SFGAuthentics photo: Mac Williamson who hit a tape measure shot last Monday against the Washington Nationals and another homer the next night pictures his bats he used in spring training in March
On the Giants podcast with Michael Duca:
#1 Mac Williamson the Giants outfielder is listed as day to day with a stiff neck caused by crashing into the AT&T Park padding while chasing down a fly. Williamson missed Wednesday’s game and is anxious to get back into the line up
#2 Williamson has impressed manager Bruce Bochy not only for his hustle but those tape measure home runs during the Washington series and his bat speed making solid contact
#3 In his second start on Wednesday pitcher Jeff Samardzija was rocked and early over four innings of work, eight hits, six runs, and we asked Michael is Samardzija really ready after his rehab
#4 Giants pitcher Reyes Moronta has been the talk for his first win on Tuesday night he was able to retire Washington hitters either from the left or right side of the plate. In Moronta’s debut he pitched for a 0.64 ERA.
#5 The Giants open a four game series tonight at AT&T Park against the Los Angeles Dodgers which includes a double dip on Saturday to make up for a rain out earlier this month. Michael goes into the length of time that the players, coaches, managers (from both teams) and stadium employees put into working both ends of a day night doubleheader. The first game starts at 1:00PM and the second game starts at 7:00PM on Saturday night.
San Francisco Giant left fielder Mac Williamson has started his 2018 season in the show with a flourish. A right handed hitter mentioned with two left-handed hitters Willie McCovey–hence, the name Mac, and Barry Bonds for distance hitting. Williamson, who hits right-handed belted a two-run homer on Monday night against the Washington Nationals seven rows up the opposite way to right field in the 4-2 win to open the three-game series at AT&T Park.
Williamson belted a 464-foot home run to give fans a idea how far the blast was. This is an area that Bonds used to hit them and for that matter if McCovey was active and was able during his playing days he could do the same. Williamson hit Monday night was to the farthest part of the right field corner.
@athletics: A’s pitcher Sean Manaea soaked after getting the Gatorade treatment with Bubble Gum bucket crowning after no hitting the best team in baseball the Boston Red Sox at the Oakland Coliseum on Saturday night
On the MLB The Show podcast with Daniel Dullum:
Giants win over Angels; rough start for Jeff Samardzija, three SF home runs
Hunter Pence on DL with thumb injury
Tyson Ross comes within four outs of throwing Padres’ first ever no-hitter
Giancarlo Stanton finally ends home run drought, hits first dinger for Yanks
Sean Manaea’s no hitter sure to lift A’s morale after team’s first sweep and beating baseball’s best
Nats beat Dodgers in battle of Max Scherzer vs. Clayton Kershaw
#1 The San Francisco Giants continue to flounder on offense as they lose to the Arizona Diamondbacks 3-1 on Thursday night at Chase Field.
#2 Up and down, the San Francisco line up the hitters. You expect to connect have struggled against Arizona pitching namely Thursday starter Zach Greinke, who went seven innings, three hits and gave up a run kept the Giants’ lineup off balance.
#3 Pitcher Jeff Samardzija is scheduled to come back and pitch his first game of the season. Manager Bruce Bochy says Samardzija is on schedule and his rehab has been going smoothly.
#4 Madison Bumgarner had three pins removed for his pinky finger, which was fractured four weeks ago in spring training. Doctors say Bumgarner could be throwing in two weeks.
#5 Giants outfielder Hunter Pence said his thumb injury is preventing him from getting some good swings at the plate and holding him back. Pence has only one hit and 12 strikeouts in his last 20 at-bats.
San Francisco Giants’ Buster Posey follows through as he drives in a run with a double against the Colorado Rockies during the first inning of a baseball game, Monday, June 26, 2017, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
By Morris Phillips
Ease up on dissension stories, put a noose on the negativity, look no further for factions and infighting. If only for a night, the focus fell on the diamond, as the Giants became winners again.
Jeff Samardzija pitched into the seventh inning, and four Giants produced multi-hit games in a 9-2 rout of the Rockies, ending the team’s woeful stretch of 12 losses in 13 games. The win also snapped a streak of nine, consecutive losses to the Rockies, the longest such streak of Giants’ losses in the nearly 25 seasons of meetings between the two clubs.
Manager Bruce Bochy stuck with his most veteran lineup Monday, and was rewarded with three-hit games from Buster Posey and Hunter Pence, while Denard Span and Joe Panik each had a pair of hits at the top the lineup. The Giants scored in three of the first four innings off German Marquez, who failed to win for a third, consecutive start.
Samardzija again pitched well enough to win, but this time, he did win. The Shark tamed the same lineup that was unforgiving in Denver on June 16, when Samardzija allowed a season-worst eight runs and 11 hits. This time, with all his pitches working, the righthander cruised through the first six innings before adversity struck in the seventh. Still, his two runs and six hits allowed performance was enough to get the decision, and avoid a major league-worst tenth loss.
“We have a hard time scoring runs for him, but tonight he got rewarded for a great effort,” manager Bruce Bochy said.
Samardzija continued to be stingy with opposing hitters, by striking out five and walking none. That extends a streak of 12 starts in which he’s struck out 82 batters while walking just four. But he’s only 3-5 in that stretch, another example of how hard wins, and run support, have been to come by for a club that’s 23 1/2 games behind the Dodgers.. after gaining ground on Monday.
“Obviously we’re trying to score runs for him,” Brandon Crawford said. “At times, we try too hard, we’re pressing.”
Samardzija’s received the third worst support in the big leagues this season, barely three runs per game on average, but he hasn’t dwelled on it, in part due to previous experience. In 2014, as a member of the Cubs, he went the first 10 starts of the season without a win, despite pitching deep into all 10 starts, and compiling a miniscule 1.46 ERA.
“Even when it’s not going well, you go out and give it all you got,” he said.
Monday’s win came on the heels of a story written by Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal that depicted the Giants as a divided clubhouse, in part due to disagreement over pre-game stretching routines that conflict with new closer Mark Melancon’s preferred, pre-night game routine. Add Rosenthal’s contention that the Giants lack fiery personalties, leaving them cemented in a lethargy of losing, and you have something to talk about.
A bewildered Bochy did just that before Monday’s game.
“It’s pole vaulting over mouse turds, to be honest,” he said, when told of Rosenthal’s finer points.
Are the Giants a happy family then, despite losing at a record pace in a season they were built to compete for a fourth World Championship?
Probably not, but they do cut an unique swath across the greater canvas of losing. For one, big contracts are hard to move, and the Giants have a bunch of them. With the trade deadline roughly six weeks away, a market flooded with sellers won’t dislodge a gaggle of buyers. Only the most, desirable contracts will move, and the deals signed by Johnny Cueto, Hunter Pence and Brandon Belt, for examples, are expensive, complicated and downright undesirable.
Also, the Giants’ front office stubbornly has backed away from trade talks–for now–in hopes that some of the underperformers can turn it around. They can’t move everyone, and the majority of their roster wasn’t considered washed up until things collectively went south just two months ago.
For example, would you consider moving arbitration-eligible Joe Panik, a year after he was widely thought to be ascending to league batting champion status? Panik will be just 27 on Opening Day 2018, and he’s showing signs of progress after two, injury-marred seasons.
On Tuesday, Matt Cain gets the start for the Giants, Jeff Hoffman goes for the Rockies at 7:15pm.
National’s Ryan Zimmerman circling the bases after his three-run, first inning home run off Matt Cain at AT&T Park on Wednesday night. (AP/Eric Risberg)
By Morris Phillips
SAN FRANCISCO–Representing varying degrees of pressure, the 3-0 deficits the Giants faced in each game of their just concluded series with the Nationals said it all about being down, and not being let up. Those significant, but normally surmountable leads said plenty about the current acumen and confidence of the Nats, versus the increasing lethargy enveloping the Giants as well.
On Monday, the Nats built their 3-0 lead in the eighth inning. Perhaps the rare, cross country flight between day games on consecutive days delayed the NL East leader’s impending takeover by an hour or so. On Tuesday, the Nats built their 3-0 lead after two innings. On Wednesday, they built the lead after the first four batters of the game, capped by red-hot Ryan Zimmerman’s three run homer.
Term the series pressure, followed by pressure packed, followed by pressure filled, with Max Scherzer, Washington’s Wednesday night starter, providing much of the later. Consequently, the Giants never looked comfortable at any point.
We did say they’re different levels to this game.
Scherzer, bouyed by Giants’ hitters anxious to avoid deep counts when facing one of MLB’s most dominate pitchers, cruised to a 3-1 victory, holding the Giants without a hit until the fourth, and only surrendering five hits in a complete game performance that was breezy, if not brief.
“We got a break with one run or we’d probably get shut out, to be honest,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s done that to a lot of clubs.”
Former Giant’s manager Dusty Baker saw his win total as a big league manager reach 1,799, one win from a milestone reached by just 16 others. Baker’s gameplan for the occasion was brutally simple: ride his ace to the finish, if possible, in the absence of closer Koda Glover, who was unavailable due to a heavy workload in recent games. The result was a spectacular success; Scherzer finished off the Giants with 100 pitches, 79 of those strikes, and he retired the first hitter in every inning. Baker’s seen it all, but sounded giddy when asked about his ace.
“The difference was, he was getting strike one,” Baker said. “Who out there can deal the way he was dealing? Boy, that was masterful.”
While Scherzer dealt, Washington’s hitters extracted every pitch out of Matt Cain, just as they sucked every pitch out of Jeff Samardzija the day before. Somehow, Cain kept it close despite throwing 80 pitches in the first four innings, but it mattered little as the Nationals’ completed the sweep, their eighth win in their last 11 games.
Bryce Harper saw his suspension reduced from four games to three, and began serving it immediately. That left the Nats down an MVP candidate, and it hardly mattered. Trea Turner and Anthony Rendon had two hits apiece, and seven of the Nationals’ nine hits came in the first four innings. On Tuesday, 13 of the Nats’ 14 hits came in the first five innings.
“Everybody had their fingers on this,” Scherzer said.
Once again, the Giants got caught marching in place offensively. Only in the fourth inning did they manage to couple hits, and that entailed two Washington outfielders failing to catch Busted Posey’s fly ball that fell between them when Jayson Werth and Michael Taylor both lost the ball in the lights. Posey’s ball was ruled a double scoring Eduardo Nunez.
The Giants finished 2-4 on their homestand, and were twice shut out before scoring just one run Wednesday. They fell 11 1/2 games off the pace of the Dodgers in the NL West.
When it comes to Giants-Dodgers baseball, the emotions are all over the place. You don’t necesarilly need to track Michael Morse circling the bases, tounge wagging, hair swinging to know that.
Manager Dave Roberts was tight-lipped, but you could literally see the decisions replaying in his head after his Dodgers saw their 3-0 lead evaporate on Wednesday, and morph into a frustrating 4-3 loss to the Giants. Did Roberts lift starter Alex Wood too soon? Did Pedro Baez literally go from unhittable to just-got-hit that fast? Did Adrian Gonzalez make the right play on Nick Hundley’s difficult grounder that would load the bases ahead of Hunter Pence’s game-winning, sacrifice fly? And what of that pitch sequence to Pence that allowed the free-swinging slugger to escape 0-2 and get a pitch elevated?
Ten pitches, all above the belly button with pace. To Pence?
“I don’t like to second-guess sequencing too much,” Roberts said, after noting the similarity in Ross Stripling’s two-strike offerings.
Roberts and Morse weren’t the only ones reacting to the game’s dramatic turn.
Sergio Romo wanted to be today’s news in his return to AT&T Park. But he wasn’t that after allowing Christian Arroyo’s first major league home run, and seeing his ERA jump to 10.57. Romo’s 80-mph slider unleashed the 21-year old’s big swing, a certain reminder why no one in the Giants’ organization was willing to entertain trade offers involving their top-tiered prospect.
Arroyo’s quick, powerful swat was reminiscent of 23-year old Buster Posey’s swing in 2010, when the Giants’ catcher deposited 18 balls beyond the fences in his first, full big league season.
While Morse’s game-tying shot in the eighth provided the game’s signature moment, Arroyo not-so-quietly made it possible with his shot in the seventh.
“We were down three. Now we’re down one. We were just not doing anything against Wood,” manager Bruce Bochy admitted.
Dodgers’ starter Alex Wood didn’t allow a hit until Drew Stubbs led off with a single in the sixth. But Wednesday’s outing was Woods’ first one of any length since the end of spring training. Roberts approached it cautiously just as he did when Stripling flirted with a no-hitter a year earlier in similar circumstances. So with a 3-0 cushion in the seventh, Roberts pulled the plug on Wood, looking to gain confidence in his reconfigured bullpen outside of reliable closer Kenley Jansen. Roberts’ move didn’t work.
“The bullpen’s been great all year for us,” Wood said. “It was a tough one for us tonight.”
How tough? Flamethrower Pedro Baez, summoned in the eighth, had not allowed a run in six, previous appearances. Morse, on the other hand, just returned to town for the first time as a Giant in three years. Part of the club’s early season shakeup, Morse and Kelby Tomlinson were recalled from AAA Sacramento earlier in the day.
One pitch after Morse waved at Baez’ 95-mph heat, he sent one into the left field bleachers, setting off the slugger’s unbridled celebration. You can’t make this stuff up: The game score on Wednesday was exactly the same before and after Morse’s shot as it was in the Giant’s 2014 NLCS clincher against St. Louis.
“It was cool and not only for me,” Morse said. “I think for the team, it was a really big moment.”
The Giants conclude their series with the Dodgers on Thursday at 1245p in a matchup of Matt Moore and 20-year old Julio Urias, making his season debut.
SAN FRANCISCO–After an unscheduled interruption during the national anthem, five extra base hits and six runs in a first inning played in a vigorous downpour, and the groundskeeping crew’s constant resuscitating of the playing surface, the hearty fans that braved it all had to feel they were into an epic afternoon of topsy, turvy baseball injected with frequent scoring.
Instead the rain eased, the pitching soared, and the scoring all but drived up. And the hero of the afternoon didn’t tote a bat, but carried a catcher’s glove and assisted on a putout at first base. But what a play.
With the Giants threating to push across the tying run in the sixth, Brandon Crawford hit a dribbler up the line that figuratively died. But Tony Wolters shed his mask, raced to the ball, took airborne, and unleashed an accurate flip to first baseman Mark Reynolds for the out. SportsCenter? You bet.
Take away the moisture and Wolters’ gymnastics, and the Giants’ issue of the moment– scoring too few runs–couldn’t have been more apparent. Jeff Samardzija, who fell to 0-3 after the Giants’ 4-3 loss, allowed three of those runs in his first 15 pitches. With the Giants’ offense sputtering for the majority of the afternoon, Samardzija’s early hiccup couldn’t be overcome.
“We need to figure out a way to scratch one or two across when we need them to close the gap,” Samardzija said. “That comes from not letting runs in early, so you can take the lead.”
The Giants fell to 5-8 on the season with the loss, with a trip to Kansas City to face the Royals up next. The Rockies grabbed three of four in the series and improved to 8-5.
The rain left the field waterlogged, especially along the tracks and in the corners. But the Giants’ groundskeeping crew worked tirelessly to minimize the moisture only to be thanklessly chased off the field at points by the time conscious umpires. The rain was its most intense in the first two innings. It eased after that, but never ceased.
The Giants haven’t experienced a rain out at home in 10 years with the last one coming in 2006 against the Astros. By comparison, the A’s did rain out with their home game set to start at the same time as the Giants. But with the Warriors hosting a playoff game next door, and far fewer A’s tickets sold that Giants’ tickets, economics may have explained the team’s different approaches to the weather, more so than the Giants’ more reliable field drainage system.
Petaluma’s Madeline Haedt sang the national anthem, and did so flawlessly until an unscheduled interruption half way through. But after gathering herself, and clearing her throat, she finished flawlessly as well.
SAN FRANCISCO–The 18th Opening Day along the shores of McCovey Cove had an ominous start and a satisfying conclusion, with a comical moment in between that stood as the pivotal play in the Giants’ 4-1 win over the Diamondbacks.
Just another example of the home team trying to make up for those anxious days when the park by San Francisco Bay opened in 2000 and Giants’ fans suffered through several, disappointng losses to the Dodgers. This time, fans of the orange and black were treated to all the pomp and circumstance with a giant U.S. flag ceremony, the national anthem sung by the cast of the Broadway hit “Hamilton,” and a standing ovation for Barry Bonds, the franchise’s hero come home. Following that, the Giants thrilled the fans with their 14th win in a home opener at AT&T Park.
The ominous moment was a Tijuan Walker pitch that plunked Buster Posey in the first inning, and ended his afternoon on the field, as manager Bruce Bochy elected to lift his star player as a precautionary move. Backup Nick Hundley came on to team with Matt Moore, who was in control, pitching eight innings, allowing just one run, to pick up the win.
“Were he not the catcher, he might have stayed in the game,” Bochy said of the incident in which Posey was alert, but wide-eyed, throughout. Posey did leave the field under his own power after a thorough look over by trainer Ron Groeschner. Posey was scheduled to be evaluated soon after the conclusion of the game, but the team announced, that they don’t expect the All-Star catcher to return to the field for Tuesday’s game.
“It’s one of the worst sounds you can hear in baseball, the ball hitting the helmet,” Bochy said. “It’s a scary moment. There’s been a lot of damage to hitters hit in the head.”
Moore said afterwards that he retreated to the clubhouse a couple of times to check on Posey, saying that he felt his catcher was doing fine. Other than that, Moore did his best to reduce all his teammates’ anxiety by taming the D’Backs, allowing just the one run on Yasmani Tomas’ solo shot in the fifth.
San Francisco Giants’ Chris Marrero, left, slides safely into second base with a double as Oakland Athletics shortstop Marcus Semien waits for the throw from the outfield during the fifth inning of an exhibition baseball game Thursday, March 30, 2017, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
By Morris Phillips
SAN FRANCISCO–The Giants needed a new left fielder with the team opting not to renew Angel Pagan’s contract. But they couldn’t have envisioned the crowded field of competitors that emerged for the opening.
Jarrett Parker and Mac Williamson were tabbed first as experienced minor leaguers with big league experience, both thought to be ready for a promotion. Then 35-year old Michael Morse was signed to a minor league deal after missing almost all of the 2016 season.
But during spring training, Williamson suffered an injured quad, and Morse impressed, but was felled by a hamstring injury. And 28-year old Chris Marrero, a journeyman with no home runs in any of the 39 big league games he played for the Nationals in 2011 and 2013, turned into the Babe Ruth of the Cactus League.
The 6’3″ Marrero clubbed eight home runs in Arizona, then in his AT&T Park debut on Thursday in the Bay Bridge series, he came within inches of sending a shot off the left field foul pole.
In the Giants 3-0 win over the A’s, Marrero contributed a double in his second at-bat, and made a couple of nifty catches in the outfield, and looked comfortable, all of which manager Bruce Bochy noticed.
“He had a couple of good at-bats. It was a good game for him,” Bochy said. “The first time here in left field, and it’s not an easy left field, he looked comfortable. He looked relaxed. All those things.”
Bochy begged off announcing any roster decisions, those he said,would be announced before Friday night’s game, but Marrero appears to have earned a spot.
One scenario would have Marrero making starts against right-handed starters with Parker starting against lefties in a platoon the Giants were reluctant to consider previously. But Marrero’s pop can’t be ignored, nor can his defensive liabilities that should preclude him being named the full-time starter at this point.
A couple of things are apparent prior to Bochy’s announcements: both Morse and Williamson will begin the season on the disabled list.
NOTES: The Giants’ desire to bolster their bullpen after last season’s frequent meltdowns appears to be headed in the right direction despite the announcement setup man/closer Will Smith will undergo elbow surgery and miss the entire season.
Mark Melancon, the $62 million addition, will close and impressed this spring with his appearances and his thinking man’s game. Derek Law, Hunter Strickland, Josh Osich and Cody Gearrin all are in the mix as setup guys as is George Kontos, a mainstay looking for a bigger role. Also, rookie Ty Blach, considered for the fifth-starter’s role, could make the club as a bullpen guy, possibly the long reliever.
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