Ugly, Ugly, Ugly, Ugly

Put Philly in the rear view mirror and step on the gas.  Jeez.  The Giants got swept in Philadelphia, losing the final game by a score of 6 - 3.  That hasn't happened since 1982, when Mike Krukow was on the mound in game 4 for the Phillies and Duane Kuiper led off for the Giants.

In the 1980's, the Giants were mostly bad.  Real bad.  It remains to be seen how good the Giants are in 2018.  They looked terrific in Atlanta, but got the crap beat out of them, repeatedly, in Philly.  Philadelphia has some good, young players that appear to not have any fear.  They have one veteran hitter, Carlos Santana, who hit 3 home runs against the Giants in the series and picked up 13 rbi.  They have one veteran pitcher, Jake Arrieta, whom the Giants did not face.   Not that Arrieta could have been more effective.  The Giants struck out 15 times today and a grand total of 55 times in the series.  55 times!  Given each team has 3 outs, or chances, an inning, that is 1.5 chances each inning the Giants' hitters are giving away.  3 outs every 2 innings!  From some guys named Velasquez today (7 starts before this season), Pivetta (in his 2nd year), Nola (in his 4th year who is actually from Baton Rouge, not New Orleans), and Eflin (parts of 2 previous seasons).  The Giants were outscored 32 to 8.

Ty Blach had the honor of picking up the L today.  The Giants actually led the game until the 4th, that's the first time that's happened this series.  So I guess that's positive.  Also, the Giants, after some sloppy play in the field, committed no errors.  The road trip that started out 3 - 0 is now under .500 at 3 - 4.  On to Pittsburgh.  Hit the ball.  Get some wins.

Uuuu - gleee

If you want to know how long it has been since Madison Bumgarner only lasted 3 innings, you have to look back at least to before 2012.  He lasted 4 in the first game of 2014, and had a few 4  or 4+ inning games in 2012, but nothing more recently.  It's too bad, too, because I was all set to write about how good the pitching has been to start the season.  The Giants piled up 37 hits in Arizona.  In three games in San Diego, they have 16.  San Diego, however, has 32 (20 of them tonight).

Madison gave up 5 runs, all earned, on 10 hits in 3 innings.  He was, to be kind, not sharp.  Ryan Vogelsong and was slightly more successful, giving up 5 runs, 4 earned, on 9 hits lasting 3 2/3 innings.  George Kontos was called in to clean up this Cubs-mens-room of a game and performed admirably, surrendering no runs in the remaining 1 1/3 inning.  Joaquin Arias hit a home run.  Why?  Because Casey McGehee seems to have hurt himself swinging.  Kinda sloppy defense, too.  Final score 10 - 2.  The Giants are now 3 - 3 on the young season, as are the San Diegans.  I really wanted to post about the Giants' great pitching.  Let's see what Mr. Peavy brings tomorrow.

Giants Try to Give Game Away, Succeed

The Giants lost tonight by playing some of the stupidest baseball I have seen this year.  It wasn't easy though, it took a complete effort by players and coaches.  Madison Bumgarner faced off against Cole Hamels for the Phillies.  Madison pitched pretty well, although not efficiently, using 110 pitches to get through 7 innings.  He struck out 9 and gave up only 4 hits, although 1 of them was a home run, resulting in the only run while he was on the mound.  Jeremy Affeldt relieved Madison in the 8th, but gave up a 2 run home run, and the game went into extra innings.  The Giants got a big knock from Michael Morse off of Hamels in the 4th for 3 runs.

The thing is, the Giants should have been up at least 5 - 3 by the time the 9th rolled around.  However, in the 6th, Bruce Bochy stupidly decided to replace Morse with the speedy Gregor Blanco after Morse hit the ball twice better than he has in two months and drew a walk.  Blanco stole second, went to third on one of Joe Panik's two hits and then stupidly ran into an out on Brandon Crawford's weak contact.  Then, in the 7th, with Madison still the pitcher of record, Angel Pagan led off with a double and then stupidly decided to steal third with Buster Posey at the plate.  Just a note here, Buster Posey is a pretty good hitter.

Two hitters into the 8th, the game was tied.  Cole Hamels was relieved by Ken Giles, who gave up a single to Pablo Sandoval to lead off the bottom of the 8th.  After a sacrifice that put Pablo on second, Tim Flannery stupidly sent Pablo home on a Joe Panik single to shallow right field.  Pablo was out by at least 30 feet.  In the 9th, the Giants put runners on via walks and moved them up via a wild pitch, but managed to escape with the score tied.  They did not, of course, score. 

In the 10th, Javier Lopez rounded out the display of incompetence by barely hitting Chase Utley with a pitch with the bases loaded, before giving up a sacrifice fly to make the final score 5 - 3.

Dog-gone Good Tim

It looks like Tim enjoys the best annual ballpark event, Dog Days of Summer, as much as I do. (It is the only game on TV where they aren't constantly showing goofus "fans" on cell phones during every break.) Young Mr. Lincecum dismantled the defending champ Phillies during an impressive 8 innings, ZERO RUNS, 7 hits (ALL SINGLES!!), 1 walk and a cool 8 strikeouts. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this absolute gem was his mastery of Chase Utley; 0 for 4, 1 K and a huge 5 LOB. That alone is proof that Tim is the best...but we already knew that.

Did anybody else see the short clip of Tim with his dog? Two things jumped out: Tim is completely RIPPED and that is one ugly dog. So at least I have one thing Tim doesn't.