Again Again

I was working in my backyard today.  It's mostly a driveway leading to an alley, but what there is of yard has grown lush with the spring rains.  My white climbing rose, shown behind the geraniums, is bursting with blooms.  Can you see the peach color in the rose closer to the house?  It is also going crazy with blooms after struggling for a couple of years to get going.  I thought I'd show you this because working in the yard is soothing and I find it enjoyable.  Unlike listening to a Giants game.

The game was not enjoyable.  The Giants dropped another game, at home, to the Padres, 5 - 2.  Ty Blach pitched well, and the Giants took a 2 - 0 lead into the 9th inning.  Mark Melancon allowed a 2 run home run to Hector Sanchez for a blown save.  According to Grant Bisbee, Hector Sanchez has now hit as many home runs in San Francisco in a Padres uniform as he did in roughly 800 plate appearances in a Giants uniform.  In the 12th inning, with George Kontos pitching his second inning of relief, the Giants allowed another home run, this one a 3-run shot from Will Myers.  Of course, the Giants were unable to score in the bottom of the 9th, 10th, 11th, or, for that matter, the 12th.

I was just thinking, as Derek Law was pitching in the 8th after a 7 inning, 3 hit, 0 run effort from Ty Blach (2 BB, 1K)  that the Giants haven't really found pitchers for their bullpen niches yet, except for Melancon at closer.  You want a bullpen where you have guys to rely on for the 7th and 8th inning, with maybe a specialist for left handed hitters, and maybe an extra in case you get into a situation where you have to use these guys on a lot of days.  Then you have some guys that can do long relief or spot start and maybe a guy for garbage time.  You don't see those guys as often but they are expected to pitch longer when they are in the game.  And of course, a closer.  The Giants went out a got a closer, but, I thought, the other guys haven't settled into defined roles, yet.  Bruce Bochy keeps trying them out, and they all look pretty good at times, except when they don't.  Like yesterday.  Or Thursday.  Or for that matter, Friday, even though they held on to win.  Closers give up a bomb and blow a save every now and then.  It happens.  Rod Beck did it, Rob Nen did it. So did Santiago and Sergio.  But 2 in April averages out to 12 in the season.  That's too many.   And the Giants just seem to rotate between different ways to lose.  Make no mistake, though, pitching or not, the Giants can't win too many games if they are only scoring 2 runs.

Johnny Cueto throws tomorrow in Los Angeles.  The Giants have now played every team in the western division both at home and away except the doggers, and have a losing record against every one of those teams.  They are 29th in runs scored and 29th in slugging percentage, and 27th in on base percentage.  The Royals are at the bottom of slugging and obp.  One of their 7 wins was against the Giants.  Tomorrow would be an excellent time to start to atone for that.

Giants Fall Apart, Again

SD 12  SD 4
Matt Cain labored a bit but had good results over his abbreviated outing. The pitcher's spot came up just after the Giants had tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the 5th and Kelby Tomlinson got the nod and that was it for Matty. He'd thrown 86 pitches to 21 batters to get the 15 outs, walking no one and getting seven swinging whiffs. Tomlinson got the pinch-hit, by the way, and wound up scoring on Brandon Belt's two-out single and the Giants turned it over to the bullpen for the final four frames with a 3-1 lead. Chris Stratton got the 6th and unfortunately made a mess of it, giving up four hits and two runs and leaving with the bases loaded and only one out. Neil Ramirez came in and poured gasoline on the fire and the Padres wound up scoring eight in the frame and three more in the next to make it a laugher. Another bullpen collapse! And I thought it couldn't get worse. That was just a wretched performance, the lack of execution has me speechless. The Giants have won two games in a row only ONCE this season!

SF 4  SD 3
Friday night the Giants got a strong effort from Jeff Samardzija (7 IP, 3 R) and a clutch late homer from The Kid, Christian Arroyo, to prevail 4-3 over the Padres. Brandon Belt had three hits and a walk and scored two. Derek Law and Mark Melancon finished up and the Giants sewed up a big win. They're all big at this point as there are way too many losses so far this season. It was an exciting and dramatic evening, but the joy was quickly dissipated by the disaster that followed the next night.

The Giants lifted themselves out of the cellar with the win on Friday but the loss on Saturday landed them right back on the bottom. Let's hope the team wins the rubber game tomorrow behind the other rookie, Ty Blach. This has been an embarrassing month of baseball--one of the worst ever--and I'm getting ill having to endure it.

--M.C.


p.s.  Buster and other catchers have a lot to say to Jerry Crasnick about life behind the plate in this article for ESPN. Check it out.

Giants Fail in Finale

LA 5  SF 1
After a couple of poor outings Matt Moore returned to form and pitched impressively against the Dodgers this afternoon in San Francisco. He threw 104 pitches over seven innings and yielded just one run on a solo shot by, you guessed it, Corey Seager. His finest moment was his final two hitters in the 7th, whiffing them both with the go-ahead run on third base. It was 1-1 when he left and both George Kontos and Mark Melancon put up scoreless frames but Cory Gearrin, Steven Okert, and Hunter Strickland combined to ruin the top of the 10th and the Dodgers ran away with it.

The Giants really needed a series win, they've had only one so far this season. They lost 3 of 4 in Arizona to open things, then lost 2 of 3 in San Diego before coming home and winning 2 of 3 from the Diamondbacks. They followed that by losing 3 of 4 to the Rockies and then went on the road and split two in Kansas City and got swept in three games in Colorado. So, yeah, winning a goddamn series had some urgency. Unfortunately they just did not have enough offense to make that happen. It's a scarily bad lineup so far, the lack of scoring (77 runs in 23 games!) is pathetic. You can't win when the hitting is this poor. It's a shame to waste the good pitching. And to see the bullpen collapse--again--just as it seemed they were getting it together is discouraging as well.

Phenom Christian Arroyo continues to be blessed by the gods, he had two hits including the game-tying RBI in the 6th. Keep on rockin', kid, you are the best thing that's happened in this wretched month!

San Diego comes to town for three. GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

The Smile Has Returned!!

Win, 4-3 (10) vs LA

The first truly great moment of the 2017 season occurred as Michael Morse crushed a pinch hit homer in the bottom of the eighth which sent the Giants on to an extra inning win.  It may be late April but the ballpark exploded like October when the popular pretty boy unleashed his dinger.  The sheer joy of that moment is something you must relive:

Morse's Smile 

That magical moment also served to make Christian Arroyo's first homer become a huge key to the win rather than a pleasant side note.  It also gave Hunter Pence the chance to battle through an epic bases loaded foul ball festival before getting the GW sac fly.  So, TWO big homers give the Giants a massively important win. Ain't that wacky?

 And if Matt Moore can get a win tomorrow we have ourselves a sweet series victory that we might be able to build on.  Do you think Morse will get a start?  I bet he does...  And who knows if Arroyo will ever come out.