Tag: giants

By Morris Phillips

Brett Anderson’s first post-season start came after a 14-month period of inactivity following elbow surgery, preceded by only six regular season starts, and just two weeks after a muscle strain sidelined him again.

Anderson pitched six shutout innings that night, picked up the win, and kept his Oakland A’s from elimination in the 2012 NLDS at the hands of the Detroit Tigers.  Oakland manager Bob Melvin gushed at Anderson’s performance that night, saying “I don’t know how you could expect more than we got out of him tonight.”

Three years later, Anderson—finally healthy—made his case for another post-season start on Thursday at AT&T Park.

Anderson pitched into the eighth inning, allowing just four hits as the Dodgers held on to beat the Giants, 3-2.  After losing seven straight to the Giants in San Francisco for the first time in more than 50 years, the Dodgers rebounded by winning two of the final three meetings this season while putting the finishing touches on an NL West title.

Anderson had the Giants out-of-tune, retiring 14 consecutive batters at one point, and keeping them off the scoreboard until Angel Pagan’s infield single scored Jarrett Parker in the eighth.   Anderson rebounded after Pagan reached, getting Brandon Crawford to ground out. That’s when manager Don Mattingly elected to remove Anderson in favor of reliever Chris Hatcher in search of the final out of the inning.

Kelby Tomlinson made things interesting when he greeted Hatcher with an RBI double to bring the Giants within a run.  But Hatcher recovered too, inducing Matt Duffy to fly out to end the inning.

The Dodgers still have pending business over the weekend: trying to post a better record than the Mets in an attempt to capture home field advantage in their best-of-five series starting October 9, and trying to figure out which starter will follow Zach Greinke and Clayton Kershaw in their post-season rotation.

Anderson made his case for the role with his outing Thursday.  The 27-year old surpassed 180 innings pitched in a season for the first time, and made his 31^st start of the season, also a career-best.  His trademark sinker had the youthful Giants’ lineup off stride as Anderson compiled 15 ground ball outs.

“He had us off-balance all day,” manager Bruce Bochy admitted.

Bochy elected to pencil in just two veterans—Buster Posey and Marlon Byrd—in his starting lineup, and the inexperience showed.  No Giant reached second base until the eighth inning, and that was essentially due to Howie Kendrick’s throwing error.

Anderson recorded only his second win against the Giants in nine career starts.

Tim Hudson started for the Giants and Bochy pulled the veteran making the final appearance of his 17-year big league career in the third inning, as the Dodgers were building an early 3-0 lead.  Hudson’s balky hip figured to make his final stint a short one, and when he departed he did so to enormous applause and hearty hugs from his teammates who greeted him on the top step of the dugout.

Hudson leaves baseball as the active leader in wins with 222.

The Giants will honor Hudson and Jeremy Affeldt over the weekend during their season-concluding series with the Rockies.  Affeldt announced his retirement before the game, and he relieved Hudson Thursday, pitching the remainder of the third inning, allowing a hit, and recording a strikeout.

“I had a good friend that I played with a long time,” Affeldt said.  “He told me, ‘This game is meant for young men and sometimes when you’re too old to play, you need to leave.’  And I feel right now that I need to leave.  I’m walking around… they have to tape me together just to be able to get me out there.  So it is time to leave, and it’s time to let someone else have a chance to play.  So I’m going to take my ball and go home.”

Bochy had fond words for Affeldt, who along with Sergio Romo, Santiago Casilla and Javier Lopez pitched out of the bullpen on all three Giants’ World Series title winners.

“He kept guy loose and had fun.  Those guys are hard to replace,” Bochy said.

Affeldt began his press conference as a full-fledged comedian, saying, “I just want to announce my two-year extension with the Giants.  Sorry, Larry (Baer), I don’t know if you knew that.”

Matt Cain, one of Affeldt’s closest friends on the team, attended the press conference, and wasn’t disappointed, saying to no one in particular when he entered “I want to see what he’s going to say!”

By Morris Phillips

In the biggest game of the year, with the odds stacked against them, the Giants turned to some kid from L.A. “who was sitting on the couch” two weeks ago, not so full of himself that he would ignore a mysterious phone call at 1:30 a.m.

And how did that work out?

Pretty good.

Trevor Brown provided the critical offense for San Francisco on Monday night in a tense, four-hour struggle with the NL West-leading Dodgers that went to the Giants, 3-2 in 12 innings.  As Bruce Bochy so musically captured in the pre-game, the Giants are “staying alive” still facing the daunting task of making up a five-game deficit in the season’s final six games.

Brown, a 2012 10^th round draftee out of UCLA, concluded his season with the Triple A Sacramento on September 7.  Like Barry Zito for the A’s, Brown had turned the page on baseball in 2015 when he got a phone call from Giants GM Bobby Evans well after midnight in which he found out that the Giants wanted him to gear up and make his major league debut.

The injury-plagued Giants made room for Brown immediately, plugging him in at catcher and moving regular catcher, Buster Posey, to first base.   Brown started all three games in the Bay Bridge Series over the weekend and was again behind the plate Monday in the biggest game of the year.

All Brown did was manage veteran Jake Peavy’s start beautifully and knock in the Giants’ first two runs with a double in the second inning.  In the 12^th, the Giants won it with Alejandro De Aza’s sacrifice fly with the bases loaded plated Marlon Byrd with the game-winning run.

Peavy, who had worked with Brown in spring training, and manager Bruce Bochy couldn’t have been more impressed with the kid who grew up a Dodgers’ fan.

“Brownie’s got a lot of confidence,” Peavy said.  “Brownie feels like he belongs. The moment’s not too big for him, he’s a smart kid who’s educated and he’s not letting the situation get the best of him.”

Far from it.  Brown spoke of all the studying he crammed into his weekend, first studying the A’s hitters, then the Dodgers, developing chemistry with the entire Giants’ pitching staff, and then still maintaining energy for the game itself.

In his critical at-bat, Brown fell behind 0-2, saw a couple of balls, then on the sixth pitch against dominant starter Zach Greinke he pounced.

“I was looking for a fastball the whole at-bat and I finally got one and I hit it,” Brown said.

Brown’s double in the right field gap plated Byrd and Kelby Tomlinson and gave the Giants a lead that would maintain until the top of ninth when Andre Ethier’s RBI ground out evened the score.

That set up a tense, extra-innings’ duel in which both teams exhausted the meat of their bullpens in a search for critical outs.

The Giants got big stints from relievers Josh Osich, Santiago Casilla, and Hunter Strickland.  Sergio Romo allowed two of three batters he faced to reach, and was unceremoniously lifted for Strickland, who coaxed a double play ball off the bat of Chase Utley.

The Dodgers’ bullpen was up to the task as well with former starting pitcher Juan Nicasio providing the lengthiest stint after Greinke departed after seven innings.  Nicasio recorded five outs in the ninth and tenth innings, keeping the Giants scoreless despite walking two and giving up a hit.

Pedro Baez pitched the 11^th for the Dodgers, getting Brandon Crawford to ground into an inning-ending double play.

In the 12^th, Tomlinson and Byrd singled off Yimi Garcia to put runners at first and third with no outs.  After Brown grounded out, De Aza provided the game-winning sacrifice fly.

The Dodgers have dropped all seven contests this season at AT&T Park, their longest losing streak in San Francisco since 1961.  Overall, the Dodgers have dropped four straight, after being swept in Colorado over the weekend, and on Tuesday they face 18-game winner Madison Bumgarner.

Could the NL West-leaders be feeling the pressure?

“I don’t think so,” Peavy admitted.

On Tuesday, Clayton Kershaw and Bumgarner face off for the third time this season at 7:15pm.

By Morris Phillips

In the end, it simply felt like the Giants were 5 ½ hours closer to the off-season.

Adrian Gonzales wiped out the Giants’ only lead with a two-run homer, and a couple hours later, singled with the bases loaded in the 14^th inning to give the Dodgers a 5-4 win.

Hanging over the Giants’ collective heads on Monday—besides a 3 ½ game deficit and the anxiety of being in a playoff race and not playing your best baseball—was the fact that their trip to Dodgers Stadium would conclude with Zach Greinke on Tuesday and Clayton Kershaw on Wednesday.

Not a pretty picture.  Now they enter Tuesday’s game 4 ½ games out with 31 to play.  Madison Bumgarner will be asked to carry the Giants deep into the ballgame after eight relievers were used by manager Bruce Bochy on Monday.

Adrian Gonzales and Andre Ethier hit home runs in the sixth inning off burdened starter Jake Peavy, and at least for the moment, there didn’t seem like there was much race left.

That’s when Marlon Byrd stepped up for the Giants, doubling home Matt Duffy in the eighth.

Sergio Romo got two outs in the eighth and all three in the ninth without allowing a run, and Jim Johnson pitched scoreless frames in the 10^th and 11^th for the Dodgers.

Giants have acquired Alejandro De Aza from the Red Sox in exchange for minor league pitcher Luis Ysla.  To make room on the 40-man roster, Ryan Lollis was designated for assignment.

The Dodgers made a move as well acquiring minor leaguer Justin Ruggiano from Seattle.

The Dodgers’ Chris Hatcher fouled out with the bases loaded to end the 13^th.

In the 14^th, reliever Mike Broadway walked leadoff hitter A.J. Ellis, then allowed singles to Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley to load the bases.  Yusmeiro Petit was called on to face Gonzales who singled over drawn-in outfielder Nori Aoki.

“Hard fought game, both sides.  Unfortunately, we didn’t win it.”

Peavy retired 13 of 14 Dodgers’ batters at one point, but ran into trouble in the sixth.  The home run to Gonzales came on a fastball demonstrating the Dodgers’ first baseman’s explosive bat, but Ethier’s follow-up that gave the Dodgers a lead was paintful to the Giants.  Marlon Byrd saw the ball just escape his glove at the gate outside the visiting bullpen.

“That was going to be his last hitter, Ethier.  He got just enough to get it out,” Bochy said.”

By Morris Phillips

What a month for Madison Bumgarner.

For that matter, what a season, what a 12-month run, and what a career-to-date.

The Giants’ ace stopped the red-hot Cubs dead in their tracks Thursday afternoon, striking out 12 in just six innings of work in a 9-1 win.  Bumgarner concluded August with a 5-0 record and a stingy 1.43 ERA.

Bumgarner’s teammates know a party when they see one.  On a picture perfect afternoon, in front of a sellout crowd, they backed their big lefthander with a couple of runs early, then Marlon Byrd’s three-run shot that put the Giants up comfortably, and Kelby Tomlinson’s grand slam that turned the game into a rout.  With Bumgarner mowing down the Cubs—fancy footwork included—this day at the ballpark played like some slickly produced video put forth by the local Chamber of Commerce.

“Things are just going our way right now, “Bumgarner said.  “I don’t look at the month, I look from start to start.”

“Bum was Bum today,” manager Bruce Bochy said.

Bumgarner joined Chicago’s Jake Arrieta, who won here on Monday, as the majors’ only 16-game winners. They are joined by Zach Greinke, Clayton Kershaw, Michael Wacha and Gerrit Cole in a Cy Young race that figures to be as intriguing as any in years.  But evaluations come later, this is the time to perform, and Bumgarner did that on Thursday from the start, striking out the side in each of the first two innings.

“He had a real good hook and the cutter, sporadically used his fastball,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon recalled.  “He got us to chase and he got us to chase down, but that’s because the pitch is such a quality pitch.”

Only Starlin Castro could claim he achieved something impactful against Bumgarner, doubling home a run in the second inning.  But that would be the last hit Bumgarner would allow.  From then on, it was usually strike one, fall behind in the count and fail to square anything up. The strikeouts ran Bumgarner’s pitch count up pretty quick, so with a four-run lead, Bochy elected to save his ace for another day.

The 98-pitch outing marked the third time this month Bumgarner registered double-digit strikeouts.  In August, the World Series MVP struck out 53 batters while walking just four—two of those on Thursday.  He threw a pair of complete games, hit a pair of home runs, and made a nifty play in the fourth inning Thursday with tremendous body control and his feet.

On that play, Brandon Belt fielded Catro’s grounder and threw behind Bum racing over the cover the bag.  But Belt’s throw was behind Bumgarner and he had to reach back, catch the ball, but get his foot on first base without being able to see it.  Impressively, he pulled off the whole sequence of steps flawlessly.

“I kinda laugh as he’s going through these games,” Matt Duffy said.

The Dodgers won 1-0 in Cincinnati to complete a sweep of the Reds just as the Giants were getting started.  That allowed the NL West leaders to maintain their 2 ½ game lead with a critical homestand starting Friday in Los Angeles where the Dodgers will see first the Cubs, then the Giants.

The Giants open a three-game set with the Cardinals on Friday.   Newly-acquired Mike Leake makes his home debut in the opener at 7:15pm.

NOTES: Tomlinson’s home run was the first of his career, and the first grand slam as a first home run by a Giant rookie since Brandon Crawford pulled the feat in 2012.  Tomlinson’s play has made it such that the Giants don’t have to Panik without Joe in the lineup.  Tomlinson has hit in 13 of his 14 starts since being called up to bolster the team’s infield, and the team has all but announced that Panik won’t be rushed back in the coming week, and probably won’t return until the first or second week of September.

Nori Aoki attempted to stretch a ball that glanced off Cubs’ left fielder Chris Denorfia’s glove into an inside-the-park home run in the seventh, only to see the Cubs cut down the leadoff man with a nifty, relay from the left field corner.

Matt Cain could land on the disabled list after his last, subpar outing.  The tentative plan is to have Chris Heston recalled to make a start on Sunday in Cain’s place.

By Morris Phillips

Nothing’s bigger than recording the last out of a ballgame, but you can’t logically get to that point if you don’t some enthusiasm and aptitude for recording the first out.

On Tuesday, the Giants needed their best foot forward if they were going to beat the scorching-hot Cubs for the first time this year after five, damaging losses.  But when the Cubs’ leadoff man Kyle Schwarber sent a sky-high pop up between the mound and home plate, Buster Posey and starting pitcher Jake Peavy turned into physical comedians.

Both pitcher and catcher converged, intent on catching the ball, but when Peavy’s chest ever so slightly bumped Posey’s shoulder, the follies began.  Posey retreated as if his services weren’t needed, Peavy fell over and the ball landed untouched between the two.

The sellout crowd at AT&T Park—intent on seeing their home nine get after it, not a circus act—gasped with horror.

So much for initial impressions.

The Cubs went on to score twice in the inning, but the Giants got serious and struck right back with two of their own.   After that thing settled down and the Giants used a pair of runs in the sixth to propel them to a 4-2 win.

“It really comes down to the first inning, both ways though.  They gave us some runs, we gave them some runs and then eventually they got us in the end,” expansive Cubs manager Joe Maddon concluded.

“We weren’t going to win them all.  Sorry.”

The win allowed the Giants to stop the bleeding in the hunt for the final wild card spot—the Giants still trail Chicago by 6 ½ games—and more importantly, kept them with striking distance of the Dodgers, 2 ½ games up in the NL West.

And believe it or not, that aforementioned comedic duo, Peavy and Posey, settled down and made some serious contributions in the context of the game.

Peavy—still smarting from his 2-0 loss in Chicago on August 9—settled in for six plus innings, allowing just three hits after the rocky first.  Posey, mired in a slump that has the whole town ruffled, came up with the tie-breaking double in the sixth.

Posey looked fatigued and was virtually invisible on last week’s 2-5 road trip.  In the sixth, after Brandon Belt led off with a triple that eluded a diving Chris Denorfia in centerfield, Posey came up in a big spot.  And while he had just four hits in his previous 35 at-bats, Posey’s been hungry like the Werewolf of London this season with runners in scoring position.

And he delivered, sending Kyle Hendricks slightly elevated offering into triples alley, scoring Belt.  Two batters later, rookie Kelby Tomlinson, swinging at the first pitch, doubled into the right field corner, scoring Posey.

That quick, the Giants had a lead.  How big was that?

In the four-game sweep engineered by the Cubs over the Giants two weeks ago at Wrigley Field, the Cubs scored in the first inning in all four games.  So of the 36 innings of baseball that weekend, the Giants held a lead in all of one inning.

Then last night, the Cubs didn’t score in the initial frame, but roughed up Matt Cain in the third and fourth to lead 6-0.  Again, the Giants never held a lead.

The Cubs—hotter than ’03, and just as smokin’ as ’96—came in winners of 21 of 25, a run so hot it had only been duplicated twice (1903, 1996) in their franchise’s 100-plus year history.  Still in third place in the NL Central, but holding the majors’ fourth-best record, the lovable losers look like shoe-ins for the post-season, due to the momentum of the run and in no small part based on how they’ve mistreated the World Champs.  But on Wednesday, it was the Giants’ turn to strike back.

Maddon, for one, appreciated the teaching tools.

“We have some really inexperienced people that are learning on the fly right now.  And I love it.”

That was the former Rays manager’s response when asked about two critical at-bats in the seventh, after Peavy departed with two runners aboard.  First, rookie Addison Russell was cooled by reliever Hunter Strickland, and then the super-hot Schwarber was tamed by lefty specialist Javier Lopez, striking out on four pitches.

Peavy, watching intently in the dugout, felt it was a critical moment.

“The pro he is, he was ready,” Peavy said of Lopez.  “We were excited to have him in that moment, that matchup.”

On Thursday, the Giants say adieu to the Cubs as Dan Haren draws Madison Bumgarner in the series finale.

By Morris Phillips

While it’s not October, it was like the playoffs Thursday for the Nats and Giants—the opener of a four-game series between two teams on the outside of a seven-horse race for five National League playoff spots.   And while plenty of baseball remains after this weekend, neither club wants to go another four days trending as they are.

The Nationals had lost 16 of 25 and fallen out of first place in the East, while the slumping Giants were at least temporarily out of touch with both the NL West-leading Dodgers and the second wild card Cubs.

Accordingly, the Giants went pride of a champion, hunkering down in a 3-1 win that, at least in the battle for the NL West, stopped the bleeding.  At press time, the Dodgers were falling at home to the Reds, 10-3 in the eighth inning, a result that would draw the Giants within 2 ½ games of first place.

“Y’all didn’t think we was going to lose on Grateful Dead night, did you?” Jake Peavy shouted out to no one in particular.

No, Jake.  Especially after Ryan Vogelsong survived a 29-pitch first inning, the first of which was sent over left field wall by Yunel Escobar for a faster-than-quick 1-0 Nationals lead.   Vogelsong would go on to walk the bases loaded, but escape by retiring Wilson Ramos on a ground out.

After that, Vogey was fantastic—for four more innings.  The 38-year old left trouble behind by allowing just one more hit and one more walk, striking out a season-best eight, and leaving with a 2-1 lead that the bullpen would do a fantastic job to protect.  What started ominously became the reliever/starter’s first win as a starter since June 24.

So what changed for Vogelsong?

“I guess I had some deception on my fastball and maybe a little extra zip.  Still got some things to clean up, falling behind in counts, going deep counts.  It runs your pitch count up too quick.  I was fortunate enough to make some pitches there after falling behind and get some guys out but it definitely not something you want to live by all the time,” he said.

“He had good stuff tonight, but the first inning probably took a toll on him,” manager Bruce Bochy said.

Hunter Strickland pitched the sixth and seventh as Bruce Bochy’s plan to have a multiple-inning guy in the front end of his pen was unleashed.  With George Kontos only available for a hitter or two, and best case scenario, given the night off, Strickland was given the opportunity to protect the lead and audition as a bridge to Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla.   He passed with flying colors, retiring all six batters he faced, fanning three.

“He’s pitched well,” Bochy said of Strickland.  “He’s more of a pitcher now than he was last year.”

The Nationals managed just one hit off both Romo and Casilla after the first inning.  The loser of Thursday’s game was undoubtedly going to face plenty of questions, and for Washington those questions are obvious.  They’ve hit just .224 since the All-Star Break and they were shutout on consecutive nights in Los Angeles before they laid an egg Thursday.

Not even a Barry Bonds visit to their clubhouse could turn the National’s offense hitterish.  Bonds relived old times with former teammate Matt Williams for a short period before the game, but apparently didn’t offer any advice to the struggling hitters.  Williams did however, after his guys went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.

“It may be the first pitch of the at-bat.  You never know.  If you get to swing at the fastball, we need to do that,” Williams said.

Like Vogelsong, Washington starter Stephen Strasburg is trying to get back into the rhythm of things after a month of inactivity.  The former top overall pick has had two stints on the disabled list this season–the second due to an oblique strain–and this was just his second start since returning.

And like Vogey, he struggled early.  Strasburg had never lost a decision to the Giants in a regular-season contest (excluding Game 1 of the 2014 NLDS) and the Giants’ hitters came with a plan.  Half of their eight hits came on the first pitch, including RBI singles by Matt Duffy and Buster Posey in the first inning.  Strasburg also settled down, pitching six innings, but the damage done in the first—starting with Gregor Blanco’s leadoff triple—really hurt.

“Obviously, they were swinging first pitch a lot in that inning.  I wanted to keep establishing the fastball and get that going because everything needed to fall into place.  I just made some mistakes,” Strasburg admitted.

Like a Ferrari that’s perpetually getting worked on and fussed over at the auto shop, Strasburg’s career hasn’t gained nearly the traction that the Nationals had hoped for.  The 27-year old was famously shut down in 2012 as his team faltered in the playoffs without him.  The plan to restrict his innings that season seemed to make sense as Strasburg made 64 starts over the next two seasons.  But he wasn’t a knockout, winning 22, losing 20.

Those two seasons still stand as his only full seasons, and the powerful starter has only pitched one complete game in 124 career starts.  And after the Giants introduced him to high-stakes baseball in Game 1 last fall, Strasburg’s yet to win a post-season game.

The Giants see another old post-season foe on Friday night as Max Scherzer makes his first start at AT&T Park since April 19, 2009 when he was pitching for Arizona.  The Giants faced Scherzer in Game 4 of the 2012 World Series in Detroit, and the flamethrower pitched into the seventh inning, allowing three runs in a game the Giants went on to win 4-3, breaking a 3-3 tie in the 10^th inning to clinch the world title.