Category: Uncategorized

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – When your team gets shut out, as this one did Wednesday night, you ask whether the offense was lousy or if the pitcher was just really good. In this particular case, it was clearly the latter.

The Giants got stifled by a stellar Adam Wainwright, who kept the Giants off-balance for most of the night and forcing them into mostly weak groundouts, as the Giants suffered a 2-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals at AT&T Park. They were shut out for the seventh time this season, twice by the Cardinals.

Despite the setback, however, the Giants remain atop the National League West, at least for one more day. The

The Giants knew that they were in for a battle against Wainwright, though, since the right-hander had given up only two runs over his previous three starts, during which he pitched 23 innings. He didn’t miss a beat on Wednesday, as he went 7 2/3 innings and gave up only four hits, walking two and striking out one in keeping the Giants from crossing the plate.

In the process, Wainwright now owns the lowest ERA in the majors, surpassing Cincinnati’s Johnny Cueto (1.99) with a mark of 1.89.

Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong ripped through the first two innings on Wednesday but ran into big trouble in the third, during which the Cardinals scored a pair of runs. Oscar Taveras led off with a double down the right-field line, and Mark Ellis followed that with a single before Matt Carpenter singled to bring in Taveras.

Matt Holliday then singled in Ellis and gave St. Louis a 2-0 lead and, although Vogelsong settled down very nicely to go seven innings and surrender only one more hit the rest of the way.

Unfortunately for him, Vogelsong has started to get used to this. He has not gotten any run support for the second straight start, as he surrendered only three runs in 13 innings while allowing only one walk while striking out 15 batters in those two starts, both losses.

Meanwhile, the Giants were only able to mount a pair of scoring threats against Wainwright. Oddly enough, both of those rallies were started by a rookie and not considered a big star by any stretch.

Rookie second baseman Joe Panik led off the sixth with a single before Vogelsong put down a nice sac bunt to get him over to second while Gregor Blanco almost beat out a grounder but nonetheless moved Panik to third.

However, Hunter Pence could not bring him in, as his bouncer to short ended the inning and kept the Giants off the scoreboard.

The Giants put together a two-out rally against Wainwright, as Panik and Hector Sanchez strung together back-to-back hits to put runners on the corners as well as get Wainwright out of the game. However, after working the count full, Blanco, who has not given the Giants very much at the plate at all this season, popped out to end the inning and keep the shutout intact.

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-What a last seven days for Tim Lincecum on the mound for the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park.

After throwing his second no-hitter in as many years on Wednesday against the San Diego Padres, Lincecum followed that up by going eight innings, allowing zero runs on four hits, walking just two and striking out six and the Giants broke their four-game losing streak with a 5-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinal before a crowd of 41,152, the 292nd conxecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

By going eight innings against the Cardinals, and after throwing a complete game no-hitter on Wednesday, Lincecum extended his scoreless streak up to 17.

Buster Posey gave the Giants their first run since Saturday night, as he smashed a double to left field in the bottom of the fourth inning that scored Hunter Pence from first base.

Pablo Sandoval then followed Posey’s double with a two-run home run over the left-center wall for his 10th home run of the season, and the 100th home run of his career.

Sandoval is the 19th player to hit 100 home runs in a Giants uniform since they moved to the West Coast in 1958.

The Giants added two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, as he Pence lashed a double to left field that glanced off the glove of former California Golden Bears player Allen Craig to John Jay and on the play, Juan Perez scored after he led off the inning with a single.

Hector Sanchez drove in the Giants fifth and final run of the game, as he grounded out to former St. Francis (Mountain View) standout Daniel Descalso at second base to score Pence from third base.

Cardinals pitcher Marco Gonzales went just four and one-thirds innings, allowing five runs on seven hits, walking two and striking out two, as he lost for the first time all season.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the Pistons are making run at the Kings’ restricted free agent guard Isaiah Thomas. The paper claims the Pistons have offered Thomas a three-year contract worth $24-million. The Kings have the right to match that offer by virtue of a qualifying offer they extended to Thomas last week.

The Free Press also speculated that the Pistons interest in Thomas could lead to a sign-and-trade deal. Prior to the draft, the Kings and Pistons were rumored to be working on a deal that would have brought Detroit forward Josh Smith to Sacramento.

Many draft experts were surprised when the Kings selected shooting guard Nik Stauskas with the number eight pick in the draft. If the Kings were to trade Thomas, that would create the need for another shooting guard and make the selection of Stauskas make more sense. The Kings would then have to address the point guard position which they have been rumored to be working on since the end of their season.

A sign-and-trade deal may not be as simple as it sounds. The Sacramento Bee is reporting that as many as six teams have interest in Thomas.

Teams can begin speaking with free agents as of today (July 1, 2014).

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Homer Bailey came within seven outs of joining a very exclusive club that there are only two members of at the present time.

Bailey threw a complete game shutout, allowing no runs on just three hits and the Cincinnati Reds defeated the San Francisco Giants 4-0 before 41,541, the 291st consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

With the victory, the Reds completed their first four-game sweep over the Giants since April 18-21, 1985 at Riverfront Stadium, and their first four-game sweep over the Giants in San Francisco since May 16-18, 1972.

This was the first time since AT&T Park opened on April 11, 2000 that the Giants have been swept in a four-game series.

Bailey nearly joined Addie Joss and Tim Lincecum as the only pitchers in major league history to throw multiple no-hitters against the team, but Buster Posey put an end to that theory in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Posey singled to right field with two outs, and then Pablo Sandoval singled Posey to third; however the would end there, as Michael Morse struck out looking to end the inning.

Billy Hamilton drove in the first Reds run of the afternoon, as he doubled in Skip Schumaker, who singled to leadoff the top of the third inning.

It was another tough loss for Tim Hudson, who went eight innings, allowing two runs on five hits and striking out six.

Hudson received no offensive support for the second game in a row, as the Giants have lost four in a row, six out of their last and 15 out of their last 19.

Coupled with the Los Angeles Dodgers win over the St. Louis Cardinals at Dodger Stadium, the two longtime rivals are now tied for first place after the Dodgers made up nine and a half games in just 22 days.

The Reds blew the game wide open in the top of the ninth inning, as they scored four runs off of Hudson, Jeremy Affeldt and Santiago Casilla.

By Morris Phillips

 

Some impressive, some disappointing.  That’s Sandy Barbour’s 10-year run as athletic director at Cal in a nutshell.

UC Berkeley Chancellor Nicholas Dirks announced Friday that Barbour is leaving her post at UC Berkeley and will be replaced on an interim basis by H. Michael Williams, a retired finance executive has served as a Cal trustee since 2007.  Barbour will formally leave her post on July 15 and take a position in the Berkeley Extension Program where she will develop a program in sports management.

“After nearly 10 years leading Intercollegiate Athletics at Cal, it is time for me to move to a different chapter of my professional life and for Cal to have an opportunity for a new perspective in its leadership of the intercollegiate athletics program,” Barbour said.  “This is a great university.  I am honored to have the opportunity to continue my service in another venue, and to continue to contribute in a variety of other ways.’

Under Barbour, Memorial Stadium was renovated, a new student-athlete performance center was built and the athletic department saw tremendous successes in many of the minor sports as well as men’s and women’s basketball where Barbour hires Mike Montgomery, Joanne Boyle and Lindsay Gottlieb had impressive runs.

But football is the bellwether program of any successful athletic department, and the Cal Bears have seen the transition from Jeff Tedford to Sonny Dykes go horribly in its first year.  The Bears finished 1-11 and weren’t competitive in many of those games in 2013.   Adding to misery of Cal fans is the ascension of rival Stanford into a national powerhouse in the sport blowing away any arguments that say big-time football and lofty academic institutions don’t mix. 

Even bigger issues swirled in Barbour’s final years at the helm in the academic performance of the football team and the escalating debt—over $400 million in 2013—for the reconstruction of the football stadium.  Even before the stadium was rebuilt, budget issues caused several sports to be cut, including baseball temporarily until donors came to the rescue and preserved the program. 

Williams will hold the athletic director post until a permanent replacement can be found through a national search.  A preliminary timeline has been set that has the process of a new hire taking four to six months to be completed.

 

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-In his last appearance at AT&T Park in the 2012 National League Division Series, Johnny Cueto was forced to leave the game after just eight pitches with back spasms.

Fast forward 20 months, and Cueto was lights out, as he pitched eight and one-thirds innings, allowing two runs on three hits, while walking one striking out three and the Cincinnati Reds made it two straight with a 6-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants before 41,046 the 289th consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

The Reds and Giants were in a scoreless duel until the wheels fell off the Giants wagon in the top of the fifth inning, as Madison Bumgarner allowed five runs on six hits in that inning.

Other than that brutal fifth inning, it was a good night for Bumgarner, as he went six innings, allowing five runs on nine hits, walking one and striking out three.

Bumgarner became the first Giants pitcher since current San Diego Padres manager Bud Black on May 15, 1992 versus the Chicago Cubs to pickoff two runners in the same inning, as Bumgarner turned the feat in the top of the first inning.

Neftali Feliz of the Texas Rangers was the last major leaguer to pickoff two runners in the same inning, as he did it in the ninth inning of a game against the Kansas City a Royals on May 18, 2011, this according to STATS, LLC.

Devin Mesoraco got the ball rolling for the Reds in the top of the fifth inning, as he doubled to lead off the inning, after a groundout by Brayan Pena back to Bumgarner.

Chris Heisey and Zack Cozart hit back-to-back singles to score Mesoraco from first base with the Reds first run of the evening.

Cueto was safe on a Fielders’ Choice that loaded the bases, then Billy Hamilton lengthened the lead up to 3-0, as he singled to shallow right field that scored Heisey and Cozart.

Todd Frazier then singled in Cueto, and then after a Fielders’ Choice, Jay Bruce singled in Hamilton with the fifth Reds run of the evening.

Tyler Colvin, who pinched hit for Bumgarner in the bottom of the sixth inning hit a triple into the right-center field gap that scored Brandon Hicks after Hicks walked to leadoff the inning.

Frazier picked up his third hit of the night in the top of the seventh inning, as his popup landed just out of the reach of Brandon a Crawford in short left field.

In the first two games of the series, Frazier is five-for-eight.

Frazier was not the only Reds batter to have three hits in the game, as Hamilton picked up three hits of his own.

There were two reviews on the night, and neither one of them were overturned, as the first one came in the top of the sixth inning, when Cozart was safe on a Fielders’ Choice when Adam Duvall was unable to keep his foot on first base.

The second review came in the top of the seventh inning, as it looked like Hunter Pence made a diving catch; however it was declared a single.

COMMENTARY
By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Thursday, June 26, 2014

On Wednesday, there was the first big news of the day for Bay Area baseball fans – Tim Lincecum’s no-hitter. The second bombshell came a little later, when Athletics owner Lew Wolff announced he’d reached an agreement to keep the A’s at the rapidly aging Oakland Coliseum for another 10 years.

The Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority has yet to approve the deal, but, presumably, that’s just a formality. It’s either that, or the A’s start looking for a new home with a greater sense of urgency.

Initial reports didn’t indicate that the Authority will do any upgrading or repairs – the sewer system, for example – but, one would think the A’s wouldn’t agree to stay for that long if the city isn’t willing to do some necessary upgrading.

Commissioner Bud Selig, again expressed his support for Wolff, but wouldn’t go as far as saying where, exactly, a new ballpark should go. Wolff doesn’t like the idea of having a ballpark near Jack London Square, and has long desired a site somewhere in Silicon Valley or San Jose, allegedly considered “Giants territory.”

The A’s should not have to pay an indemnity fee to the Giants if they want to move 27 miles to the south. If they do, here’s a suggestion: MLB should collect $1 million from each of the other teams, cut the check to the Giants, and tell them, “This needs to happen. Here’s your extortion payment. Now shut up.”

The 10-year length of the lease is what’s most intriguing. It seems to indicate that Wolff is finding he needs a lot more time to solve his stadium issue than planned. It also seems to buy the City of Oakland some more time to come up with a solution to keep the A’s.

As for the condition of the Coliseum, this always happens when a city wants a new ball yard. All of a sudden, the sewers back up, the paint starts fading and peeling, the players’ accommodations are inadequate, the concession food and service begins to blow worse than usual, the lights don’t always work, etc.

This soap opera isn’t done yet. The NFL Raiders are in the final year of their lease at the Coliseum, which is now the only facility left that houses both pro baseball and football. If the Raiders want to build a new stadium on the present Coliseum site, will they now be able to?

Meanwhile, there’s no word yet on whether or not Roto Rooter is set to become a corporate sponsor for the A’s.

A’s VISIT MIAMI
The Athletics, who lead the AL West, had Thursday off and continue their swing through the National League East with a weekend set at Miami against the Marlins. Jesse Chavez (6-4) is on the hill Friday for Oakland, facing Anthony DeSclafani (1-2) for the Fish.