20 wins!

SF 4  AZ 2

Johnny Cueto had to work hard this afternoon, throwing 109 pitches to 26 batters to get through 5-2/3 innings. He gave up two runs right away in the top of the 1st but kept the Arizona hitters off the board into the 6th. He left with the bases loaded but Caleb Baragar got the final out. The Giants got two in the bottom half of the 6th on a homer by Donovan Solano to take the lead and the bullpen did the rest. Jarlin Garcia loaded the bases in the 7th but struck out two to escape unscathed. Tony Watson (8th) and Tyler Rogers (9th) each struck out two in their brisk, dominant frames to finish off the Diamondbacks. Chadwick Tromp hit a solo shot in the 3rd but otherwise lefty Alex Young frustrated the Giants until Solano's big hit. Brandon Belt, pinch-hitting for Tromp in the 7th, added a solo shot off Yoan Lopez to make it 4-2 and that's how it finished.

The Giants get their 20th victory in their 41st game with some excellent defense, timely bombs, and superb relief work. Cueto deserves a nod for his veteran savvy clutchness, getting some big strikeouts (he had seven overall) against a patient lineup, and keeping the lid on things when it seemed ready to fly off.

Kevin Gausman takes the hill tomorrow against Zac Gallen at 5:05 p.m. PDT.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

D-Backs Double Up Giants

AZ 6  SF 5

The Giants put a lot of guys on base last night and had lots of chances to score but hit into four double plays and could not get the big run-scoring hit to get past Arizona. They fought back from an early deficit and had the bases loaded with no outs in the 8th, down by a run, but failed to get it done. Mauricio Dubon made a Little League mistake on the bases and turned a pop out by Alex Dickerson into a double play and that took the momentum out of that potential rally. Steven Duggar was at third base and feinted toward home (the fly ball was too shallow to score on) to draw the throw, unfortunately all he did was deke his teammate! Dubon broke for third and got hung up when the ball came back to the cutoff man. Dubon made a poor decision on a throw from centerfield earlier in the game that contributed to a run by the Diamonbacks. He looks good as an outfielder and seems to have the range and athleticism for the position but he is still really raw as a player.

Tyler Anderson gave up four runs in his four innings and Sam Coonrod got lit up for two more in his 1/3 inning of relief and that was enough. The 'pen did fine the rest of the way with Sam Selman delivering a very sharp six-out stint that gave the home squad a fighting chance. Five runs ought to be enough for a win but the lack of consistent pitching keeps the Giants struggling to reach a .500 record.

Brandon Belt was hitting .128/.227/.231 on August 15th. He got three hits the next day and has gone on a tear since and is now slashing .341/.429/.659 for a 1.088 OPS! FanGraphs rates him at 1.3 WAR and Baseball-Reference says 1.2, in either case he's second on the team to Mike Yastrzemski (2.4f, 2.2b).

Madison Bumgarner faces his old team at 6:15 tonight. Trevor Cahill gets the call.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Giants Win Slugfest

 SF 10  LA 8  (11)

The San Francisco Giants have four wins against the Los Angeles Dodgers, a team that has lost only nine games. Last night the 3-4-5 hitters, Evan Longoria, Brandon Belt, and Donovan Solano, went 9-16 with 7 runs scored and 8 RBI while the rest of the lineup went 5-for-30 (three by Brandon Crawford) with 11 whiffs. The team was 3-for-22 with runners in scoring position! It was a crazy game: Giants used nine relievers after Johnny Cueto went four innings and overall the ten pitchers threw 199 pitches (122 strikes)!

It was more like a heavyweight boxing match with the Giants as the upstart contender and the Dodgers as the veteran champion. In fact, last night was merely the opening rounds of what promises to be a great three-game fight. In the opening frame, Max Muncy blasted a 3-run homer on a 3-0 pitch (I wonder if pitchers will stop grooving 3-0 pitches now that batters swing at them) but the Giants counter-punched with a 3-run homer of their own in the bottom half. That was the first of two for Brandon Belt, the other was a solo shot off Kenley Jansen that tied the game in the 9th! The Giants trailed in the 9th, 10th, and 11th but still won the game. Donovan Solano had just one hit but it was the game-winning two-run homer, only his second home run of the season.

Seven wins is a row. Kevin Gausman and Clayton Kershaw tonight at 6:45 p.m. PDT.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Belt Leads Giants

SF 4  COL 3 

Brandon Belt hit his first homer of the season, a 3-run shot, and later doubled and scored on Wilmer Flores' single and those four runs were all the Giants needed. They got a good start from Logan Webb who pitched into the 6th and only allowed two runs, and some fine bullpen work from Caleb Baragar (again!), Tyler Rogers, and Trevor Gott (who closed it out). Tony Watson gave up a solo shot to--who else?-- Nolan Arenado in the 7th, that's three homers in three games against the Giants. The team needed a win after two sloppy losses. Baragar retired David Dahl, Trevor Story, and Charlie Blackmon. He has yet to have an easy pitching assignment!

Tyler Anderson gets the start today at 12:10 PDT.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

p.s. rosters are reduced today to 28, that will be the new limit for the rest of the season, and the taxi squad will be increased to five players

p.p.s. Steven Duggar and Andrew Suarez sent down; they will join the taxi sqaud

Outs Above Average

Mike Petriello at mlb.com has a story about the new fielding metric called "Outs Above Average" or OAA. He links to a much more detailed background piece by Tom Tango on the MLB Tech blog. Both are long but are worth a look--there is a whole new world out there because of Statcast and we have to start learning about it. I should note that the articles are particular to the infield component of OAA, the outfield stuff is handled differently.

Since all batted balls are tracked (via radar) and the movements of all the players tracked as well (via stereo camera systems) the combination of the two technologies allows for the measurement of speed, direction, distance, and more on every play. Nowadays the "eye test" is not simply something a fan can do from his or her seat (at the game or in front of the TV) but an actual data record that can be revisited at MLB's clearinghouse site for Statcast data, Baseball Savant.

Fielding is a tough nut to crack and it is especially tough in this era because of infield shifts. Something like one-third of all pitches last season involved at least one shifted infielder! DRS and UZR have become part of the new saber-landscape but they will likely be supplanted by OAA simply because it is built on some of the things that the earlier stats relied on and is enhanced with real-game information. Not only that, it is a computer model which of course can be refined as new data come in and new problems with measurement and evaluation get solved (or at least improved upon).

The argument for OAA is that it is intuitive. We, as fans, naturally "compute the odds" as we watch a play unfold. We see the shortstop chase down a ball in the hole and think about the runner heading to first and "calculate" the probability that the throw will get there before him. When the runner is safe we wonder if perhaps the runner was faster than we expected, the fielder had a hitch in his throw, the ball was further into the outfield grass than we thought, etc. We've seen many many such plays and have a sense of what should work and when and thus we can be surprised by an unusually strong throw or quick feet by the fielder or dismayed by a failure to get what should have been an out.

OAA determines the likelihood of success for the fielder depending on how far he has to go to get the ball, how fast the ball was hit, and how quickly the runner gets down the line. Good fielders convert more "unlikely" chances and make the "routine" plays a higher percentage of the time. Like I said we do this in our heads anyway, without actual numbers but with a large history of observations. Would it surprise you that Javier Baez, Nolan Arenado, and Andrelton Simmons rate the best on this metric? Right now OAA can't include everything (like double plays, pitcher failing to cover a base, etc.) but it's a good start. I think we might have a real defensive stat emerging that we can rely on.

--M.C.


p.s. Do you want to know how Giants infielders were ranked in 2019? Go to the Statcast leaderboards and select Infield Outs Above Average from the pull-down menu and you'll find out. (Brandon Belt was 61st overall and 8th among first basemen, and Evan Longoria was 55th overall and 11th among third baseman, for example. Sadly, Brandon Crawford was 189th overall and 27th among shortstops. That seems to fit with what we watched. Every player has a specific profile that provides more granular information. Warning: major time sink!)

Lucky 13th

SF 1  MIA 0
The Harvest Moon of Friday the 13th brought good luck to the win-starved Giants. Tyler Beede pitched well (6-1/3, 3 H, 1 W, 5 K), and that certainly had a lot to do with it. Superb relief work from Tyler Rogers (5 batters, three whiffs) and new closer Shaun Anderson  helped a hell of a lot, too. If you like old-school get-'em-on, get-'em-over, get-'em-in baseball you were in luck. The Giants did that once. The Marlins did it zero times, and one is bigger than zero. Brandon Belt had three hits including two doubles but did not figure in the scoring. It was that kind of game. The fielders helped, turning two big double plays, and Buster Posey threw out a wannabe base-stealer. He also drove in the game-winner with a bouncer through a drawn-in infield. I'm a big fan of wins, no matter how weird they are, and this game was weird. Tyler Beede pitched well and that's something we want to see more of, and Shaun Anderson is "serving notice" that he's a genuine closer candidate. That's the team's eighth shutout.

Madison Bumgarner goes tomorrow night at 6:05 and Johnny Cueto goes Sunday afternoon at 1:05. That's Pacific Daylight Time. I like this Bum-JC two-step. I hope they sign Bum and we get to see it for a couple more years.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Double-digits

SF 11  AZ 6
For the second straight night in Arizona the Giants rapped out double-digit hits (18) and double-digit runs (11). They scored in five different innings. Brandon Belt got the rout started with a grand slam in the 2nd inning. He added RBIs in the 3rd and the 8th to finish with six. Kevin Pillar had five hits in five at-bats and scored three runs. Scooter Gennett also scored three runs. Austin Slater had a good night with two hits and some fine work in right field. It was another nutty offensive outburst by a team that has struggled to score runs for much of the season. That's three wins in a row over the D-Backs and five wins in the last six games. The Giants are now 8-8 in August and back to two games over .500 (63-61) with 38 games to play.

Rookie Logan Webb ran into trouble in the 1st inning but then settled down and delivered four scoreless after that. He induced double-play grounders to end both the 4th and the 5th. The youngster threw 94 pitches to 21 batters, whiffing seven and walking one, allowing only two runs on five hits. He kept the ball in the yard, something that neither Andrew Suarez nor Travis Bergen could pull off in their relief stints. That can be tough to do in a homer-happy ballpark in a homer-happy season. Jandel Gustave got the final four outs. The game ended most unusually when Eduardo Escobar tried to stretch his two-out, bases-empty 9th-inning double into a triple and was gunned down at third base (Slater to Gennett to Solano). That's crazy, man.

Madison Bumgarner gets the start tomorrow afternoon at 1:10 Pacific. GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Yaz Hammers Three

SF 10  AZ 9 (11)
The Giants and Diamondbacks combined for TWELVE home runs in an extra-inning slugfest that featured 28 hits and 19 runs scored. Mike Yastrzemski outdid everyone with a sensational three-homer display that included the eventual game-winner in the 11th inning. The not-so-young rookie has "served notice" that he's a power threat to be reckoned with. Currently he sports a .548 slugging percentage, the highest on the team by far, and one of only two Giants above .500 in that metric. The league slugs .437 overall, and the team .404, the fourth-worst in baseball.

Two spectacular bullpen meltdowns were featured, with Tony Watson and Sam Coonrod blowing a five-run lead in the 8th, and Will Smith blowing a two-run lead in the 10th, but the Giants kept fighting back and eventually prevailed. The D-Backs hit six homers, one in the 1st, three in the 8th, and two in the 10th. Brandon Belt hit the first of the Giants six bombs in the 3rd, then Yaz added his first, Kevin Pillar hit one in the 4th, Yaz did it again in the 7th, Pillar again in the 10th, and then Yaz finished things in the 11th with his third. It was a wild night in Arizona.

The Giants are now 7-8 in August and 62-61 overall, a game ahead of the D-Backs for second place in the NL West. 22-year old righthander Logan Webb will make his debut tonight at 5:10 Pacific. Webb is from Rocklin, CA and was signed with the team right out of high school. He has 60 starts in the minors, mostly at A and AA level. In his one start with the AAA River Cats he threw seven scoreless. Webb had to serve an 80-game suspension earlier this year because of a positive PED test. MLB Pipeline rates Webb as the team's number-five prospect.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Giants Kick Ass

SF 8  MIL 3
The Giants fought impressively all afternoon and finally exploded with a six-run outburst in the 7th to bury the Brewers.Tyler Beede not only had a fine start (6-2/3 IP, 3 R, 7 K) but he successfully pulled off a butcher-boy play in that same 7th inning to drive in the first run. Derek Holland and Mark Melancon did the rest and the Giants had a series win on the road against a tough opponent. It was nice to see the Brandons look good at the plate: Craw had a hit, two walks, and two runs scored; Belt had two hits (including a homer), a walk, and two runs scored. Evan Longoria, who has been the hot hand lately, left the game with a foot injury, otherwise it was all positives today in Milwaukee.

The Giants play a makeup game in Colorado tomorrow at 11:10 a.m., Jeff Samardzija gets the start. Then Derek Rodriguez gets the ball for the regularly-scheduled 5:40 p.m. game.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Giants Down D-Backs

SF 6  AZ 3
Buster Posey had three hits, including an almost-homer to right field, plus a run scored and two driven in. It has been a hard slog for the veteran backstop whose .241/.304/.369 slash line is a far cry from his career norm (.303/.372/.461). Hip surgery for a professional athlete is often a career-ender, just ask Tim Lincecum, so you have to be impressed by Buster's effort this year even if the results aren't what anyone was hoping for. Brandon Crawford, another oldster, had three knocks as well and reached a career milestone with one thousand. Pretty cool. FNGs Mike Yastrzemski and Alex Dickerson chipped in two hits apiece, and one of Dick's was a homer. Brandon Belt hit leadoff and had a walk in front of Posey's double (the almost homer). I like the move, he should hit there or the second spot. I fear his knee health is not good and he is barely hanging on, although he looked sharp in the field last night. At least they have a platoon option with Tyler Austin. Belt is the only regular who has been above league average at the plate this season, so his batting average drop (now at .221) is alarming. Like I said, I suspect the knee is the culprit.

Shaun Anderson turned in another gritty effort, this time 5-2/3 with two runs allowed. He gave up hits but no big flies and thus kept the team in the game. I like this guy, he is young and unpolished but shows a lot of confidence and determination. Let's hope he keeps developing his game.

Drew Pomeranz takes on the ageless Zack Greinke this evening at 7:05 Pacific. Go Giants!

--M.C.

Giants Edge Kershaw, Dodgers

SF 2  LA 1
Clayton Kershaw is certainly the best pitcher against the San Francisco Giants in my lifetime. Before tonight this was his line against the boys in orange-&-black: 45 G, 44 S, 6 CG, 5 ShO, 323-1/3 IP, 229 H, 70 R, 46 BB, 333 K. That's a 22-10 record with a 1.70 ERA. Only 18 HR allowed and a ridiculous 0.851 WHIP. That's the picture of dominance, and that's over 12 seasons. The guy is absurd, and tonight he held the Giants to two runs over seven frames and the home team still prevailed. Brandon Belt got everything going with a great effort against his greatest nemesis in the 6th, working a walk and starting the two-run rally that proved to be the difference. Drew Pomeranz could have fallen apart in the 1st inning but whiffed two with the bases loaded and sported a filthy curveball that kept the Dodgers in the yard for five innings. Nice to see him bounce back from that stinker in Baltimore. Reyes Moronta handled the 6th on 13 pitches and Sam Dyson used 13 pitches for the 7th. Tony Watson gave up a solo shot in the 8th, but a superb 9th from Will Smith got it done.

Giants improve their home record to 11-18. They've scored 88 runs in those 29 games.

Jeff Samardzija and Rich Hill are the starters tomorrow, 4:15 Pacific.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Giants Subdue Orioles

SF 8  BAL 2
Rookie Shaun Anderson had an outstanding effort today in Baltimore, notching his first big-league "W" with seven strong innings. Giants starters had a 7+ ERA for the month of May, and had not delivered a 21-out start since April 13. It really helps when the hitters get it going early and this afternoon the Giants scored two in the 1st, one in the 3rd, and four in the 5th (and another in the 9th) to support the young right-hander. Buster Posey had a homer and two walks, scoring three runs and rookie Mike Yastrzemski had a hit and a walk and scored two. Brandon Belt, hitting in the number five spot, had two two-RBI hits, one in the 1st and one in the 5th. A good day for the good guys. Mark Melancon and rookie Sam Coonrod finished up.

Anderson is supposed to pitch again on Thursday, bumping Drew Pomeranz. Jeff Samardzija gets the call tomorrow morning at 10:05 Pacific.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Giants hit four homers!

SF 7  TOR 6
Evan Longoria, Joe Panik, Pablo Sandoval, and Brandon Belt all went deep for the Giants tonight in Toronto. It was just enough--a rare bullpen blip turned 7-2 to 7-6 in the 8th--and they held on to get their 10th win. Kevin Pillar got a rousing homecoming and responded by driving in the Giants first run in the 3rd. Jeff Samardzija delivered a typically Smarjy-style start and left after 5-1/3 having yielded two runs on five hits. Mark Melancon finished the inning. Sam Dyson pitched a scoreless 6th but loaded the bases in the 7th and was pulled for Tony Watson. The ace lefty shockingly allowed a grand slam to rookie slugger Rowdy Tellez (who is from Elk Grove) but finished the inning with the lead intact. Will Smith closed it out on 14 pitches.

Drew Pomeranz tomorrow at 1:07 PDT.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

"Mr. 18th Inning"

SF 3  COL 2 (18)
Brandon Belt doubled to lead off the 18th inning and eventually scored on a grounder by Erik Kratz (who caught the entire game) and the Giants slipped past the Rockies to make it two in row. Yes, it reminded everyone of another 18-inning game!

The lineup managed only 8 hits and 5 walks (along with 17 strikeouts) so the accolades go to the pitching staff, and I mean staff. The entire bullpen was used and even starter Dereck Rodriguez had to pinch-hit (for Vincent in the 16th--K looking). Moronta-Dyson-Watson-Smith-Melancon-Gott-Vincent-Bergen combined for 13 shutout innings allowing five singles and two walks while punching out 19 batters. It was a spectacular effort especially from Travis Bergen who whiffed five in his two innings (the 17th and 18th!). Nick Vincent covered the three (14th, 15th, and 16th) before that--that was 1/3 of his season total so far! Even Mark Melancon, who dug himself into a hole in the 10th and the 11th, showed some moxie wriggling out both times.

Zo said he wanted a team with grit. Well, throw in some moxie and I'm behind that all the way!

That's back-to-back wins for the first time in 2019. Let's see if they can make it three in a row. MadBum takes the hill at 1:05 Pacific.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

First Home Win

SF 6  TB 4
The Giants scored SIX runs this afternoon in San Francisco and defeated the hot Tampa Bay Rays for their first win at Oracle Park. A stinky start by Jeff Samardzija (4-2/3 IP, 6 H, 3 R, and most regrettably giving up the lead in the 5th) couldn't spoil the fun. First- and second-place hitters Steven Duggar and Brandon Belt (3 H, 2 R and all six RBI) brought the big bats (Belt HR, Duggar 2B) and got some help at the bottom of the lineup from Joe Panik (2 BB, 2 R), Kevin Pillar (1 H, 1 R) and pinch-hitter Connor Joe (1 H, 1 R). The bullpen delivered 4-1/3 IP and yielded only one run.

FNG Pillar had a bunt hit and stolen base in the 3rd that led to a run and he made a dandy play in the field later to save at least a run. I thought it was interesting that the Giants bunted twice successfully in the 3rd, with Samardzija bunting Pillar to third base (he scored on Duggar's sac fly). In the 5th, with two on, Duggar faked a bunt and that brought in the defense and he wound up ripping a double past the first baseman. Was that a bit of game theory maneuvering from the skipper? Regardless, it was fun. Let's see if they can keep it up.

Drew Pomeranz tomorrow afternoon. Go Giants!

--M.C.

Dodgers Take Finale

LA 5  SF 3
One of the problems with bullpen-based baseball is that the bullpen has to be perfect. Tonight, it wasn't. Ace reliever Reyes Moronta gave up two hits, a walk, and two runs in the 7th with the big blow coming on two strikes with two outs. Nobody's perfect. It turned a 3-2 Giants lead into a 4-3 deficit. Tony Watson allowed a run in the 8th as well. Derek Holland had yielded two in the 1st but a solo shot by Steven Duggar and a two-run shot by Brandon Belt in the 4th reclaimed the lead. Speaking of Duggar, he was in right and FNG Kevin Pillar got the start in center.

Giants play their Home Opener on Friday at 1:35 Pacific. D-Rod gets the nod against the Rays.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

Duck the Fodgers

SF 4  LA 2
The Giants battled back late in the game against the Dodgers in their first trip to LA. Drew Pomeranz gave up two solo shots, one to Chris Taylor and the other to pinch-hitter Alex Verdugo, to fall behind 2-0 in the bottom of the 5th inning. In the top of the 6th Brandon Belt greeted reliever Joe Kelly with a solo shot of his own to narrow the gap. In the 7th Yangervis Solarte opened things with an infield single and moved to third with two outs. Pablo Sandoval poked a dramatic two-strike single up the middle to tie the game. Steven Duggar then roped a double to set up the big blow by Belt who doubled off new pitcher Scott Alexander to score both runners. Suddenly it was 4-2 San Francisco with the entire stadium wondering what just happened!

Trevor Gott (6th), Mark Melancon (7th), and Tony Watson (8th) all pitched a scoreless frame in relief of Pomeranz who struck out six of the 21 batters he faced (90 pitches). Julio Urias held the Giants down for the first five innings with seven strikeouts and only three hits allowed.

Will Smith got the call for the 9th inning and he put a runner on with one out but whiffed two to end it. The red-hot slugging Dodgers got cooled off by the multi-headed monster that is the Giants pitching staff! The offense got to the magic number of four runs scored and it worked, just like they drew it up. After that terribly deflating trip to San Diego this feels like a big win. They played good baseball, especially in the field, and got some timely hits to back up the hurlers. Let's see some more of that.

Madison Bumgarner goes tomorrow night. GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

101

OAK 6  SF 5 (10)
It's a truism among baseball fans that if you praise a player one minute he'll break your heart the next. And the opposite is true as well: if you dis on a cat for poor play he'll kick ass the next time just to smack you down. Naturally I had to rave about BCraw's brilliance last night--he was deserving of the plaudits--and of course the gods would see to it that he'd boot the game-winner for the A's this afternoon. It was an impossible play, one of those perfect bouncers that could not be fielded, but number 35 gets the spotlight for "failure" nonetheless. But this is not to moan about Brandon Crawford, one of the bright spots on this confounding team.

It's been 101 games and that ought to be enough to assess the club's character, and after back-to-back losses to Oakland in extras when starting their two best pitchers, I find it wanting. Not that the fellas don't try hard. When I say "character" I don't mean their virtue, manliness, courage or whatever sports-writing jibber-jabber bandied about by the professional media. I mean it in a purely descriptive sense, not a moral one. The team's character is what emerges and at this point they are a .505 outfit. The 51-50 record is a fair assessment--they are strictly middle-of-the-pack.

There were plenty of reasons to believe the Giants would be really bad this season, instead they've shown us, at times, some terrific play. They just can't seem to string wins together which is what they'll need if they expect to chase a playoff spot in their final 61 contests. Neither Johnny Cueto today nor Madison Bumgarner yesterday could pitch as well as the rookie did on Friday night. At this point in the season it's Dereck Rodriguez I want to see, along with Andrew Suarez, Ray Black, Reyes Moronta, Steven Duggar, Austin Slater and I think you catch my drift. The expensive veteran-heavy lineup is not good enough, and the expensive veteran-heavy starting rotation can't get it done, either. The youngsters are taking up more of the roster spots and they deserve to.

There are eight more games before the July 31st trade deadline. Do you expect any significant moves? I don't, the only pieces they might have to move are pieces they ought to keep like the aforementioned newbies. Any big-time vet (like Brandon Belt, another bright spot) would only go if a playoff-bound team had a catastrophic injury to a first baseman and had the payroll to add a guy still owed $51+M. But I've no claim to insight or insider knowledge, I've really no fookin' clue what the Giants are thinking. I expect it is something to the effect of "hold on the rest of the way" and hope to finish over .500 and thus stay, at least mathematically, in the fight for the second Wild Card until the middle of September. That's the boring, conservative move, but good for institutional morale, in the sense that it means you are showing confidence in your guys to keep improving.

So that's it, I suppose. Be a good fan and hope to see some improved play. Have faith that the talent that's there will ultimately show itself and wins will start to come in bunches. All right, then. I'm ready! They're off tomorrow and then play two in Seattle before coming home on Thursday. It's a Suarez start, something to savor.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

56,310 Get Their Money's Worth

OAK 4  SF 3 (11)
Down 3-2 with two outs in the 9th against All-Star closer Blake Treinen the Giants managed a dramatic comeback to tie the game. The third batter in the inning, Alen Hanson, whiffed to apparently end it. Catcher Josh Phegley, however, dropped the ball and Hanson raced safely to first base. Hunter Pence, with a full count, ripped a double and that scored the speedster and the Giants suddenly were back in the fight. Tony Watson got into trouble in the bottom half and miracle man Reyes Moronta was summoned to bail the team out. He did that with aplomb, inducing a double-play to send the game to extras. He followed that with a scoreless 10th as well, continuing his superb work in this his rookie season. The Giants unfortunately could get nothing going and the A's broke through against Will Smith in the 11th to win it.

It was not a good night for Giants starter Madison Bumgarner as the ace southpaw was wild, throwing 92 pitches to 19 batters and only 47 of them were strikes. He walked SIX in his four-plus innings of work, loading the bases in the 5th and walking in two runs. Those were the third and fourth bases-loaded bases-on-balls in his career. He left with the score 2-1 (a Brandon Belt solo homer in the 4th) and the bags full. Sam Dyson got the double play but it scored a run and it stayed 3-1 until the 7th. The Giants got three hits (Buster Posey, Hanson, Pence) to make it 3-2 and that set up the improbable 9th. Good relief work once again made it possible; Dyson, Ray Black, and Derek Holland delivered four hitless frames after Bumgarner exited.

The A's opened up sections of the Coliseum typically closed to baseball fans and the result was the largest baseball crowd in the Bay Area since the final game at Candlestick Park in 1999 which was seen by 61,389 folks. Tonight's 56,310 is also the largest MLB crowd this season.

Johnny Cueto tomorrow afternoon. GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Buster!

SF 5  CHC 4 (13)
Buster Posey got to play the hero this afternoon, roping a double off the right-field wall to drive in Brandon Belt with the winning run. Belt was walked with two outs and Andrew McCutchen singled him to second before Posey's walk-off blast. Dereck Rodriguez pitched the 11th, 12th, and 13th innings and faced only 11 batters, allowing no hits and just two walks while striking out three. Johnny Cueto struck out seven in his five innings of work and was staked to a 4-0 lead in the 1st frame (Chase D'Arnaud led off with a homer) but gave up a run in the 3rd and two runs in the 5th. He was pulled after five with six hits and three walks (86 pitches) on the tally. The bullpen was epic again, the only blemish a Javier Baez homer off of Tony Watson to tie the game in the 7th. But Watson can be forgiven, he has been nearly untouchable this year, and in fact it was only his second homer allowed.

The team kept it together, much credit having to go to young D-Rod for some clutch relief work. The winning rally in the 13th was by the big studs in the lineup and came with two outs as I mentioned. That's a hell of a win against a very good club! Giants take the series from Chicago and have three coming up with Oakland after a day off tomorrow.

--M.C.