Ray dazzles, Giants cruise

SF 7  AZ 2

The Giants played one of their best games of the season and certainly their best game of the last several weeks. They jumped on Diamondbacks starter Brandon Pfaadt for two in the 1st and two more in the 3rd. He was gone after six. Meanwhile Robbie Ray mowed down the Arizona lineup with ease. He got through eight frames on a mere 78 pitches. The 9th was a challenge and he had to "dig deep" to finish the game. It was only the second CG of his career and the first for the Giants this year. Ray allowed only three hits, two were solo homers.

FNGs Willy Adames and Rafael Devers were hitting stars, the SS with three hits and three runs scored and the DH with three RBI. The lineup scored two more in the 7th and one more in the 9th and finished with 12 hits.

The Giants go to Sacramento to take on the Athletics this weekend. All three games are at 7:05 Pacific. It's way too hot to play day baseball there! We should see Verlander-Webb-Birdsong.

Go Giants!

--M.C. 

Giants snap skid

SF 6  AZ 5 (10) 

It's been pretty ugly. They tried their best to lose again last night but somehow conjured up a win. Since beating the Dodgers on June 13th they've gone 5-12.

Jung Hoo Lee had a nice game with three hits including a triple and a double. Let's see some more of that!

Robbie Ray tries to make it a two-game win streak at 6:40 tonight. 

Go Giants!

--M.C. 

Giants squeak past Sox

SF 3  CWS 1

So the right fielder misplayed Patrick Bailey's blooper into a triple and that was the difference in the game. If he'd played it safe and let it drop in front of him for a single we might be in extra innings right now! But who's complaining? A win is a win. Landen Roupp worked hard for 5-1/3 IP and only allowed one run. Great relief, once again, sealed the deal. Ryan Walker (2/3), Randy Rodriguez (1), Tyler Rogers (1), and Camilo Doval (1) got it done. The White Sox are really bad (26-56) so maybe the Giants can conjure up a couple of whuppin's.

Robbie Ray tomorrow at 1:10 Pacific.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

Oh, yuck

What the hell did the Giants do on their off-day? They kicked ass on Sunday and after a break on Monday they came out and got bitch-slapped by the FloMars. Did they all go to a ketamine workshop and get in touch with their inner suckitude? Did they forget how to play baseball? Because it sure looked like it. The lowly Fish beat the Giants at every facet of the game. It was a complete and total smackdown.

I think the Giants are going to struggle to score runs the rest of the way. The Devers addition isn't going to improve the lineup all that much. He's just ballast. That is, he's there to make sure the lineup doesn't collapse completely. He's the finger in the dike. Without Devers, the Giants regress and regress and score less and less. With Devers, they stay at a minimum competence level. He had a good day today.

So, now we get to see if the team is resilient and will bounce back. They go on the road to Chicago and face the White Sox. Tomorrow's game is at 4:40 Pacific; Landen Roupp gets the start.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

 

p.s. My nephew (Damien Verrett aka So Much Light) is a recording artist and he has a record entitled "Oh, Yuck." The cover is below. I feel just like that.

 

 

Wild win caps weekend

SF 9  BOS 5

The Giants made two errors in the 1st inning that led to a run. But they made up for it—the fielders executed some big plays later in the game. And the Red Sox made two errors of their own that really helped out. Six homers flew out of the yard this afternoon, three by each club. Casey Schmitt hit his fourth as part of a four-hit day that saw him score three times. Mike Yastrzemski tied the game in the 5th with his sixth, and Wily Adames padded the lead in the 8th with his ninth. Heliot Ramos had a two-out, two-run single, and a two-out, two-run double. It was an 11-hit attack overall.

Robbie Ray got stung by the long ball in the 5th and came out at the end of the inning having thrown 88 pitches and the game tied at four. Spencer Bivens gave up a solo shot in the 6th for a 5-4 Boston lead but Erik Miller had a scoreless 7th. The Giants responded with a four-run outburst in the bottom of the frame. Tyler Rogers handled the 8th and Randy Rodriguez the 9th and that sealed the series win.

Good show by the lads in front of another crowd of 40,000+. It was an entertaining affair. Tomorrow is an off-day and then the nine-game homestand wraps up with three against the Marlins. Justin Verlander takes the hill Tuesday night at 6:45 PT.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

Roupp, Devers lead Giants

SF 3  BOS 2

Landen Roupp threw six scoreless innings this afternoon in San Francisco and with a little help from his friends that was enough to get a win. Roupp allowed three hits and three walks and struck out seven. His Game Score of 70 was his highest of the season. Heliot Ramos hit a solo homer (his 13th) in the 1st and FNG Rafael Devers clubbed a two-run blast (his 16th) in the 3rd to take care of the scoring. The Devers bomb was opposite field and it was his first for the Giants.

Randy Rodriguez (7th) and Tyler Rogers (8th) both pitched superb innings in relief. FanGraphs rates RandyRo at 1.4 WAR and TyRo at 0.7, while Baseball-Reference says 1.3 and 1.4 respectively. Regardless, both guys have been studs and are a big reason the Giants have been a contending team. They kept the score 3-0 until the 9th.

Camilo Doval did his best to make a mess of his save chance and he got some help from catcher Andrew Knizner as well. Doval gave up hits to the first three guys which brought in a run. Then a bad throw on a stolen base attempt led to another. Finally our mercurial closer decided 3-2 was close enough and he finished them off. The 43-34 Giants stay four back of LA and two ahead of SD.

Robbie Ray matches up with Lucas Giolito tomorrow. Game time same as today, 1:05 PT.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

Go with the Flo

SF 2  CLE 1

It was a day for VSC. Veteran Savvy Clutchness snapped the Giants skid and spared them from a sweep. The Guardians were pesky in all three games and had the look of a contender. The Giants looked like pretenders by comparison. They were 1-for-7 today with RISP, and the one was a big one, but that is still lame. Not just 1-for-7 (.143), but only seven chances in all. They had five hits and four walks, and Christian Koss reached on an error.

Logan Webb gets the first VSC star. He pitched a great game in LA last Friday which the Giants won. Then they lost the next two plus the first two back at home. So Webb knew he had to play stopper and he delivered the goods with seven strong innings. The Cleveland lineup rapped out seven hits (three by Steven Kwan), but a couple were dinkers. Two were doubles, both by Angel Martinez, and he scored the one run. But Webb whiffed nine and didn't issue a freebie so that was it for them. He left with the team trailing 1-0 and it looked like another Caining.

The second VSC star goes to The Maestro of Clutch, Mr. VSC himself, Wilmer Flores. After Casey Schmitt opened the bottom of 7th with a single, Jung Hoo Lee walked. Patrick Bailey bunted them over. Wilmer pinch-hit for Koss and he stroked a double down the line that scored both runners. That's 53 RBI for Flo, 10th-best in MLB. FNG Rafael Devers is 5th-best with 59 (Pete Alonso is #1 with 63).

Speaking of our FNG, Raffy had 13 PA in the series and was 3-for-11 (.272) with a double and an RBI. He added two walks and four strikeouts. Let's hope our $250 Million Dollar Man goes nuts against his former team this weekend.

A little over 40,000 fans were at the ballpark this afternoon and after the Giants took a 2-1 lead they saw a couple of dominant relievers (Randy Rodriguez and Camilo Doval) close the door and wrap up the win. Boy, did they need that one! This hitting and scoring drought is really hard to take. Webb actually has two wins in his last two starts (14 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 W, 13 K) and is now 7-5. There are 13 MLB pitchers with seven wins, five with eight (Robbie Ray among them), and two with nine (Carlos Rodon and Max Fried of the Yankees). Webb leads everyone with 12 Quality Starts, is second with 101-1/3 IP, and his 2.58 ERA is the third-lowest. Today was his 16th start and his 159th overall in his 7th season, fifth in a full-time  starter role. He turns 29 in November and is signed through the 2028 season. I hope we all appreciate what a beast this guy is!

Hayden Birdsong goes tomorrow night against the Red Sox at 7:15 Pacific.

Go Giants!

--M.C.