Category: Uncategorized

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Buster Posey put the San Francisco Giants in an unfamiliar place with one swing of the bat, first place.

Posey hit a two-run home run on the first pitch he saw from Mike Foltynewicz in the bottom of the first inning, helping the Giants to a 4-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves before 41,311, the 352nd consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

The native of Leesburg, Georgia added a ground rule double in the bottom of the eighth inning that gave the Giants a two-run lead that scored Joe Panik, who led off the inning with a walk.

After walking Brandon Belt intentionally, the strategy backfired, as Brandon Crawford singled to score Posey.

Coupled with the Los Angeles Dodgers being shutout by the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium, the Giants are in first place by a half-game for the first time since Opening Day on April 6.

It was the fifth consecutive victory for the Giants overall, and the sixth straight at home since losing to the Miami Marlins on May 9.

Since April 21, the Giants are 26-10, the best record in the major leagues since that date.

Tim Hudson pitched a exceptional game, as he went seven innings, allowing one run on five hits, while walking just one and striking out four against his former team.

When Hudson allowed Andrelton Simmons to score on a base hit by Cameron Maybin in the top of the third, it was the first run allowed by the Giants in 39 innings, tying the team record that was originally set from July 11-30, 1948.

Despite allowing the two-run home run to Posey in the bottom of the first inning, Foltynewicz was fantastic for the Braves, as he went 6.2 innings, allowing two runs on five hits, walking one and striking out eight.

After allowing back-to-back singles to Brandon Crawford and Angel Pagan in the bottom of the second inning, Foltynewicz retired the next 11 batters in a row until he walked Nori Aoki, leading off the bottom of the sixth inning.

Things got interesting in the top of the ninth inning, as closer Santiago Casilla gave up to a solo home run to Freddie Freeman to straightaway centerfield that was measured at 430 feet. It was the first home run for Freeman since May 5 against the Philadelphia Phillies at Turner Field.

Following the Freeman home run, Nick Markakis walked, then Chris Johnson struck out for the second out of the inning. Former Giants catcher A.J. Pierzynski then walked to out the tying run on first base; Todd Cunningham grounded out to Panik on the first pitch to end the game.

It was the 15th save of the season for Casilla.

This was the Giants 21st win of the month, their first 21-win month since 1968 and the team record for the most wins in a month was set in 1954, when they went 24-4 on their last World Championship until they won it all in 2010.

By Jeremy Harness

The Giants rebounded very nicely from two ugly losses in Colorado with a dominant effort in Milwaukee for three straight games, finishing off a sweep of the Brewers with a 3-1 win at Miller Park Wednesday afternoon.

Ryan Vogelsong has had a real resurgence this month, and it continued on Wednesday with a superior effort. He went six strong innings and allowed only one run on six hits en route to winning his third straight start and boosting his record to 4-2 for the year.

After surrendering an RBI single in the fourth, Vogelsong kept grinding away and got the led he was looking for when Joe Panik hit a two-run homer off Milwaukee starter Mike Fiers.

In the top of the ninth, Gregor Blanco gave closer Santiago Casilla just enough cushion when his sac fly brought in Angel Pagan to give the Giants a 3-1 lead. Casilla responded with a one-two-three ninth to secure the Giants’ fifth win on this seven-game road trip.

The Giants will now head back home in time for a four-game series that starts Thursday night against the Atlanta Braves, a team that is basically treading water in the National League Central, a place that they are rather unfamiliar with, and sit with a 22-23 record at press time.

As for the Giants, they sit in second place in the National League West, but due to this surge, which includes another recent three-game sweep of the division-leading Dodgers, they are now only 1 ½ games out of the top spot.

They have a real chance to take over first place in the division, since the Dodgers will now head to St. Louis to face a Cardinals team that owns the best record in the majors at 31-16, and to make things worse for the Dodgers, it is a place where they have historically had trouble winning, particularly in the postseason.

By Jeremy Kahn

It may just be May, but what a difference one month makes when you are the defending World Champions.

Madison Bumgarner pitched six innings, allowing three runs and four hits, as he improves to 5-1 in his last six starts and the San Francisco Giants defeated the Milwaukee Brewers 6-3 at Miller Park. Over the last two May’s, Bumgarner is now 9-1.

Bumgarner raised his record to 6-2 on the season, and closer Santiago Casilla picked up his 13th save of the season.

Matt Duffy, Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt each hit home runs, as the Giants have won 10 out of their last 12 games.

It is a totally different story for the Brewers, who have list four in a row and have lost six out of their seven.

Pence got the Giants rolling in the top of the first inning, as he hit a solo home run, Duffy’s came in the top of the fourth inning, just over the outstretched glove of Carlos Gomez in centerfield that lengthened the Giants lead up to 5-0. Belt closed out the scoring in the top of the seventh inning, as he hit a solo home run.

Buster Posey saw his 16-game hitting streak come to an end, as he went 0-for-3 at the plate; however Posey set a career high by reaching base in his 26th consecutive game, when he walked in the top of the fifth inning.

By Jeremy Kahn

On a day where Chad Bettis came within a few pitches of his first career complete game, Nolan Arenado topped him.

Arenado picked up four hits and drove in four runs, as the Colorado Rockies defeated the San Francisco Giants 11-2 at Coors Field.

Troy Tulowitzki and Nick Hundley also drove in two runs each, as the Rockies and Giants split the four-game series that saw rain delays of over seven hours during the series.

Nori Aoki led off the game in the top of the first inning with a single off of Bettis, and the next time Bettis allowed a hit was to Matt Duffy, who led off the eighth inning.

Bettis went 8.1 innings, allowing two runs on six hits, walking two and striking out a career-high seven.

Tim Hudson lasted just 3.2 innings, as he gave up eight runs and six hits and remains winless in his career at Coors Field.

In his career, Hudson falls to 0-3 in 10 career starts at Coors Field.

Arenado got his big day started in the bottom of the second inning, as he tripled and later scored.

The Rockies blew the game wide open in the bottom of the fourth inning, as they scored eight runs in the frame, backed by run-scoring singles from Daniel Descalso and Nick Hundley. Troy Tulowitzki added a two-run single and then on the first pitch he saw from Jean Machi, Arenado hit a three-run home run.

Arenado made it a four-hit day in the bottom of the sixth inning, as he singled and extended the Rockies lead up to 10-0.

The Giants finally got on the board in the top of the ninth inning, as Aoki doubled to lead off the inning and then scored on a Joe Panik single that broke up the shutout. Buster Posey extended his hitting streak up to 16 games with a single.

Brandon Belt ended Bettis’ shot at the complete game, as he doubled in Panik and Brooks Brown was summoned to put an end to the game, which he did and after a two-hour 10 minute rain delay that began the day, the Rockies and Giants split their four-game series.

Prior to the game, the Giants designated Casey McGehee for assignment.

By Jeremy Kahn

After a late night close victory over the Colorado Rockies in the opener, the San Francisco Giants returned for a doubleheader.

Brandon Crawford drove in three runs, as the Giants held on for a 10-8 victory over the Rockies in Game One of a doubleheader at Coors Field.

Chris Heston pitched 5.2 innings, allowing six runs on eight hits and won for the fourth time this season.

It was the eighth straight win for the Giants, their longest winning streak since winning 10 in a row in May of 2004.

The Giants jumped out to a 7-1 lead, but the Rockies came back and hit within 7-4 in the bottom of the fifth after a Charlie Blackmon hit a two-run home run.

Joe Panik and Brandon Belt helped the Giants extend the lead up to 10-4 in the top of the sixth inning, as Panik hit a single that scored Andrew Susac and then Belt hit a two-run double that extended the Giants back to six runs.

Wait Weiss’ team would not go away, as they scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to get within 10-6.

After bringing Sergio Romo, the Rockies got within 10-7, when Nolan Arenado singled to score Blackmon.

Santiago Casilla came on to close the game; however Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki each hit singles to get the Rockies within 10-8.

Casilla then got Willin Rosario to ground out to third base as the tying run to end the game, and give Casilla his 12th save of the season.

After witnessing Casilla pickup his 12th save in the first game, a Bay Area product came up huge for the Rockies in the second game.

Daniel Descalso, who went to Mountain View’s St. Francis High School hit a two-run home run off of Yusmeiro Petit in the bottom of the sixth inning and the Rockies gained a split with a 5-3 victory.

In gaining a split of the doubleheader, the Rockies put an end to the Giants eight-game winning streak.

After two long rain delays that totaled three hours and 13 minutes for the two games.

David Hale picked up his first win as a member of the Rockies, as he went 6.2 innings, allowing three runs.

John Axford picked up his sixth save of the season in as many opportunities.

Axford gave up a leadoff single to Gregor Blanco, and after a Blanco steal of second, he was thrown out at third base on a throw by Blackmon, when Angel Pagan flew out to the center fielder.

Casey McGehee then reached on a Descalso fielding error that brought Hunter Pence to the plate as the tying run.

Pence grounded out to Descalso, who threw to D.J. LeMahieu for the final out of the game.

By Jeremy Kahn

It may have been the weirdest way to win a game for the San Francisco Giants to win a game this season, but in the end, it dies not really matter.

Ryan Vogelsong pitched six scoreless innings, as the Giants hung on for a hard fought 11-8 victory over the Colorado Rockies on a rain-soaked evening at Coors Field.

Vogelsong gave up just two hits, as the Giants extended their scoreless inning streak up to 34 innings.

The streak came to an end when George Kontos gave up a three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning to D.J. LeMahieu.

Thirty-four innings scoreless innings is the sixth-longest streak in team history, coming four innings shy of the team record of 38.

Brandon Belt hit his fourth home run in the last seven games, a two-run home run that was measured at 475 feet and landed in the third deck.

Since the opening of Coors Field in 1995, the Belt home run is just the 34th home run to land in the third deck.

Matt Duffy added a two-run home run in the top of the ninth inning, as the Giants stretched their lead up to 11-4 and then the bottom of the ninth inning showed up.

Jeremy Affeldt gave up three straight singles to begin the inning, and that is where the one hour 44-minute rain delay began. After the end of the delay, two more hits and it was 11-7 before you blinked.

Seeing enough, Bruce Bochy called on closer Santiago Casilla, who retired the first two batters and then Ben Paulsen extended the game to cut the Giants lead down to just three.
Casilla ended the game, as he struck out Nick Hundley for his 11th save of the season.

Kyle Kendrick saw his record fall to 1-6 on the season, as he last won in the season opener against the Milwaukee Brewers on April 6. In 6.1 innings of work, Kendrick walked three and struck out four.

Buster Posey picked up a single and a double on the night, as he extended his hitting streak up to 14 games.

With the victory, the Giants extend their winning streak up to seven games and remain a game and a half behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West.

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – Tim Lincecum’s evolution from a Cy Young Award-winning thrower into a crafty veteran pitcher was on full display Wednesday night.

Coming off an underwhelming outing, the right-hander turned in a masterful performance against an always-tough Los Angeles Dodgers lineup Wednesday night, tossing seven shutout innings and giving up only three hits to lead the Giants to a 4-0 win at AT&T Park.

Lincecum now has not allowed a single run in the past 22 innings at home, and in the process, by striking out four batters on Wednesday, he surpassed Carl Hubbell to take fourth place on the all-time Giants strikeouts list.

In the meantime, the Giants continued a remarkable turnaround. After spending much of the first month of the season at the bottom of the National League West, they have slowly crept their way back into the thick of things to the point that they now only sit 2½ games back of the division-leading Dodgers.

“He’s got a lot of confidence going, and it shows,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s in a good rhythm, too. You look at his delivery, and it’s really consistent, especially here at home. He’s throwing strikes, he’s using his fastball well, going up and down with it, and he’s got really nice secondary pitches he can throw at any time.”

The contest started off as a nice duel between Lincecum (4-2) and Dodgers lefty Brett Anderson, who himself entered Wednesday with a respectable 3.50 earned-run average, as the two hurlers threw zeroes at each other all the way into the sixth inning.

Lincecum’s trek did not go without some trials, however. He did get into some trouble to start the fifth, as catcher Yasmani Grandal led off the inning with a double into the gap in right-center. He didn’t exactly help himself by uncorking a wild pitch to allow Grandal to get to third, but he rebounded very nicely.

He got Andre Ethier to ground out and Juan Uribe to pop out while keeping Grandal at third, and after surrendering a walk to his pitching counterpart, Brett Anderson, he coaxed a weak grounder to first out of Joc Pederson to keep the Dodgers off the scoreboard.

The Giants got a leadoff double of their own in the sixth, courtesy of Buster Posey, and for a moment, it didn’t look like they would get a run across, either. Hunter Pence got Posey to third with a soft grounder to second, but Justin Maxwell grounded out sharply to keep Posey at third with two out.

Andrew Susac drew a walk to keep the inning alive, and Brandon Crawford singled to left just in front of a diving Alex Guerrero to bring Posey in and give the Giants a 1-0 lead.

Angel Pagan kept that lead intact by making a leaping catch at the center-field wall to take at least an extra-base hit from Grandal in the seventh.

“We’re doing a really nice job of catching the ball, and that has made a difference, too,” Bochy said. “The defense has been really good recently.”

Then the Giants teed off on the Dodgers’ pitching in the bottom half, an inning that was capped off when Posey lined one just over the wall in left-center off reliever Yimi Garcia for a two-run homer that boosted their lead to 4-0.

Posey’s work wasn’t done just yet, however. Playing first base to give Susac some time behind the plate, he tracked down a pop-up from Pederson in the eighth that was headed into the visiting dugout and plucked the ball in front of the Dodgers’ bench.

By: Joe Lami

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—Make it four straight wins for the San Francisco Giants, as they defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-0 in a pitching duel on Tuesday night.  It was a much needed performance by Tim Hudson, who was struggling entering the game. He pitched six and a third shutout innings, allowing five hits and striking out two earning the win in San Francisco’s major league best sixth shutout of the season.

“He was getting the ball down, his sinker was working tonight.  You need to locate and he did that tonight”, added Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy on Hudson’s performance.

Though Hudson did have a great outing, it started out shaky, as he gave up a double to leadoff the game.  Bay Area bred, Joe Pederson, smacked a double into center. He eventually got to third, but was stranded when Scott Van Slyke struck out to end the inning.  “The stranding in the first was huge. It allowed me to settle in,” Hudson added.

Carlos Frias was handed the loss, although he wasn’t too shabby either.  He gave up one run on seven hits in a career high, six innings.  It marks his first loss of the season, with his down fall coming in the third inning. 

Joe Panik was able to start a two out rally in the third with a single. He advanced to second base on another hit by Angel Pagan, and then Buster Posey earned his only hit of the night knocking in Panik.  The lone hit for Posey extends his hit streak to 11 games.

Hudson had a scare in the six inning when Adrian Gonzalez crushed one to right field, but Hunter Pence, in his first game back at AT&T, was able to battle the wind and come down with it at the wall. A relieved Hudson said “that ball would’ve been gone anywhere else but here, he crushed it”.

“Coming home is special,” commented Pence, after he played his first game at AT&T since game six of the World Series after battling what has been a season long injury. Bochy added “he was excited to play here”. The dugout definitely got a boost mentioned Hudson, “he gets the mojo going in the dugout”.

The Dodgers threatened to tie it again in the seventh inning.  The bases were loaded after a single and two walks, but with two outs Sergio Romo got the biggest out of the game.  Howie Kendrick hit one right back up the middle, but Romo was able to flag it down and toss it over to first to retire the side and save the lead.

San Francisco padded their lead on a few Dodgers’ errors in the eighth. Brandon Belt smacked a ball out to the track in left field, but Van Slyke had trouble with it and eventually dropped it.  Belt reached second on the error. Pence moved him to third on a ground out. Belt would make it 2-0 on a passed ball, as Yasmani Grandal couldn’t handle a Chris Hatcher pitch in the dirt.

Santiago Casilla came on in the ninth to earn his tenth save of the year.

By: Ben Leonard
Follow @ben___leonard

Despite what you might have heard, the Houston Rockets are no pushover. Houston was just one loss away from being the number six seed, and the Warriors were expected to rocket past them to the Finals. They might have picked up four emphatic victories over Houston in the regular season, but Tuesday was a whole different story.  Golden State held on to preserve a 110-106 victory over the Rockets, needing MVP Stephen Curry to make two free throws in the waning moments of the game to seal a victory.

The Warriors found themselves in an unfamiliar position on Tuesday, down as many as 16 points in the second quarter. But just as quickly as they fell, they picked themselves back up, riding a 21-4 run to end the half up three points. From then on, it was a tight battle between these the two top-seeded teams in the Western Conference, transcending to the billing of the matchup.

Curry finished with 34 points and won the battle, along with his team, against MVP runner-up James Harden. He also pulled down 6 rebounds and spread around the ball well, dishing out 5 assists to his teammates.

Unlike Curry, his “Splash Brother,” star guard Klay Thompson struggled on Tuesday, with the shooting woes that plagued him early in the series against Memphis resurfacing. Thompson scored just 15 points on a paltry 6-18 showing from the floor, including an uncustomarily low 1 for 7 from long range. Other than Curry’s 6 for 11 effort from three, Golden State struggled to make the three-ball, going 4 for 18 from deep.

Just like Houston with Curry, the Warriors had no answer for Harden, who scored 28 points on 11 of 20 shooting and kept his team in the game. He certainly wasn’t “overrated” as Warriors fans chanted throughout the game, nearly leading his team to an upset victory.

Houston not only lost the game, but one of its biggest contributors on Tuesday. Dwight Howard went down with a left knee injury, but didn’t play well before getting injured. He turned the ball over five times in the first half, scoring just 7 points. Regardless, his presence down low was missed. Given the nature of the injury, it’s unclear at this point whether or not he will be ready for Game 2 Thursday night at Oracle.

It wasn’t pretty, but the Warriors got it done. Now just image what could happen if they are anywhere near at the top of their game.

 

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