Category: San Francisco Giants

That’s Amaury’s News, Commentary and Podcast: Panda in Oakland to face A’s; media expected to ask about his feelings towards ex-Giant teammates

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

The last time Pablo Sandoval of the Boston Red Sox was in San Francisco was in downtown Civic Center for the City Hall celebration of the San Francisco Giants World Series championship on a rainy San Francisco afternoon. I was covering that event that day and it was a great moment for the Panda and the Giants that October day.

Pablo was a big part of that and there was no player more popular other than the Giants Tim Lincecum but Sandoval was as popular of a guy than that the Giants ever had and their going to miss him. The Giants brass of CEO Larry Baer, General Manager Bobby Evans, and manager Bruce Bochy presented the World Series ring on Sunday to Pablo at a S.F. hotel where the Red Sox are staying in preparation for their series in Oakland starting Monday night.

Sandoval is expected to get a lot of applause when he makes his appearance at the Coliseum on Monday night remember with all respect to the A’s when the Red Sox play in Oakland there’s more Red Sox fans who show up. It’s like when the Yankees play there. So you can expect Pablo to get a lot of applause and a couple of boos.

Sandoval was a very good player, he’s very popular, I knew this was going to happen, Pablo was never happy with the Giants they kept bringing up the weight problem and this was well discussed on radio and TV in Spanish and English. In spite of his weight you might remember when he hit two home runs as a Giant in the 2012 World Series against the Detroit Tigers Justin Verlander.

At that time nobody said anything about Pablo’s weight he hit three home runs in the World Series he’s in the company of Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson and those guys. The Giants didn’t want to meet his request to get him the same amount of money that teammate Hunter Pence was getting and it was because of his great finish towards the end of last season that he was given the $95 million offer by the Giants. The Sox ended up matching the offer and the rest is history.

Sandoval was part of the three titles in 2010, 2012, and 2014 and he only communicates with two Giants and that’s manager Bruce Bochy and Pence. That’s kind of unusual you would think he would be talking to guys like Buster Posey, Jeremy Affeldt, and Brandon Crawford who gets along with everybody. So there is that internal question that everyone is going to inquire about in this series. You can best believe the spotlight will be on Pablo all week long.

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

Haren solid, Hudson rocked in Giants 7-2 loss to the Marlins

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Haren

By Morris Phillips

Quite often, those prominent faces revived in new places do so in San Francisco.

From Jason Schmidt, Pat Burrell, Randy Winn to Jake Peavy and Tim Hudson, the Brian Sabean-orchestrated Giants have squeezed the last, remaining ounces of quality baseball from declining vets again and again.

But like Mr. Phoenix—in lets say, Phoenix—those reclamation projects sometimes take flight elsewhere like Dan Haren in Miami, and Martin Prado, also in Miami.

And when they do it someplace else, the Giants often find themselves on the bad side of a good thing.   They definitely found themselves in that place on Thursday night when Haren, Prado and others trounced the Giants, 7-2 at AT&T Park.

Haren threw seven innings, allowing two runs and eight hits to earn his fourth win in five decisions this season.  The talented but nomadic 34-year old joined the Marlins this off-season after contemplating retirement instead of joining a seventh, different team in 13 big-league seasons.  But Haren decided to pitch on, and so far he’s been terrific, far better than his pattern of winning as much as he’s lost since 2009.

Haren used the heavy, cool air to his advantage, escaping a couple of jams and keeping the Giants from coming up with the big hit that have often damaged his starts.  By the time the Giants had some success in the seventh, pushing across their only two runs, the Marlins were ahead comfortably, 6-0.

“He’s a great competitor,” manager Mike Redmond said of Haren.  “I’ve seen that really his whole career.  He just doesn’t make a ton of mistakes out over the plate.  He doesn’t give in.”

Meanwhile, Tim Hudson was no mystery from the start, allowing three runs in the second– starting with Haren’s RBI double—and six runs total.  Manager Bruce Bochy elected to leave Hudson in the game into the seventh, hoping to spare an overworked bullpen.  Hudson would end up allowing a career-worst 15 hits and having to answer obvious questions afterwards.

“Pretty much the difference in the game was their starting pitcher offensively.  If I can just get him out then we have a pretty good chance to win the ballgame,” Hudson said.

Haren had a pair of hits, two runs batted in and two runs scored despite entering the game without a hit on the season.  But like the rest of the Marlins’ lineup, Haren attacked the vulnerable Hudson early in the pitch count with success.

In a bit of an oddity, a game with a combined 26 hits took only 2 ½ hours to complete as pitchers pitched and hitters hit at a brisk pace.

Prado continued his hot-hitting, producing a second consecutive three-hit game after a four RBI game on Saturday.  The consistent-hitting infielder is hitting .309, one year after hitting a career-low .282 for the Diamondbacks and Yankees.

The Giants broke through in the seventh with Justin Maxwell’s run-scoring sacrifice fly and Matt Duffy’s RBI double.  The Giants extended their streak of scoring six runs or less to all 29 games this season, a new franchise record for tepid offense.

In game two of the four-game series, the Giants will have Tim Lincecum facing Miami’s Jarred Cosart with first pitch at 7:15pm.

Giants run into trouble against the Padres, seven-game home win streak snapped

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By Morris Phillips

For 29 consecutive innings, the Giants’ pitchers couldn’t be touched.  And for 22 frustrating innings, the Padres’ hitters couldn’t score.

Then Cory Spangenberg took “ownership” of Chris Heston and the prevailing trends changed in a hurry.

Spangenberg’s single was the first of six hits and a walk in San Diego’s five-run, third inning that propelled them to a 9-1 win over the Giants, averting a home-team sweep, and ending the Giants’ eight-game home winning streak.

The Padres top amateur pick in 2011 was part of the energy infusion manager Bud Black dialed up in an attempt to get his club to regain its stature as the National League’s highest-scoring team so far in 2015 after two humbling shutouts.  Rookie catcher Austin Hedges was the other lineup addition.

Black’s changes worked to perfection as Spangenberg came up with three hits, a walk and a steal, and Hedges’ first major league hit and a sacrifice fly produced two runs batted in.  Hedges also was Ian Kennedy’s battery mate, as the pair stymied the Giants for seven innings after which San Diego led 6-1.

“Our guys were a little disappointed the last couple nights,” Black said.  “They came out with an edge.”

The Giants had gotten big starts from Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong in the previous three games, and were looking to make it four with Heston.  But the rookie experienced a clunker engineered by the Padres’ string of seeing-eye hits in the breakout third inning.  Strategically, the Padres got the upper hand by hitting Heston’s trademark sinkers the other way with great success.

Heston could have been pulled after three, but made it through five innings without any more damage, although his final line including 11 hits and three walks surrendered wasn’t pretty.

The Giants had their chances, squandering rallies in the third, fourth and sixth innings while Kennedy appeared to get stronger.  The former Diamondbacks’ pitcher was making only his third start, but looked like he was in mid-season form, allowing six hits and a walk and one run in seven innings.

Brandon Belt came up with a pair of extra-base hits and Matt Duffy contributed a pair of singles as Bruce Bochy inserted Duffy into the lineup for the struggling Casey McGehee.  But overall, the San Francisco offense did little, increasing their dubious team-record of consecutive games without scoring more than six runs to 28.

Heston hadn’t been hit hard by any opponent this season other than the Rockies in Denver making his transition from the minors almost seamless.  But hitters have started to make adjustments, and now Heston must follow suit.  Spangenberg entered the game with two hits against Heston, then he singled in the first and third innings, making him 4 for 4 against the rookie pitcher.  While Heston has admirably replaced Peavy in the Giants’ rotation, Spangenberg was getting his shot as a replacement for the slumping Will Middlebrooks at third.

The Giants get only their second non-NL West opponent on Thursday in the Miami Marlins.  The Marlins’ Dan Haren will get the start in the opener of the four-game set with Tim Hudson set to go for the Giants.

San Francisco Giants and Oakland A’s podcast: Will there be opposition to Giants planned development in lot A; A’s Josh Reddick is hitting em where they ain’t

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by Michael Duca

SAN FRANCISCO–There is almost no way that the Giants will lose on property development if they go forward with the plan to build condos and affordable housing in parking lot A at AT&T Park. This will also help further the Giants ambition to further improve the ball park and the neighborhood. There is certainly a lot of benefit to having housing out in the Giants parking lot.

The Giants would like to develop some space that would fan user friendly where fans can play catch before ball games and simulate a diamond in part of that space and that would be kind of a center piece for development in that area. This would replace the parking garage and it would a little problematic taking out a seven story building full of cars and making it a flat parking lot.

There have been skeptics regarding this project proposal by the Giants and there are people who will make things up to make sure you don’t like the things that they don’t like. As best as I can tell the initiative that was proposed the voters in San Francisco would have to approve anything that exceeds the maximum height limits at the waterfront.The Giants in essence would be limited to whatever the voters approve. The Giants would like to get the initiative on the ballot in time for November’s election.

Oakland A’s update: It’s going to be interesting to see what winds up happening just because the A’s Josh Reddick is hitting well and that certainly occupies one outfield spot. A’s outfielder Cocco Crisp will be back any day in fact he might be back against the Twins Wednesday. That creates an issue because Burns is not going to move to the DH role. There needs to be a place for Crisp to play.

Reddick who became the American League player of the week last week co-shared the honors with the Houston Astros Jose Altuve is in good company because he’s an awesome player wrapped in a very small package. Reddick has really come out of the gate fast after his injury kept him out of the line up early in the season. Once he got off the D.L. Reddick has been playing very well. He has had a few defensive lapses that are uncharacteristic for him but he certainly hasn’t carried that into the batters box.

A’s pitcher Sonny Gray who’s 4-0 and has an ERA of 1.67, Gray doesn’t mess around on the mound. He doesn’t waste pitches I rarely understand guys who nibble to get their pitch count up early. They show that they give everything they got and some of them can’t stay in games. Gray doesn’t do any of those things. He goes out there and says here’s the pitch see what you can do with it.

Michael Duca does Giants and A’s commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast below

San Francisco Giants report card for April by Tony the Tiger Hayes

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by Tony the Tiger Hayes

SAN FRANCISCO–It seems just like last week that Pablo Sandoval was plopped on his back-side celebrating the final out of the Giants third World Championship in five years – but here we are already one month into the 2015 season. Coincidently the ’15 campaign is shaping up a like the 2014 season.

On paper the Giants don’t stack up against the Dodgers and even the new look Padres – but after a woeful beginning to the season, San Francisco has tightened up the defense and smoothed out some pitching issues and appear to be ready for a solid run at defending the crown.

With April in the books here’s their first report card of the season:

Overall: C+

Angel Pagan : .350, 0, 8 – the back is intact and the hair is so amazing he should be allowed to play without a cap : B+

Brandon Crawford : .235, 5, 14 – Someone might want to re-think that defense first label. Most power from SF SS since Matt Williams debut: B

Nori Aoki : .299, 1, 7 – name translates to English as “another Sabean Steal” : B-

Brandon Belt : .234, 0, 6 – SF’s slowest riding star since Chris Isaak: D

Tim Hudson 1-2, 3.78 – MLB’s current active all-time win leader says it all. : A

Joe Panik : .293, 1, 8 – name should be Joe Calm: B-

Jeremy Affeldt : 0-1, 1.42 Situational lefty charismatic with both leftys and rightys: B

Madison Bumgarner: 3-1. 3.03 – so manly the Brawny paper towel guy moved to TP division: B+

Casey McGee : .181, 1, 3 – There was no joy in Mudville , the great Casey has ground into a double play.: D

Buster Posey : .271, 4, 11 – Took game to higher level after being snubbed for last years all-star game: A

Justin Maxwell: .250, 3, 10 – for the first time since Barry Bonds, seagulls are afraid to fly over head when a Giant hits, : C+

George Kontos: 1-0, 1.72 – after falling in love with Fresno couldn’t stomach a move to Sacramento.: B+

Santiago Casilla : 3-0, 2.13 – No-Name star closer has ironically played under two names. A

Joaquin Arias: .273, 1, 1 Kershaw plans on buying out his contract. B

Tim Lincecum : 2-2, 2.40 – is the Freak back? Only his hairdresser knows for sure. B

Ryan Vogelsong: just when you think the 2011 All-Star gas bottomed out hr comes back to life. C-

– Tony “the Tiger” is a talk show host on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Vogelsong Rebounds to Shut Down Padres

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By Matthew T.F. Harrington

San Francisco, CALIF. – San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy faced a tough decision in Tuesday night’s contest against the San Diego Padres. Would the major’s best manager stick to a struggling veteran or turn to a new face in the middle game of a three-game set?

Vogelsong (1-2, 6.84 ERA) rewarded his manager’s faith, firing seven innings of three-hit ball, shutting out a potent Padres lineup for his first victory of the season. Vogelsong struck out four Padres while his offense scored early and often for a 6-0 win, pushing San Francisco (14-13) over .500.

“He had good stuff tonight,” said Bochy. “He had good command of the fastball on both sides. He did a tremendous job of bouncing back. This game is all about being resilient. He had good luck, good focus out there.”

The Giants have won five-straight, all against Southern California. They swept the Los Angeles Angels over the weekend and overtook the revamped Padres (14-14) in the standings Tuesday night after winning Monday night’s opener. Giants pitchers have now combined for three shutouts in a row.

“It’s a good way to start this home stand,” said Bochy. “We saw what happened last home stand. It starts with pitching, they set the tone. Every starter in this home stand has done that. Vogey did it tonight.”

The righty Vogelsong was re-signed as insurance for a Giants rotation built around aging veterans Tim Hudson and Jake Peavy accompanying question marks Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum. With various injuries to Giants starters already, Vogelsong stepped in on a number of occasions but still sought an encouraging outing. The 37-year-old’s shaky 2015 campaign included a 9.31 ERA entering Tuesday’s contest over three starts and a pair of long relief appearances.

“I just want to put the whole month of April behind me,” said Vogelsong candidly.

In his previous start, the rival Dodgers roughed a then-bearded Vogelsong up to the tune of 6 runs in a 7-3 loss. The Giants starter coughed up 4 homeruns, doubling his season total in the total while prompting the San Francisco faithful to call for last year’s revelation Yusmeiro Petit as rotation relief. Despite his last outing, he still had faith in his ability.

“I’m a believer,” said Vogelsong. “You can do anything if you believe in yourself. You’re here for a reason.”

Of course, Vogelsong’s self-confidence was aided by his offense Tuesday, with the Giants bats breaking out for 7 hits and 6 runs against Padres right-hander Andrew Cashner (1-5, 3.16) over 6 innings.

Justin Maxwell, a late addition to Bochy’s starting nine, opened the scoring with an RBI single in the second inning. Maxwell took the field following a late scratch to Angel Pagan who was deemed a no-go due to a laceration on his left middle finger after catching a spike on a stolen base attempt Monday night.

“We had some good at-bats,” said Bochy. “We had some timely hits. Maxwell got us going there. Pagan needed a day, so some guys picked it up offensively against a tough pitcher.”

Matt Duffy, playing in place of the slumping Casey McGehee, knocked in a run of his own in the inning on a run-scoring groundout for a 2-0 lead. The Giants runs-batted-in leader Brandon Crawford knocked in his 15th of the season on a single an inning later, one of three hits on the night for the shortstop.

The next batter, Gregor Blanco, bounced a chopper to first basemen Yangervis Solarte. With the glove at face-level, Solarte instead watched the ball chip into right field for a two-run error and a 5-0 deficit. Joe Panik added the Giants 6th run in the 5th inning, launching a belt-high Cashner offering into Levi’s Landing for his second long ball of the season.

Following Madison Bumgarner’s shutout Monday night and Vogelsong’s redeeming outing, the Giants can sweep the Padres and take the edge in the season series 4-3. They wrap up the three-game set with an afternoon matinee pitting San Diego’s Ian Kennedy against Chris Heston and his 2.51 ERA. Perhaps they’ll have Pagan back in the lineup as well.

“I’ll check on him tomorrow in the morning before I do the lineup,” said Bochy. “I know he was pretty sore taking batting practice tonight.”

Bumgarner, Giants shut out the Padres to get back to .500

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BUM

By Morris Phillips

Of all the things Madison Bumgarner accomplished last season, and then in his legendary post-season and the first month of this season (and make no mistake, there’s a bunch of stuff), there’s no no-no anywhere on the list.

In fact, he’s never thrown a no-hitter at any level professionally, and you have to go all the way back to high school to find his only one.

Given how low-key Bumgarner is—not to mention how effective he is at just being effective—it’s no surprise that the thought of throwing one, or just feeling special while flirting with one, doesn’t get him all worked up.

“It felt normal,” he said after being part of a combined 2-0 shutout in which he was especially stingy, allowing two hits and a walk while pitching into the eighth inning, the first six without allowing a hit.

“It didn’t feel like anything special.”

But from anyone else’s perspective other than the World Series MVP’s, it was special.  The suddenly-hitter-ish Padres have threatening hitters throughout their lineup and have scored a NL-best 131 runs.  And they jumped on Bumgarner last month in San Diego, where he was lifted after three innings in a 10-2 loss.

Throw in some adversity on Monday—the Giants committed three errors while Bumgarner was in the game—and you have to call his stint special, even by Bumgarner’s lofty standards.

“He can do it all,” reliever Sergio Romo said.  “It’s very impressive.  Now he’s finding his stride, and that’s what’s been going on for us as a team.”

The Giants improved to 13-13 on the season, encouraging given they’ve already endured an eight-game losing streak.  What it means in the long run isn’t clear, but they can make a strong case that the seven consecutive games they’ve now won at home are more representative of their direction than the worrisome losing streak.

What’s painfully clear to the rest of the NL West is once again this season whatever lead the Giants can forge, they can protect.  It’s not how many you score, but what you do with ‘em when you score ‘em.   The Giants have scored 50 fewer runs than the Padres, but both teams sit in virtually the same spot in the division’s standings.

And they did it again Monday.  In a game with one extra-base hit and no scoring after the third inning, Angel Pagan’s seeing-eye single through an infield itching to turn a double play stood as the night’s biggest offensive draw.

Tyson Ross kept the Padres engaged for seven frames but he had to scolding himself issuing a free pass to Justin Maxwell with the bases loaded, pushing across the Giants’ second run.  Ross—the former Athletic and California product–fell to 1-3, far off his All-Star appearance form of last season.

Ross issued all three of his walks in the third inning.  In six starts, Ross has allowed as few as two walks only once.

“His stuff was fine,” Padres manager Bud Black said of Ross.  “The walks were a little troublesome, but if you go seven innings and allow two runs, we’ll take that.”

Except if, you’re opposed by Bumgarner.

On Tuesday, the Giants hope for more heavy air with Ryan Vogelsong attempting to get past the the three, first-inning home runs he allowed in his previous start.  He’ll be up against San Diego’s Andrew Cashner at 7:15pm.

Giant's pitcher Tim Lincecum

Giants Sweep Three Game Series from Angels

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By Jeff Hall

SAN FRANCISCO –

The Giants completed a three-game sweep of the Angels with a 5-0 win  for a series sweep of the visiting Angels in front of sellout crowd of 41, 516 fans at AT&T Park.

The Giants batters came out as if they new Angel’s starter Jered Weaver’s game plan. “Not sure if they new his game plan but We know he throws strikes and the ball carries well to right, especially with the way the wind was blowing today.” said Giant’s Manager Bruce Bochy after the game.

Nori Aoki jumped on the first pitch he saw from Weaver and drove it over the Levi’s landing in right field for his first homer of the season. Two pitches later Joe Panik hit his first homer of the season nearly in the same spot as Aoki’s homer. “It’s always good to get the first one out of the way” Panik said. It was the fourth time the Giants have ever started a game with back-to-back homers. It’s been a while since that happened. The last time was on May twenty-seventh, 1964 against the St. Louis Cardinals by Chuck Hiller and Duke Snider off of Bob Gibson. The Giants nearly had a third straight homer in the first. When Angel Pagan just missed one driving the ball high above the 365-foot sign.

Though Weaver struggled with his start, His counterpart Tim Lincecum was solid holding the Angels scoreless through eight innings of work. Lincecum held the Angels to three hits over a season high eight innings striking out four without walking a batter. Quite a turnaround considering Lincecum came off of his shortest outing his last start against the Dodgers in Los Angeles.

Weaver seemed to have settled down retiring six straight batters after walking Brandon Crawford in the third before a Buster Posey Single with 2-outs in the fifth that was followed by a ground rule double by Brandon Belt that was hit just in front of the 421 foot sign in triples alley bouncing over the wall driving in Posey in the bottom of the fifth. Then Brandon Crawford drove a solid single to right field driving in Belt to increase the Giants to a 5-0 lead

Weaver’s day was ended after five innings. Cesar Ramos came on in relief in the sixth inning. . Weaver is 0-4 to begin the season. . Weaver allowed 5 runs on ten hits and gave up the two homers in the first inning.

Weaver would not get any help from his offense thanks in most part to the strong pitching from Lincecum.

Overall the Angels offense continues to struggle. The shutout was only the second time this season the Angels have been shutout, the last time was April twenty-seventh against the Astros. Speaking of struggling, Angel’s catcher Chris Ianetta snapped an 0 for 31 hitless streak with a single to left in the top of the sixth off Lincecum. As a team the Angels have been limited to three runs or fewer in 15 of their last 25 games.

The Angels were swept for the second time this season. The last time they were swept by the Royals.

The Giants scored their third run of the game when Brandon Belt hit into a fielder’s choice driving in Panik from third.

The Giants added on their final two runs in the fifth when after two outs Buster Posey singled to left, Brando Belt hit a ground rule double to right-center moving Posey to third. Brandon Crawford double to right field driving in Posey and Belt, ending the Giants scoring and essentially ending Weaver’s day.

With the win the Giants have won their seventh straight home game.

Up next the Giants Host the Padres for three games at AT&T Park. Madison Bumgarner 2-1 (3.73) will oppose right-hander Tyson Ross. . Ross is 1-2 (4.55).

The Angels return home to host the Mariners. Matt Shoemaker against Mariner’s ace Felix Hernandez.

 

Giants versus Angels Preview

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By Pearl Allison Lo

~ The San Francisco Giants (9-13) will now face the other “Los Angeles” (11-11) team for the first time this season. It will also be the Angels’ first interleague series of the season. The teams will start off May with a three game weekend series in San Francisco.

“I think it was a pretty successful April, given the circumstances,” Los Angeles’s right fielder Kole Calhoun said. “It’s nice to be .500.”

Each played a home game in spring training and the Giants lost both games 3-2.

Both teams are 6-4 in their last ten games.

San Francisco will be coming off an off day after playing the Los Angeles Dodgers for three games. The Giants will be coming off a 7-3 loss in which the long ball hurt them.

The Angels will be coming off a narrow 6-5 victory over the Oakland Athletics on the other side of the Bay. The hero of the game, Mike Trout, will bring two multi-hit games into the matchup against San Francisco. He went 2 for 3 with two runs scored and a walk in his last two games. The first game Trout also had three runs batted in and the second game an additional walk. Los Angeles has won their last two games, scoring six runs in each.

The Giants are 4 and a half games and the Angels four games behind their respective division leaders, but San Francisco is at the bottom of their division and Los Angeles in second place in the American League.

The Angels are tied for 17th in the league in runs scored with 89 and San Francisco 28th in the league with 66. For pitching, Los Angeles is 12th in the league with a 3.83 earned run average and the Giants 16th in the league with a 3.93 earned run average. San Francisco tops the Angels in fielding, 7th with a .986 fielding percentage and 20th with a .981 fielding percentage respectively.

Los Angeles’s first baseman Albert Pujols, who is day-to-day, hopes to participate in the series after injuring his left hamstring Wednesday.

The projected starters for the three games are  for the Angels, C.J. Wilson, Hector Santiago, Jered Weaver and Chris Heston, Tim Hudson and Tim Lincecum for the Giants, respectively. Wilson started the last game the two teams played in the Cactus League. Weaver and Hudson will be looking for their first wins of the season.

May 1 will be a 7:15pm start and the games on Saturday and Sunday will start at 1:05pm.

Greinke gets Giants

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By Pearl Allison Lo

~ Zach Greinke remained perfect against the San Francisco, in April and the season as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Giants, 7-3 Wednesday.

With Los Angeles, Greinke is now 6-0, 10-0 and 4-0 respectively as the Dodgers have now beat San Francisco twice in the past three games, both wins by similar scores.

The game was not looking like a sure win from the beginning. Both pitchers got off to a rocky start, Ryan Vogelsong’s more than Greinke’s.

The Giants’ best inning was the top of the fourth, but that was when Greinke started settling down.

For the rest of the game, Greinke only issued a walk and the bullpen only had a runner on base due to an error.

Vogelsong pitched three innings, giving up five hits and six runs.

Greinke pitched six innings, giving up seven hits and three runs while striking out six.

Greinke struck out three batters in the top of the first but San Francisco struck first. Nori Aoki led with a single and then with two outs, Buster Posey and Brandon Belt singled to bring Aoki in for the early 1-0 lead.

Vogelsong was victimized by the solo home runs again as he gave up two on early counts in the bottom of the inning. Joc Pederson led off with a homer, then Adrian Gonzalez homered with two outs and after a four pitch walk, Andre Ethier hit a two-run homer to make it 4-1.

Vogelsong retired the side in the second but then Jimmy Rollins led off with a homer on another early count in the third. The Giants exited the inning behind 6–1.

San Francisco then got on the home run board in the fourth. Casey McGehee led off with a double and then Crawford homered to cut the lead in half, 6–3. Greinke made three straight outs after.

The Giants took another step back as things did not start out well for relief pitcher George Kontos either in the fifth.  Grandal led off with a walk, Uribe doubled and Greinke had a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning. Kontos narrowly escaped without further damage, as he gave up another walk after and was falling behind to Rollins.

Game notes: Posey has still hit in every game versus Los Angeles so far, a six-game hitting streak. San Francisco’s Angel Pagan’s five-game hitting streak ended. The Giants will next host the Los Angeles Angels, starting on May Day at 7:15 PM.