By Jeremy Harness

The Giants and the Colorado Rockies had to wait out a long rain delay on Thursday, but the rain just did not stop in time for the game to continue, as the game was halted in the bottom of the sixth due to the wet weather.

The teams were deadlocked at 2-2, and there was no immediate date to finish the game.

Michael Cuddyer started the scoring in the second inning, as his infield single scored Willy Rosario. However, the Giants roared right back in the fourth with two runs to take the lead, as Hunter Pence launched a solo homer over the right-field wall while Pablo Sandoval added a run-scoring double to give the Giants a 2-1 lead.

Colorado tied the game in the fifth inning, as Rosario hit into a double play while Nick Arenado scored.

Meanwhile, the Giants got the diagnoses back for both of the pitchers who suffered hamstring injuries in Wednesday’s game.

Matt Cain suffered a Grade 1 strain – considered a mild strain -and is not expected to miss much time. However, reliever Santiago Casilla was diagnosed with a Grade 2 – or medium – strain and is expected to miss about four weeks due to the injury.

Casilla was injured running out a ground ball in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s 5-1 win over the Rockies. He was the second reliever to be injured on the basepaths this year, as David Huff strained his left quadriceps while getting his first major-league hit April 21 and ended up missing 18 games.

The Giants come back home to start a three-game series at AT&T Park on Friday against the Minnesota Twins. Tim Lincecum (3-3, 4.74 ERA) will take the hill for the Giants, facing Minnesota righty Kyle Gibson (4-3, 4.20 ERA).

The Twins are currently two games over .500, a position that they have not been in since they won the American League Central title four years ago.

By George Devine, Sr.

Sometimes a key to a game is not who plays, but who doesn’t. That seemed the case in San Antonio tonight when the Thunder’s Serge Ibaka was absent due to a calf injury, which will keep him on the sidelines throughout the postseason. Without him on defense, the Spurs scored 66 points in the paint, more than enough to make the difference in game 1 of this round in the west.

The Spurs led in all quarters but the third, when Oklahoma City led 23-22. The rest of the game belonged to the home team, especially in the final frame when San Antonio led 33-23. Tim Duncan was the sparkplug, with 27 points and 7 rebounds, 5 of them on defense. A well-guarded Tony Parker — returning to action after a hamstring injury — scored only 4 points, but contributed 12 valuable assists. Manu Ginobili demonstrated his ability to drive to the basket, scoring 18, and Danny Green had 16 as did Kawhi Leonard, who also had 3 steals.

For OKC, Kevin Durant was in for most of the evening (40:48) and scored 28 points, but was in foul trouble with 4. He had 9 boards, all but one on defense. Russell Westbrook scored 25 and had 7 assists. Derek Fisher scored 16 and Reggie Jackson 13.

The Thunder shot only 46.3% on field goals, compared to the Spurs’ 57.5%; on treys the ratio was 44.4%-57.9%, and from the line the visitors were a formidable 82.6% to San Antonio’s 76.5%.

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-In his last two starts, Ryan Vogelsong made everyone remember why Bruce Bochy picked him to be an All-Star during the 2011 season.

Vogelsong struck out a career-high tying eight in a loss to the Atlanta Braves, and in his next start, he struck out six in seven innings of work, not allowing a run on five hits, walking just one and the San Francisco Giants defeated the Miami Marlins 4-1 before a crowd of 41,551, the 268th consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

In hs first at-bat against Turner in the bottom of the second inning ,Vogelsong picked up his third hit of the season and then grounded out to shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The Giants got the all the runs they would need in the bottom of the first inning, as Gregor Blanco led off the inning by reaching first base after being hit by a Jacob Turner pitch.

Blanco then stole second base,went to third on a Hunter Pence groundout and then scored the only run that the Giants and Vogelsong would need on a Buster Posey sacrifice fly.

Pablo Sandoval then began a trend of four successive singles, as Michael Morse, Tyler Colvin and Brandon Hicks followed suit behind Sandoval.

It was Colvin’s base hit that scored Sandoval, and then Hicks’ single scored Morse following the Colvin single off of Tuner.

Sandoval hit his just third home run of the season, a solo shot that led off the bottom of the fifth innig, it was the first home run for Sandoval since April 13 against Tyler Chatwood of the Colorado Rockies, a span of 108 at-bats.

Christian Yelich got on the board in the top of the eighth inning, as he grounded out to Brandon Crawford at shortstop to score Hechavarria against Jeremy Affeldt.

Santiago Casilla was able to get out the Giants of a potential tie game, as he struck out Garrett Jones for the second out and then got pinch hitter Giancarlo Stanton to flyout to Pence in right field to end the inning.

by George Devine, Sr.

In a decisive 104-98 win over the Los Angeles Clippers, the Oklahoma City Thunder won game 6 of the NBA Western Conference semifinals and the right to move on.

MVP Kevin Durant was the main man for the visitors, playing almost the entire game (44:06). He scored 39 points, had 16 key defensive rebounds and 5 assists. Russell Westbrook poured in 19 and had 12 assists. Serge Ibaka had 6 points and Steven Adams 10.

For Los Angeles, despite the enthusiasm of their home court crowd, the evening was disappointing. They dominated in the first frame, 30-16, but trailed in the remaining quarters, despite playing three of their key men for practically the whole night: Chris Paul (40:18) had 25 points, contributing 11 assists and 7 boards. Matt Barnes (42:18) had 9 points and Blake Griffin (40:53) had 22 points and 9 rebounds. J.J. Redick was good for 18 points but was ineffective when sent to defend against Durant, who at one point scored two three-pointers in a row off him.

Another key factor was the free throw percentage, where OKC was way ahead, 87.7% to 60%.

In off-court news, Clippers coach Doc Rivers was fined $25,000 by the NBA for criticizing the officiating in Game 5. Meanwhile, on the fine front, team owner has said through his attorney that he will not pay the fine of $2.5 million levied by the league for reported racist remarks, and that there will be litigation to stop a forced sale of the franchise.

By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Thursday, May 15, 2014

The Oakland Athletics used their day off to do some wheeling and dealing, sending minor league outfielder Jake Goebbert and a player to be named later to San Diego in exchange for outfielder-first baseman Kyle Blanks.

To clear a spot for Blanks on the active roster, the A’s designated first baseman Daric Barton for assignment. Blanks will join Oakland Friday when the Athletics begin their weekend series at Cleveland.

Blanks appears to have some pop in his bat. He hit nine home runs with 20 RBIs and a .265 batting average in 27 games at Triple-A El Paso before being called up by San Diego on May 5. Blanks has spent parts of the last six seasons with the Padres, hitting .228 with 28 home runs and 98 RBIs in 239 games.

In 31 games at Triple-A Sacramento, Goebbert was batting .257 with six homers and 25 RBIs. He was acquired by Oakland in a deal with Houston in April 2013.

Barton was part of a 2004 trade with St. Louis that sent pitcher Mark Mulder to the Cardinals. The A’s gave Barton all kinds of opportunities to stick, as the converted catcher spent parts of the last eight seasons with Oakland. A .247 hitter in 551 games, Barton was hitting .158 with five RBIs in 30 games with the A’s this season.

Daric Barton is merely the latest in a long list of high draft choices that baseball executives continually try to justify giving chance after chance to, when the results dictate otherwise.

Oakland sports a 25-16 record and has won six of its last seven games going into its series against the Indians. On Friday night, Sonny Gray (4-1, 2.13 ERA) is on the mound for the A’s, while the Tribe counters with Zach McAllister (3-3, 3.89) in a battle of righthanders.

by George Devine, Sr.

The Los Angeles Clippers managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Game 5 of the semifinal series at Oklahoma City, losing 105-104.

Chris Paul, one of the Clippers’ mainstays, turned out to be somewhat the goat of the game, in that he committed the foul that led to the three free throws that put the Thunder ahead, and then failed to make the shot neededfor Los Angeles at the last. With 50 seconds to go in the game, the Clippers were ahead by 7 points, but the home team literally thundered ahead. A key possession call gave OKC the ball, despite the ire of L.A. coach Doc Rivers. Paul then fouled Russell Westbrook who was in the act of shooting a trey, and all three charity shots went in with 6.4 seconds to play. Then Paul got the ball and drove for an inside shot that would have won the game, but the Thunder defense stopped him: Reggie Jackson stole the ball and the game was over.

Westbook was the star for the home team, scoring 38 points. Kevin Durant accounted for 27, 10 of them within the last 4 minutes. Prior to that point the Clippers led, 101-88, but once more it was demonstrated that virtually no lead is safe in the NBA.

Despite his unfortunate performance at the end, Paul scored 17 points and contributed 14 assists. Jamal Crawford had 19 points. Blake Griffin poured in 24 points and had 17 boards.

Los Angeles led the scoring, 34-25, in the initial frame. Oklahoma City outscored them, 27-24, in the second, but the visitors still led at halftime, 58-52. The third period was even at 28, but it was in the final quarter that OKC came out strong, 25-18.

Game 6 will be on Thursday, May 18 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. Oklahoma City can win the round with a victory in that matchup.