BCraw!

SF 4  COL 3

Brandon Crawford's two-run double was the big hit yesterday, and his three-run homer was the big hit today. It was a dramatic blast in the bottom of the 6th, turning a three-run deficit into a 4-3 lead. Starter Logan Webb struggled with command and gave up a lot of well-struck balls, but kept the game in check through four innings. In the 5th Ryan McMahon's two-out, two-run homer broke the 1-1 deadlock. Rockies starter Chi Chi Gonzalez put up a zero in the 5th but was replaced in the 6th after 80 pitches. It was the first start of the year for him. Lucky for the Giants lefty reliever Ben Bowden walked two guys and with one out Craw launched one into the arcade in right field. The lineup isn't exactly lighting it up these days so it is exciting to see one of the beloved old vets deliver the goods. Speaking of beloved old vets, Buster Posey threw out two baserunners trying to steal second base!

Four relievers each delivered a scorless frame: Caleb Baragar, Reyes Moronta, Tyler Rogers, and Jake McGee. Closer McGee has four saves in the team's five wins. Also noteworthy was FNG Tommy La Stella starting at second base and leading off: he had two hits, a walk, and a run scored. That's the kind of thing the team needs.

Anthony DeSclafani takes on German Marquez tomorrow afternoon at 1:05 Pacific. Don't you love all these day games?

Go Giants!

--M.C.

I was happy at nine

 SF 14  OAK 2

The Giants saved up all their runs for today and gave the Athletics a good pasting. This team really can pile it on and I'm not used to that. San Francisco certainly owed it to their Oakland neighbors as they had been on the opposite end of a streak of pastings, a streak finally snapped this afternoon. That ends the season series, a lopsided 1-5 in the six (three home, three away) games.

Tyler Anderson pitched well, giving up a couple of runs in the 6th with an 8-0 lead, certainly an encouraging performance from the lefty. The inning started with a rare error from first baseman Brandon Belt and the runs were unearned. Shaun Anderson, Caleb Baragar, and Wandy Peralta put together a scoreless 3-1/3 to finish things. The Giants were able to take advantage of a good start unlike yesterday when they squandered Kevin Gausman's excellent effort.

The big bopper was Brandon Crawford with a double and a homer, a grand slam that "broke the game open" as they like to say. Joey Bart got a day off (he needed it!) and Chadwick Tromp responded with three hits including a two-run homer. Darin Ruf, after two misplays in left field yesterday, bounced back with two hits and four runs batted in, one of the hits a two-run homer. There were lots of highlights!

The Rockies come to town tomorrow evening at 6:45 Pacific. Johnny Cueto, scratched from the start today, gets the call.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Three in a row!

SF 10  LAA 5

The Giants jumped on the Angels young lefty starter (Jose Suarez) for two runs in the 1st and then piled on four more in the 2nd off him and reliever Matt Andriese. The Giants added two more in the 3rd, one in the 4th, and another in the 6th off Julio Teheran. Wilmer Flores had three of the lineup's 12 hits and drove in four runs. Austin Slater had two hits and two runs scored as did Brandon Crawford who is looking better every day. Joey Bart was 1-for-4 with a double in his debut. Gabe Kapler pinch-hit Alex Dickerson for Darin Ruf in the 2nd inning (he was 0-for-1) to get a platoon advantage with the bases loaded and it worked as Dick walked to drive in a run. He drove in another with a sac fly in the 6th.

Kevin Gausman was charged with four runs in his 5-1/3 but struck out eight with only one walk. Sam Selman finished the 6th. Shaun Anderson made a bunch of new friends by throwing high heat to Mike Trout to open the 7th. Angels manager Joe Maddon flipped out after Anderson's pitch and you could hear him drop the f-bomb on the radio. The umpires issued the warnings and Trout promptly tripled, just missing a homer. He wound up scoring after Anderson loaded the bases with two outs and Wandy Peralta walked him in. That was the tensest the game got. Peralta got the strikeout to end the frame and then pitched a clean 8th. Jarlin Garcia threw 11 pitches (9 strikes) to close it out.

Just another routine Giants victory! 11-16 (.407) may not look like much but its better than the Royals, the Tigers, the Red Sox, the Angels, the Mariners, and the Pirates. The Arizona Diamondbacks come to San Francisco for three games, tomorrow night is at 6:45 Pacific.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

 

p.s. Logan Webb, Tyler Anderson, and Trevor Cahill this weekend.

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!)

1st September Win - It Wasn't Easy

It is my good fortune to post something when Madison Bumgarner pitches.  He gets wins and that makes me post in a much better mood than when the Giants lose.  You, in turn, benefit by being spared my vitriol.  At least some of it.

Madison Bumgarner pitched for the Giants tonight and the Giants beat the Cardinals by a score of 9 - 8 in a wild game.  40 different players made appearances in this game.  The Giants went up 4 - 0, then the Cardinals caught up, then the Giants went up 7 - 4, then the Cardinals went up 8 - 7, and finally Kevin Pillar hit his 21st home run of the year with Brandon Crawford on base for the GWRBI in the 8th inning.

The Cardinals have been playing excellent ball, they had won 20 of their last 25 games.  OMG if only the Giants could put together a run like that.  Last night, if you recall, Derek Rodriguez pitched superbly but came away with the loss and the Giants gave up 1 solo home run but were held scoreless by Jack Flaherty.  They said that August was the best month of pitching for a Cardinal since Bob Gibson, one of my childhood heroes.  Madison was not nearly so good, nor anywhere near as good as he can be.  He gave up 9 hits in 5 innings, walked 1 and struck out only 2.  1 of those hits was a home run and he gave up 6 total.  The Giants were charged with 1 error, on a Corban Joseph bobbled grounder, but there were a couple of other near misses that led to runs.  Jaylin Davis had one clang off his glove at the wall and Mike Yastrzemski missed one at the fence in left.  Both of those would have been spectacular catches, but on another night, that might have prevented Cardinal runs from scoring.  The Cardinals also erred once, on a bizarre 3rd-out ground ball in the 6th.  DeJong at shortstop picked up the ball, started to throw to 1st to retire Longoria and then choked and tossed the ball to Wong at 2nd, who was totally surprised and off the bag when he snagged it to allow Posey to reach base.  That put 2 men on for Brandon Crawford who homered for 3 runs to make the score 7 - 4.  Yaz also homered, a solo shot in the 3rd.  Kevin Pillar has had 8 4-hit games in his 6-year career, 4 of them have been as a Giant.  The Giants used 6 pitchers, the Cardinals 7.  So that's Bochy win # 1993.  1 win out of their last 5, 2 out of their last 9, 4 of their last 14.  Please, please, please don't go into the final weekend needing a sweep against LA to give him 2000. 

Giants slip past Rockies

SF 2  COL 1
Dereck Rodriguez survived some shaky defense and gave the team five strong innings, leading the way to another win at Coors. Brandon Crawford's ridiculous day continued with another homer, this one a solo shot following a solo shot by Stephen Vogt in the 4th. Those two runs were enough. Reyes Moronta, Tony Watson, Sam Dyson (struck out the side!), and Will Smith made those runs stand up. The Giants play two in Denver and allow a total of three runs. That's crazy!

They are now 9-2 in July and have improved to 45-49 on the season.

Drew Pomeranz goes tomorrow at 5:40 Pacific.

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.

Buster Slams Brewers

SF 10  MIL 7
Buster Posey launched the first pitch he saw in the 10th inning far over the center-field wall for a grand slam that punctuated a dramatic win for the Giants in Milwaukee. Buster's blast was the fifth round-tripper of the evening for the good guys against zero for the home squad. Tyler Austin hit a homer off the normally invincible Josh Hader in the 8th and for good measure Brandon Crawford tagged another one off him in the 9th. That gave the Giants a 6-5 lead but Christian Yelich led off the bottom of the 9th with a triple off Will Smith and eventually scored to spoil his perfect save record. But a tremendous rally in the top of the 10th to load the bases for Posey made that moot.

Starter Shaun Anderson lasted only five innings against the tough Brewers lineup but he "served notice" by striking out the aforementioned Yelich three times! The young righty has shown some real fortitude so far in his eleven starts. Giants scored two in the 5th and two in the 6th on homers by Austin Slater and by Evan Longoria turning a 2-0 deficit to a 4-2 lead. The Brewers chased Anderson in the 6th but the orange-and-black ultimately came back and got the win. Mark Melancon gave up a run in the 10th but struck out Lorenzo Cain to finish it off. Giants pitchers notched 14 strikeouts tonight.

That has to be the best win of the season. Giants complete Game 90, the fifth seasonal inning, with a sparkling 11-7 record including seven wins in the last eight games, not to mention 6-1 in July.

1st inning: 8-10
2nd inning: 8-10
3rd inning: 5-13
4th inning: 10-8
5th inning: 11-7 

That brings the team to 42-48, still in last place, but certainly in a better place than before.

Madison Bumgarner is healthy and ready to go tomorrow, 4:15 p.m. 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.

Beede Beats LA

SF 3  LA 2
He had help, of course, it's a team game. But the young right-hander had his best outing of the season, limiting the Dodgers to a solo homer in his six frames. He worked hard, walking five, but he allowed only two other hits while whiffing seven. Beede left with a 3-1 lead having thrown 97 pitches to 26 batters. Sam Dyson covered the 7th, Tony Watson gave up a run in the 8th, and Will Smith was masterful again in the 9th and the Giants had a big win against a tough foe. The Dodgers are 28-9 at home.

Brandon Crawford had the big hit, a two-run double in the 2nd, and the Dodgers gifted the Giants another run in the 6th, and that was enough. Giants have won five of six and are 9-5 in June.

Shaun Anderson matches up with Clayton Kershaw tomorrow night (7:10 Pacific). GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Two in a row!

SF 8  BAL 1
Jeff Samardzija produced an outstanding effort after a worrisome start. He allowed a solo shot in--you guessed it--the 1st inning but put up five zeroes after that. Three hits, no walks, and six strikeouts for the Shark who threw 110 pitches to 21 batters in his six frames. The Giants scored in the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th to dominate in Baltimore and make it two wins out of three over the hapless Orioles. Evan Longoria (three hits including a homer) and Brandon Crawford (two homers) delivered the thump. Reyes Moronta, Tony Watson (who struck out the side), and Will Smith finished up.

Travel day tomorrow then it is three against the Mets in New York. Madison Bumgarner against Noah Syndergaard on Tuesday, with Tyler Beede and Shaun Anderson on Wednesday and Thursday.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Pitching & Defense

SF 3  AZ 2 (10)
A couple of old friends showed up today in Arizona and led the Giants to a series victory. Starter Drew Pomeranz walked five but didn't give up the long ball. In fact he made it until the 4th before they scored off him, and he helped the D-Backs out with a walk and two wild pitches. The Giants conjured up their runs in the 3rd, capitalizing on two singles and two walks. The bullpen was spectacular, and a spectacular play by Brandon Crawford saved the game in the 9th. Both Steven Duggar and Joe Panik made big plays in the field as well. Panda got to play the hero, hammering a pinch-hit homer off Yoshihisa Hirano in the 10th for the game-winner. Will Smith struck out the side for the save.

The Giants looked terrible on Friday night and yet they bounced back with two wins against a good club. They didn't have much of an offense today (5 H, 5 BB, 11 K) but those stalwarts, pitching & defense, made the difference.

Andrew Suarez was called up and he makes the start tomorrow night at home against the Braves.

Go Giants!

--M.C.

Yellow and Black, I Want my Logo Back

What's the deal with the Giants yellow logo hats?  Tribute to pollen?

Madison Bumgarner tossed another good game for the Giants tonight.  That has mostly led to speculation in our local rags that he will make a good trade candidate.  Which really irritates me, obvious though the trading potential may seem at first glance.  The assumption, of course, is that the Yankees, or some other team will be desperate for pitching and give the Giants the keys to their super good farm system in exchange for a couple months of rental.  But that's not how it works these days, there is too much data to quantify player value and teams are not going to trade away too much of their future.  Maybe the Giants, but they did that and look where it got them.

The Giants were in Arizona, and the theme, in contrast to last night, was to score early, keep the pressure on and put a few more runs on the board from time to time.  The Giants scored in the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 8th and 9th.  Arizona chipped away at the total, but the Giants were able to keep ahead of the snakes and win this one by a score of 8 - 5.

Madison threw 105 pitches and made it through 6 1/3 innings.  He walked 2 in the 7th, gave up a double to score 1 and then Sam Dyson gave up a run on a ground-out, which was charged to Madison.  He also allowed a solo shot in the 4th, after the Giants were up 4 - 0.   He struck out 6 and walked 4 (each of whom, btw, scored).  But only 5 hits on the night.   It was a team effort, and I must say, the team looked pretty good.  Joe Panik scored twice.  Steve Duggar had 2 hits and an rbi, Buster Posey had 2 hits and an rbi, and Brandon Belt had 2 hits and an rbi (on a solo shot into the chlorinated faux-asis in center field).  Evan Longoria and Mac Williamson each had an rbi and Pablo Sandoval had a pinch hit home run.  Brandon Crawford is carrying a .205 average, but had rbis in 2 innings, a sac fly that scored Buster in the 3rd, and a triple to score Longoria in the 6th.  That is the kind of team effort that is necessary for this team.  Want to hear something weird?  The Giants have scored the 2nd most runs in May per game of any team.  Who would have imagined?

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.

A Win in a Lost Season

SF 4  SD 2
The Giants scored four runs tonight and snapped their streak of eleven consecutive games scoring three or fewer. That, and they were officially eliminated. It should not be overlooked that rookie lefty Andrew Suarez pitched a fine game (7-2/3, 4 H, 2 R). Homers by Brandon Crawford and Evan Longoria provided the offense. Rookies Chris Shaw (3 hits), Austin Slater (a superb 9-6 outfield assist), and Aramis Garcia (RBI single) also contributed. At 71-80 the team could win all their remaining games and finish above .500! Even if you think they are a .500 club the probability of winning eleven coin flips is 1/2048 or less than 0.05%. So we won't worry about that.

Derek Holland tomorrow night. GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Giants Edge Padres in Extras

SF 3  SD 2 (10)
The Padres touched rookie Dereck Rodriguez for a run in the 1st on a two-out double by veteran Eric Hosmer. It would be all they'd get off the Giants starter who threw perhaps his best game of the season, and boy would the team need it. In a thoroughly Giants-y inning they tied it up in the 4th with a six-batter, three-hit attack: out, single, single, infield single, sacrifice fly, out. The extra-base hit with men on base has so eluded the team in 2018, and the theme would continue. In the 5th Andrew McCutchen, subject of much media interest, led off with a homer to make it 2-1. Note the extra-base hit but with no one on base. Of course the Giants had a chance to break it open and in an even more Giants-y sequence in the 8th and doom was foretold, it seemed, by the outcome. Single, single, walk--bases loaded and no one out. But a chance was blown as ball four went to the backstop and the runner at third (Evan Longoria) inexplicably failed to score. That was followed by a strike out, a grounder with the force out at home, and a fly out. The Padres tied the game up in the bottom half off Reyes Moronta, who has been awesome but, like the entire 'pen, over-used. Fortunately the Giants kept it together and gave themselves a chance with another spectacular Giants-y rally. Longoria led off the 10th with a triple which was quickly followed by a Nick Hundley strike out and an Austin Slater fly out. Brandon Crawford finally gave the club a run-scoring hit with a single and it was 3-2 Giants. They loaded the bases after that but got no more. Will Smith, for the third straight game, closed it superbly.

It was a grind-it-out win, the only kind the Giants can do with any consistency. There's not enough punch to thump opponents. They have to rely on the pitching and today was D-Rod's day. The final line was 112 pitches to 26 batters over seven innings, three hits, three walks, seven strikeouts, and just the one run. Tony Watson buzzed through a scoreless 9th after Moronta's uncharacteristically labored 8th, and Smith finished. But I have to come back to the rookie's performance, not just today but overall. That was his 10th start--ever in the bigs--and he's had one stinker and one meh and the rest have been at least six innings and two or fewer runs allowed. Check out this guy's game log--he's done a fair impersonation of Johnny Cueto!

Madison Bumgarner is next: Thursday at 6:40 in Arizona. 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.

Giants Sweep Snakes!

SF 9 AZ 6
It took 16 hits, nine runs, and seven pitchers but the San Francisco Giants completed their three-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The pitching staff was stingy in June, allowing only 84 runs in 28 games (exactly 3 rpg), but inaugurate July with a six-run stinker. Derek Holland could not get out of the 4th, Pierce Johnson lost it in the 7th after two perfect innings, and Mark Melancon allowed a run in the 9th and had to be bailed out by Will Smith. But the rest of the group got it done and the lineup was not to be denied, scoring in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 9th frames.

This is a huge win for the club, especially given their poor play on the road before this. The Giants looked good this weekend. I have to give a nod to Brandon Belt for two hits and three walks, not to mention superb glove work, as always. Brandon Crawford had two hits, an RBI, and a run scored. The B-Boys have carried the offense, don't you think?

Colorado next. 5:40 Pacific, Madison Bumgarner. Go Giants!

--M.C.

If You Love Pitching Duels

Watch Rockies games.  Ha ha ha ha ha, no.

The Giants battled the Rockies for 8.5 scoreless in I gs tonight.  Madison Bumgarner for the Giants, coming off of an excellent 8 inning scoreless start.  Madison threw 7 innings, struck out 8, and gave up 2 hits.  Kyle Freeland for the Rox, 25 year-old 2nd year pitcher.  He threw 7 scoreless, gave up 4 hits.  Will Smith made quick work of the Rox in the 8th, as did Reyes Moronta in the top of the 9th.  A 0 - 0 game at that point.

Something had to give and Brandon Crawford was in a giving mood.  A soaring shot to the right field arcade with 1 out gave the Giants the win.

I like that the Giants have gotten wins without dropping the first game of a series. Brandon Crawford is a stud.  1 - 0 Giants.

Giants Bounce Back

SF 5 SD 3
If anything illustrates our frustrations with the Giants this year it is these two back-to-back games they just played against the Padres. In Friday night's game the Giants got a solid start from Chris Stratton but could not score to back him up and lost. In today's game the Giants got a solid start from Andrew Suarez and scored five runs and were able to notch a win. If the young arms deliver winnable starts then by golly the team needs to win those games! At least today they managed to do that despite the scare in the 9th. The lineup had eight hits, five by the Brandons (Craw three, Belt two). The infield turned four double plays, reducing the impact of San Diego's 13 hits and three walks. I note that Austin Slater was called up (Mac Williamson is back at AAA) and he pinch-hit in the 8th and delivered a run-scoring fly ball. If Mac needs some minors time to find his stroke again, so be it. If young Austin can make the most of his chance, so be it. The team needs an infusion of youth and production in the outfield. Steven Duggar is still lurking--his .277/.355/.420 is competent but not eye-popping, we'll see if he gets a shot after the All-Star Break.

Dereck Rodriguez takes the hill tomorrow at 1:05 Pacific.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.