Category: Uncategorized

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – The Giants, who had looked nothing like the defending World Series champs for the first couple of weeks of the season, have suddenly reverted back to championship form against their hated rivals.

A night after Tim Lincecum shut down the Dodgers in the series opener Tuesday, Joe Panik’s sac fly brought in pinch runner Gregor Blanco to give the Giants a dramatic 3-2 win before a crowd of 42,259 at AT&T Park, after the much-anticipated Madison Bumgarner-Clayton Kershaw throwdown was declared a draw.

Bumgarner had the advantage for much of the game, but he relinquished that after he gave up a two-run homer to Alex Guerrero to tie the game in the seventh inning. He was then taken out of the game, and, since Guerrero had pinch-hit for him, so was Kershaw.

The Giants’ bullpen, which had not been as sharp as it was in key moments last year, was brilliant on Wednesday, as George Kontos, Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla combined to keep the Dodgers off the scoreboard the rest of the way.

The Giants loaded the bases with one out, and even after the Dodgers crowded the infield by inserting an extra player – right fielder Yasiel Puig, in this case – at third. It didn’t matter, as Panik flied to deep right, and Blanco scored easily to give the second baseman his first career walk-off RBI.

“It was a nice piece of hitting,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “He didn’t play around. He hit the first pitch he saw, and it was a pitch he could handle. He’s gotten a lot better at-bats. He’s got great poise.”

As for the starters, Bumgarner surrendered a pair of runs on six hits while striking out six and walking two, while Kershaw also gave up two runs on only three hits while issuing only one walk against nine strikeouts.

“Both of them threw the ball very well,” Bochy said. “I look forward to a matchup like this. I thought it would be a tight ballgame, and we did some little things (to win), and that was the difference in the ballgame.”

For the first two innings, Bumgarner v. Kershaw was shaping up to be the pitching duel that it always seems to be expected, when the completely unexpected happened in the third inning.

Joaquin Arias, who entered Wednesday’s game batting .143, led off the inning with a single, which Brandon Crawford followed by drawing a walk after an epic battle with Kershaw, perhaps the most dominant regular-season starting pitcher in baseball.

Bumgarner himself moved things forward for the Giants’ offense. He seemed to back out completely in his attempt to lay down a bunt – as if he were just trying to just make the slightest contact and then get the heck out of the way – but he was successful in landing the ball down the third-base line and move the runners up.

Arias then scored on Nori Aoki’s grounder, and then Matt Duffy’s single brought in Crawford to give the Giants a 2-0 lead.

In the sixth inning, as a sign that things were going the Giants’ way, Aoki, who led off the inning with a single, was picked off of first by more than five feet. However, he was somehow able to evade the tag of first baseman Justin Turner and make it back to the bag safely.

But that was rendered moot when Aoki was caught stealing second two pitches later, and the Giants could not do any more damage against Kershaw.

That proved to be costly in the seventh, as after a leadoff single, Guerrero crushed a stray Bumgarner fastball and sent it midway into the left-field seats to tie the game up.

Guerrero, who entered Wednesday with a .400 average, is now 3-for-4 in his career at AT&T Park.

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Whenever the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers face each it get it is always a big deal.

Tim Lincecum went six innings, allowing one runs on five hits, while walking three and striking out five and the Giants would go on to defeat the Dodgers 6-2 before a sellout crowd of 41,386, the 335th consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

It could be the middle of April, or the end of the season and these ancient rivals can always one up each other.

The Giants maybe in fifth place, but you could not tell them that on this night against the first place Dodgers.

Brandon Crawford continued his hot hitting, as he singled in Justin Maxwell in the bottom of the second inning.

Maxwell tripled into the right-centerfield gap just out of the reach of former Palo Alto High School star Joc Pederson.

Buster Posey gave the Giants what proved to be the winning run in the bottom of the third inning, as he singled off of eventual losing pitcher Brett Anderson.

Posey drove in Joe Panik, who singled with one out after Nori Aoki grounded out to leadoff the inning.

Aoki drove in the Giants third run on the evening in the bottom of the fourth inning, as he beat out an infield single.

On the play, not only did Maxwell score, but Crawford scored as well, when Anderson’s throw got by Adrian Gonzalez at first base and an error was called on Gonzalez.

The Dodgers would get on the board in the top of the fifth inning, as Juan Uribe hit a double up the left-center gap and would then score on a double by pinch hitter Alex Guerrero.

Crawford made the play of the night in the top of the sixth inning, as he made a diving stop on a Howie Kendrick hit ball and with his glove, flipped to Panik for one and then onto a Posey to complete the dazzling double play.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly challenged the call, but after just a 49-second review, the play stood and the inning was over.

Anderson, who also pitched for the Oakland A’s went four innings, allowing four runs on nine hits and striking out one.

With the Dodgers threatening in the top of the eighth inning, with two on and one out, Yaisel Puig came to the plate.

On the only pitch that Sergio Romo threw the slugger, Puig hit a foul ball that Maxwell dove at feet first in the wall in foul territory and made an outstanding catch for the second out.

Javier Lopez came on to replace Romo, and he was able to get Adrian Gonzalez on a ground ball to Panik and Lopez covered first base for the final out of the inning.
Maxwell not only did it with the glove, but he hit his first home run as a member of the Giants in the bottom of the eighth inning against Pedro Baez.

It was a two-run home run for Maxwell, as Andrew Susac walked to leadoff the inning.

Things got dicey in the ninth inning, as Jean Machi gave up two singles and then a walk to Pederson that loaded the bases and brought the tying run into the on-deck circle. That would be it for Machi, as Bruce Bochy went to his closer Santiago Casilla.

With Justin Turner at the plate, Casilla unleashed a wild pitch that Kendrick to score from third base.

Luckily for Casilla and the Giants, Turner ended the game, as he grounded out to Panik for the final out.

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Paul Goldschmidt is a terror against the San Francisco Giants, and his two-run home run in the first inning showed why.

Goldschmidt hit a two-run hone run off of Tim Hudson in the top of the first inning, as the Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the Giants 5-1 before a cried of 41,528, the 334th consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

Since his major league debut on August 1, 2011, Goldschmidt leads all players with 12 home runs, 32 extra base hits, 45 runs batted in and 46 walks in that span.

Rookie Yasmani Tomas picked up his first major league hit in the top of the ninth inning against Jeremy Affeldt.

Tim Hudson saw his record fall to 0-2 on the season, as he went five innings, allowing five runs on six hits, walking two and striking out six.

Brandon Crawford went 2-for-2 with a walk for the Giants, who have lost nine out of their last 10 games, including six of seven on this homestand.

Nori Aoki went 2-for-4 at the plate with a double and a triple, and also scored the lone Giants run on the afternoon, when he scored on a Joe Panik single in the bottom of the first inning.

Since moving to San Francisco in 1958, this is the fifth time during that time that the Giants have started the season with 4-10record.

The Giants also started 4-10 in 1980, 1983, 1985 and 2000.

NOTES: After their first off day of the 2015 season, the Giants return to AT&T Park on Tuesday night when Tim Lincecum takes the mound against Brett Anderson and the Los Angeles Dosgersm

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-On a night where the San Francisco Giants celebrated their 2014 World Championship by issuing the rings, Chris Heston got them into the win column at home.

Heston pitched 7.2 innings, allowing just one run on four hits, while walking just one and striking out six and the Giants stopped their eight-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks before a crowd of 41,756, the 333rd consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

The 7.2 innings pitched by Heston are the most pitched by a Giants rookie since Madison Bumgarner tossed eight innings against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park on July 6, 2010.

Going back to 1914, Heston is the first Giants pitcher to start a season with three straight starts of six plus innings and one or fewer runs in each outing, thus according to STATS, LLC.

Brandon Crawford hit his third home of the season, a two-run shot in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Crawford leads the team with three home runs, and is tied with Jed Lowrie of the Houston Astros with the most home runs by a shortstop.

With the victory, the Giants snapped their eight-game losing streak, their longest such streak since losing eight in a row from June 13-22, 2007.

Angel Pagan saw his 16-game hitting streak against the Diamondbacks come to an end, as he went 0-for-4 on the evening.

Brandon Belt broke out of a 0-for-20 slump, as he singled in the bottom of the seventh inning off of Evan Marshall.

Rubby De La Rosa pitched 6.2 innings for the Diamondbacks, allowing four runs on nine hits, while walking two and striking out seven.

NOTES: Jake Peavy was placed on the disabled list with a back strain, and the Giants have recalled Andrew Susac from Sacramento.

While with the Rivercats, Susac was hitting .350 (7-for-20) with three doubles and an RBI in six games.

Tim Hudson takes the mound for the Giants on Sunday, while Jeremy Hellickson takes the ball for the Diamondbacks.

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Friday, April 17, 2015

The San Jose SaberCats remain undefeated after four games of the Arena Football League schedule Friday after upending the winless Jacksonville Sharks 68-48 at Veteran’s Memorial Stadium in Jacksonville.
Sharks fullback Derrick Ross carried 11 times for 35 yards, but also scored four touchdowns, including his 150th career Arena League TD. Joe Hills snagged 14 passes for 155 yards and four scores for the Sharks.

San Jose quarterback Erik Meyer threw for a season-high eight touchdowns while completing 19-of-30 for 246 yards. Anthony “Tiger” Jones caught seven of those passes for 100 yards, and Reggie Gray grabbed nine passes for 80 yards and three scores.

Wide receiver Adron Tennell returned to the SaberCats starting lineup and contributed five catches for 65 yards and four touchdowns. On the defensive side, linebacker David Hyland had an interception and led the SaberCats with 14 tackles.

Touchdowns by Gray and Odie Armstrong gave San Jose (4-0) a 21-7 lead in the second quarter, but the Sharks (0-4) bounced back with a 1-yard TD run by Ross that pulled Jacksonville to within 21-14. A TD pass from Meyer to Gray gave the SaberCats a 28-24 halftime lead.

In the second half, Hills hauled in a touchdown pass for the Sharks, but Gray took the ensuing kickoff 58 yards for a TD – San Jose’s first kickoff return score of the season. The SaberCats built a 48-38 fourth quarter lead, which Jacksonville cut to 48-45 on an 18-yard touchdown reception by Jerod Harvery.

With eight minutes left in the fourth quarter, Meyer found Stephens in the back of the end zone for a San Jose touchdown. On the ensuing kickoff, SaberCats defensive end Donte Paige-Moss recovered the ball off the upright, giving San Jose the ball at the Sharks 8-yard-line. A Gray TD reception with 3:46 remaining gave San Jose a 62-45 lead.

A late interception by DB Erik Crocker sealed the victory for the SaberCats.

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-It maybe a new day, but it is the exact same result for the defending World Champion San Francisco Giants.

Since winning the series opener on April 9 against the San Diego Padres, the Giants have dropped eight in a row, with their latest coming in a 9-0 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks at AT&T Park.

The eight-game losing streak is longest by the team since dropping eight in a row from June 13-22, 2007.

Also with the loss, the Giants have matched their worst start to a season thru 12 games since moving to San Francisco back in 1958.

The Giants also started 3-9 in 1983, 1985 and 2000, in that 2000 season, the Giants would regroup and end up winning the National League West by 11 games before losing to the eventual National League Champion New York Mets in four games in the National League Division Series.

Jake Peavy was cruising through the first two innings, despite allowing a single and a walk in the second inning.

In was in the third inning that the wheels fell off the wagon for Peavy, as he allowed three runs on four hits in the frame.

Usual Giants killer Paul Goldschmidt was up to his old tricks, as he lashed a single to centerfield that scored Ender Inciarte with the Diamondbacks first run of the game.

The Goldschmidt single was the third single in a row after starting pitcher Josh Collmenter grounded out to leadoff the inning.

After the Collmenter ground out, Inciarte singled, then A.J. Pollock singled prior to Goldschmidt’s single up the middle.

Jake Lamb then hit a two-run triple that scored both Pollock and Goldschmidt for the Diamondbacks second and third runs of the inning.

Collmenter then helped out his cause in the top of the fourth inning, as he singled to right field to score Chris Owings.

Following Pollock’s second of four hits on the evening, Peavy was pulled by Giants manager Bruce Bochy in favor of George Kontos.

In just three and two-thirds innings of work, Peavy gave up four runs on eight hits, while walking one and striking out two.

Kontos allowed a run in the top of the fifth inning, as Tuffy Gosewisch singled to score David Peralta, who led off the inning with a single of his own.

The runs for the Diamondbacks did not stop there, as Ryan Vogelsong gave up in the top of the sixth inning, when Peralta picked up his second hit of the game to score Pollock.

On the other side of things, Collmenter was cruising, as he threw a complete game shutout, as he allowed just three hits, while walking one and striking out one and won for the first time in 2015.

Collmenter picked up his second hit of the night in the top of the seventh inning, as he singled to right field and advanced to second base on a fielding error by Gregor Blanco that allowed Owings to score from first base.

The night was not done for Collmenter at the plate, as he picked up his career-high third hit of the night in the top of the ninth inning.

By Morris Phillips

At some point, the Giants will have to offer their loyal, ticket-buying fan base something more than the afterglow of three World Series titles in the last five seasons.

That process would naturally start with winning games along the shores of McCovey Cove, but it hasn’t happened yet.  The Giants lost for the fourth consecutive day at home on Thursday, 7-6 to the Diamondbacks in 12 innings.

Aaron Hill’s two-out, two-run double off Sergio Romo decided it, but at least there was a whole lot of Giants’ fight before and after Hill’s game-winner.

The Giants trailed 4-1 in the seventh only to tie it with Brandon Crawford’s two-run homer in the seventh and a single run in the ninth.  When Arizona regained the lead, the Giants rallied to tie it in the tenth.  But in both rallies, the Giants loaded the bases but failed to push across the winning run.

The loss was the Giants seventh straight overall but this time their offense wasn’t dormant.  They banged out 11 hits and grinded in some critical at-bats.  But they stranded a bunch of baserunners, including six by Brandon Belt, who suffered through a frustrating 0 for 6 night.

“The thing you have to like is we kept coming,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We didn’t quit.”

Madison Bumgarner pitched the first seven innings but allowed damaging home runs to Mark Trumbo and Paul Goldschmidt and departed on the hook for the loss.  The Giants’ rally saved Mad Bum but his ERA sits at an unsightly 5.29 after three starts.

“I felt good enough to get outs, but they call it mid-season form for a reason,” Bumgarner said. “It’s tough getting to that.”

The Giants have dropped seven in a row for the first time since 2010.  Their 3-8 start to the season is tied for their worst since moving to San Francisco.

By Matthew T.F. Harrington

The Golden State Warriors (67-15) wrapped the 2014-15 season up with a victory, outpacing the visiting Denver Nuggets 133-126 in a warm-up for Saturday’s first-round opener against Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans.

Klay Thompson scored 25 points despite the Warriors starting five seeing limited action. Stephen Curry played only 19 minutes, ensuring he’d be fresh for the opening round of the Western Conference playoffs. The potential Most Valuable Player scored 10 points on 4 of 10 shooting over his 19 minutes of action.

For the Nuggets (30-52), Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari put up 18 a piece while Erick Green chipped in 17 off the bench.

Golden State wrapped up the top seed well in advance of Thursday night, knowing full well they’d face the eighth-seed at Oracle Arena to open the postseason after a record-setting 67-win season that included a pair of 17+ game home winning streaks. It took until tonight for the final seed to be decided though, with the Pelicans topping the San Antonio Spurs for the final spot in the playoffs. Golden State went 3-1 in the regular season against the Pelicans.

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – In his first outing of the year, we were reminded of what Tim Lincecum is still capable of doing. It didn’t take very long to be reminded of what he cannot do anymore.

After throwing seven shutout innings at the Padres Friday night that brought back memories of his Cy Young Award-winning days, Lincecum lost his command – and the strike zone – in the first inning Wednesday night. With his decreased velocity and, thus, inability to get away with the mistakes in pitch location that he once had, he paid dearly for it.

Charlie Blackmon led off the game with a walk and Troy Tulowitzki followed up with a single to put some pressure on. However, Lincecum rallied and was only a strike away from getting out of the jam in when he caught too much of the plate to Nolan Arenado, and the third baseman took him deep to give Colorado a 3-0 lead.

The Giants could not recover from that setback, blowing opportunities to get back into the game as they lost their sixth game in a row, 4-2, before 41,188 disappointed fans at AT&T Park, including the first three home games of the 2015 season. In fact, Wednesday marked the first time that they have been swept in a season-opening home series since 2000, which happened to be the inaugural season at this ballpark.

In other words, it’s not the way the Giants expected to celebrate their World Series title of a season ago, to be sure.

Lincecum (1-1) was able to steady the ship, keeping the Rockies scoreless for the next three innings before being pulled for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the fifth. He finished surrendering those four runs on six hits while walking one batter and striking out four. The deficit is manageable for a lot of teams, but it seems like more of a death sentence for the Giants’ offense.

To their credit, the Giants did show minor signs of life during Wednesday’s game after the Rockies dropped the three-spot on them, but they still drew mostly blanks when it was time to fire the big shot.

Colorado starter Tyler Matzek (1-0) also had something to do with that, as he went six innings and gave up a single run on five hits, walking only one and striking out three others. For the Giants, though, this has been increasingly commonplace.

Down 4-1, Gregor Blanco, for instance, delivered instant excitement with a one-out triple while pinch-hitting for Lincecum in the fifth. That was quickly extinguished when, once again, the Giants failed to bring him in and remained in a three-run hole.

The Giants continued that unpleasant theme in the eighth, after Matt Duffy inched the Giants closer with his first major-league home run, a solo shot that narrowed the Giants’ deficit to two. Pagan then singled and Buster Posey walked right behind him, but the Giants failed to bring either man around, wasting yet another opportunity.

With that, the Giants have now gone 4-for-47 with runners in scoring position in their past seven games, which certainly paints a picture as to why they now sit with a 3-7 record.

NOTES: Nori Aoki entered Wednesday’s game with a 17-game hitting streak that dated back to Sept. 21, but that came to an end against Colorado, as the left fielder went 0-for-3 and getting hit by a pitch in the first inning.

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

Fifty-four(54)years since Fidel Castro declared Cuba a
Marxist-Leninist country, today Cuba is so poor and so in
need of help that soon the USA will have it first embassy in
Havana for over half century. Cuba will be removed from the
terrorist list, and they were there for good reason, if you go
back and see the countries they associated with, every enemy
of America was a friend of Cuba.

So who won the Cold War between the USA and Cuba?
Obviously the USA. Did anybody expected anything else, after
70 years of communism collapsed in Russia in 1989, Cuba was
to follow. But that is not the way some here in
the USA will portray the moment we “set shop”and
open the US Embassy in Havana. They would say that
cooperation is essential, that Obama was right, that we need
the same health care system as Cuba and they will pick what
they like about Cuba. Some idiotas(idiots in Spanish)will go
the length of praising Cuba’s beauty and Cuban’s
sensational beaches, like Fidel Castro put them there, and
not God.

But most of these people, quick to talk about
violations of human rights, never really spoke about those
violations of human rights, the Cubans in the island are
still subjected to.

Last week USA Today, revealed a poll,
they said it was taken without the authorization of the
Cuban government, inside Cuba and it showed that Obama was
more popular than Fidel Castro. Well, the USA Today should
know that anybody would be more popular in Cuba than the
Castros. As a matter of fact(going back for a
while)I remember as a young man when John F.Kennedy, after
getting elected President of the US, was also more popular
than Castro on the island.

My father Joaquin left Cuba as a Cuban-exile in 1964.
At that time, radio WQBA in Miami had an Open Mic at Miami
International Airport, with reporter Tomás García-Fuste.
The microphone was for Cubans arriving in the US a country
of freedom. My father said at that microphone, right at the
airport: “Caballero, el comunismo es una
mierda” -translation- “Gentleman, communism is crap”. Joaquin was
absolutely correct.

Sometimes history gets in the way of our Presidents.
Re-establishing relations with Cuba was going to happen,
just like when we captured Osama Bin Laden, there are
certain things(like history)that gets on the way of leaders.
I knew that we would prevail at the end, and capitalism has
prevailed also in Cuba over
socialism-communism-totalitarism.

I knew when I first arrived in this country in 1961,
that Communism would fall before Democracy. And(if I may say
it also)I was right like my father Joaquin, Cuba’s
system has been a monumental failure. The blockade was not
the issue, because Cuba during the past few decades, traded
with Canada, and many countries in Europe, so it was not the
American blockade that brought the Castro’s to their
knees, it was their own failure of a bankrupt system.

The famous one-percent(1%)that the left in American
made so important on their debates, they forget to mention
that in Cuba, the one-percent is the government. Cuba’s
rulers do not lack food, private transportation or many
other luxuries, that the average Cuban in the island is lack
of. But they will never tell you that here in the land of
plenty, because many people that are born in this country
failed to realize, that there is no other country like the
United States of America, and that our system of government
as flaw as it may be, still is the best on earth.

Cuban baseball players should be happy, they soon will
not have to risks their lives trying to escape the
island in the middle of the night in small and dangerous
craft, looking for the Freedom THE CUBAN PEOPLE STILL DOES
NOT ENJOY.

I am sure there will be more news about this in the
future.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Angels Spanish TV voice and the A’s Spanish radio voice and does News and Commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice