Tag: mlb

Arizona (73-86) 3 13 0

San Francisco (80-79) 4 6 1 10 innings

Sunday, October 2, 2022

San Francisco Giants David Villar (middle) gets congratulated by teammates JD Davis (7) and Mike Yastrzemski (5) after getting a tenth inning walk off two RBI single against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Sun Oct 2, 2022 (@SFGiants photo)

By Lewis Rubman

At first, it was a novelty. Then it was a rarity. Now, for the second day in a row, the Giants played a bullpen game. Yesterday’s wasn’t successful, although opener Scott Alexander handled his five man chore perfectly. It was nominal reliever Jakob Junis and bullpen denizen Jarlín García who opened the floodgates to enable the Diamondbacks deathly offense.

For today, the Giants again chose Alexander to open. Being eliminated from the playoffs means you play spring training games in the fall, so there was nothing to do but relax and enjoy the show.

And what a show it was! The Giants ended up on top of a 4-3 thriller in which they were they got less than half the amount of hit as the visiting snakes. Alexander got through his inning scorelessly but not before giving up a pair of singles. Thomas Szapucki ran into a spot of trouble in the third, but he kept Arizona off the board in his two frames on the mound.

Alex Young followed him in the fourth with another shutout frame in the fourth but faltered in the fifth, yielding a pair of two out doubles to Carston Kelly and Jake McCarthy that allowed the Diamondbacks to score their first run. The always exciting and recently more effective submariner Tyler Rogers came in at that point and got Christian Walker to fly out to end the threat.

Rogers allowed a leadoff double to Josh Rojas in the sixth, but The Curse of the Leadoff Double and a pitcher’s best friend allowed him to escape the consequences of that blow and Corbin Carroll’s infield single. Shelby Miller pitched a perfect seventh in his third big league appearance.

Arizona sent Zach Davies (2-5, 4.18 at game time) to the mound as their starter. The Giants jumped on him for a quick lead in the top of the first. With one out, Wilmer Flores and JD Davis walked, and Joc Pederson’s sharp line drive single to center loaded the bases.

Evan Longoria’s sac fly to left brought Flores home. Brandon Crawford drew a base on balls to clog the base paths with Giants. Then, for some reason, maybe because he’s pretty speedy, Thairo Estrada bunted for a base hit. His speed turned out to be irrelevant; Estrada popped out to the mound.

Davis left the game, trailing 1-0 after five, but escaped with a no decision. He threw 91 pitches, 40 of which were balls. The run he allowed was earned, and he also yielded two hits and five walks. He struck out three and brought his ERA down to 4.09.

Lefty Caleb Smith took over for Davis and pitched a perfect sixth, but Austin Slater, pinch hitting for LaMonte Wade, Jr., led off the seventh, leaning into a 90mph four seamer to send it flying 395 feet into the left center field seats and put San Francisco ahead 2-1.

That advantage was short lived. The oft used John Brebbia started the eighth episode for the hosts, and the visitors put good wood on his offerings. Their most telling blows were McCarthy’s lead off single to right and Rojas’s one out line drive double to right that drove him in with the tying tally. Brebbia escaped unscathed after that, and Camilo Doval threw a perfect ninth.

Kevin Ginkel took care of the Giants with no trouble in the eighth, and Marc Melançon did the same to his erstwhile teammates in the ninth.

The teams went into extras with Jharel Cotton on the mound for San Francisco and Daulton Varsho on second base for the club from Phoenix. Carlson Kelly made an inexplicable bunt attempt that didn’t even advance Varsho, who scored when the next batter, McCarthy singled him home with a line drive to right.

Christian Walker hit a single to third that hit Longoria’s hand, but the veteran third sacker stayed in the game. Things looked bleak for the orange and black when the D’back runners pulled off a double steal. But Cotton buckled down and struck out Rojas and retired Pavin Smith on a fly to center. The inning was over, but Arizona now led 3-2.

They sent Taylor Widener to the mound in the Giants’ half of the tenth. Yaz was the zombie runner. Flores walked. JD Davis filled the bases with an infield single. David Villar ended the suspense (and the Giants’ home season) with a first pitch ground ball single to left.

Cotton got the win. He’s now 4-2, 2.76. Widener took the loss. His record now stands at 0-1, 5.11.

The Giants will play out the string in San Diego. Tomorrow’s game will start at 6:40. Joe Musgrove (10-7, 3.03) will be on the hump for the Padres. The San Francisco brain trust hasn’t yet announced their starter (or opener, as the case may be)

San Francisco Giants Mike Yastrzemski heads home after getting congratulations from third base coach Mark Wallberg after hitting home run in the bottom of the eighth inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Sat Oct 1, 2022 (AP News photo)

Arizona (73-85). 8. 12. 0

San Francisco (79-79). 4. 8. 1

Saturday, October 1, 2022

By Lewis Rubman

SAN FRANCISCO–It’s October, but today’s 8-4 Giants’ loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks wasn’t an October Classic. On the contrary, it was an exercise in futility.

The Rattlers sent 5’11”, 170 lb. right handed rookie Drey Jameson to face the Giants in his fourth major league start. He was 2-0, 0.98 in those games, and the deepest he’d gone was the seven innings he hurled in his September 15 debut, and the most pitches he’d thrown was 95 five days later when he beat the Dodgers in Chavez Ravine.

This afternoon showed he’s the real thing. He pitched six innings, yielding two runs, both earned, on six hits, one of which went out of the park, and two walks. He struck out seven, throwing 98 pitche, 65 for strikes, on the way to his third win. His ERA rose to a still better than respectable 1.48.

For the Giants, it was a bullpen game, with 0-0, 1.20 southpaw Scott Alexander as opener for the third time this season. He hung around for an inning and a third, not allowing a hit but having to face four batters because of an error behind him by Thairo Estrada at short.

Jakob Junis took over with no one on and one down in the top of the second and pitched decently but not much better than that.

San Francisco opened the scoring in the bottom of the third. Joey Bart drew a one out, full count walk and moved on to second on what sounded like a broken bat single to center by Joc Pederson. LaMonte Wade, Jr., hard grounder to first took a bad bounce and went for an infield single to fill the bases with Giants.

Estrada grounded to Buddy Kennedy at third, who threw to Josh Rojas at second for the force on Wade, but Estrada beat out the relay to first, driving in Bart with the first run of the game.

They don’t call it Triples Alley for nothing. Christian Walker demonstrated that by walloping Junis’s first offering against the State Farm advertisement in right center field wall and coasting into third with a three bagger.

Josh Rojas plated him with the tying tally on a sac fly to deep center. After Kennedy went down swinging, Arizona resumed its battering of Junis. Corbin Carroll socked a double to right.

Cooper Hummel got the benefit of a semi-intentional walk, and number nine batter Sergio Alcántara sent a sinking liner to left that a diving Jason Vosler couldn’t corral. That brought Carroll and Hummel in with the runs that put the Diamondbacks ahead 3-1.

It was Junis’s fielding rather than his pitching that kept Arizona off the board in the fifth. With runners on the corners and one away, he grabbed Jake McCarthy’s bouncer to the mound and chased Jordan Luplow back to third, tagging him out before closing the frame.

Carroll opened the sixth with a reprise of Alcántara’s double in fourth. But, between Junis’s skill and The Curse of the Leadoff Double, the score remained 3-1.

JD Davis narrowed the gap with two down and the bases empty in the sixth by sending Jameson’s first pitch to him, a 96mph four seamer, into the netting under the batter’s eye, 436 feet deep into centerfield. It was his 12th home run of the year.

The Giants still trailed 3-2 when, after Luplow led off the top of the seventh with a nubber to third that went for a single, Jarlín García relieved Junis, who had gone 4-2/3 innings and allowed three runs and soon would be charged with a posthumous fourth tally, all earned, on eight hits and two walks He threw 83 pitches, 55 for strikes and two walks. He would be charged with his seventh loss of the year against five wins while his ERA rose to 4.42.

The bottom fell out for the Giants with García on the mound. Luplow scored on McCarthy’s single to left. A double by Walker, a single by Rojas, a walk to Kennedy, a sac fly by Hummel, and Alcántara’s double made the score 8-2 in favor of the visitors, who had batted around as they battered their hosts.

Kevin Ginkel took over for Jameson after his long rest on the bench while his teammates took care of business.

Needless to say, García didn’t come out to pitch the eighth. That task fell to Junior Marte, who set the side down in order. Except for a leadoff walk, he did the same in the top of the ninth.

One time Giant Mark Melançon got his first two men out in the eighth, but the 90mph cut fastball he threw to Yaz touched down in McCovey Cove to cut the Rattlers’ lead to five runs. That made 17 homers and. 55 RBIs for Yastrzemski’s disappointing season.

Reyes Moronta pitched a sloppy bottom of the ninth, in which he allowed a run on a single to Austin Slater, who advanced to second on defensive indifference and to third on a wild pitch before Ford Proctor drove him in with a sacrifice fly to left, giving the Giants a small fig leaf as they scored their fourth run against Arizona’s eight.

With this loss, the orange and black were mathematically eliminated from postseason competition.

The Giants close their home season tomorrow afternoon at 1:05. Arizona will send Zach Davies (2-5, 4.18) to the mound. San Francisco’s starter is yet to be named