The Giants won a gripping contest 7-4 in 11 innings on Tuesday. Tied 3-3 after nine Wilmer Flores scored on an error in the 10th. Camilo Doval got the first two outs in the bottom half and the magic runner hadn't moved from second. The next hitter grounded one up the middle that should have been a game-ender but it hit the bag! On to the 10th and a leadoff double from Donovan Walton got it going and Joc Pederson followed with an upper-deck blast. The three runs were enough. Kapler walked Bryce Harper to load the bases in the bottom half to pitch to Roman Quinn. The goofy strategy paid off as José Álvarez struck him out to seal the win.
Today the Giants were behind 2-0 early but got it going in the 6th with a big five-run explosion to take the lead. Wilmer Flores had a three-run homer. Unfortunately the Phillies pounded Jarlín García for four runs to make it 6-5 and that's how it finished. It was Carlos Rodón against Aaron Nola but Rodón was out after five and Nola after six--the bullpen decided this game. García had not allowed a homer or a run this season (17 IP, 63 TBF) before surrendering two of the first and four of the second.
I was really hoping for the sweep when the Giants jumped ahead but I'll have to be content with them taking two of three. The Phils have a tough lineup and that park is a hard place to pitch. The Giants showed a lot of resilience and fought back whenever they fell behind. They go to Miami next for four against the Marlins.
The Giants have listed their four starters: Alex Wood tomorrow (3:40 Pacific), Alex Cobb Friday (3:40), Logan Webb Saturday (1:10 Pacific), and Jakob Junis on Sunday (10:40 Pacific). I will be on the road and away from my desk for a short spell but I should be back for the bulk of the homestand that starts next week.
Go Giants!
--M.C.
9 comments:
We missed an opportunity to pick up 3 games against both the Blue Goo and the Puds, both teams swept at the hands of the Pirates and Cardinals respectively. Miami is fresh (well, maybe not fresh, they played 2 yesterday) off scoring a ton of runs in Colorado.
Nomisnala - Are you going to any of these games? We need our Giants support!
The computer I am using just tossed my entire response. Nomisnala reporting back by using anonymous due to some computer glitch. I have 2 tickets for Saturday's game if I can get there as there us a tropical storm hovering over the area. 2 seats for one game cost me what 2 seats cost for an entire season in the 1990's when I used to buy season's tickets. The giants definitely played sloppy defense the last 2 days and it cost them the sweep in Philly. THE giants also failed to take advantage of an exhausted Marlins team that arrived at the airport at 5:15 AM. looks like a great pitching matchup on Pride Day. We really need to get our starters back and healthy and it is time for Crawford to get hot. It's June Brandon. We are starting to run a pool here on the next injury and next minor league trade. Several Giants fans here believe in the curse of the Dubon trade.Balls hit up the middle for a game ending out hitting the bag and extending the game. Yesterday's key hit got the Marlins got was right on the chalk. Then Gonzolez hits one deep to left and Marlin's left fielder takes a blind leap and the ball somehow finds his glove. Later the fish hit a liner to Gonzo and the ball goes over his head. Lately it has been one bizarre play after another. Pederson called out on a full count on a ball that was almost in the dirt. Not to mention in that last game vs the Phillies Yaz called out on a full count on a pitch in another zip code. Individually one of the worst called strikes in MLB all season.
Sorry folks for the above post under anonymous, but for the life of me I could not sign in using the computer I had earlier during a break at work. Now I am back to my own computer, ie; my own device, and I am having a much easier time posting. I am sure hoping for a win tonight. Looks as if their is only one minor 1-2 minor leaguers in the lineup tonight and hoping that we are not snake bit once again by bizarre plays or outrageously bad calls behind the dish. Not happy getting the Marlin's feed on TV, as one of their announcers is difficult to listen to, while the other is quite knowledgeable but quite a homer. Really hoping that the giants can get out of Florida with the next 3 wins. There seems to be something about this park that giants players do not like. Imagine the Marlins with their pitching staff had they not lost their best young pitchers a few years ago to a boating accident. Alcantara and Lopez would then have been their numbers 2 and 3, instead of their 1 and 2. With 3 aces, maybe their management would have more seriously gone after hitting. As they did not seriously go after enough MLB talent, Jeter left the management team this off season.
Went to the game on Saturday so this could be a long report. First when my wife and I were deciding about purchasing pre-parking for 15 dollars or parking at the game for 20 dollars, (little did I know they would add tax). I decided to wait and pay at the lot, because there has been a tropical storm and I did not know if the streets around the park would be flooded. It is a crowded neighbor, not unlike crowded parts of east LA except the sidewalk curbs are not red. A lot of buildings and small homes right on top of each other. Narrow streets with cars parked on them, and they are subject to flooding. It was a good call, as there was a lot of flooding and the lot we wanted and would have payed for in advance was off limits due to flooding. We had to drive several blocks away and come in to another parking building to get in. The payment of parking was by AP. Last time we went we just payed with cash someone at the front of the lot. It took a few minutes to download the AP and they used our credit card. In 2021 when I parked at Oracle it was 50 dollars but I just handed the guy a 50 dollar bill and went right in. We had 3rd row seats right behind the Giants dugout. Great seats. We were about two thirds of the way toward first base between home and first. I will say this, with the weather the way it was I was glad the game was at an indoor stadium. However, the indoor experience and this must be about my 50th time, is just not the same as going to a game being played outdoors. Maybe because I grew up going to Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds, and indoor baseball no matter how large the stadium just does not have the same feel.
The game started and Lopez and Webb both were good. The giants had 4 extra base hits and had a rare 4-0 lead over Lopez and the fish. The Marlins did play right down the line and even though LaStella hit a hard groundball down the line to start the game the Marlins were right there for the out, and LaStella still cannot run any faster than my grandmother and she has been dead since the 1980's. It was upsetting that they could not drive in Crawford after his triple. But in the middle innings Vosler went deep and Walton hit a base clearing double but that was it. Webb who was pitching great suddenly fell apart in the 5th. Unless he was hurt, and I could not get the giants feed to find out, I was surprised he took him out. I said to my group, I have a bad feeling about this. Every time they take him out the pen blows his lead, even when he has a big lead. He blew his own lead late in the game last time, but it was when he was at 97 or 98 pitches. Without knowing if he was hurt, I was really upset that they took him out after 2 outs in the fifth. But again, I did not have all the information. I just had a very bad feeling. One of the runs came in after an attempt at a steal of second with a man on third, our infielder dropped the ball and the runner came in. Speed kills. With runners on first and third the stole second and low and behold Brebbia gave up a single and both runs scored despite a beautiful and accurate throw to the plate by Pederson.
The only hit later was a double by Crawford, and it is good to see that Crawford may be coming out of his slump. Estrada lined one down the third base line, but as it goes for teams that are snake bitten the ball was foul by around 2 feet. Thairo then struck out.
In the bottom of the ninth he stayed with Rogers who pitched a solid 8th. Again I got a pit in my stomach as I know the giants can implode with Rogers on the mound without even getting a ball out of the infield. Aguillera led off with a hard hit grounder to short. Crawford made a great dive but his throw to first bounced and this time Flores could not handle it. (Flores has done a great job handling balls in the dirt lately). I feel things going south for the giants. Also, when Crawford makes a mistake on defense, no matter how difficult the play, the team also tends to implode. Especially late in the game. Luke Williams came in to pinch run. Rogers walks the next batter, or maybe on the full count the pitch actually hit the batter. Then again the snake bit team has their electronic signaling device between catcher and pitcher stop working and there is a 90 second delay which ended up in a new device being used. After that long delay with Rogers on the mound, he simply slips while on the rubber. (it is called a balk) and further shows just how this year the giants are finding ways to lose and implode.
Now its second and third. (I thought that the balk rule included the idea that the move had to deceive the runner.) I guess that part of the rule is no longer important. There was no deception except to Rogers who slipped on the Marlins mound. All they needed was to put the ball in play deep or get a grounder through the drawn in infield that added left fielder Thairo Estrado to the infield mixed. Ground ball pitcher Rogers, then gave up a medium deep fly ball to center and game over. Every move that I questioned before the negative results turned out to yield negative results. But what do I know I am only a fan and live sleep and breath with every move the giants make. Who am I to second guess the Manager, even though I did so before the negative results. Now I am hoping for the best and wanting a split with a win tomorrow and an easy win. We could outscore the fish in this series and still end up losing the series.
On the bright side, Vosler is hitting better in the majors than in the minors, something I cannot say about Bart. Also part of the reason why the giants lost was just slightly sloppy play. Just not as crisp as the Marlins played. Also Mattingly to help preserve the Marlins Pen, let Lopez go well over 100 pitches. Finally, the crowd was small and perhaps due to the weather to travel to the game. Not sure, but there literally were as many giants fans at the game as Marlins fans. Usually there are a lot of Giants fans at the game, but never have I been to a game where the giants fans literally may have outnumbered the marlins fans. If you watched the game on an SF television station and thought they were showing a lot of giants fans, by panning in on just the giants fans, that was not the situation. All in all except for the loss it was a good experience but nowhere near as great an experience for me as going to the games at Oracle Park. The food, had to be purchased by AP, I think I had that same experience at Oracle but not 100 percent sure. But there was no cash. The Marlins music at the park in 90 percent latin and about 10 percent Carribean. AT the old Park it may have been about 50 percent Latin and Carribean. The music at times, I guess because it was indoors, seemed way too loud. The food was better than it used to be. We had Pizza at first and it was much better than the Pizza at the park pre-pandemic. Very few people wore masks. Later from our seats we ordered Nachos and a hotdog, and surprisingly the service was rapid and the food was decent but not in the same class as the food at Oracle park.
Sitting right in front of me was a St. Louis Cards fans probably in his mid 50's wearing a STan Musial Jersey. It was of good major league quality. I was wearing a Hunter Pence Jersey, after picking that one at the last second over a Posey Jersey. Anyway, back in the late 50's or so when the larger H web gloves came out I saved to purchase a 40 dollar Stan Musial glove. 40 dollars back then was a lot of money. That glove was of high quality and I still have it and it is in good shape despite me using it in numerous leagues at numerous levels. That glove made me a better fielder. I ended up bonding with the Musial Jersey fan by showing him the glove that still had the ingrained Musial Autograph intact. Just some baseball icing on the cake.
I know you must be bored as can be if you are still reading this, so lets go giants, time for a big winning streak and lets get back some of our players healthy and ready to rip. Sorry that I had to post this in 3 separate posts, but the site would not let me post that many characters in one or two posts.
Thanks for the posts nomisnala - I have to say that the music played at the park was Way Too Loud as it interfered in the radio broadcast we listen to here (thru the computer which makes it even weirder). That it wasn't in English does explain some of my confusion though. AND I wore my Bumgarner Champion T-shirt (Thanks again Ron) which usually helps but oh well. Glad to see BCraw do well.
Just want to add one additional comment. With everything including parking needing APs and credit cards, I think some of the older community in Miami, that are big baseball fans, may not like to utilize credit cards for things that they do not feel they would normally need to use them for. I suspect that this may also be contributing a few thousand people not going to the game. When in the parking lot it took us several minutes to download the AP and then attach a credit card and pay. If we did not get a decent internet connection, not sure what would have happened. When I looked up the attendance it was 7500, and again there were really a lot of Giants fans at the game. My folks, although no longer with us, and probably much older than the older fan base in Miami, probably would also not have gone to a game under current circumstances as they did not have any credit cards nor did they want any. It may be an age and cultural issue, but when MLB, or the individual teams decide to make such policies, it may have a deleterious effect on attendance. I could be wrong.
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