Category: Uncategorized

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Madison Bumgarner came within six outs of baseball immortality, but Justin Morneau put a stop to that.

Morneau hit a leadoff double off of Bumgarner in the top of the eighth inning and that was the only hit that the left-hander allowed, as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Colorado Rockies 3-0 before a crowd of 41,050 at AT&TPark.

Bumgarner threw a complete game, not allowing a run on just one hit did not walk a batter and struck out a career-high tying 13.

The previous time Bumgarner struck out 13 in a game came on September 5, 2011 against the San Diego Padres at PetcoPark.

Buster Posey gave Bumgarner all the run support he needed in the bottom of the sixth inning, as he took a 3-1 offering from Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa and put it into the left-center field bleachers to score Hunter Pence right in front of him.

It was the 16th home run of the season for Posey, and he extended his hitting streak to six games.

Posey added a second home run in the bottom of the eighth inning, as he hit a Brooks Brown pitch into the left-center field seats.

It was the 17th home run of the season for the 2012 National League Most Valuable Player and the second multi-home run game of his career.

Posey also hit two home runs in the same game on July 7, 2010 against the Milwaukee Brewers at MillerPark.

In the 2012 National League Division Series against the Cincinnati Reds, Posey hit two home runs, helping the Giants comeback from a 2-0 deficit to take the series.

Pence walked against De La Rosa to lead off the inning, and then immediately after the home run to Posey, De La Rosa was forced to leave the game with a left thumb contusion.

Before leaving with the thumb injury, De La Rosa went five innings, allowing two runs, while scattering four hits, walking two and striking out five.

Gregor Blanco made the defensive play of the game in the top of the first inning, as he robbed Drew Stubbs of a sure extra base hit.

Blanco leaped to rob Stubbs of extra bases for the second out of the first inning, and of course Blanco is old hat at making great plays in big games.

It was in Matt Cain’s perfect game on June 13, 2012 that Blanco made a diving catch in the top of the eighth inning to preserve Cain’s perfect game.

Brandon Crawford made a great defensive play in the top of the fifth inning, as he went deep in the hole to snag a ball hit by Matt McBride and then Crawford threw off balance to get McBride at first by a step.

Rockies manager Walt Weiss came out to speak to first base umpire Jim Joyce about the play; however after speaking to Joyce, Weiss decided not to challenge the call and the inning came to an end.

By: Phllip Torres

SANTA CLARA- The San Francisco 49ers will play their preseason finale against the Houston Texans on Thursday night in Houston.

The Niners are coming off of their first win of the preseason as they beat the San Diego Chargers 21-7 on Sunday.

Head coach Jim Harbaugh will make the final roster moves after the fourth and final preseason. San Francisco will look to finish the exhibition season with a 2-2 record before they fly to Dallas to take on the Dallas Cowboys on September 7th.

The roster will have to be trimmed down to a 53 man roster by Sunday the 7th. The big question is how many receivers will the Niners look to keep as they have a healthy receiving core that can contribute on the offense and on special teams.

The 49ers will also have a tough decision to make as far as how many linebackers to keep.

Regardless, this 2014 San Francisco 49ers team will be the deepest team that they have had in many years.

By George Devine, Sr.

After a dismal 2013 record of 11-1, the Golden Bears open on the road at Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois on August 30. The San Francisco Chronicle’s prediction is not optimistic, projecting a 12-2 record for the blue and gold this season. Coach Sonny Dykes expresses a more optimistic view.

Speaking at a preseason coaches’ press conference at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, the second-year coach points to the increasing maturity of quarterback Jared Goff, a true freshman last year. Dykes also swells with pride in noting the increased standings of Cal athletes — in particular the football players he is in charge of — when it comes to academic achievements and potential graduation rate. Goff, meanwhile, has spent the summer working on his accuracy of delivery and his selectivity in range. He is expected to work well with slot receiver Bryce Treggs in moving the ball downfield.

In the mean time, Dykes has high hopes for the defensive contributions to be made by seniors Austin Clark, Harrison Wilfley and Kyle Kragen, as well as junior Stefan McClure who this season moves from cornerback to safety.

Remaining games in the Bears’ season are:

September 6: Sacramento State, Noon

September 20: at Arizona State, TBA

September 27: Colorado, TBA

October 4: at Washington State, TBA

October 18: UCLA, TBA

October 24: Oregon, 7 p.m. PT, at Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara

November 1: at Oregon State, TBA

November 13: at USC, 6 pm, PT

November 22: Big Game vs. Stanford, TBA

November 29: Brigham Young, TBA

By: Phillip Torres

WASHINGTON D.C.- The San Francisco Giants were defeated by the Washington Nationals 14-6 on Sunday in the nation’s capital. The loss resulted in a series loss to perhaps the hottest team in baseball.

Stephen Strasburg started the for the Nationals and was roughed up but was not hit for the loss as Washington was able to rally back and win the series.

Despite putting up six runs, the Giants bullpen were unable to hold the lead.

Although the series loss to Washington hurts, the giants offense has been consistent, which has to be an encouraging sign for manager Bruce Bochy.

The Giants will host the Colorado Rockies on Monday at AT&T Park in San Francisco.

by Jerry Feitelberg

NAPA–The greater Napa Valley was hit by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake at 3:20 AM on Sunday morning in this town which is the trainning camp home to the Oakland Raiders and to Indy Car’s Sonoma’s raceway. The Raiders who are done with the property for the year and are entering their fourth pre season game. But for the tens of thousands of fans, media, and raceway officials one of the Napa Valley’s biggest events the Sonoma Raceway which started on Friday and ends Sunday will continue despite damage in the local town.

The raceway which is located in the southeast part of Sonoma County did not suffer any structural damage according to Indy Car officials who checked the building and stands as tens of thousands will pour into the raceway for the 1:45pm start. Officials did state that the surrounding roadways getting to the raceway could be effected.

The GoPro Grand Prix of Sonoma is one of the biggest draws of the year for the Napa Valley which brings in more people than a Super Bowl game. Possible significant damage to roadways are still be being inspected by Caltrans sesmic engineers. According to CBS 5 TV on Sunday morning parts of Highway 37 will be effected by the quake and some parts of the freeway will be inspected and that traffic delays during the inspection could be expected.

Downtown Napa where most of the race car drivers are staying is located ten miles north of the epicenter American Canyon and downtown Napa suffered significant damage and particpant race car drivers for Sunday’s Indy race no doubt felt every bit of the 6.1 trembler, “mirrors breaking in the bathroom, you hear the alarms, pipes (breaking) and not a single picture moved” Verizon Indycar series driver Helio Castroneves told USA Today, Castroneves who is from Brazil “I want the guy who put the nails in (the hotel) to come to my house” said Castroneves who currently lives in Fort Lauderdale never feels earthquakes there.

The hotel where Castroneves was staying was evacuated and he later met with Team Penske teammate Will Power and company president Tim Cindric. Not a very likely meeting between the three at that time of the hour but under the circumstances necessary. Once outside on the sidewalk Castroneves could see significant damage, bricks, glass and debris, “Will thought it was the end of the world, I thought it was a plane crash, it was a rumbling noise, and it completely trashed the bathroom. It was like a movie and I was in it. A very scary moment and I’m still shaking” said Castroneves.

Part of the older buildings in downtown have damage where some of the roofs either fell over or collapse inside. There was no reports of anyone killed but mulitple injuries were reported. According to Indy’s car president of competition and operations Derrick Walker he said that he felt the race could continue, “we don’t feel under the circumstances as they stand now that the race is in jeopardy, we’re obviously keeping a watchful eye on what happens. If other events happen we’ll respond to them.” said Walker

Jerry Feitelberg is a Sports talk show host for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

By: Phllip Torres

WASHINGTON D.C.-The San Francisco Giants fell to the Washington Nationals 6-2 on Saturday night in the Nations Capital.

After an impressive 10-2 victory on Friday night, the Giants could not pull it together offensively.

Hunter Pence hit his 18th homerun of the season to put San Francisco up 2-0 in the dirat inning for the only two runs of the game for the Giants.

Jordan Zimmerman continued his success against the team by the bay beatung the Giants for the fifth time in his career and improving to a 5-1 record against them.

Tim Lincecum historically has never pitched well against Washington. Lincecum was roughed up for 5 runs in 2 2/3 innings pitched.

The Giants will go for the victory and the series win over the Nationals on Sunday before the fly back to San Francisco to host the division rival Colorado Rockies.

By Morris Phillips

A wild pitch, a huge win and mild celebration: for the 2014 A’s, the rhythm of things doesn’t change even after the biggest win of the season to date.

The A’s received a gift in Joe Smith’s wild pitch that allowed Coco Crisp to score the winning run in a 2-1 win over the Angels. A pair of wins to start this series between the teams with the best records in baseball has erased the sour taste of last week’s 1-6 road trip and allowed the A’s to regain a share of first place in the AL West.

But for the resurgent home team—looking for the sweep on Sunday—and closer Sean Doolittle, it’s no time to get giddy or sidetracked.

“I think we did a good job of that today: not coming in too high off of last night’s win and getting right back down to business and winning a hard fought ballgame,” Doolittle said. “And that’s going to be key for us tomorrow—as corny and cliché as that sounds—that’s what we’re going to have to do is not look at the big picture. Obviously we’ve got that goal but we’re going to have to take it step-by-step in order to accomplish anything.”

Jon Lester got the start for the A’s and was as advertised, according to manager Bob Melvin, in pitching seven innings and allowing just one, game-tying run in the seventh.

“He brings a lot of tenacity and guys behind him can feel it,” Melvin said.

Lester kept the Angels in control by retiring the leadoff hitter in five of the seven innings and working quickly to benefit the defense behind him. Lester’s night almost ended perfectly but Erick Aybar was able to send the former Red Sox’s offering into center field. Aybar’s hit scored Howie Kendrick and allowed the Angels to tie the game.

But the A’s responded in the eighth, by getting base runners aboard and putting themselves in position to take advantage Smith’s blunder—a fastball that sailed over catcher Chris Ianetta’s glove.  Coco Crisp’s seeing-eye single up the middle started the rally, and he was at third courtesy of a couple of ground outs when Smith uncorked his wild pitch.

The A’s made it stick in the ninth when Doolittle finished the Angels off, allowing only a single to Howie Kendrick in gaining his 20^th save.

The A’s look for the sweep on ESPN’s Sunday Night broadcast with Scott Kazmir facing Jered Weaver of the Angels.

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.