Coorsed again

COL 7  SF 3

The Giants bullpen gave up seven runs—two in the 6th, one in the 7th, four in the 8th—and turned a 3-0 lead into a painful loss. Kyle Harrison strung together five scoreless frames which is no mean feat at altitude in Denver. But the overworked, overexposed relief corps cracked in the thin air and got clobbered. The lineup had their chances for more runs early on and didn't convert and then sort of faded away. The Rockies bullpen struck out five in the final three innings.

It was not the second half start we were hoping for. There's two more at Coors (Saturday at 5:10 PT and Sunday at 12:10 PT) and then they go to LA.  Logan Webb takes the hill tomorrow. He had an ugly All-Star game but he pitched well in Chicago on his last turn.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

p.s. Once again I must be away from my desk. I won't be posting for at least a week and perhaps two. But feel free to carry on in the comments!

Yaz saves the day

SF 3  MIN 2

Blake Snell had his best start of the year, seven shut out innings with only one hit allowed. He was perfect through six. That makes twelve consecutive scoreless frames over his last two outings. The single in the 7th was wiped out by a double play and a 1-2-3 8th from Tyler Rogers meant the Giants had faced the minimum going to the 9th. Clinging to a 2-0 lead Camilo Doval walked the first batter and two doubles later had to be pulled with the save blown and the game tied. Ryan Walker finished up. Fortunately Mike Yastrzemski tripled to lead off the bottom half and then promptly scored the winner on a throwing error. It would have been a shame to waste Snell's great effort. I can't decide whether to call pitching well and getting an ND being "Cained" or "Webbed" as both work.

Giants go to the Break with a 47-50 record, good for 4th place, 9 GB in the West and 3 GB in the Wild Card. The All-Star Game is Tuesday and the second half begins Friday in Colorado.

--M.C.

Score early, score often

SF 7  MIN 1

The Giants had nine hits total but five of them were for extra bases: three doubles and two triples. Rookie Brett Wisely had three of the nine hits including a double and a triple. Kyle Harrison threw five scoreless but ran into trouble in the 6th and was pulled with one out and one run in. After back-to-back disaster starts and two losses to the Blue Jays it was nice to get a strong effort and nab a win. The Twins are a good team, sitting second to the Guardians in the AL Central and second in the AL Wild Card hunt.

The Giants scored one in the 1st and two in the 2nd and followed that with one in the 5th, one in the 6th, and two in the 7th. That kept the pressure on and Minnesota, despite ten hits (eight singles), never got anything going. Giants flashed some leather—Heliot Ramos made a nice diving catch in the 4th, Brett Wisley stabbed a hot shot in the 6th, and Matt Chapman nabbed another of those impossible foul pop-ups in the 8th. He's good at that!

It's a FOX game at 4:15 Pacific this afternoon. Rookie Hayden Birdsong gets the start.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

Snell swell; Giants walk it off

SF 4  TOR 3

An errant pitch in the 9th capped a gritty comeback by the Giants and they snapped their two-game skid. They've played a nice stretch of ball lately: winning three of four from the Cubs, two of three from the Dodgers, and two of three from the Braves. Then they had three hard-fought close contests in Cleveland, just getting edged out and losing two of them to the best home team in baseball. If the Giants can go toe-to-toe with the Guardians and stand up to LA and Atlanta they are doing better than their record shows.

Last night was a breakthrough for our Thirty Million Dollar Man. Blake Snell went five scoreless allowing only one hit and three walks on what for him was a parsimonious 74 pitches. Let's see some more of that!

Youngsters Heliot Ramos and Casey Fitzgerald both homered off Yusei Kikuchi (who was awesome, whiffing 13 in 7-2/3) and that fueled the comeback. Ryan Walker had a rare bad outing and the Giants trailed late but still pulled out a win. Brett Wisely had  the game-tying hit in the 9th. There's a nice youth core emerging on this club. Austin Slater got lost in the squeeze--the veteran OF was traded to the Reds for lefty reliever Alex Young.

I missed posting for the team's 90th game or the end of the fifth seasonal inning. That was the loss on Saturday. Here's the story so far:

1st inning: 7-11

2nd inning: 8-10

3rd inning: 12-6

4th inning: 8-10

5th inning: 9-9

They've gone 1-1 since then and their record after 92 contests is 45-47. That's good for third place (tied with Arizona), ten back of the top and 2-1/2 games out of the Wild Card. Logan Webb and Heliot Ramos are All-Stars. It's exciting to see Ramos put his game together.

Speaking of Webb, he goes tonight at 6:45 PT.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

Split

SF 4  CHC 3

CHC 5  SF 3

The Giants took three of four from the Cubs but it felt like a lost opportunity. They had a real chance at a sweep but couldn't pull it off. That seems like the theme for the season—had a chance but couldn't get it done.

Rookie Hayden Birdsong made his debut Wednesday and the 22-year old impressed everyone with his electric stuff. He made it into the 5th but gave up a homer and that chased him from the game. Still, he whiffed five and did at least as well as his Chicago counterpart Hayden Wesneski. That's the first time two Haydens have started a baseball game.

Today Jordan Hicks had a rough second inning but still managed to log five with seven Ks. The Giants tied it up 3-3 with a rally in the 6th and got four innings of good relief work (Bivens, Miller, Walker, Hjelle) to send it to extras. Ian Happ hit a homer off Luke Jackson in the 10th and that was that.

The Dodgers come to town tomorrow night for a three-game weekend set. Logan Webb takes the hill at 7:15 Pacific.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

p.s. I'll be away from my desk for a bit so I may not be posting regularly but comments are of course always open.

Two in a row

SF 5  CHC 1

A brilliant team-wide pitching effort from six guys kept the Cubs in check and gave the Giants their second win in a row. Randy Rodriguez opened things and was dazzling (5 K) for 2+ but then gave up a run with two outs in the 3rd. Sean Hjelle finished the frame and got five more outs. Taylor Rogers picked up the ball for three outs, then 1-1/3 from Ryan Walker, and then a scoreless inning from Tyler Rogers. Camilo Doval had a quiet 9th to finish things off.

Kyle Hendricks was very tough for Chicago, yielding only two in his seven frames. It was looking like a nail-biter until the Giants broke it open with three in the 8th. This late-inning scoring thing is pretty exciting. Two more hits for Brett "Maverick" Wisely at the top of the lineup. He's hitting .301 overall (29 G, 99 PA).

Hayden Birdsong, a 6th-round draft pick in 2022 from Eastern Illinois University, gets the start tomorrow night at 6:45 Pacific. He's a mere 22 years of age. He was pitching well in Richmond (AA) and got called up to Sacramento (AAA) where he's only had two starts but I guess he's on the fast track. Not to mention the Giants need starters! Welcome aboard, Hayden. Show 'em what you got!

Go Giants!

--M.C.

A true walk-off

SF 5  CHC 4

A lot of walk-off wins involve fast running and close plays. The only "true" walk-offs are game-ending homers. (I guess a ground-rule double with a man on second would count.) Or game-ending bases-loaded events, like a walk, HBP, catcher's interference, pitch-clock violation, etc. Otherwise they are really not "walk" offs where the winning run can literally walk home. All of that to say the Giants had a true walk-off with Wilmer Flores getting walked with the bases loaded in the 9th to win the game.

So, miracles do happen. The swooning Giants looked for all the world that they would keep swooning but they somehow turned it around in the final frame to snap their losing skid at five. That makes six walk-off wins so far in 2024.

FNG Spencer Howard got the win with 4-2/3 IP of superb relief work. Giants added 25-year old rookie southpaw Raymond Burgos to the staff as well. He's from Puerto Rico and was originally drafted by Cleveland. Next game is 6:45 tonight.

Go Giants!

--M.C.