That's not gonna work

LA 7  SF 2

Jeff Samardzija has started three games this season. He's faced 65 batters over the course of 13-2/3 innings and given up 18 hits and four walks and has hit two guys. One-third of the hits (6) have been homers! He's struck out only five guys. The 16 RA (15 earned) is good for a 9.88 (!) ERA, a 9.29 FIP, and -0.5 fWAR. Yup, you can have "negative" WAR. I don't know what the Giants are going to do about Shark.

Johnny Cueto today at 6:10 p.m.

Go Giants!

 --M.C.

Not today

TEX 9  SF 5
Jeff Samardzija became the first Giants starter to log five innings. Unfortunately he gave up two extra-base hits with men on base (a two-run double and a two-run homer), much like his last start (a two-run homer and a three-run homer), and the result was the same in both cases--the team lost. The Giants clawed their way back to a 5-5 tie in the bottom of the 6th, but the bullpen let them down in the 7th. Andrew Triggs, activated today when Drew Smyly went on the IL, walked three to open the frame. Tyler Anderson gave up a sacrifice fly and a three-run homer (Joey Gallo) and suddenly it was 9-5 Rangers. I have to like that the Giants battled back. And that Chadwick Tromp hit his first ML homer! The pitching stunk today and that ruined the chance for a sweep.

They go to Colorado for four starting tomorrow, and follow that with three in Los Angeles (Dodgers) and three in Houston. That's a tough ten-game stretch. They have an off-day on the 13th.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

B-Craw Bomb Beats Reds

SF 6  CIN 5
Brandon Crawford hit his first homer of the year in the 9th inning to lead the Giants to a come-from behind win in Cincinnati. Buster Posey had a big game as well with a double and a three-run homer. Starter Jeff Samardzija gave up three homers in a row in the 1st inning but then put together four scoreless and turned it over the the 'pen. The A-Team of Trevor Gott, Reyes Moronta, Tony Watson, and Will Smith shut the door and the Giants had their fourth win in their last six games.

They've one more in Cincy tomorrow morning (9:35 PDT) with Drew Pomeranz getting the call. It's on to Denver Tuesday with Madison Bumgarner.

--M.C.


p.s. Giants claimed RH starting pitcher Andrew Moore off waivers, he was with the Rays (and came up though the Mariners system). Breyvic Valera was DFAd to make a spot on the 40-man. Breyvic was a favorite for the All-Name Team, I'll be sorry to see him go.

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.

Pillars of Strength

SF 1  COL 0
FNG-no-longer Kevin Pillar continued his heroics with a game-changing blast in the 7th inning. In a scoreless tie he hammered Jon Gray's first pitch of the frame over the left-centerfield wall to make it 1-0 for the home team. Add in a dominant start by Jeff Samardzija who fanned seven over seven allowing only three singles and one walk and the Giants prevailed. Excellent relief (Tony Watson in the 8th and Will Smith in the 9th) and slick fielding closed the door on the Rockies.

You could call a game like this "a scintillating pitchers duel" but there is nothing scintillating about the Giants offense. They did just enough, however, and I think we'll take it! Giants go to 5-9 and are now a game-and-a-half out of last place (Colorado is 3-10).

Let's keep the good times rolling. Drew Pomeranz tomorrow night at 7:15 Pacific.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Stinker

tv turned on
5th inning
Giants at bat, 2 men on, 1 out
2 outs, quickly
Philly up
walk
double play ball bobbled, 2 men on, no outs
home run
tv off

Do do better today

Comeback!

SF 6 SD 5
The Giants snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with a stirring, two-out, three-run, 9th-inning rally against Padres closer Brad Hand. Austin Slater, leading off, was hit by a pitch. Gorkys Hernandez and Andrew McCutchen struck out and Buster Posey walked. A single from Evan Longoria plated Slater and Brandon Belt followed with a walk. A single from Nick Hundley plated both Posey and Longoria and that was that. The Giants had taken a 3-0 first inning lead but a leaky Jeff Samardzija (5 IP, 2 R, 88 pitches) got pulled early and Reyes Moronta got battered for three runs in the 6th and the Padres were up by two. It looked bleak for the home squad but Cory Gearrin, DJ Snelten, and Pierce Johnson held the line and gave the lads a chance for a comeback. It was one of those games:

The Giants finish the month of April 13-13 and with a 2-1 March are 15-14 overall. They've won two of five against San Diego and have two more in the homestand before an off-day Thursday. They go to Atlanta Friday and follow that with four in Philadelphia and three in Pittsburgh.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

p.s. Joe Panik needs thumb surgery and will be out six weeks. The chart is from FanGraphs.

MacSmackdown

SF 8 LAA 1
The Giants called up the surging Mac Williamson and he did what they were hoping he would do: he hit a two-run homer to kick-start a moribund offense and the Giants walloped the Angels. Andrew Mac-Cutchen also delivered a home run, this one driving in three, and the Giants converted a six-run outburst in the 5th into an 8-1 victory. Jeff Samardzija had his first start of the season after a DL stint and looked good. He allowed only two hits and mostly had good command. In the bottom of the 5th he loaded the bases with three walks but sandwiched enough outs in between to walk off with a clean slate. 21 batters, 80 pitches, 63 Game Score. Reyes Moronta had another strong outing with six up and six down. Pierce Johnson (8th) and Josh Osich (9th) finished up, a Mike Trout homer in the 8th was the only blemish. A big win against a hot club.

Derek Holland tomorrow. Go Giants!

--M.C.

9th inning: 8-10

1st inning: 6-12
2nd inning: 6-12
3rd inning: 10-8
4th inning: 4-14
5th inning: 8-10
6th inning: 7-11
7th inning: 9-9
8th inning: 6-12
9th inning: 8-10

The final tally for 2017 is 64-98 (.395), 40 games out of first place and 23 games behind the wildcard. The Giants tie the Detroit Tigers for the worst record and will get rewarded with the number two overall pick in the 2018 June draft (the Giants had a better 2016 record than the Tigers).

It was a season in which everything went wrong. The team was a disaster from the opening bell and never found its footing. Considering the expectations and track record you could argue it was the worst season ever for the San Francisco Giants. The team was 16th of the 30 ML squads in runs allowed per game (4.79); they were 29th in runs scored per game (3.94). The league average for RA/RS was 4.65, I think you can see the problem. They couldn't hit and the pitching was sub-par. They also couldn't play the field or run the bases. The only players on the club with anything close to their expected performances were Buster Posey (.320/.400/.462, 4.3 fWAR) and Jeff Samardzija (207-2/3 IP, 3.8 fWAR).

One of the things about being a sports fan is that the outcomes are random. If you like movies of a particular ilk, say rom-coms or super-hero franchises, you can pick those when you go out and you will stand a good chance of getting your money's worth. If you go to the circus or to the opera you have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Sporting events don't give us that luxury. You have to take a risk--the performance could be a dud. Imagine if Broadway musicals had the variation we see in ballgames. Tuesday night's Hamilton could really stink but Sunday's would be epic, for example. Who would stand such a thing?

What we learn in life is to take the bitter with the sweet. There's no way to separate the bad from the good as the world is all jumbled up. It's not neat out there, it's messy, and it can't be untangled. We love the Giants so they drive us crazy. If we didn't care it would be a lot easier. But we do, so it isn't. We cry "wait 'til next year" when things are bleak. The 2018 Giants may be bad, or they may bounce back, there's no way to know for sure. One thing I'm sure of is that I'll be right here, chiming in on my beloved orange-and-blackers, and hoping you'll join me.

As always, my heartfelt thanks to all of you for reading, lurking, commenting, and posting. This is our 10th full season of blogging here at RMC, that's over 2200 posts! Writing about the Giants has taught me much about myself. It's brought into focus my lifelong relationship to baseball, allowed me to muse often on the nature of fandom, and forced me to ride out the highs and lows with some degree of equanimity. I can't wait to see what next year brings.

--M.C.




p.s. Baseball is a slow, sluggish game with frequent and trivial interruptions, offering the spectator many opportunities to reflect at leisure upon the situation on the field. This is what a fan loves most about the game.   --Edward Abbey (from Vox Clamantis in Deserto)

Death Ray

AZ 3  SF 2
The Diamondbacks young southpaw Robbie Ray whiffed ten in his seven innings of work and kept the Giants from doing much. That's not saying much, I know, what with this lineup. His performance overshadowed some solid work by the Giants Jeff Samardzija, who not only went eight innings but struck out seven and walked none. He also chipped in a hit and scored a run. But good teams gobble up the minnows and that was the case in San Francisco tonight. The 2017 Giants are minnowesque, to be sure, or would that be minnovian? No matter. The Giants lost another game. Marquee matchup tomorrow with Greinke and Bumgarner.

--M.C.

8th inning: 6-12

1st inning: 6-12
2nd inning: 6-12
3rd inning: 10-8
4th inning: 4-14
5th inning: 8-10
6th inning: 7-11
7th inning: 9-9
8th inning: 6-12

Jeff Samardzija and the Giants got smacked around in Guaranteed Rate Field tonight, ending the 8th seasonal inning very poorly with a 6-12 mark. Eighteen games left, my friends, and our ordeal will be over. 56-88 isn't the worst record in baseball, but it's damn close.

In this inning there were two three-game losing streaks and one four-game losing streak. I'm going to drink some whiskey.

--M.C.

Walk-off Win!

SF 2  STL 1 (10)
The Giants had perhaps their most stirring win of the year on a sweltering afternoon in San Francisco. It ended when a right-handed hitter, Nick Hundley, leading off the bottom of the 10th, hit a homer to right field on the second pitch from rookie southpaw Ryan Sherriff. We don't see that very often at AT&T Park. Both starters were overpowering: Lance Lynn allowed only one hit in eight innings; Jeff Samardzija allowed only two hits in seven innings and also whiffed nine. The Cardinals eked out a lucky run in the top of 4th off The Shark and the Giants eked out a lucky run in the bottom of the 9th against Tyler Lyons and Seung-Hwan Oh. Buster Posey got the big RBI on a little poke-job over second base, driving in Hunter Pence to set up the dramatic finish. In the top of the 10th Sam Dyson gave up a lead-off triple to Dexter Fowler but wriggled out of it with some tough pitching and that made Hundley's blast all the more satisfying. These things are few and far between in 2017, best to savor them when they happen. Madison Bumgarner tomorrow.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Shark Shutout

SF 3  SD 0
Giants starter Jeff Samardzija threw his first complete game of the season and his second in a Giants uniform. His sterling three-hitter last night was the fourth shutout of his career. One way to overcome bullpen woes is to not use the relief corps at all, I suppose. The Giants were locked in a tight 1-0 contest but Joe Panik's late homer made it 3-0 and that helped The Shark finish it out. I'm happy to see Brandon Crawford looking more like his old self at the plate. If anyone is a candidate for a bounce-back next season it's the Giants stellar shortstop. But the night belonged to the big righty who put together a good start against the Padres after two stinkers last month.

Samardzija cleared waivers, it should be noted, which means he could be traded. I'm not sure there will be takers, and he has some no-trade rights, but he is now a potential piece for a pitching-depleted playoff team. I'm not sure the Giants could get all that much for him other than salary relief. FanGraphs rates his season so far at 3.6 WAR which is pretty damn good (12th in baseball) and that production would have to come from somewhere next season. fWAR is not the end-all and be-all of stats by any means, and we know Samardzija gives up a lot of hard contact, but he makes himself valuable with his strikeouts, low walk totals, and durability.

--M.C.

Back-to-Back!

The Giants teamed up to support Jeff Samardzija today and got their second win in two days against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Jarrett Parker hit a monster two-run homer and threw out J.D. Martinez at the plate as well. It will be nice to see what this guy can do over a whole season. Stay healthy, man. Hunter Pence and Nick Hundley both had clutch, run-scoring hits. Arizona avoided pitching to Buster Posey but he still scored a run, with Brandon Belt on the DL someone has to pick up the slack. Pence would be the obvious candidate. Albert Suarez was particularly impressive in relief, getting the final seven outs, and looks poised to be a big contributor next season. The Shark walked three but kept the ball in the yard, that paid off for the big righty. 6-3 final at home, Cubs come in for three tomorrow.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

6th inning: 7-11

1st inning: 6-12
2nd inning: 6-12
3rd inning: 10-8
4th inning: 4-14
5th inning: 8-10
6th inning: 7-11

Even more depressing are the monthly win totals: 9 in April, 13 in May, 9 in June, and 9 in July. I was hoping the team would improve enough to avoid 100 losses, but that requires winning 22 more games or 11 in each of the next two months. Can they pull that off? They can't hit: 30th of 30 teams in OPS. They can't pitch: 25th of 30 in both OPS against and runs allowed. Oh, and Johnny Cueto is injured and we aren't talking blisters. The dreaded "flexor strain" has revealed itself. I'm thinking he may be on the shelf for the rest of the season. Tell me I'm wrong.

But enough of that. I'm looking for bright spots. Jeff Samardzija was not pretty tonight, in fact he's usually not, he's got that gnarly jock approach to pitching which works pretty well overall, and he got the job done. The lads clobbered the ball, getting runs early and often and chipping in some big blasts as well. 10-4 final in Oakland. I kind of like that sweaty, fastball-heaving thing that The Shark does. Not everyone can be as cool and clever as Johnny Cueto or as talented and intense as Madison Bumgarner. You figure there have to be a few journeymen-grinder types; in fact you have to figure that most ballplayers are like that. The exceptional ones are just that--exceptional.

Sure is nice to see Brandon Belt hitting better. And Buster Posey continues to swing the bat well. His fielding is freakishly good, it's too bad it's wasted on this wretched club. Kelby Tomlinson got an extra-base hit, his third of the season. Let's shoot for 22 more wins, whaddya say? Twenty-two measly goddamn wins in two goddamn fookin' months of baseball. Is that too much to ask?

--M.C.

Shark Attack Sinks Bucs

SF 2  PIT 1
Jeff Samardzija needed a good start after a couple of real stinkers and he delivered this afternoon in San Francisco. He went a solid seven innings yielding only one run on four hits and whiffing eight Pirates. He walked two but did not give up a homer. Maybe he's figuring out that one base is usually better than four. That is, if you are behind 3-1 maybe prudence dictates an "unintentional walk" instead of a fat fastball. But I can't really say, we'll have to wait for Rags' memoirs. FNG Miguel Gomez roped a manly double to lead off the 8th and Brandon Belt poked a fluky double to drive in what turned out to be the game-winner. Good work by Hunter Strickland and especially Sam Dyson to preserve the victory. The home squad got their 40th win and now heads to Los Angeles to face the 70-win Dodgers on Friday. Southpaw Matt Moore gets the call.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Make that Six

SF 5  PIT 3
The Giants complete another sweep, this one on the road, and notch their sixth straight win. A two-run homer in the 8th by Brandon Belt was the difference, but a three-run 7th was the key to the comeback victory. Hunter Pence, not known for his patience, walked to start the rally and Buster Posey followed with a double. Belt's single plated a run, as did Brandon Crawford's, and pinch-hitter Kelby Tomlinson's sacrifice fly finished it. The Giants are suddenly looking like a real team. Jeff Samardzija gave up a two-run homer in his six innings but he also struck out five and walked, you guessed it, none. Another strong outing by the big righty; the team is now 7-10 in his starts. The only blip for the relief crew was Steven Okert giving up a solo homer to make a 5-2 game 5-3, but Cory Gearrin had already delivered a stalwart 1-2/3 and Sam Dyson's 1-2-3 9th (comebacker-comebacker-whiff) was outstanding.

I'm happy the team finally looks good. We knew they could play like this but it's been a rare sighting since last season's ASB. They get these spurts of superior baseball but can't sustain it. Maybe that will change. Did you see that Christian Arroyo got hit by a pitch and broke his hand? Bummer. Looks like next year for The Kid.

--M.C.

Shark Cruises

SF 9  COL 2
Jeff Samardzija continued his excellent pitching with another strong start and the Giants scored nine runs to whip the Rockies. Colorado visited Los Angeles over the weekend and got their asses kicked so this is a good time for the Giants to pile on. It's only the second win for the team against ten losses versus the purple-clads. And only the sixth win in the month of June. But a win is a win. The lineup produced steady results, scoring in the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 7th and 8th innings. The Shark is now posting a 2.96 xFIP, his best ever, and a 3.38 FIP, his second-best (he finished 2014 at 3.20). They don't match his 4.63 ERA (he's had four starts with 6 or more runs allowed) but otherwise he's on to something. His strikeouts are off the charts (10.03/9) and he's only walked 13 people in 16 starts (1.11/9). He's giving up the long ball, but who isn't, especially on this team, but he's eating innings with the best (105 is 5th behind Sale, Kershaw, Scherzer, and Santana) and is rated at 2.2 WAR which is the best by far on the staff (and 14th in baseball).

--M.C.


p.s. Buster Posey's .347/.424/.536 (.948 OPS) rates a 152 OPS+ his highest since his MVP year (171) in 2012 and well above his career (137) mark.

Giants Come Up Short--Again

MIN 3  SF 2
Go to the ESPN MLB statistics page. Select the ALL MLB Player Pitching link. Click on Expanded II Pitching Stats. Find the RS column near the right-hand edge. One click will sort ascending, click again to sort descending. RS is 'run support average per start.' Coming in to today's game you would have seen that Giants starter Jeff Samardzija was fourth on the list. That is, he had the fourth-worst run support in the game at 3.08 runs. It should be noted that Matt Moore, Matt Cain, and Ty Blach are all in the top twenty. Such are the signs of a stinky season. The Shark allowed three runs today in his six innings. The Giants, in their nine innings, scored two. That's easy math, mates.

--M.C.

Shark Attack

SF 7  MIL 2
Jeff Samardzija overpowered a potent Brewers lineup tonight in Miller Park, at one point he retired 19 in a row. The big righty bounced back from a stinker last time and delivered one of his best starts of the season, especially when you consider it was on the road against a good team. He threw a season-high 119 pitches and struck out 10 in 7-2/3 IP. The Giants made it a laugher late but The Shark was the difference tonight. Belt, Posey, and Nunez all had two hits; Strickland and Melancon did their jobs, the closer got it done with six pitches. A great win, something much too infrequent this season!

--M.C.