Dubon goes 3-for-4 in Giants’ 5-4 win over Dodgers

Photo credit: mercurynews.com

By Jeremy Kahn

On a night where the Los Angeles Dodgers honored Bruce Bochy, the San Francisco Giants put a stop to the Dodgers clinching the National League West.

Mauricio Dubon went 3-for-4 and drove in three runs, as the Giants defeated the Dodgers 5-4 at Dodger Stadium.

With the loss, the Dodgers magic number to clinch their seventh straight National League West Division Championship at four.

This was a win that the Giants desperately needed if they want to have a chance to get into the National League Wild Card.

Prior to the win against the Dodgers in the opener, the Giants were in a big time slump, as they lost eight out of 10 and 12 out of their last 16.

Clayton Kershaw was not his usual self for the Dodgers, as he lost for the third time in a row and was frustrated when he was pulled from the game in the top of the fifth inning by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.

Kershaws frustrations boiled over into the dugout, as he was seen kicking the cooler, throwing his hat and glove after Roberts pulled him.

Dubon tied up the game, as he hit his second home run of the season, a solo blast off the left field pole.

Kevin Pillar drew a walk that was the end of the night for Kershaw, and his replacement Dylan Floro did not help Kershaw at all.

Evan Longoria grounded out, but after an intentional walk to Buster Posey, pinch hitter Mike Yastrzemski hit a two-run double that gave the Giants the lead for good. After an intentional walk to Belt, Dubon hit a two-run single that gave the Giants a 5-1 in the top of the fifth inning.

Things got interesting in the bottom of the ninth inning, as A.J. Pollock hit his third home run of the game off of Giants closer Will Smith to narrow the Giants lead down to 5-4.

Russell Martin then came off the bench and walked, but then Smith struck out Will Smith swinging to pick up his 32nd save of the season.

Jeff Samardzija won his 10th game of the season, as he went six innings, allowing three runs, not walking a batter and striking out three.

Two of those three hits allowed by Samardzija were solo home runs by Pollock. Kershaw lost for just the fifth time this season against 13 wins, as he went just four innings, allowing three runs, walking three and striking out six.

NOTES: Bochy received an autographed Sandy Koufax jersey, as the Dodgers honored the longtime Giants manager who will be retiring at the end of the 2019 season after a 25-year managerial career. In his career between the San Diego Padres and the Dodgers, Bochy is now 219-204.

Trevor Gott was transferred to the 60-day injured list with a right elbow strain. Johnny Cueto will throw a bullpen session this weekend in Los Angeles after experiencing tightness in his back.

UP NEXT: Tyler Beede will start Saturday for the Giants, while the Dodgers will counter with Tony Gonsolin. Game time scheduled for 6:10 p.m.

San Francisco Giants podcast with Michael Duca: Seeing Red Birds, Giants drop 3 of 4 from Cardinals, lose in laugher on Thursday 10-0

Photo credit: mercurynews.com

On the Giants podcast with Michael:

#1 At this juncture, how anxious does this club seem to be to end this season regroup and see what next spring brings?

#2 The Giants faced two Cardinals pitcher Dakota Hudson and reliever Genesis Cabrera, who both shut the Giants out. The Giants simply could not figure either pitcher out.

#3 Giants starter Logan Webb got lit up going 2.2 innings, eight hits and seven runs, two walks and strikeouts with the Red Birds scoring three in the bottom of the first and five in the bottom of the third.

#4 The Giants used six pitchers, but most of the damage had been done in the five-run third. Webb was charged for all eight runs in the early going.

#5 The Giants hope to turn the page with a series coming up Friday night at Dodger Stadium. For the Giants, Jeff Samardzija (9-11, 3.61 ERA), and for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Clayton Kershawn (13-4, 2.96 ERA).

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

MLB The Show podcast with Matt Harrington: Angels order full investigation as to who supplied Skaggs with painkillers; Muncy out at least 10 days with wrist fracture; plus more

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On the MLB The Show podcast with Matt Harrington:

#1 Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs who passed away at age 27 the autopsy showed that Skaggs took “alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone intoxication with terminal aspiration of gastric contents” according to a statement released by the Angels. Skaggs choked on his own vomit when the Angels were in Arlington in preparation to play the Texas Rangers, but on the day Skaggs passed away, the game was canceled due to his death.

#2 The Angels released a statement saying that the team will not rest until it gets a full investigation as to who supplied Skaggs with the painkillers and alcohol. The Skaggs family along with the Angels said that the team has hired Texas attorney Rusty Hardin to help with the investigation.

#3 The Los Angeles Dodgers have placed Max Muncy on the 10-day IL due to a wrist fracture. Muncy hopes not to miss more than 10 days and has 33 home runs and 87 RBIs this season. Muncy took a pitch on the wrist as he prepared to swing the pitch was expected to break away but jammed him.

#4 San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey hit in the five-hole for the first time this season on Thursday night. Giants manager Bruce Bochy made the move stating that Posey hitting .246 with six home runs and 35 RBIs was a “change of scenery move.” Posey went 1-4 on Thursday night against San Diego and hit fifth again on Friday night.

#5 Hurricane Dorian was upgraded to a category four and is headed for Miami. The Miami Marlins reportedly will leave three panels of the roof of their park open to avoid giving lift to the roof. The hatches are baton down, but the question remains what condition the park will be in after the storm and what impact will Dorian have on the community in order for the Marlins to continue play. The Fish are scheduled to host the Kansas City Royals on Friday night.

Matt Harrington does the MLB The Show podcast each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

MLB The Show podcast with Matt Harrington: Kuiper brothers will fly home for father’s funeral; Tatis will miss the rest of season with back injury; plus more

sportingnews.com photo file: San Francisco Giant broadcaster Duane Kuiper (in photo) along with brothers Giants TV producer Jeff Kuiper and Oakland A’s TV broadcaster Glenn Kuiper (not in photo) will attend their father’s funeral this weekend and will be on bereavement from their broadcasting work.

On the MLB The Show podcast with Matt:

#1 Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper, A’s broadcaster Glenn Kuiper, and Giants TV producer Jeff Kuiper will all fly to Racine, Wisconsin in preparation of the funeral for their father Henry, who passed away at age 94. Henry was a auctioneer and a farmer locally in Racine and allowed a restaurant to be built on his property. He also was involved in fast pitch baseball and would not let Duane drive the tractor on the family farm because Duane could not drive the tractor straight, leaving ziz zags embarrassing the farming community.

#2 San Diego Padres’ Fernando Tatis Jr. will sit out the rest of the 2019 season with a back injury. Tatis was a candidate for the 2019 Rookie of the Year award, hitting .317, 13 doubles, 22 home runs, and 53 RBIs in 84 games.

#3 The Boston Red Sox, like much of the American League, crushed the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night with a 9-1 win. Andrew Benintendi and Mitch Moreland got RBI triples and Sox pitcher Rick Porchello pitched six innings, giving up only one run in the victory. For the O’s, it was their fifth straight loss.

#4 Big win for the Minnesota Twins on Friday night with a narrow 4-3 victory over the Texas Rangers. The Twins maintain a 1.5 game lead in the AL Central over the second place Cleveland Indians. The Twins’ Max Kepler and Jonathan Schoop got two-run homers in Arlington Texas.

#5 The Los Angeles Dodgers are just simply running away with it in the NL West. They picked up another victory over the Atlanta Braves 8-3 at Sun Trust Stadium. LA’s Cody Bellinger hit for home run number 41. The Dodgers’ Max Muncy and Justin Turner both hit home runs in the victory Friday night.

Join Matt each Saturday for the MLB podcast at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Podcast: Duca on baseball and the Giants

greyscale photography of condenser microphone
Photo by Tommy Lopez on Pexels.com

Podcasts: Duca on baseball and the Giants

  • Michael Duca joins Charlie O to talk about the most important topics in baseball
  • Is the new trade deadline a good thing?
  • Why didn’t the Yankees and Dodgers get a deal done at the deadline?
  • Did the Giants do good hanging on to “MadBum”?
  • Did San Francisco move out the right players at the deadline?
  • What about Scooter? Does he fill a need?
  • Plus a discussion about hair or no hair!

Check out the talk! If you are a baseball fan, you will have a good time!!!

Longoria wins it on home run in seventh SF wins 1-0

photo from sfgate.com: San Francisco Giants’ Evan Longoria, left, is congratulated by third base coach Ron Wotus (23) after hitting a solo home run against the St. Louis Cardinals during the seventh inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Sunday, July 7, 2019.

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Evan Longoria ended two things against Jack Flaherty with one swing of the bat.

Longoria hit a solo home run with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, breaking up both a shutout and a no-hitter and it helped the San Francisco Giants to a 1-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals before a crowd of 33,841 at Oracle Park.

This was only the third shutout of the season for the Giants and the first since April 24 against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

On the afternoon, the Giants only got two hits, and this was the fewest hits in a game where they won since a two-hit over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on March 30, 2018.

Flaherty was throwing a perfect game until he walked Alex Dickerson to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning.

After the Longoria home run, Dickerson singled to left, but then Flaherty got Stephen Vogt to fly out to Dexter Fowler and then Kevin Pillar lined out to Paul DeJong to end the inning.

It was the 12th home run of the season for Longoria, and his fifth in his last six games. During the six-game stretch, Longoria is hitting .429 (9-for-21) with seven extra base hits (two doubles and five home runs), 10 RBI and eight runs scored.

Longoria is no stranger to breaking up no-hitter, as it was the fourth time in his career that he broke up a no-hitter in the 7th inning or later.

With DeJong on first base in the top of the seventh inning, Paul Goldschmidt hit a line drive into the right-center gap; however, Pillar flew through into the air and made a fantastic catch that kept the game scoreless.

The Longoria home run made a winner out of Jeff Samardzija, who pitched a tremendous game, as he went seven innings, scattering four hits and striking out two on his way to picking up his sixth win of the season.

This was the first time since August 28 and September 2, 2017 that Samardzija went seven innings with two or fewer runs. That was also the last time he pitched at seven innings in consecutive starts.

It was a tough loss for Flaherty, who also went seven innings, allowing one run on just two hits, walking one and striking out six and saw his record fall to 4-6 on the season.

Sam Dyson pitched one inning, allowing one hit and struck out three. Closer Will Smith came on in the top of the ninth inning and despite giving up a single to Goldschmidt, he picked up his 23rd save in 23 chances, as Fowler grounded into a double play to end the game.

Over his last 19 outings, Smith has not allowed a run in 17 of those games and is possessing a 0.96 earned run average (two earned runs in 18.2 ip) with 30 strikeouts and opposing hitters are hitting .156 against him.

NOTES: Pillar also drove in the only run of the game on April 11, when he homered against the Colorado Rockies in a 1-0 Giants victory that made a winner out of Samardzija.

The Giants are now 18-9 in one-run games and 4-7 in final games of the series.

This was the seventh time this season that the Cardinals have been shutout, and it was the first time that the Cardinals have lost a series to the Giant since May 19-21, 2017 at Busch Stadium.

UP NEXT: Following the All-Star break, the Giants begin a three-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday night.

Shaun Anderson will open the series against the Brewers at Miller Park on Friday night, followed by Madison Bumgarner and Tyler Beede. The Brewers starter has yet to be determined.

MLB podcast with Matt Harrington: Seinfeld sidearms first pitch at Citi Field, what’s up with that?; Padres-Dodgers play rival type ball; plus more

Photo credit: @mets_fanly

On the MLB podcast with Matt:

#1 Friday was Seinfeld night at Citi Field and there he was the star of sitcom’s all-time best show Jerry Seinfeld getting ready to throw out the first ball and he did so with a side arm pitch that ended up as a strike. He impressed the crowd so much he ended up getting an ovation and tipped his hat.

#2 No matter where the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in the standings, they both play rival type ball and get involved in a deadlock on Friday night which the Padres won it 3-2 during an 7.1 earthquake. There was no exception Pads and Dodgers playing to a close contest.

#3 With all the home runs hit this season in the show, will the big build up lead up to some bombs hit during the All-Star Game home run derby in Cleveland this Monday night. Lots of hit leaders preparing to enter the derby.

#4 The Angels are a team on a mission since the sudden death of their late teammate Tyler Skaggs. The team has been on a roll, the Angels have won six of their last ten games and trying to make a climb out of fourth place in the AL West.

#5 Aaron Judge and the New York Yankees are starting to pull away from second place Tampa Bay and are now 8 1/2 games in front in the AL East and Judge powered his 11th home run on Friday night against the mighty Houston Astros.

Catch Matt every Saturday for the MLB podcast at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Headline Sports with Tony Renteria: Durant and Leonard could be signed with a new team by next week; Baseball epidemic, nets needed to protect fans; plus more

Photo credit: @NBCSBoston

On Headline Sports with Tony Renteria:

#1 The Golden State Warriors’ Kevin Durant and the Toronto Raptors’ Kawhi Leonard are going free agency to see if they can get the maximum for their buck.

#2 Some of the teams that most likely will show interest in Durant and Leonard are the LA Clippers, Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks. It’s very likely everyone should learn either by Sunday night or Monday morning where they’ll be going.

#3 The Houston Rockets are shopping center Clint Capela, guard Eric Gordon, and forward PJ Tucker in their bid to get Philadelphia 76ers star Jimmy Butler. The Rockets are to trying to solidify themselves after failing to make the NBA Finals in the last two seasons.

#4 In the game of baseball, fans come many sit as close to the action as they can. After some serious injuries to fans last season, the MLB thought they got it covered with all the netting they possibly muster up to protect the fans. Last Sunday, a young girl was hit in the eye with a bullet hit by the Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger, and on May 29th, a two-year-old girl was hit by a foul ball hit by the Chicago Cubs’ Albert Almora Jr. that fractured her skull at Houston’s Minute Maid Park leaving her with injuries that she will have to battle with for years to come. The Dodgers, Nationals, and White Sox have said during the All-Star Break, they’ll be netting their entire stadiums from foul pole to foul pole.

#5 The San Francisco Giants’ lineup has been noted for having the worst offense in baseball and possibly the worst in their franchise history. The Giants do not have a batter hitting over .300 in their lineup and have lost nine of their last 12 games.

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

Headline Sports podcast with Barbara Mason: Will Kawhi say goodbye to Toronto?; Giants’ Pomeranz throws heat, strikes out 11 Rockies Monday night; plus more

Photo credit: @ChrisBHaynes

On Headline Sports podcast with Barbara:

#1 Will Kawhi Leonard bolt from the Toronto Raptors? It looks like Leonard will decline the $21.3 million player option and will consider becoming a free agent. There is talk that Leonard is considering signing on with the Raptors and Leonard said he love playing in Toronto so much last season why ruin an opportunity and re-up with the Raptors again.

#2 San Francisco Giant starter Drew Pomeranz, who had some very rough outings this season, has also had some successful games. Monday night against the Colorado Rockies was one of them throwing for 11 strikeouts at Oracle Park after throwing 93 pitches was lifted in the bottom of the fifth inning.

#3 The New York Mets are going through some rough times. There is talk that the Mets general manager Brodie Van Wagenen has been making in game moves and over ruling Mets manager Mickey Callaway. What’s so bizarre about it is Callaway has followed Van Wagenen’s decisions resulting in the Mets finding themselves nine games out of first fourth in the NL East.

#4 The biggest baseball name was Aaron like in Hank Aaron famous for the home run, then there is the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge, who had a lights out season last season, then there’s the Yankees’ Aaron Hicks, whose home run on Monday night help extend and tie the Major League mark for the most consecutive home runs by a team at 27.

#5 After a young girl Katlin Salazar was hit in the face by a Cody Bellinger bullet, the Los Angeles Dodgers have decided to extend the netting from the dugouts to the foul poles at Dodger Stadium. The bullet hit the girl who was seated four rows just up from the dugout. She had to leave some 15 minutes after being hit and was also paid a visit by Bellinger between innings.

Barbara does Headline Sports each Tuesday night at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast: NL opponents always set for Dodgers; Astros hold onto first, everyone out for them too; plus more

Photo credit: @ChicagoSports

On Amaury’s News and Commentary podcast:

#1 Amaury, in the power rankings, everybody in the National League seems ready to chase the Dodgers as the team to beat every time they face the Dodgers.

#2 The Houston Astros the first place team in the AL West and have been giving their AL opponents some fits this season. Although they hit a rough patch, losing three of their last 10 games, they’ve been proving that opponents are going after them.

#3 The Milwaukee Brewers, who almost took out the Los Angeles Dodgers in the postseason last year, are another team who’s contending. They are just two games out of first place in the NL Central only trailing the Chicago Cubs. The Brewers are stocked with offense, including slugger Christian Yelich.

#4 Not too far in the distant future, the Tampa Bay Rays will be splitting their home games at Parc Olympic in Montreal. How much of a serious indication that their days in Tampa Bay are numbered?

#5 The Oakland City council are putting the Oakland A’s through the new stadium question test. Their main questions are paying for the new Howard Terminal location, and besides running a gondola from 12th Street BART to Howard Terminal, the council is looking for more answers to getting fans to the new stadium by other public transportation means.

Amaury Pi-Gonzalez is the Oakland A’s Spanish play by play announcer heard on 1010 KIQI San Francisco and does News and Commentary podcasts each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com