Category: Uncategorized

By: Phillip Torres

SANTA CLARA- The San Jose Earthquakes (6-8-5) defeated the Seattle Sounders FC (12-6-2) by a final score of 1-0 to open Levis stadium on Saturday night in front of 48,765 fans. The new billion dollar facility opened its doors for the first time to host a major sporting event.

The first half was scoreless up until Yannick Djalo received a pass from Chris Wondolowski to score the lone goal in the game to lead the Earthquakes to the first ever win at the Levi’s stadium. The contest consisted of a great defensive showing from both San Jose and Seattle. After Djalo injured himself Seattle started to apply more pressure but was unsuccessful for the remainder of the game as they were shut out by San Jose’s defensive tactics.

Earthquakes goalkeeper Jon Busch recorded nine saves to earn the win. The save total matched his career high as an Earthquake.

Both sides had a great amount of chances late in the final stanza of the game. But the header from Chad Barrett in the 85th minute was the closest chance by both oppositions.

The Earthquakes will be back on the field at the StubHub Center where they will play against the Los Angeles Galaxy on August 8th.

By Jeremy Kahn

When Pablo Sandoval reached second base in the top of the seventh inning, he did something no player accomplished prior to him on the night.

Sandoval doubled off of Jacob deGrom in that frame, but Jake Peavy was just as good as deGrom.

Peavy was perfect thru six and one-third innings until Daniel Murphy hit a double that Michael Morse was not able to catch, as the New York Mets would go on to score four runs in that frame to defeat the San Francisco Giants 4-2 at Citi Field.

With the victory, deGrom improved his record to 6-5, as the rookie won for the fifth straight start.

Peavy, who was making his second start for the Giants after being acquired from the Boston Red Sox on July 26 lost for the 11th straight time and saw his record on the season fall to 1-11.

This was the longest that Peavy took a no-hitter in a game, breaking the previous long of five and one-third innings.

Travis d’Arnaud hit a sacrifice fly to get the Mets on the board, Juan Lagares added a RBI single and Wilmer Flores drove in the final two runs of the inning with a double.

Travis Ishikawa broke up the shutout in the top of the eighth inning, as he hit a two-run single that chased deGrom.

In seven and one-third innings of work, deGrom gave up two runs, scattered four hits and struck out seven.

Peavy gave up four runs and like deGrom, he also scattered four hits, struck out four and did not allow a walk.

Despite putting runners on first and third in the top of the ninth inning, closer Jenrry Meija was able to regroup and get former St. John’s star Joe Panik to groundout to second to secure his 16th save of the season.

By Jeremy Kahn

This will be a night that Ryan Vogelsong will most likely never forget for the remainder of his major league career.

Vogelsong pitched his first ever nine inning complete game, as the San Francisco a Giants defeated the New York Mets 5-1 at Citi Field.

On the night, Vogelsong faced 28 batters, one over the minimum, as he allowed a Juan Lagares single leading off the bottom of the sixth inning and Lucas Duda hit his 20th home run of the season in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Vogelsong threw 102 pitches, as the game lasted just two hours and six minutes, as he upped his record to 6-8 on the season.

Brandon Crawford drove in a run with a single, rookie Matt Duffy hit a run-scoring single for his first major league hit and Hunter Pence drove in three runs with a two-run triple and one on a groundout.

Crawford picked up three hits on the evening, as the Giants won their second in a row after losing six in a row.

After a forgetful homestand that saw the Giants 1-5, this a great start to a 10-game three city road trip that began with a huge win.

Matt Cain will most likely be lost for the season due to bone chips in his pitching elbow.

Tyler Colvin and Dan Uggla were designated for assignment, while Duffy and outfielder Jarrett Parker were recalled from Double-A Richmond.

By Jeremy Harness

Major League Baseball’s trade deadline came and went Thursday afternoon, but not without most of the playoff-contending teams making significant deals to bolster their lineups in time to make a second-half push.

The one team that was MIA on Thursday was, of course, the Giants, who judging by the way they conducted business near the deadline, look like they are pretty much conceding the National League West title to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Granted, the Giants got a nice addition to the rotation in Jake Peavy last week, but in order to catch the division-leading Dodgers, they had to do a lot better than that.

For starters, they did absolutely nothing about their long-standing issue at second base. Ehire Adrianza and Marco Scutaro are both on the disabled list with different injuries, and neither appears to be ready to come back any time soon.

As a result, the Giants will be forced to play Dan Uggla, a notorious butcher at the position whose only saving grace had been his bat, which has declined in the past few years to the point where no other teams would touch him after he was released by Atlanta a few weeks ago.

That is, of course, until general manager Brian Sabean went on a wing and a prayer that a simple change in scenery would make all the difference for a player who has really had only two solid big-league seasons to begin with.

It appears that all the Giants have been doing this season following their June collapse is playing the hope game, that all of their injured key players would magically come back and lead a major resurgence to catapult the team back into the postseason without having to make any real upgrades to do it.

In addition, Sabean failed to upgrade the team’s leadoff situation. This is especially important because Angel Pagan’s back injury is almost exactly the same as Scutaro’s, and the Giants are simply hopeful that Pagan will be able to return at some point and save their badly-struggling lineup.

The Dodgers have a bona fide leadoff man in Dee Gordon. The Giants, on the other hand, have been using Hunter Pence as their top-of-the-lineup guy. Even though Pence has been decent at that position, he is much better suited as a No.2 or even a No. 5.

This isn’t all Sabean’s fault, however. The main reason why the Giants could not pull the trigger on any significant moves is due to the fact that their farm system, once a reliable tool in situations like this, is not strong enough to entice other teams into giving up one of their key players.

So when you add it all up, the best move that the Giants were able to muster up was getting Peavy, who still a serviceable starter, is a few years past his prime and is ceiling at this point of his career is holding down the No.4 spot in the rotation.

Not exactly what you’re looking for when trying to catch a team that is gaining momentum and is already significantly better than you anyway. Now, it seems that the only question that remains is how long it will take the Dodgers to wrap up the division.

Meanwhile, that other Bay Area ballclub didn’t exactly half-step in the wheeling-and-dealing game.

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Josh Harrison did something in the top of the first inning that he never accomplished as a big leaguer.

Harrison hit a leadoff home run in the top of the first inning, as the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the San Francisco Giants 3-1 before a crowd of 42,242, the 304th consecutive sellout at AT&TPark.

It was the first career leadoff home run for the third baseman, and his eighth home run of the season.

This continued until April 15 against the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona was the Giants fifth consecutive loss, with their last win coming on Wednesday night against the Philadelphia Phillies, when Hunter Pence hit a three-run double in the top of the ninth inning.

If you wanted to know the last time that the Giants lost the first four games of a home stand, you will have to go back to when the ballpark first opened on April 11, 2000 to the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Despite losing those opening five games, the Giants would go on to win the National League West for the second time in four seasons.

Francisco Liriano went seven innings, allowing one run on four hits, while walking one and striking out 11, as he won for just the third time this season against seven losses.

To make matters even worse, Hudson allowed a two-run home run to Travis Snider in the top of the second inning that proved to be the margin of victory for the Pirates.

Michael Morse hit his first home run at AT&TPark since May 15, when he took a Francisco Liriano over the left field wall, as he led off the bottom of the second inning.

Buster Posey went three-for-four for the Giants in the losing effort, as he picked up his third hit of the game in the bottom of the ninth inning off of Pirates closer Marc Melancon.

Unfortunately for the Giants, Posey was stranded on the base paths, as Pablo Sandoval flew out to the warning track in right, then Morse struck out for the third consecutive time and then newly obtained Travis Ishikawa struck out to end the game.

Despite allowing the two home runs in the first two innings, Hudson did settle down, as he went seven innings, allowing three runs on six hits, walking one and striking out two.

Rookie Andrew Susac, who was recalled on Saturday after Hector Sanchez was placed on the disabled list with a concussion, reached base for the first time as a major leaguer in the bottom of the seventh inning, as he walked off of Liriano.

Adam Duvall was optioned to Fresno and Tony Abreu was designated for assignment; and in their place, the Giants have purchased the contract of Ishikawa from Fresno and recalled Juan Perez.

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-In his first start as a member of the San Francisco Giants, Jake Peavy did not fare that bad.

Peavy went six innings, allowing four runs (three of them earned), two walks and five strikeouts; however it was a three-run Los Angeles Dodgers fifth inning that gave the sweep and a one and a half game lead with a 4-3 victory before 41,459, the 302nd consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

This it is the first time that the Dodgers have swept the Giants since June 24-26, 2013, and the first time that the Dodgers have swept the Giants at AT&T Park since July 27-29, 2012.

Hanley Ramirez drove in what proved to be the game-winning run, as he singled off of Peavy to score Yasiel Puig, who walked following Dee Gordon, who reached first base after Peavy threw a wild pitch on a strikeout.

Gordon scored on a bizarre play that saw Adrian Gonzalez strike out, and as Gonzalez ran to first, Gordon came down the line to score the tying run.

Carl Crawford drove the Dodgers third and final run of the inning, as he tripled to score Ramirez and give the Dodgers a two-run lead.

Buster Posey got the Giants within one run, as he put a Hyun-Jin Ryu pitch into the left field seats on a 3-0 pitch.

That was the first 3-0 home run by Posey in his major league debut, according to David Feldman.

Posey is the first Giants batter to a 3-0 home run since Pedro Feliz since July 21, 2007, the longest drought by any team, this according to ESPN Stats and Info.

Ryu went six innings, allowing three runs on six hits, walking just one and striking out seven, as he improved his record to 12-5 on the season.

Hunter Pence gave the Giants a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third inning, as he singled off of Ryu to score Dan Uggla, who was the first batter to reach base against Ryu, as he walked to lead off the bottom of the third.

It was a tough night got Uggla defensively, as he committed two fielding errors on the evening.