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By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Matt Duffy came up with the biggest hit of the game at the most opportune tine for the San Francisco Giants.

Duffy hit a walk-off single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning off of Steve Cishek , helping the a Giants to a come-from-behind 3-2 victory over the Miami Marlins before a crowd of 41,889, the 347th consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

It was the first career walk-off for Duffy in his brief major league career, and the fourth walk-off win of the season for the Giants.

Of the 16 wins on the season, nine of them have been by one run, the most in the majors this season.

Things looked bleak entering the bottom of the ninth inning, as they trailed the Marlins and were 1-16 after the eighth inning and trailing.

This was just the second loss of the season for the Marlins after they led after eight innings, as they fall to 14-2 in such games.

Justin Maxwell struck out to lead off the inning, then Andrew Susac singles, following a Gregor Blanco doubled to send Pinch runner Joaquin Arias to third, and it looked like Ichiro Suzuki deked Arias to staying at third.

Buster Posey, who was given the day off by Bruce Bochy was called on to pinch hit for Casey McGehee and he was walked intentionally to load the bases.

Angel Pagan struck out for the second out of the inning, and then Nori Aoki walked to tie up the game and Duffy ended with a single to left field to win the game.

Sergio Romo came onto replace Ryan Vogelsong in the top of the eighth inning, and struck out Jhonathan Solano to leadoff the inning, Justin Bour and then Dee Gordon doubled the right line. Solano then ran for Bour, and scored the eventual winning run for the Marlins.

Michael Morse, who played for the Giants during the 2014 season and helped them to their third World Championship in five years hit a ground run double in the top of the fourth inning.

Christian Yelich singled off of Ryan Vogelsong with two outs in the inning for the Marlins.

Brandon Belt tied up the game in the bottom of the sixth inning, as he singled in Nori Aoki, who singled to leadoff the inning.

Vogelsong went seven innings, allowing just one run on four hits, not walking a batter and striking out five.

Mat Latos went seven innings for the Marlins, as he allowed one run on seven hits, did not walk a batter and struck out seven,

Blanco picked up three hits for the Giants, asides from the double in the ninth, as he hit an infield hit that Marlins manager Mike Redmond challenged; however after a two minute 19 review, the play was upheld.

By: Ben Leonard
Follow @ben___leonard

SAN JOSE, CA–

They call Reggie Gray “Big Time” for a reason, and he wasted no time proving that in Sabercats’ 61-28 victory over the Las Vegas Outlaws, scoring a 28-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage. The touchdown was just the first of his 3 scores, carrying San Jose’s roaring third-ranked offense. Head coach and owner Darren Arbet praised his team’s focus in practice the previous week, mentioning that their hard work “carried over into the game.”

Las Vegas quickly answered with a big play of their own, a 38-yard strike to Clinto Solomon from quarterback J.J. Raterink, setting up his own one yard quarterback sneak touchdown to tie the game. But Gray and the Sabercats responded in a big way, outscoring the Outlaws 35-7 in the rest of the half, taking control on both sides of the ball. Gray adding two more touchdowns, making that three total in the first quarter alone. Gray would finish with 175 all-purpose yards, but didn’t score any more touchdowns, sitting for all of the second half with an injury. Arbet said that Gray “was tough to cover, because when he gets the ball in his hands, he can go the distance any time.” Go the distance he did, and then some.

The momentum swung decisively in San Jose’s favor with the score at 14-7 with 10:18 to go in the second, when Eric Crocker forced return man Gerald Young to fumble on the runback after Gray’s second touchdown. David Hyland recovered the fumble for San Jose, setting up Odie Armstrong’s one yard touchdown scamper. The Sabercats’ defense was utterly dominant by AFL standards, forcing two fumbles and holding Las Vegas to 305 yards. 

The Outlaws might have outgained the Sabercats 185-175 in the first half, but that was largely due to the disparity in kick return yards, shortening the field for San Jose. Gray had 83 return yards on just three runbacks, keying the Sabercats’ offense.

The Sabercats’ big stop on fourth down with 3:51 to go in the second put the game in the refrigerator. Down 35-14, the Outlaws had driven all the way to San Jose’s six yard-line, but big linebacker Francis Maka stuffed Raternick’s run short on 4th and 2. The Sabercats quickly scored again, on a deep fade to receiver Darius Reynolds, his second score of the game, giving San Jose a commanding 42-14 halftime lead. The formidable duo of Reynolds and Gray combined to total 230 all-purpose yards and 5 scores, propelling San Jose to the victory.

With all of Gray’s success, it might be easy to forget that someone was throwing him the ball. Sabercats’ quarterback Nathan Stanley had a very efficient game under center, completing 18 of his 20 attempts and throwing seven, count ’em seven touchdowns. Maka praised Stanley, who has been in the throws of a quarterback controversy, saying that “he’s not a backup. We rode him throughout the playoffs, and he’s our guy.” With Eric Meyer out, Stanley had to be their guy, as he was the only quarterback on the active roster. Receiver Diondre Borel played some quarterback in college, and would have been available in an emergency.

The barrage of Gray touchdowns stopped in the second half, but the Sabercats’ dominance did not. Defensive end Rodney Fritz added a 32-yard touchdown trod after fellow end Donte Paige-Moss sacked Raternick on fourth down and forced a fumble. The score would end the third quarter, and gave San Jose a 55-21 lead heading into the final period. The big 270 pound lineman’s explained his mentality on the play: “Pick it up and don’t get caught. As long as I don’t, I’ll be alright.” Simple, but true.

 

By: Joe Lami

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.—Since 2010, the Miami Marlins have owned San Francisco at AT&T Park with a record of 15-6, the highest winning percentage in past five years.  Saturday night was no different as the fish dominated the Giants, who were sporting their new black jerseys in front of 42,258, as they defeated the orange and black 6-2.

The Giants hopes were high, sending out ace, Madison Bumgarner, to the bump.  However, his night was short lived, pitching only five innings and giving up three runs in the process.  Bumgarner’s pitch count at the end of five was 99, mostly due to his ten strikeouts. “He had good stuff, the strikeouts showed it, but there was a couple of missed spots and they took advantage,” added Giants’ manager, Bruce Bochy. It was the first time this season Bumgarner struck out at least ten.  Bumgarner commented on his high pitch count, “I got to get quicker outs, and just let the strikeouts come to me. I can’t be looking for them. That’s way too many pitches”.

Trouble started in just the third inning for Bumgarner, although he was able to avoid any damage due to a fan interference play.  With two outs in the top half of the third and Christian Yelich on first, Martin Prado hit a ball down the left field line, that ended up being interfered with by a fan near the bullpen.  If the ball wasn’t interfered with Yelich would have been able to score, but since it was, the umpire ruled it a ground-rule double forcing Yelich to stop at third with two outs.  Giancarlo Stanton was brought to the plate, but it was just not his night as Bumgarner mowed down Stanton to end the frame.  Stanton ended the evening with a total of four strikeouts, three of which came from the hand of Bumgarner.

Miami however, wouldn’t hold a gruge against the fan, as they were able to account for all three runs that Bumgarner gave up in the fourth.  The inning started ugly when Marcell Ozuna hit his second homerun of the series on a deep ball out to left center field. Ozona also went yard on Hudson on Thursday. Bumgarner would next walk J.T. Realmuto, who was brought in by Jeff Baker right after on an RBI double.  Adien Hechavarria then brought in Realmuto with another RBI double.

The Giants first run came in the fifth inning as Brandon Crawford hit in Justin Maxwell from second base, where he reached on a double. 

The Marlins were able to add three more runs in the eighth inning, as they strung together three hits and a walk off of Jean Machi.  The third run came off of an overturned video review where Hechavarria was initially called out on a bang-bang play at first, which would have ended the inning.  However, the play was challenged by the Marlins and was overturned to bring in the sixth run of the game for Miami.

San Francisco added one late in the ninth with two outs as Joe Panik roped a double down the left field line bringing in Matt Duffy to make the 6-2 loss look less severe.

The highlight of the game for the Giants came in the first inning on a bloop hit by Oduna to right field, but Maxwell came sprinting in and laying out in a Superman styled dive on superhero night to take away the base hit.

Bumgarner’s record drops to 3-2, as the Giants drop below .500 with a 15-16 record, which was much improved after San Francisco was able to string off 11 wins in 16 games entering Saturday’s game.

David Phelps earned the victory for Miami in his fifth start of the season.  He ups his record to 2-0, while bringing Miami’s overall record to 15-16.  The loss for San Francisco ensures they won’t win the series, as they look to take half of it tomorrow.  The Giants haven’t won a series with the Marlins at AT&T since 2009, and that streak will continue.

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Casey McGehee was hit less in his his previous 18 at-bats, but that all changed with one swing of the bat.

McGehee hit a grand slam off of Jarred Cosart in the bottom of the second inning, helping the San Francisco Giants to a 6-0 victory over the Miami Marlins before a sellout crowd of 41,413, the 345th consecutive sellout at AT&T Park.

Besides the grand slam, McGehee also grounded into two more double plays, being his total on the season up to 11.

It was the third career grand slam for McGehee, and his first since April 26, 2010 against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Brendan Donnelly, while playing for the Milwaukee Brewers.

Tim Lincecum pitched a strong six innings, as he allowed just three hits, while walking three and striking out eight.

Lincecum extended his scoreless inning up to 15, just five days after throwing eight scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

In his career, Lincecum improves to 65-2 when getting four runs or more, this according to Bill Arnold of Sports Features Group.

Brandon Belt continues to hit the ball well, as he went 4-for-5 on the evening and is now batting .312 after being at the .077 mark on April 17.

Belt added another double, moving within one of tying Jeff Kent for the most consecutive games with a double by a San Francisco Giant.

Kent picked up a double in seven consecutive games from April 22-29, 1999.

Buster Posey went 2-for-2 at the plate with two runs scored, and was also walked twice.

Justin Maxwell also picked up two hits for the Giants in the win, as they are now 6-2 on the 10-game homestand.

The Giants extended their streak of scoring six runs or less up to 30 games, their longest streak since 1914.

To find the last time the Giants scored more than six runs in a game was in Game Four of the 2014 World Series, when they scored 11 against the Kansas City Royals.

Yusmeiro Petit pitched the final three innings, and picked up his first career save in the process.

By Jeremy Harness

Rory McIlroy has a very detailed and intense workout regimen, and after a prolonged last couple of days, that really paid off for him.

After his quarterfinal match with Paul Casey was suspended due to darkness Saturday night after 20 holes, he had to tee off at 6:45am PST Sunday to finish that match before moving on to the semifinal.

He came back to finally finish off Casey early Sunday morning and had another dramatic comeback in his satchel against Jim Furyk in the semis before holding off long-hitter Gary Woodland, 4-and-2, to claim his first-ever Cadillac Match Play championship at San Francisco’s TPC Harding Park.

“It’s been a great week to play,” McIlroy said. “What is it, seven matches, having to sleep on one as well. Sort of trying to beat three players in one day today.

“I played some great golf this week and got the job done, which was the most important thing, and (it was ) great to get the first win state-side this year.”

Against Woodland in the title match, McIlroy to a four-hole advantage, which he earned on the front nine and carried to the 11th hole while Woodland struggled to find his rhythm.

However, the world’s top player had a pair of slip-ups in the next pair of holes, and Woodland used that as a catalyst to win those two holes and give himself a realistic chance of a comeback. It could have been a tighter match, but after a brilliant bunker shot, Woodland missed a three-footer for par at the 13th after McIlroy was already in for bogey.

After getting that big break, McIlroy tightened things back up and proceeded to turn the lights out on Woodland, who was forced to concede at the 16th after going from one greenside bunker to another.

“The putt on 13 killed me,” Woodland said. “(If) my putt drops on 13, and I get to one down, and it’s a different ballgame. But I missed that one, and he was like a shark, smelled blood, and it was game over quickly.

“Losing sucks.”

Furyk will likely second that, especially after the way he fell to McIlroy in the morning semifinal. He had the Northern Ireland native a hole down going into the 16th hole, which he birdied. McIlroy responded quickly with a birdie and then followed that right up with another birdie to square it up.

McIlroy then made the putt of the tournament, rolling one in from more than 43 feet away for an eagle to take the match in the most dramatic fashion possible.

“I played solid today,” Furyk said. “(But) I tip my hat to him. It was a good match, back and forth. It was just disappointing.”

For Furyk, the disappointment continued into the consolation round, which got an eye-roll from him when asked about the significance of that match after his win over Louis Oosthuizen in the Saturday quarterfinal.

He had been known for coming on strong on the back nine, but he simply ran out of gas against Danny Willett and saw the Englishman take him down, 3 and 2.

By: Ben Leonard
Follow @ben___leonard
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With or without point guard Mike Conley, the Memphis Grizzlies are no pushover. Any team with Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph will play you tough, making the Warriors’ 101-86 victory in Game One of the Western Conference Semifinals all the more impressive.

Conley was forced to sit out after undergoing surgery to repair fractures in his face, but still watched from the bench. Conley’s status for the rest of the series is still up in the air at this point. Without Conley, Randolph and Gasol paced Memphis’ attack, scoring 20 and 21 points, respectively, both grabbing nine rebounds.

But not even those efforts were strong enough to beat the surging Warriors at Oracle Arena, who extended their home winning streak to 21 games. Stephen Curry paced the Warriors with 22 points and 7 assists, teaming up with fellow “Splash Brother” Klay Thompson and his 18 points to carry the Dubs over the depleted Grizzlies. As a team, Golden State shot an absurd 50.6% from the field, but were given some competition by Memphis in that department, who made 45.2% of their shots. However, the difference in this game was the Warriors’ ability to knock down threes, hitting 13 of their 28 attempts, as compared to Memphis’ 3 of 12 showing.

The Warriors were off to an auspicious beginning, holding a 16 point lead in the second, but failed to pull away from Memphis, finding themselves up just nine at the half. However, the Warriors outscored the Grizzlies 22-14 in the third, proving to be the difference in the game.

Golden State will look to take a 2-0 series lead on Tuesday, with tipoff at 7:30 PST at Oracle Arena.