Tag: giants

Ground zero: Bumgarner homers and Giants sweep the Dodgers at AT&T Park again

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Bum-batter

By Morris Phillips

If you’re going to send a message, why not eliminate room for interpretation.

The Giants did that, sweeping the Dodgers at AT&T Park again, without allowing a run, beating reigning Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw for the second time in less than two months after Kershaw lost only three games all of last season.

Delivering the message’s emphatic conclusion and acting as de-facto Giants’ team spokesman, Madison Bumgarner threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings, and effectively put the 4-0 win away in the third inning with a majestic home run off Kershaw.

“We kind of kid around with the pitchers sometimes that if you want to win the game, throw a shutout and hit a homer,” manager Bruce Bochy said of Bum’s feat.  “He was trying to do that.”

Beat the Dodgers single-handedly?  Yeah, Bumgarner was aiming for that.  But with a subtle dig thrown in.

“He’s the best pitcher in baseball,” the Giants’ ace said of Kershaw.  “To be able to do that and run into one, it’s pretty special.”

Best pitcher in baseball?  And what exactly was that message?  That Kershaw and the Dodgers may be in the conversation, but they still can’t claim to be champions or win big games like Mad Bum and the Giants can.

And now after a terrific start, the Dodgers can’t even claim a special place in the NL West.  Despite being the National League’s pre-eminent offensive team thus far, and being near unbeatable at home, the Dodgers can’t win in San Francisco or shake the Giants.  Los Angeles’ lead was 5 ½ games last week.  Now it’s down to 1 ½ games.

Clearly, the developments were hard for manager Don Mattingly to decipher.  Joc Pederson, the Dodgers’ leadoff man, doubled on one hop off the center field wall on the fifth pitch of the series on Tuesday.  Tim Hudson, the Giants’ starter that night, retired three of the next four batters and escaped.

That escape act continued for another 26 chapters.  The Dodgers compiled 23 hits, including nine hits on Thursday, but they couldn’t cash in.

“You don’t think you’ll come here and not score a run for three games,” Mattingly said.  “I actually thought we had some good at-bats.”

Pitching likely to trump hot bats in Dodgers-Giants series at AT&T Park

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By Morris Phillips

Now that the Giants have moved their collective heads above water, the second visit to AT&T Park by the Dodgers gives the defending World Champs an opportunity to do more than catch their breath.

Playoff teams don’t let rough times last, and the Giants have turned the page by following an early eight-game losing streak with a 17-9 stretch that has the team in the mix in the NL West.  The stretch allowed the Giants to catch and pass the Padres, D’Backs and Rockies in the standings and stay in touch with the first-place Dodgers, who haven’t been able to extend their 4 ½ game lead.

Hot bats have propelled the Giants with Brandon Belt on a tear, and Hunter Pence back in the lineup as if he hadn’t suffered a break in his left forearm that cost him the first 38 games of the season.  Impressively, the Giants scored at least eight runs in each of their four wins on the just completed road trip through Houston and Cincinnati.

But a return to AT&T means the Giants—and the Dodgers—will have to find a way without an avalanche of offense.  The cooler than usual night air pervading at AT&T Park is no friend of high-powered offenses as the Giants no doubt know.  In winning 11 of 15 at home, the Giants didn’t score more than six runs in any of the wins.

The Dodgers know too.  In getting swept last month in San Francisco, the Dodgers scored just two runs in each loss, well off their near-historic pace of more than five runs scored per game.   The Dodgers have averaged nearly a run better than any other major league club thus far, but last month in San Francisco that offense evaporated.

Now the Giants attempt to keep their rival struggling with Tim Hudson scheduled to pitch Tuesday, followed by the resurgent Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner on Thursday in a third matchup with Los Angeles ace Clayton Kershaw.  The Dodgers have 3-0 Carlos Frias scheduled, followed by former Athletic Brett Anderson.  Each of the six starters will undoubtedly play heavily to the advantageous conditions in order to control the hot-hitting lineups.

Rookie leadoff man Joc Pederson and emerging hitters Justin Turner and Andy Van Slyke will be front and center on the Giants’ scouting report.  In the absence of the injured Yasiel Puig, the trio has helped to propel the Dodgers offensively, but they aren’t without warts.  Pederson has a heavy strikeout total for a guy that normally bats first.  Turner is hitting .302 at Dodgers Stadium, but went 1 for 9 in the last month’s Giants’ sweep at AT&T.

Van Slyke has forced his way into the Los Angeles outfield mix with a .362 batting average at home, but he too failed to impact the earlier series in San Francisco, where he had two singles in six at-bats.

After Thursday, the Giants don’t see the Dodgers at home until the final week of the season, so if they want to keep the pressure on the division leaders, they’ll need to do it this week.

Giants’ ups-and-downs don’t often lead to a post-season appearance

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By Morris Phillips

After a month of baseball, the Giants continue to have the most confounding identity in recent professional sports memory.

They’re reigning World Champions of their sport, winning a thrilling, seven game Series, along with a wildcard game on the road, and two playoff series last fall-but they’ve won just 61 of their last 130 regular season games. The stretch is so poor, had the Giants began 2014 at 61-69, they would have had no chance to recover in the final 25 games for a playoff berth.

So any fan regardless of affiliation would have to ask… are the Giants really any good?

And the answer is yes juxtaposed against a greater amount of no.

If that’s the case–and the club continues to play at or below .500—the Giants won’t get a chance to defend their title in the 2015 post-season.

But first a closer look at the radically different stretches the team has experienced since Opening Day 2014:

43-21: The Giants open 2014 with the major league’s best record through June 8.  So torrid is the streak, not only is it the best record in 2014, but the best start of any major league team in the previous ten seasons.  In this stretch, Romo saves 20 of 22 chances, the clutch-hitting lineup (with a healthy Angel Pagan) scores more than half its’ runs with two outs, and Ryan Vogelsong up and goes 3-0 in his last four starts.

26-41: The Giants 98 percent probability of winning the NL West along with a 9 ½ game lead on the Dodgers evaporates in a hurry as Pagan’s injuries crop up, the offense disappears, and the revolving door of emergency replacements including Dan Uggla and Jake Peavy (at least initially) fail to produce much of anything.

19-12: After such a lengthy run of bad baseball, the Giants somehow manage to turn it around in the final month of the season, and sneak into the post-season as the fifth and final qualifier.  The starting pitching—led by Peavy and Madison Bumgarner—is noticeably better and post-season heroes Joe Panik and Travis Ishikawa step into prominent roles.  Still, the final month is no knockout: the Giants sweep Colorado, Arizona and Milwaukee, but post losing records against San Diego and eventual NL West champion Los Angeles.

12-5: The magical post-season starts with a blowout in Pittsburgh and doesn’t end until the improbable, Game 7 win in Kansas City.  Bumgarner has the post-season of a generation and plenty of help from Jeremy Affeldt, Yusmiero Petit, Buster Posey, Ishikawa, Panik and Santiago Casilla.  The gritty champions win nearly every close game, and find some of the most innocuous ways to push across runs you can imagine to win the World Series for the third time in five years.

16-16: The Giants lose two starting pitchers, endure an eight-game losing streak and open 2015 as a .500 team through 32 games.  The injuries to Matt Cain, Peavy, Brandon Belt and Hunter Pence almost insure the team can’t excel. But they avoid falling completely off the map by sweeping the Dodgers and winning some close ones.

None of these stretches suggest the Giants could win, let’s say 72 of their final 130 games to match last year’s record.  Their periods of success have been over much shorter stretches, often punctuated with Herculean performances rather than any sustained methods of success.

And of course, the Giants don’t do anything easy especially with their starting rotation which has shown some decline along with the two, significant injuries.

Haren solid, Hudson rocked in Giants 7-2 loss to the Marlins

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Haren

By Morris Phillips

Quite often, those prominent faces revived in new places do so in San Francisco.

From Jason Schmidt, Pat Burrell, Randy Winn to Jake Peavy and Tim Hudson, the Brian Sabean-orchestrated Giants have squeezed the last, remaining ounces of quality baseball from declining vets again and again.

But like Mr. Phoenix—in lets say, Phoenix—those reclamation projects sometimes take flight elsewhere like Dan Haren in Miami, and Martin Prado, also in Miami.

And when they do it someplace else, the Giants often find themselves on the bad side of a good thing.   They definitely found themselves in that place on Thursday night when Haren, Prado and others trounced the Giants, 7-2 at AT&T Park.

Haren threw seven innings, allowing two runs and eight hits to earn his fourth win in five decisions this season.  The talented but nomadic 34-year old joined the Marlins this off-season after contemplating retirement instead of joining a seventh, different team in 13 big-league seasons.  But Haren decided to pitch on, and so far he’s been terrific, far better than his pattern of winning as much as he’s lost since 2009.

Haren used the heavy, cool air to his advantage, escaping a couple of jams and keeping the Giants from coming up with the big hit that have often damaged his starts.  By the time the Giants had some success in the seventh, pushing across their only two runs, the Marlins were ahead comfortably, 6-0.

“He’s a great competitor,” manager Mike Redmond said of Haren.  “I’ve seen that really his whole career.  He just doesn’t make a ton of mistakes out over the plate.  He doesn’t give in.”

Meanwhile, Tim Hudson was no mystery from the start, allowing three runs in the second– starting with Haren’s RBI double—and six runs total.  Manager Bruce Bochy elected to leave Hudson in the game into the seventh, hoping to spare an overworked bullpen.  Hudson would end up allowing a career-worst 15 hits and having to answer obvious questions afterwards.

“Pretty much the difference in the game was their starting pitcher offensively.  If I can just get him out then we have a pretty good chance to win the ballgame,” Hudson said.

Haren had a pair of hits, two runs batted in and two runs scored despite entering the game without a hit on the season.  But like the rest of the Marlins’ lineup, Haren attacked the vulnerable Hudson early in the pitch count with success.

In a bit of an oddity, a game with a combined 26 hits took only 2 ½ hours to complete as pitchers pitched and hitters hit at a brisk pace.

Prado continued his hot-hitting, producing a second consecutive three-hit game after a four RBI game on Saturday.  The consistent-hitting infielder is hitting .309, one year after hitting a career-low .282 for the Diamondbacks and Yankees.

The Giants broke through in the seventh with Justin Maxwell’s run-scoring sacrifice fly and Matt Duffy’s RBI double.  The Giants extended their streak of scoring six runs or less to all 29 games this season, a new franchise record for tepid offense.

In game two of the four-game series, the Giants will have Tim Lincecum facing Miami’s Jarred Cosart with first pitch at 7:15pm.

Giants run into trouble against the Padres, seven-game home win streak snapped

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By Morris Phillips

For 29 consecutive innings, the Giants’ pitchers couldn’t be touched.  And for 22 frustrating innings, the Padres’ hitters couldn’t score.

Then Cory Spangenberg took “ownership” of Chris Heston and the prevailing trends changed in a hurry.

Spangenberg’s single was the first of six hits and a walk in San Diego’s five-run, third inning that propelled them to a 9-1 win over the Giants, averting a home-team sweep, and ending the Giants’ eight-game home winning streak.

The Padres top amateur pick in 2011 was part of the energy infusion manager Bud Black dialed up in an attempt to get his club to regain its stature as the National League’s highest-scoring team so far in 2015 after two humbling shutouts.  Rookie catcher Austin Hedges was the other lineup addition.

Black’s changes worked to perfection as Spangenberg came up with three hits, a walk and a steal, and Hedges’ first major league hit and a sacrifice fly produced two runs batted in.  Hedges also was Ian Kennedy’s battery mate, as the pair stymied the Giants for seven innings after which San Diego led 6-1.

“Our guys were a little disappointed the last couple nights,” Black said.  “They came out with an edge.”

The Giants had gotten big starts from Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner and Ryan Vogelsong in the previous three games, and were looking to make it four with Heston.  But the rookie experienced a clunker engineered by the Padres’ string of seeing-eye hits in the breakout third inning.  Strategically, the Padres got the upper hand by hitting Heston’s trademark sinkers the other way with great success.

Heston could have been pulled after three, but made it through five innings without any more damage, although his final line including 11 hits and three walks surrendered wasn’t pretty.

The Giants had their chances, squandering rallies in the third, fourth and sixth innings while Kennedy appeared to get stronger.  The former Diamondbacks’ pitcher was making only his third start, but looked like he was in mid-season form, allowing six hits and a walk and one run in seven innings.

Brandon Belt came up with a pair of extra-base hits and Matt Duffy contributed a pair of singles as Bruce Bochy inserted Duffy into the lineup for the struggling Casey McGehee.  But overall, the San Francisco offense did little, increasing their dubious team-record of consecutive games without scoring more than six runs to 28.

Heston hadn’t been hit hard by any opponent this season other than the Rockies in Denver making his transition from the minors almost seamless.  But hitters have started to make adjustments, and now Heston must follow suit.  Spangenberg entered the game with two hits against Heston, then he singled in the first and third innings, making him 4 for 4 against the rookie pitcher.  While Heston has admirably replaced Peavy in the Giants’ rotation, Spangenberg was getting his shot as a replacement for the slumping Will Middlebrooks at third.

The Giants get only their second non-NL West opponent on Thursday in the Miami Marlins.  The Marlins’ Dan Haren will get the start in the opener of the four-game set with Tim Hudson set to go for the Giants.

Dodgers get down right offensive in win over Lincecum and the Giants

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Turner connects

By Morris Phillips

The Dodgers weren’t satisfied with just scoring two runs a game.  They let Tim Lincecum know as much pretty quickly on Monday night.

The National League’s top ranked offense took a vacation last week at AT&T Park, scoring just two runs in each game, a series that went to the Giants in a sweep.  But on a still, warm night at Dodgers Stadium, and against the rejuvenated Lincecum, the Dodgers’ offense jumped back into character.

Los Angeles knocked the two-time Cy Young award winner around, compiling eight hits in four runs in just four innings against Lincecum, then raced away with an 8-3 victory over the Giants.

The combination of Lincecum’s off night and the Dodgers’ aggressiveness at the plate showed from the start as the pitcher escaped jams in the first and second innings, only to allow four runs and five hits in the third.

Last Tuesday in San Francisco, Lincecum picked up the win against the Dodgers, allowing five hits and a run in six innings of work.  According to him, the Dodgers changed their approach this time.

“They took a little different approach on me and I just didn’t counter it as well as I should have,” Lincecum said.

“They did a great job of taking what I was giving them.”

Gone were the three double play balls that eased Lincecum through last week’s encounter with the Dodgers.  And they were replaced by aggressive, swinging early in the account as well as the advantageous conditions for hitters at Chavez Ravine.

The Giants were well aware of those conditions after batting practice, and their lineup, including Andrew Susac and Justin Maxwell, was supposed to trigger a big night of offense against Brett Anderson.  But the Giants didn’t breakthrough until the fifth against the former Athletic, scoring three times.  But that was it, as the Los Angeles bullpen shut down the Giants the rest of the way.

Anderson was lifted by manager Don Mattingly with two on and two outs in the fifth, but Carlos Frias came on to get the Dodgers out of the inning.  After Frias, the Giants saw Adam Libatore, Kimi Garcia and Chris Hatcher, who all threw heat and allowed just one hit combined.

Meanwhile, the Giants’ bullpen—in particular, Yusmeiro Petit—melted down.  Petit allowed three runs on two hits in the eighth, when the Giants still had hope of slicing into a 5-3 deficit.

The Dodgers won at home for the eight consecutive time, and increased their NL-leading home run total to 28 after Joc Pederson homered in the sixth and pinch-hitter Justin Turner connected with a three-run blast in the eighth.

The Giants, on the other hand, have lost three of four since their momentum-swing against the Dodgers last week.

On Tuesday, the rematch of pitching titans take place at 7:05pm with Madison Bumgarner facing Clayton Kershaw.  Bumgarner and the Giants squeezed past the Dodgers last week, winning 3-2.

Giant Turnaround: Sweep of the Dodgers has Giants moving in the right direction

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Giant sweep

By Morris Phillips

Could a season’s turning point actually take place in late April?

The Giants would like to think so, and they certainly battled the hated Dodgers this week as if it were a modern-day Custer’s last stand.

“They rose to the occasion,” manager Bruce Bochy said after the Giants struck last in a 3-2 win over the Dodgers Thursday afternoon.  “I said we had to play our best ball against these guys.  They came in hot.  And we did.  We pitched well, our bats were better and they kept fighting.”

How unexpected was this sweep of the Dodgers, the first for the Giants over their rival at home since 2013?

Despite the Giants being the current kings of October with rings to match, the Dodgers are the overwhelming favorite to win the NL West in 2015, and they came to Pac Bell Park this week sporting a seven-game win streak.  On the other hand, the Giants simply weren’t giving their home crowd any bang for their buck.  They opened the home schedule with six losses in seven games, and fans on the view level reportedly couldn’t tell if Giants’ batters were swinging bats or toothpicks.

On top of that, the Giants were missing too many faces.  Injuries to Hunter Pence, Matt Cain and Travis Ishikawa had the Giants minus a few difference-makers, not a good look for a team already six games out of first place and scuffling.

But once put face-to-face with the Dodgers, the reinforcements stood up.  Justin Maxwell came up with the game-winning hit on Thursday, Ryan Vogelsong got the start and pitched effectively through six innings and the Giants overcame an early 2-0 deficit with a game-extending run in the ninth, then the game-winner in the tenth.

The Dodgers entered the series scoring better than five runs a game, but were held to two runs in each game as Tim Lincecum, Madison Bumgarner, Vogelsong and the entirety of the bullpen had encouraging outings.

Angel Pagan got things going in the tenth with a base hit, then after Buster Posey was retired, Pagan stole second.  Manager Don Mattingly then elected to walk Brandon Belt ahead of Maxwell’s game-winner.

“I was ready to hit,” Maxwell said.  “I can’t wait to get on the plane and celebrate with the team.”

Maxwell came close to giving the Giants a lead in the eighth when he sent a liner up the middle with the bases loaded and two outs.  But second baseman Howie Kendrick’s diving catch ended the threat and preserved the Dodgers’ 2-1 lead.

In the ninth, the Giants did get even when Brandon Crawford tripled, scoring pinch-runner Matt Duffy from first.

Santiago Casilla pitched a scoreless tenth and picked up the win for the second straight day.

The Giants open a three-game series in Denver against the Rockies on Friday with rookies Chris Heston of the Giants and Colorado’s Eddie Butler reprising their matchup from the Giants’ home opener.

Giants return to AT&T Park but don’t do anything to stop the questions

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moundtrouble

By Morris Phillips

Thursday night’s lid lifter at the Yard was supposed to be just an exhibition, a friendly meeting of the A’s and Giants before things get serious on Monday, Opening Day for both teams.

But with Jake Peavy on the mound—lathered up, grimacing and cursing, grinding—it was hard to tell if this was an exhibition or not.

Brush backs, changing signs, a balk, controlling baserunners, and fooling ‘em occasionally with the out pitches slightly off the plate, Peavy did it all for 3 1/3 innings, a drama in 79 pitches including some high points but mostly lows in the Giants 8-2 loss.

So the books are closed on the 33-year old starter’s spring, and like much of the Giants’ opening day roster, the questions loom. Peavy allowed a whopping 21 earned runs in 23 2/3 innings over eight spring appearances—six of those earned runs allowed on Thursday—but he’s slated to take his turn in the rotation, either Thursday or Friday of next week in San Diego.

“I certainly don’t want my last dress rehearsal to be like it was tonight, but that being said, it doesn’t count,” Peavy said.

Along with Peavy, the Giants are concerned about Matt Cain, but to what degree would be speculation. After a fast start to his spring, Cain has dealt with soreness and command issues in recent weeks. But like Peavy, he’s a member of the rotation, scheduled to make his first start since July 9 next week in Arizona.

Given the Giants’ tried and true formula depends heavily on starting pitching, it would be fair to say the season could crumble if the trends and concerns continue unabated. But even that’s nothing new: in their miraculous 2014 season that ended with the Giants hoisting a third World Series trophy, they played sub-.500 ball for the final 98 games of the regular season.

So if nothing else, Giants’ fans need to be patient and see how it plays out.

NOTES: The high point for the Giants? Angel Pagan homered into the left field gap in the fourth, a fairly majestic shot that gave the home team fans something to cheer after the A’s put up seven unanswered runs to start the game.   Brandon Belt also went deep off reliever Pat Venditte in the ninth. The Giants had failed rallies in the second and eighth innings, and did very little against A’s starter Scott Kazmir who went six frames, only allowing the homer to Pagan. The Giants 1-2 hitters Nori Aoki and Joe Panik went a combined 0 for 6.

Ryan Vogelsong–bearded but otherwise recognizable by his normal, dead-serious demeanor—threw three innings of relief allowing one hit and striking out three. Vogey assumes a new role this season as the Giants’ long reliever. Jeremy Affeldt and Santiago Casilla also got in an inning of work each. In the absence of Hunter Pence, Justin Maxwell appears likely to get significant playing time in the outfield, but he’ll need to get familiar with the right field arcade. Sam Fuld’s blast high off the bricks bounced back past Maxwell and had to be played by Pagan rushing over from center. When Pagan misplayed the pickup, Fuld turned a triple into full trip around the bases with Pagan getting a one-base error.

On Friday night, Cain will start for the Giants with Kendall Gravemen going for the A’s at 7:15pm.

Giants Thump Padres 9-3 In Season Finale, Offense Tunes Up For Wild Card Showdown

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By Matthew T.F. Harrington

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – With a playoff berth in hand, the San Francisco Giants wrapped game 162 up with an offensive display sure to comfort fans heading into a do-or-die contest. The Giants wrapped 13 hits in a 9-3 victory over the San Diego Padres Sunday Afternoon at AT&T Park.

Buster Posey and pinch-hitter Adam Duvall each homered for San Francisco (87-74), while seven different Giants knocked in a run. The Padres (77-85) received RBIs from Cory Spangenberg, Seth Smith and Yasmani Grandal.

“Ultimately, I think the guys who have been through this know this,” said Posey “It’s going to come down to pitching well and playing good defense. I think we have the offense that can get hot and carry that hotness, sustain that hotness for a few weeks.”

Before the Giants even took the field for the regular season finale against the San Diego Padres, they knew their playoff fate. With a Pittsburgh Pirates 4-1 loss in Cincinnati earlier in the day, the Giants will head to the Steel City for Wednesday’s one-game Wild Card playoff. The Pirates opened the day one game back of the St. Louis Cardinals for the National League Central crown.

“That’s a good club,” said Giants Manager Bruce Bochy of Wednesday’s foe. “They really have been firing this month, almost winning their division. It’s going to be a tough game.”

For San Francisco, Rookie pitcher Chris Heston made his first Major League start after two relief appearances this season. In his 2014 Triple-A Fresno campaign Heston went 12-9 with a 3.38 earned run average, the second lowest mark in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He was twice named a MiLB Organizational All-Star for the Giants and this year lead all PCL starters in innings pitched (173) and starts (28).

The 2009 San Francisco 12th round draft pick opened the game precariously, allowing four-straight hits to the Padres before finally recording his first out on a Seth Smith sacrifice fly. The 26-year-old retired the next two batters, including inducing an inning-ending grounder up the middle that he deflected to a diving shortstop Brandon Crawford. Crawford flipped the ball out of his glove to second basemen Joe Panik to end the inning with the Giants only trailing 2-0.

“He threw the ball very well,” said Posey of his batterymate. “I think there were some nerves to start with but he settled in for innings two, three and four.”

“There were some nerves to be out there for start one,” admitted Heston. “But once I threw strike one, it settled down. A lot happened pretty quickly. Crawford made a crazy good play to get me out of it. It was pretty fun.”

The deficit would be short-lived following a Buster Posey’s 22nd home run of the year off Padres starter Robbie Erlin. Posey tied the game after taking a belt-high fastball to left-center, scoring Gregor Blanco for the backstop’s 88th and 89th RBIs of the season. Posey underwent an MRI Friday to check on damage to his balky bat.

“(Buster) told me in the morning he wanted to play,” said Bochy. “I was a little concerned that he was healthy, but he showed me with his swing. We were planning to give him a couple at-bats, but Buster felt fine in them all. It seemed encouraging that he’s over his issue.”

The Giants cracked open the game in the bottom of the second inning, scoring four runs to chase the eventual losing pitcher Erlin (4-5, 4.99 ERA) from the game. San Francisco loaded the bases with no outs for Heston. He struck out looking for the first out, but leadoff man Blanco lofted a sacrifice fly to center and Panik singled down the line at first for a 4-2 lead. Padres manager Bud Black went to his bullpen, calling on Tim Stauffer to replace Erlin after his 1 1/3 innings of work and four runs allowed. Stauffer struck out Posey to end the second.

The Friars fired back with a run of their own off Heston in the top of the third after a Yasmani Grandal RBI single. It’d be the last run the Padres would score off Heston in his four innings of work. He’d be lifted for pinch-hitter Adam Duvall in the bottom of the fourth. Duvall took a 91 mile per hour Stauffer offering deep for his third home run of the season.

Heston failed to qualify for his first career win despite exiting the game with a 5-3 lead, missing the five-inning cutoff. He walked a pair of struck out a pair in his outing, but the honors instead went to Tim Lincecum (12-9, 4.74). “The Freak” pitched a pair of scoreless innings in the fifth and sixth, surrendering a lone hit, to vulture the win.

“I thought Heston did a good job,” said Bochy. “He’s pitched a lot. It’s not an easy job taking him out in the fourth with the lead but with him not getting a lot of work we didn’t want to overtax him. Timmy came in and got another win so he’s excited about that. It was a well-played game.”

San Francisco put the game out of reach with a three-run eighth inning following an run-scoring hits by birthday boy Gary Brown, Joaquin Arias and pinch-hitter Matt Duffy. Arias’ hit, a double off reliever Nick Vincent, plated two runs. Erik Cordier and Brett Bochy pitched a scoreless inning apiece to close out the win for the Black and Orange on Fan Appreciation Day.

“It’s very special for him to be out there,” said the elder Bochy on utilizing his son for the final three outs. “It’s a moment I won’t forget. I told the kids ‘hey, you’ve got the end here’ because we weren’t going to use (Santiago) Casilla, (Hunter) Strickland or (Sergio) Romo.”

“It was a very proud moment for me,” he added. “This is one line-up card I’ll save.”

What the fans would truly appreciate is a third Giants World Series title in six years. With that in mind Bochy has already announced his scheduled starter for Wednesday’s playoff contest. 2014 all-star Madison Bumgarner takes his 18-10 record and 2.98 ERA to the bump against the Bucs in an attempt to advance the Giants to the Division Series and a date with the NL wins leaders, the Washington Nationals.

“Madison was our Opening Day starter,” said Bochy. “He made the All-star team. This is the way you hope it will pan out.”

Pittsburgh won the season series 4-2. Pirates manager Clint Hurdle has hinted that Edison Volquez (3.04 ERA) will get the nod after his 13-win season.

“It’s going to be one of the better atmospheres that we get to play in,” said Posey “We all look forward to the challenge”

“We’re playing in their park where they’ve really done a good job,” added Bochy. “We’re facing a tough pitcher. I expect to see a great ballgame. We’ll do all we can to get back here.”

Bumgarner’s Gem Ruined in Late Innings as Giants Drop Another Game at Home

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Photo Credit: SF Gate
Photo Credit: SF Gate

By: Joe Lami

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.–The struggles for the Giants continue as they were defeated Friday night 5-3 in ten innings by the slumping Philadelphia Phillies. The Giants entered the night looking to get two consecutive wins at home for the first time since they went on a five-game winning streak to begin June. San Francisco has lost six of their last seven and 14 of their last 20 games, while Philadelphia was coming into the contest losing five of their last six.

The Giants had high hopes early on, as Madison Bumgarner started the game hot, striking out four of the first six batters. Bumgarner had a perfect game into the fourth inning, until Jimmy Rollins broke it up with a bloop single right over the head of Joe Panik, whose diving attempt wasn’t good enough, as it tipped off of his glove. Bumgarner would be able to get out of the inning fairly quickly after a controversial call at 3rd when Rollins broke for 3rd, but Bumgarner picked him off. Review would confirm the call.

Cole Hamels was the starting pitcher on the other side, and he came into the contest being one of the hottest pitchers in all of baseball, coming into the contest throwing 7 or more innings while only giving up one earned run over his last five starts. He gave up three hits in the first three innings, but the Giants weren’t able to do anything about it.

It wasn’t until the fourth inning when the Giants got on the scoreboard. Buster Posey started off the inning with a single. He would be moved to third when Pablo Sandoval hit a ground rule double to left-center field. This would bring up Michael Morse, who in his first at-bat stroke one 400 ft to right, but it was to the deepest part of the ballpark. Morse would get a hold of another one, as he sent a moon shot to left that landed ten rows up the bleachers over the 382 mark. Giants’ Manager, Bruce Bochy praised Morse “He had some great At-Bats for us tonight”. The Giants were up 3-0 at the end of the 4th.

Bumgarner’s only hiccup out his outing came in the fifth inning, when the very first batter, Maron Byrd, would get one back for the Phillies on a solo shot to left field bringing the Giants’ lead to 3-1. It was Byrd’s 23rd home run of the year, leading the Phillies and is third in the National League. Bumgarner would buckle down not allowing another run the rest of his outing. Bumgarner had a line of seven innings pitched, surrendering one run on four hits while striking out nine. Eight of the nine strikeouts were earned from swinging strikes. He earned just his third quality start of the season at home and the first since June 10. “It feels nice to throw good at home, it’s been a while,” commented Bumgarner. Bochy added “Bum, what a great job”.

The Giants had a couple of chances to add to their lead, their most promising was in the sixth inning, when Brandon Crawford was up with Gregor Blanco on third. San Francisco tried to play a safety squeeze that went wrong. A bad bunt from Crawford plus bad base running from Blanco took away their chance. Blanco read the play wrong and tried to break for the plate, when he relalized that he wouldn’t make it, he tried to get back to third where he was thrown out by Hamel. “ There needs to be a fine line between being aggressive and being smart,” said Bochy.

 

The Phillies took advantage of the two-time all star leaving the game, as they tied the game up in the eighth inning. Jeremy Affeldt gave up a base hit to Darin Ruf to start the inning, and Cody Asche followed up by hitting his first home run of his career at AT&T Park driving it just over the right field wall to the first row of the arcade. Bumgarner mentioned that “It looked like his foot slipped on that pitch”, to which he added “it would have affected me”. For Affeldt, it was the first home run he’s given up in over a calendar year (June 28, 2013 vs. San Diego) and the first one to a left-handed batter since April 24, 2011.

 

The score was tied heading into the eighth where the Giants had yet another chance. This time with two outs and Sandoval on second base. Panik lined one to right field for the base hit, but the Giants took the chance to bring home Sandoval, where he was embarrassingly thrown out by ten feet. “We haven’t been scoring that much lately, so we took the chance, and he (Byrd) made a perfect throw,” added Bochy.

 

The Giants wouldn’t receive another great scoring chance, as the Phillies took the lead in the tenth inning when Chase Utley was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to give the Phillies the lead. Ryan Howard would extend the lead to 5-3 on a sacrifice fly that went to the warning track in left field.

 

The Giants hope to turn this terrible streak at home around, where they have gone 8-23 in the last 31 home games. This compares to their 22-9 record at home for their first 31 game at home. Even with Friday night’s loss the Giants didn’t lose any ground in the playoff race, as both the Dodgers (5.5 back of NL West) and Pirates (0.5 back of 2nd Wild Card) lost.

 

Tomorrow the Giants will try to get revenge on the Phillies in the second game of the three game set, where Tim Hudson will take the bump facing off against Kyle Kendrick.