi these guys have been throwing a lot so far this season. This was one of the quickest games this season and the Giants have been playing better as of late. They had a 7-3 home stand and now their on the road in Houston and their heading to Cincinnati on Thursday.

These are important games for the next six games because the Giants are only home for three games before they return to the road again.

Bonds and Baker what their induction means to the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame: Former San Francisco Giants manager Dusty Baker and former Giant outfielder Barry Bonds who came through with 762 home runs. It is the most hollowed record in all of sport and Barry set the record on August 7, 2007 and I was there when he set the all time home run record.

It was one of the most memorable accomplishment in sports that I’ve seen in my life and I’ve been to numerous sporting events in my lifetime. For Dusty Baker he really deserved it and he was a manager for the San Francisco Giants for over ten years. The Giants went to the World Series for the first time since 1962 in 2002 and they went all the way to game seven in the 02 series.

Dusty played for the Braves, Giants and played for the A’s for his last season in 1986 and he was with the Giants in 1984-85. A side note Baker and Barry’s father former outfielder Bobby Bonds grew up together in Riverside California and the day Barry was born in 1964 Dusty held Barry and they were kids and Dusty was 16 years old when Barry was born.

Jeremy Kahn is the San Francisco Giants beat writer for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast below

Giants’ ups-and-downs don’t often lead to a post-season appearance

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By Morris Phillips

After a month of baseball, the Giants continue to have the most confounding identity in recent professional sports memory.

They’re reigning World Champions of their sport, winning a thrilling, seven game Series, along with a wildcard game on the road, and two playoff series last fall-but they’ve won just 61 of their last 130 regular season games. The stretch is so poor, had the Giants began 2014 at 61-69, they would have had no chance to recover in the final 25 games for a playoff berth.

So any fan regardless of affiliation would have to ask… are the Giants really any good?

And the answer is yes juxtaposed against a greater amount of no.

If that’s the case–and the club continues to play at or below .500—the Giants won’t get a chance to defend their title in the 2015 post-season.

But first a closer look at the radically different stretches the team has experienced since Opening Day 2014:

43-21: The Giants open 2014 with the major league’s best record through June 8.  So torrid is the streak, not only is it the best record in 2014, but the best start of any major league team in the previous ten seasons.  In this stretch, Romo saves 20 of 22 chances, the clutch-hitting lineup (with a healthy Angel Pagan) scores more than half its’ runs with two outs, and Ryan Vogelsong up and goes 3-0 in his last four starts.

26-41: The Giants 98 percent probability of winning the NL West along with a 9 ½ game lead on the Dodgers evaporates in a hurry as Pagan’s injuries crop up, the offense disappears, and the revolving door of emergency replacements including Dan Uggla and Jake Peavy (at least initially) fail to produce much of anything.

19-12: After such a lengthy run of bad baseball, the Giants somehow manage to turn it around in the final month of the season, and sneak into the post-season as the fifth and final qualifier.  The starting pitching—led by Peavy and Madison Bumgarner—is noticeably better and post-season heroes Joe Panik and Travis Ishikawa step into prominent roles.  Still, the final month is no knockout: the Giants sweep Colorado, Arizona and Milwaukee, but post losing records against San Diego and eventual NL West champion Los Angeles.

12-5: The magical post-season starts with a blowout in Pittsburgh and doesn’t end until the improbable, Game 7 win in Kansas City.  Bumgarner has the post-season of a generation and plenty of help from Jeremy Affeldt, Yusmiero Petit, Buster Posey, Ishikawa, Panik and Santiago Casilla.  The gritty champions win nearly every close game, and find some of the most innocuous ways to push across runs you can imagine to win the World Series for the third time in five years.

16-16: The Giants lose two starting pitchers, endure an eight-game losing streak and open 2015 as a .500 team through 32 games.  The injuries to Matt Cain, Peavy, Brandon Belt and Hunter Pence almost insure the team can’t excel. But they avoid falling completely off the map by sweeping the Dodgers and winning some close ones.

None of these stretches suggest the Giants could win, let’s say 72 of their final 130 games to match last year’s record.  Their periods of success have been over much shorter stretches, often punctuated with Herculean performances rather than any sustained methods of success.

And of course, the Giants don’t do anything easy especially with their starting rotation which has shown some decline along with the two, significant injuries.