Category: Uncategorized

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Just like the previous 15 Opening Day ceremonies held on the corner of 3rd and King, this Opening Day was special for more reasons than one.

You have the fans rejoicing each other as they see one another for the first time since Game Five of the 2014 World Series, then longtime San Francisco Giants Public Address Announcer Renel Brooks-Moon came over the loudspeaker to begin the 2015 Opening Day festivities.

This Opening Day is extra special, as just like in 2011 and 2013, the Giants enter the season as the defending World Champions, thus this day is even more special.

After Hall of Fame broadcaster Jon Miller took over the reigns from Brooks-Moon, both the Colorado Rockies and the Giants teams were introduced to the fab day AT&T Park.

The Giants came entered the field via beyond the centerfield wall with Bruce Bochy, Tim a Lincecum and Buster Posey each carrying one of the three World Series trophies.

National League Championship Series and World Series Most Valuable Player Madison Bumgarner received the loudest ovation of all for his tremendous postseason run, as helped the Giants to their third World Series Championship in five years.

In memory of revered broadcaster Lon Simmons, who passed away on April 5, his four daughters threw out the ceremonial first pitches.

The final thing of the ceremony was to raise the World Series banner that the Giants earned after they defeated the Kansas City Royals in a thrilling seven-game series last October.

With the help of mounted San Francisco Police, Bumgarner hopped aboard one of the horses and rode it into centerfield, where he handed it to Bochy.

Led by Jeremy Affeldt, Matt Cain, Lincecum, Sergio Romo, Santiago Casilla and Javier Lopez, the banner was raised to the top of the flagpole.

Including Bumgarner and the six pitchers, Posey is the only position player remaining from the 2010 team and he was in the bullpen during the ceremony.

By in his first meaningful appearance since Game 7 of the World Series, Madison Bumgarner only lasted three innings.

In those three innings, Bumgarner allowed five runs on 10 hits, as the San Diego Padres made it two straight win with a 10-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park.

The Padres tied a Petco Park record with 20 hits, as Matt Kemp picked up four hits, while Yangervis Solarte and Will Middlebrooks each added three hits.

Former Kansas City Royals pitcher James Shields, who faced Bumgarner in games one and five of the World Series went seven innings, allowing just one run on three hits, while walking one and striking out seven.

Shields also picked up a hit in the eight-run victory.

Joaquin Arias got the Giants on the board in the top of the fourth inning, as he hit his first home run of the 2015 season.

Ryan Vogelsong pitched three and two-thirds in relief, as he allowed five runs (four of them earned) on nine hits.

Casey McGehee strained his left knee after he left the batters box with he flew out in the top of the first inning.

Former Padres pitcher Jake Peavy makes his season debut for the Giants on Sunday, while former Oakland A’s pitcher Tyson Ross takes the ball for the Padres.

By Jeremy Kahn

In the first two games of the weekend series between the San Diego Padres and the San Francisco Giants, the number one is the magic number.

Wil Myers hit a double in the bottom of the eighth inning that scored Clint Barmes, as the Padres defeated the Giants 1-0 at Petco Park.

It was the second game in a row that the final score was 1-0, as the reigning World Champion Giants spoiled the Padres home opener with a 1-0 12-inning victory on Thursday.

The lone run was the first run scored by the Padres in 22 innings, or since Wednesday’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium.

Also the run broke a string of 22 scoreless innings pitched by the Giants since their series finale against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on Wednesday.

Joaquin Benoit picked up his second win of the young season, as he pitched a perfect eighth inning in relief of stater Brandon Morrow.

Despite allowing a single in the top of the ninth inning, new Padres closer Craig Kimbrel was able to get Angel Pagan to ground into a double play to end the game.

Both Nori Aoki and Buster Posey each picked up two hits for the Giants in the loss.

Tim Lincecum went seven innings, scattering just four hits, while walking three and striking out five in his first start of the 2015 season.

Santa Rosa native and former CAL pitcher Brandon Morrow also pitched seven innings, and scattered four hits.

Morrow also walked three, the same as Lincecum; however he struck out seven in his first of the season.

The former PAC-10 foes were picked five spots apart in the 2006 Major League Baseball Draft, as Morrow was drafted by the Seattle Mariners and Lincecum was drafted number 10 by the Giants out of the University of Washington.

By Daniel Dullum

Sports Radio Service

Friday, April 10, 2015

San Jose became the first Arena Football League team to start the season 3-0 Friday, traveling to Tampa Bay and defeating the Storm 36-27 before an announced crowd of 8,588 at Amalie Arena.

In the process, SaberCats receiver T.T. Toliver reached the 1,000-pass reception plateau for his career, the fourth receiver in league history to do so. On the night, Toliver finished with six catches for 84 yards.

Newly-acquired wide receiver D.J. Stephens snagged six passes for 80 yards and two touchdowns for San Jose, and Darius Reynolds made six catches for 64 yards.

Defensively for San Jose, defensive back Vigil Gray grabbed an interception for the third straight game, and made five tackles. DB Ken Fontenette finished with a team-high eight tackles. Defensive end Rodney Fritz had a forced fumble and two sacks, and Jason Stewart had an interception and a safety. Also, DE Donte Paige-Moss contibuted two sacks and a forced fumble.

SaberCats quarterback Erik Meyer completed 17-of-32 passes for 179 yards and two touchdowns. Storm quarterback Jason Boltus finished the night completing 21-of-39 passes for 260 yards and four touchdowns.

The SaberCats came close to scoring on their opening drive, but a possible scoring play to D.J. Stephens was wiped out by a penalty, and another scoring pass to Reynolds was nullified when the wide receiver was unable to get his feet inbounds. But the SaberCats bounced back with a big second quarter.

San Jose took a 14-0 lead in the second quarter on a 16-yard scoring pass from Meyer to Stephens. Jacksonville responded with a 19-yard TD reception by Kendrick Ings, who led the Storm with a game-high eight catches for 100 yards and three touchdowns.

Meyer’s quarterback sneak extended San Jose’s lead to 21-7, and Nich Pertuit booted a 16-yard field goal, giving the SaberCats a 24-7 halftime lead.

Next Friday, the undefeated SaberCats travel to Jacksonville to face the Sharks.

By Jeremy Harness

Despite the hits the Giants have taken via free agency as well as injuries, this season is starting to shape up like the beginning of the 2014 campaign.

Justin Maxwell, who made the Giants out of spring training as a non-roster invitee, came through with a pinch-hot single in the top of the 12th inning to bring in Brandon Crawford and lift the Giants past the San Diego Padres, 1-0, in the Padres’ home opener at Petco Park.

The Giants seemed to catch a break in the third inning, when Padres starter Ian Kennedy, a perennial Giant-killer, had to leave the game after throwing a pitch to Nori Aoki and feeling tightness in his hamstring.

The extent of his injury was not immediately known at press time, and there is no timetable for his return at this time.

However, that was not the case. Four other Padres hurlers kept the Giants off the scoreboard until Maxwell victimized reliever Nick Vincent to ruin the afternoon of a whole lot of fedora-wearing Padres fans.

Meanwhile, Tim Hudson fired zeroes at the Padres and pitched into the seventh inning while giving up only five hits in the process, even though he also surrendered five walks. He gave way to Jeremy Affeldt, who shut down the Padres fir the remainder of the seventh.

The Giants’ bullpen then combined to give up only two hits the rest of the way, and after the Giants grabbed the lead, closer Santiago Casilla pitched a perfect 12th inning to earn the save and give the Giants a 3-1 record.

The Giants have three more games in San Diego before making their home debut on Monday for a three-game series with the Colorado Rockies, to be followed by a four-gamer with Arizona and a three-game set with the defending NL West champ Los Angeles Dodgers.

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Wednesday, April 8, 2015

The San Francisco Giants made it nine consecutive victorious road series at Chase Field, following a 5-2 win on Wednesday over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

San Francisco had a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning when Casey McGehee drove a 375-foot two-run home run to left, providing the final margin of victory.

The win went to rookie Chris Heston, who was called up Tuesday from Triple-A Sacramento to replace the injured Matt Cain in the San Francisco rotation.

“What a good job he did; good for Chris,” Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said in his postgame media session. ”He was a little amped up that first inning, threw it away, but settled down and really did a nice job.”

Rookie jitters could be attributed to Heston hitting the first batter he faced and making a throwing error trying to pick him off. Once he settled down, Heston gave up two earned runs on three of the D-Backs’ five hits, struck out five and walked two in his six innings of work.

”The first inning started to unravel a little bit, kind of a little shaky there,” Heston told the media. ”But I was able settle down and get back into it.”

The Giants bullpen did the rest. Jean Machi and Sergio Romo each threw a scoreless inning, and Santiago Casilla racked up his second save in three games.

Leadoff hitter Nori Aoki led San Francisco’s 14-hit attack, going 3-for-4 with an RBI double. The Giants racked up 37 hits in the three-game series in the Valley of the Sun.

Arizona starter Jeremy Hellickson (0-1) gave up three earned runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 innings.

After the Diamondbacks took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, San Francisco went ahead to stay in the top of the second on run-scoring doubles by Aoki and Matt Duffy.

The Giants made it 3-1 in the fifth when McGehee scored on a base hit by Brandon Crawford. Arizona responded with a run in the sixth when Paul Goldschmidt scored on a passed ball.

In the top of the ninth, Buster Posey led off with a single and scored on McGehee’s drive to the left field pavilion, which effectively put the game out of reach.

The Giants road trip continues Thursday in San Diego, where they’ll play a four-game set with the Padres. Veteran right-hander Tim Hudson will make the first start of his 17th and final major league season for San Francisco. The 39-year-old Hudson had surgery to remove bone chips from his right ankle during the offseason.

By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Tuesday, April 7, 2015

PHOENIX, Arizona – Chip Hale’s first win as a major league manager didn’t come without some anxious moments, but his Arizona Diamondbacks outlasted San Francisco 7-6 Tuesday at Chase Field.

“I’ll save the lineup card, that’s for sure,” Hale, the former Oakland Athletics bench coach, said. “It’s exciting. We’re playing the World Champions and they have great players who know how to win. You just have to keep going until you get 27 outs.”

Jake Lamb, who drove in four of the seven D-Backs runs, said of his manager’s first win, “This was huge. Not only to get it for Chip, but it’s game two of a series and to get the win, this gives us a chance to take the series tomorrow.”

Arizona built its lead on a pair of three-run homers – David Peralta in the third inning and Lamb in the fifth – both off Giants starter and losing pitcher Ryan Vogelsong (0-1).

Vogelsong lasted 4 2/3 innings and surrendered all seven D-Backs runs. He gave up six hits, struck out five and walked four.

“Ryan was so close to having a pretty good game,” Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said. “Two three-run homers with two outs, he worked a lot of deep counts and that might have caught up with him. He had good stuff tonight, I thought. He made some good pitches before the second home run, but (Arizona hitters) found a way to foul them off.”

The Giants did some slugging of their own, with home runs by Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford. Posey was 3-for-3 with a walk, and Hector Sanchez added an RBI double. Sanchez, replaced Posey behind the plate when the All-Star catcher took over for the injured Brandon Belt at first base.

Though San Francisco scored six earned runs off Diamondbacks starter Rubby De La Rosa (1-0), the right-hander managed to still get the win. Arizona closer Addison Reed struck out two of the four batters he faced in the ninth for his first save of the season.

De La Rosa, acquired from Boston in the offseason, struck out five, walked two and surrendered eight hits. He worked out of jams in the fourth and fifth innings to keep Arizona in the game.

“I just tried to throw the ball over home plate and see what would happen,” De La Rosa said. “I had to make an adjustment to make better pitches, and that worked.”

“We did a good job of scoring runs tonight,” Bochy said. “We just couldn’t quite finish it off.”

With two out in the first inning, Angel Pagan doubled and Posey hammered a 399-foot home run to left, putting the Giants up 2-0.

Arizona cut their deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the second when Mark Trumbo tripled and scored on Lamb’s groundout to second. The Diamondbacks took a 4-2 lead in the third when, after a double by Aaron Hill and a walk to Paul Goldschmidt, Peralta sent a 419-foot drive deep into the right field seats for his first home run of the season.

San Francisco countered with single runs in the fourth and fifth to tie the game at 4-4. In the fourth, Pagan walked and scored on a single by Belt. One inning later, Vogelsong singled, moved to third on a double by Nori Aoki, and scored on Joe Panik’s sacrifide fly to left.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Diamondbacks snapped the tie with Lamb’s three-run homer – his first of the season. After Goldschmidt singled and Peralta walked, Lamb worked Vogelsong for a long pitch count before he homered to the left-center field seats, just to the left of the 413-foot sign.

“I was just trying to wait for a mistake and hit it,” Lamb said. “I was looking fastball away and I was proud of how I was fighting off pitches. (Vogelsong) kept throwing changeups down, I kept fouling them off, fouling them off. I got a fastball away, fouled that off. I told myself to zone down and look for something to hit to left-center. He hung the slider and I put a good swing on it.”

“(Lamb) saw eight or nine pitches. (Vogelsong) was facing his last hitter anyway,” Bochy said. “I was hoping that worst case, maybe a base hit. We had him covered for the next hitter, but he just made a mistake.”

Lamb has seven runs batted in over the first two games of the season. “I’ll take it!” he said, laughing. “I’m feeling comfortable at the plate right now and I’ll just try to keep it going.”

With Belt leaving the game in the fifth inning due to a groin injury, and Matt Cain headed to join Hunter Pence on the disabled list, Bochy can’t remember a start to a season like this one.

“It’s difficult to do,” Bochy said. “We’re going through a rash of them right now. Some things, you can’t explain. We’ll be making a decision soon on personnel, get something rolling and figure out what we’re going to do.”

GIANT JOTTINGS: RHP Chris Heston was recalled by the Giants from Triple-A Sacramento. Heston replaces RHP Matt Cain, who was placed on the disabled list (flexor tendon strain, right forearm) retroactive to April 4. The Giants aren’t sure how long Cain will be on the DL. … Belt’s strained groin injury was to be evaluated after the game. Bochy said Belt would undergo an MRI on Wednesday. … The announced attendance was 22,626.

By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Monday, April 6, 2015

PHOENIX, Arizona – Madison Bumgarner won’t come right out and admit it, but on Monday, he seemed to pick up right where he left off after nailing down Game 7 of the 2014 World Series.

“I’m just trying to get better, always,” Bumgarner said. “I’m not worried about what happened six months ago or three months ago or what happened last week. I prepared for today, now I’ll prepare for my next start. That’s how I like to go about my business.”

It’s an approach that served San Francisco’s ace left-hander well on Opening Day. He threw seven strong innings in the Giants’ 5-4 Opening Day win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Bumgarner (1-0) scattered six hits, gave up one earned run, struck out three and walked one. He threw 93 pitches.

“Mostly, it was getting ahead of guys, making pitches, the defense was great behind me and picked me up multiple times,” Bumgarner said, adding that he feels “no pressure” in being the ace of the staff. “It’s just about competing, and that’s it. You go out there and compete as hard as you can, and be pleased with whatever the result is.”

Bruce Bochy, Giants manager, said of Bumgarner, “I’m not sure what’s left to say about him. You look at what he did for us in the (2014) postseason, won 18 games last year. This guy is special. He throws a terrific game in his first start. He gave us what we needed against a tough lineup.”

The top third of the Giants’ order – Nori Aoki, Joe Panik and Angel Pagan – went 8-for-14 collectively and accounted for four of the five San Francisco runs.

“Those guys really did a nice job of getting on base and put together a really nice game,” Bochy said. “They put a lot of pressure on the pitcher, kept grinding out AB’s to get good pitches to hit.”

“They swung the bat great,” Bumgarner said. “It was a good, all-around team effort by everybody. We played the kind of baseball we need to play to win games.”

The Giants rocked Arizona starter and losing pitcher Josh Collmenter (0-1) for all five of their runs – all earned – on 10 hits. Collmenter struck out four and walked on in 4 2/3 innings.

“Collmenter has always been tough on us,” Bochy said. “This was our best game against him.”

The Giants scored the first run of the game off Collmenter in the third inning. With one out, Aoki singled and advanced to third on Panik’s double, but was caught in a rundown at the plate after making a wide turn at third. Panik, who advanced to third on the rundown, scored on a base hit by Pagan.

Arizona tied the game in the bottom of the third when Ender Inciarte singled and scored on Mark Trumbo’s two-out triple off the overhang in right-center field.

San Francisco surged ahead 5-1 with four runs in the fifth. After Aoki and Panik led off with back-to-back singles, Pagan drove in Aoki with a double, and Buster Posey’s sacrifice fly to left scored Panik. Belt grounded out, and a walk to Casey McGehee chased Collmenter.

Brandon Crawford greeted Arizona reliever Andrew Chafin with a two-RBI double that was mishandled in right by Trumbo. Pagan and McGehee scored on the play.

The Diamondbacks roughed up the San Francisco bullpen in the bottom of the eighth, scoring three runs on a bases-loaded, three-RBI pinch-hit double by Jake Lamb. Inciarte led off with a single off Javier Lopez and moved to second on a wild pitch by Jean Machi, who then completed a walk to Paul Goldschmidt. Two batters later, Aaron Hill singled to load the bases, and Sergio Romo replaced Machi.

Lamb greeted Romo with a drive high off the wall in right-center that cleared the bases and pulled the Diamondbacks to within 5-4. Romo struck out Tuffy Gosewisch, but walked pinch-hitter Cliff Pennington. Jeremy Affeldt replaced Romo and struck out pinch-hitter David Peralta to snuff out the rally.

Sergio Casilla tossed a 1-2-3 ninth, striking out Goldschmidt to nail down his first save of the season.

“A lot of good things happened today,” Bochy said. “We had some good at-bats, it’s good to get those runs and we had just enough. Give (Arizona) credit – they battled back.

“It was a good ballgame. A good start.”

GIANTS JOTTINGS: Video replay of whether or not a pitch from Affeldt hit pinch-hitter David Peralta took 1:54. The call on the field, a foul ball, was upheld. … Ryan Vogelsong will start Tuesday night’s game for San Francisco, facing Rubby De La Rosa of Arizona. The Giants are waiting to name a starter for Wednesday’s contest. … Snakes RHP Daniel Hudson made a positive step in his comeback bid. Hudson, returning to the mound after recovering from a second Tommy John surgery, faced five batters in a scoreless eighth inning. Hudson threw one inning against San Diego last September. … The announced sell-out crowd of 49,043 was the fourth largest Opening Day in Diamondbacks’ history, and the eighth-largest regular season crowd at Chase Field overall. … Even with the new rules for speeding up the pace of the game, Monday’s contest took 3:18 to play.

By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Saturday, April 4, 2015

GLENDALE, Arizona – It’s been 22 years since the San Jose Sharks missed the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. With three games remaining in a logjammed Western Conference race, that streak of consistency is in danger of coming to a halt.

On a Saturday night in the Valley of the Sun, Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored two goals, Shane Doan added a goal and two assists, goaltender Mike Smith stopped one shot after another, and the Arizona Coyotes dealt a critical blow to the Sharks’ playoff hopes with a 5-3 victory before 14,752 at Gila River Arena.

“It’s not what we didn’t get, it’s what we gave up,” Sharks Coach Todd McLellan said. “When you give up four goals to any team in the league, you’re not going to win. Even when you throw the empty netter out, it’s too much to ask to score five on any given night to win.

“We started out desperate and got into some penalty trouble,” McLellan continued. “They scored a couple early and that put us on our heels. The penalty kill let us down, we had a couple of breakdowns in our zone, we went up against a hot goaltender at the other end, and that was the difference.”

It was the second part of a two-game back-to-back series against Arizona. The Sharks won 3-1 Friday in San Jose.

“The big difference was we didn’t give up those two goals early,” Sharks goaltender Antti Niemi said, adding that the scheduling wasn’t a factor. “Tonight, (Arizona) got those two goals early and never gave up the lead.”

The Sharks have not missed the playoffs since 2003, and came into Saturday’s game trailing Winnipeg and Los Angeles in the NHL West Wild Card standings. Earlier in the evening, Winnipeg defeated Vancouver 5-4, giving the Jets 92 points and a tie with the Kings, who beat Colorado 3-1. Calgary, meanwhile, blanked Edmonton 4-0.

Minnesota, which lost in overtime to Detroit, leads the West Wild Card race with 96 points, followed by the Jets with 92 and Calgary with 91. The Sharks are four points back.

San Jose (39-31-9, 87 points) has three games remaining – Monday’s home finale against Dallas, Thursday at Edmonton and next Saturday at Los Angeles. In the meantime, the Sharks need to run the table and hope for outside help to reach the playoffs.

“We’ve got six points that are available to us. We’re going to try and get them all and see what happens,” McLellan said.

The Coyotes (23-47-8, 54) won despite being outshot 45-33 by San Jose. Smith made 42 saves, while Neimi stopped 28 shots for the Sharks.

“We had a lot of really good looks at the net tonight,” Sharks left wing Patrick Marleau said. “The pucks just didn’t go where they’re supposed to.”

Arizona opened the scoring with a power play goal at 11:53 of the first period. With San Jose defenseman Karl Stollery in the box for hooking, Ekman-Larsson fired a low shot from outside the right circle off a clean cross-ice feed from Mark Arcobello, beating Niemi low to the stick side.

Five minutes later, San Jose used its own power play to tie the game at 1-1. Tomas Hertl coverted a rebound off the initial shot from the point by Taylor Fedun. A sprawling Smith had no chance to make a play.

Moments later, the Coyotes regained the lead at 2-1, again on the power play. After Michael Stone fired a shot from the right point, Shane Doan was in position to poke the rebound between Niemi’s legs for his 14th goal of the season.

“They (the Coyotes) have a good power play,” Sharks center Joe Pavelski said. “We haven’t been as sharp on the power play lately, and it cost us there. But we responded with two power play goals. At the end of the night, we had our chances to score, and if we defend well enough, we’re going to get those opportunities.”

“That’s one of the things we talked about, getting our penalty kill going,” Marleau said. “Unfortunately, they have a pretty good power play and got some second chances. We still felt like we were in it, though.”

On giving up two early power play goals, Niemi said, “That happens sometimes in games like this.”

The Coyotes extened their lead to 3-1 at 17:46 of the second period, when Ekman-Larsson scored his second goal of the game. The All-Star defenseman picked up a loose rebound to the left of the crease and flipped a wrister that caromed inside the crossbar, over Niemi’s left shoulder.

With his two goals, Ekman-Larsson tied a Coyotes franchise record for goals in a season by a defenseman. Phil Housley tallied 23 in 1990-91 and 1991-92 during the club’s initial days in Winnipeg.

Nineteen seconds later, Joe Thornton scored his 15th goal of the season from the left circle, catching the inside post on Smith’s left, cutting Arizona’s lead to 3-2.

Five and one-half minutes into the third period, Arcobello scored his 17th goal of the season – from Doan and Tobias Reider) to give Arizona a 4-2 lead. San Jose answered at 6:48 when Chris Tierney redirected a blast from the right point by Matt Irwin with the Coyotes’ Mike Stone serving a hooking minor, pulling the Sharks to within 4-3.

“(Arizona) has a proud team and they played a hell of a game tonight,” McLellan said. “They did a lot of good things, like their special teams getting them two on the power play, and (Smith) playing as well as he did and he gave them a chance to win.

“We knew going in that this wasn’t going to be an easy weekend,” he continued. “(The Coyotes) have good structure and they’re well coached. And they still play real hard.”

“We fought and came back, but the end was very disappointing,” Pavelski said. “We had our chances, and it was one of those games where you feel better than what the final result is.”

With Niemi pulled for a sixth attacker, Sam Gagner added an empty net goal at 19:49, sending a dejected Sharks squad back to the Bay Area looking for a glimmer of hope to extend their season.

“We need the points from each and every game left. They’re critical,” Marleau said. “This situation is disappointing because we’ve grown accustomed to being in the playoffs. This is different territory for us.”

TAGS: San Jose Sharks, NHL, Arizona Coyotes, Sports Radio Service, Daniel Dullum