Headline Sports podcast with London Marq: Quakes tie Real Valladolid in friendly 1-1; A’s and Giants keep rolling; plus more

Photo credit: @SJEarthquakes

On Headline Sports with London:

#1 The San Jose Earthquakes are on a roll and picked up a huge win in Los Angeles against the Galaxy on a two-goal win 3-1. Jackson Yueill, Danny Hoesen, and Valeri Qazaishvili scored a goal each to help the Quakes to the win.

#2 London tells us how the success of the club and their turnaround has made this season one for the books. At 9-4-7, the team is in fifth and can very well make the climb in the standing if they can keep this up.

#3 How much of an impact has Quakes head coach Matias Almeyda made on this club, the Quakes? The Quakes had such a good friendly on Tuesday night against Real Villadolid, which ended up in a 1-1 draw.

#4 Turning to the red-hot Oakland A’s, there’s no mercy rule as the A’s keep pounding opponents by hitting as Matt Chapman got five RBIs and homered in the A’s win over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday night 9-2 and Wednesday the A’s pounded out six home runs and Chad Pinder and Jurickson Profar both hit two home runs each to beat Seattle 10-2.

#5 The Giants, on Tuesday night, went into the 10th inning tied at 4-4 and rallied for four runs when Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval, Alex Dickerson, and Brandon Crawford scored runs for the 8-4 win over the Colorado Rockies. The Giants came right back on Wednesday’s matinee and clubbed the Rockies again 11-8 to sweep the series.

London does Headline Sports each Wednesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

San Francisco Giants podcast with Michael Duca and Daniel Dullum: If Smith and Bumgarner go, so will any chance for a wild card go for SF

Photo credit: @NBCSGiants

On the Giants podcast with Michael and Daniel:

#1 The Giants are 5 1/2 games out from a wild card spot as the second half starts tonight. Critics says forget those odds, the team hasn’t had enough offense to get back. What does Michael say to those critics?

#2 If the Giants are sellers and unload starter Madison Bumgarner and closer Will Smith, that would pretty much crush any chance the team has at the postseason.

#3 Buster Posey has — like last season — been off limits for any trade deals and most likely that will be the case this July too. Posey has had several concussions and his hitting has been below where it normally is at this time of year. How much does Posey’s past injuries play even though he’s untouchable?

#4 If the Giants deal Bumgarner and Smith, how much will their departures impact the Giants for years to come?

#5 The Giants open up a three-game series in Milwaukee tonight and a six-game road trip. Milwaukee has always been a tough customer. The Giants will be starting Shaun Anderson (3-2, 4.23 ERA), and for the Brewers, Chase Anderson (4-2, 4.32 ERA).

Michael Duca and Daniel Dullum does the Giants podcasts each Friday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sportstalk remote podcast at One Market Restaurant San Francisco Monday July 1, 2019

Photo credit: onemarket.com

Cast: Michael Duca (host), David Zizmor (analyst), Jeremy Kahn (Giants beat writer), Morris Phillips (A’s and Giants beat writer), Amaury Pi-Gonzalez (Oakland A’s Spanish announcer), and Lee Leonard (producer).

Our thanks to our hosts at One Market: Larry Bouchard (Owner/Partner), Tonya Pitts (Wine Director & Sommelier) and Catlin Roche (server). On an unbelievable Monday night in downtown San Francisco, Sportstalk was enjoying the fine dining selections from the One Market menu, Halibut,  Steak, Scallops, New York Steak, Red Snapper, and much more.

We are glad to return to One Market Restaurant for the first time since Thursday, October 20, 2016, which seems like yesterday. On today’s podcast: Discussions on the Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala’s departure to Brooklyn and Memphis respectively. Will San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner be dealt before the trade deadline and the New York Yankees make it no secret their interested.

Locastro’s RBI single in 10th helps Snakes sink Giants 3-2

sfgate.com: Arizona Diamondbacks’ Tim Locastro hits an RBI single against the San Francisco Giants in the third inning during a baseball game, Sunday, June 23, 2019, in Phoenix.

By Daniel Dullum
Sports Radio Service
Sunday, June 23, 2019

PHOENIX — After losing six games in a row, the Arizona Diamondbacks were ready to celebrate something.

Centerfielder Tim Locastro lit the fuse for the occasion with a 10th inning walk-off run-scoring single that gave the D-Backs a 3-2 NL West win over the San Francisco Giants Sunday before 25,071 at Chase Field.

As soon as Locastro’s drive shot past Giants third baseman Evan Longoria, the Diamondback dugout emptied onto the field.

“Those are the things you look for as a team, when you finally have something good happen,” Arizona Manager Torey Lovullo said. “We’ve been coming in here talking about losing baseball games, and that’s hard. It’s tough on the team and tough on everyone.

“But you have to find a way to keep grinding. That showed the personality of this team.”

The Diamondbacks loaded the bases against San Francisco reliever Mark Melancon (3-2) before Locastro delivered his game-winner. After Christian Walker led off the Arizona 10th with a single, he was erased at second when Nick Ahmed hit into a fielder’s choice. Pinch-hitter Jarrod Dyson walked and Carson Kelly was intentionally walked.

Ahmed scored the winning run from third on Locastro’s drive over the third base bag.

‘With one out, I’m just trying to get the ball to the outfield,” Locastro said. “Actually, I knew that (Melancon’s) tendency is to come in a little bit, so I was looking in there and got one over the third baseman’s head.

“As soon as I hit it, I saw (Longoria) jump up for it. As soon as I saw it drop, I gave it a fist pump and knew we had the win. I was very excited.”

“It didn’t surprise me that (Dyson) drew that walk,’ Lovullo said. “He was fighting off pitches and that was a key moment of the game. It’s built because of Christian Walker having a good at-bat and getting on base.”

Arizona took a 1-0 lead in the third when Caleb Joseph drew a one-out walk and scored on Locastro’s base hit.

The Giants tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the fourth. Evan Longoria led off with a single, moved to third on Brandon Belt’s double and scored on an infield groundout by Stephen Vogt.

The Diamondbacks regained the lead at 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth. With one out, Adam Jones reached on a strike three wild pitch, moved to third on Eduardo Escobar’s single and scored on a base hit by Christian Walker.

Kevin Pillar tied the game at 2-2 with his 10th home run of the season to lead off the Giants seventh, hastening Merrill Kelly’s departure. He worked six-plus innings, struck out nine, walked two, and gave up two earned runs on four hits.

The D-Backs bullpen — Andrew Chafin, Yoan Lopez, Greg Holland and winning pitcher Matt Andriese (4-4) held San Francisco scoreless in the final four innings, with a combined three strikeouts and no walks or hits.

“It was pretty bad to give up that leadoff homer to Pillar. It would have been liked getting out of there with a lead, but the guys did a great job of picking me up and getting a huge victory,” Merritt Kelly said. “Hopefully, we’ve got some good energy going.”

Giants starter Shaun Anderson threw a strong six innings, giving up two runs on five hits with two strikeouts and one walk. Relievers Reyes Moronta and Sam Dyson held the Snakes scoreless and hitless in their combined three innings.

“We just couldn’t get anything going with the bats,” Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said. ‘They got the big hit, we didn’t. That’s the difference in the game.”

Lovullo said that Ketel Marte was not available for today’s game, even going into extra innings. Marte had been listed as day-to-day after suffering a left groin cramp on Friday.

“There was a minimal risk, but we held him back today. (Marte) will be out there when we play the Dodgers.”

Locastro added, “Now we have to get on a streak and that’s the goal moving forward.”

The Giants return home to host Colorado Monday through Wednesday. Lefthander Drew Pomeranz (2-7, 7.09 ERA) faces the Rockies’ Jon Gray (7-5, 4.18 ERA) in Monday’s series opener. San Francisco’s probables for Tuesday and Wednesday are Madison Bumgarner (3-7, 4.28 ERA) and Jeff Samardzija (4-6, 4.23 ERA).

TAGS: Tim Locastro, Arizona Diamondbacks, San Francisco Giants, MLB

San Francisco Giants podcast with Michael Duca: Giants getting key pitching in recent wins

Photo credit: @SFGiants

On the Giants podcast with Michael:

#1 Shaun Anderson looks like a keeper he pitched an effective game against the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night, going six innings, four hits, two runs, six strikeouts and three walks.

#2 Giants closer Will Smith brought his A game with the bags juiced in the top of the ninth. He got his 16th save in 16 tries.

#3 The Padres had a short time lead in the top of the fifth 2-1 until the bottom of the fifth when the Giants scored twice and Padres manager Andy Green said that they had a shot at winning the game, but just didn’t have enough to get over the hump.

#4 When the Padres acquired star third baseman Manny Machado, the Padres thought they had their road paved to postseason, but now the Padres are two below .500 and in fifth place just a place above the Giants.

#5 Friday the 14th, the Milwaukee Brewers and Giants open a three-game series with the Brewers sending out starter Zach Davies (7-0 ERA 2.41) against Giants starter Drew Pomeranz (1-6, 7.16 ERA).

Michael Duca does the Giants podcasts each Friday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

San Francisco Giants podcast with Morris Phillips and Michael Duca: By trade deadline, you can expect a lot of changes to come to the Giants

photo from nbcsports.com: San Francisco Giants pitcher Shaun Anderson during his second major league outing last Tuesday at Oracle Park. Anderson pitched five innings and gave up eight hits and two runs.

On the San Francisco Giants podcast with Morris Phillips and Michael Duca:

The San Francisco Giants are everything you would have expected them to be the way the pitching staff has been going were not sure if manager Bruce Bochy could name the five man starting rotation. The Giants are playing to the trade deadline, you can expect a lot of changes to come to this team.

On Tuesday night, for the 27th time in their entire history, they came from behind for a win in the ninth inning and there were 12,000 more people in the ballpark than usual. The Giants were 21-27 after their loss on Wednesday night at Oracle Park. The Giants are desperate for runs they have won eight of their last 10 wins by one run and 13 of 21 wins of one run.

Michael and Morris do the Giants podcasts weekly at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

San Francisco Giants podcast with Morris Phillips and Michael Duca: Break out the bats, Giants starting to find their offensive mojo

Photo credit: @SFGiants

By Michael Duca and Morris Phillips

The San Francisco Giants season at best has been difficult and sometimes hard to watch. The Giants finally find their power stroke on the road. Giants catcher Buster Posey awakens from nine months of hibernation to go deep in Pittsburgh and steal a come from behind victory there. Then, they go to Toronto and hit four home runs in one game.

They were the least home run hitting team in the majors and then they hit four home runs in a game and of course two of those home runs are from guys who are hitting their first home runs of the season. It looks as if the Giants have a new weapon. It’s interesting that their doing this on the road we know that Oracle Park is a pitcher’s park and we know it suppresses home runs but they haven’t been hitting any on the road either.

Michael Duca and Morris Phillips does the Giants podcasts each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

San Francisco Giants podcast with Morris Phillips: Will Posey’s HR mean more to come?; Posey was hitting just over .200

@SFGiants photo: Buster Posey swings for the fences, ending his 191 at-bats drought without a home run, against the Pittsburgh Pirates Sunday at PNC Park in Pittsburgh off Pirates starter Chris Archer.

On the San Francisco Giants podcast with Morris:

#1 San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey hit a three-run homer off Pittsburgh Pirates starter Chris Archer to help San Francisco hang onto a 3-2 win on Sunday.

#2 The Giants were in need of some offense and just a little helped them on Sunday.

#3 For Posey, it was the longest drought going without a home run. Sometimes, it takes something like this to spark a team.

#4 It was Posey’s first home run in 191 at-bats, which includes playoffs and regular season games against the Pirates. The Bucs were the only National League team that Posey had not homered off of.

#5 The Giants have the day off Monday before opening up a two-game series in Toronto Tuesday night against the Blue Jays, who are coming off a three-game sweep of the A’s over the weekend.

Morris does the Giants podcasts each Monday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Headline Sports podcast with London Marq: Ice meltdown in Vancouver–Sharks can’t answer Canucks’ 3 goals in third period; Quakes’ best game in 0-0 draw against Colorado so far; plus more

Photo credit: @NBCSSharks

On the Headline Sports podcast with London:

#1 In one that you can call just a big meltdown, the San Jose Sharks started a two-game road trip in Vancouver Tuesday night, had a 2-1 lead and looked like they might actually win this one against the Canucks, but all for not as the Canucks scored three unanswered goals to hand San Jose its ninth loss in 10 games 4-2.

#2 The San Jose Earthquakes are a team that is all shook up. They have not won one a game yet this season and have played six games and their best game was against Colorado in a 0-0 draw. London tells us from he has seen of the Quakes what the problem is?

#3 The San Francisco Giants have shown some improvement on the current road trip taking the first game against the Dodgers on Monday night 4-2, thanks to Brandon Belt’s home run to help pace the win. On Tuesday night, the Giants lost by a run, but it’s been something to look forward to after they struggled in San Diego losing three out four.

#4 The Oakland A’s are getting plenty of pitching they got a 7-0 shutout over the World Champion Red Sox on Monday and then on Tuesday they got a 1-0 shutout with great A’s starting pitcher Mike Fiers and A’s reliever Blake Treinen.

#5 The Sacramento Kings just couldn’t do anything with James Harden and the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night in Golden One Center. Harden put away 36 points and he was again a scoring machine in a 130-105 win.

London Marq does the Headline Sports podcast for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Headline Sports podcast with Tony Renteria: Baer will lose control of team when he comes back from suspension; New CEO Dean to take Baer’s spot

Photo credit: @Deadspin

On Headline Sports podcast with Tony Renteria:

#1 Tony, the San Francisco Giants have decided to have acting CEO Rob Dean as their frontman. In a statement from the team on Tuesday, the Giants have said that upon returning from suspension on July 2nd, Baer will no longer have control of the team, although he will retain his title as CEO and president.

#2 The players have stated that regardless of the off-the-field issues regarding Baer, they are determined to stay focused, and outfielder Steven Duggar says playing between the lines has been a safe haven for the players.

#3 The Giants have been struggling in spring training are are now open their regular season today in San Diego. They do have one of the best defensive infield in the National League coming into the season.

#4 The Oakland A’s, who were left for dead after their starting rotation either went on the DL or underwent surgery, came back later in the season and made it to the Wild Card. You just can’t count a Billy Beane team out.

Tony does Headline Sports each Thursday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com