May Ends With a Loss

It seems like a light switch flipped yesterday.  The Giants went from fantastic to mediocre, or worse.  I hope the regression-to-the-mean folks are happy.  I was hoping, after reading the comments two days ago, that I could use this post to point out that the mean for this season would add up to 100 wins.  Sigh, that was not to be.  The Giants lost today when it looked like they were about to come back with a win thanks to Joe Panik's 4th home run into the center-right field stands.

Madison Bumgarner started the game, and looked to be in cruise control for awhile.  The Brandons, batting consecutively, hit solo home runs in the 2nd inning.  Atlanta's starter, Julio Teheran, only allowed 3 hits through 6 innings, a Brandon Belt single in the 6th adding to the 2 home runs.  Madison Bumgarner also only allowed 2 hits through 6, both in the 5th to net Atlanta 1 run.  In the 7th, though, Madison walked Jonny Gomes and then gave up a home run to Juan Uribe (who stepped up his game with a home run yesterday).  2 singles later, and Madison was out of the game with a 3 - 2 deficit.  Madbum's line: 6 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 5 hits, 6 K and 1 BB.  In the bottom of the frame, Matt Duffy doubled and Teheran was replaced by Donnie Veal.  Blanco's single scored Duffy, to hang another earned run on Teheran and then Joe Panik homered, Giants 5, Atlanta 4.

After another hitless inning by Hunter Strickland, Santiago Casilla came in to close out the 9th.  After a one-pitch out by Juan Uribe, Freddie Freeman homered to left, 5 - 4 Giants.  A walk and a double play ball was.....................bobbled by Brandon Crawford.  Now there's a phrase you don't see often, thank goodness.  But today, it was the start of a collapse that ended at Atlanta 7, Giants 5.  Boo.

The Braves are not that good a team, posting a .500 record after two wins, but Pittsburgh is.  All that stuff you hear about shaking it off and coming in ready for the next game; this would be a good time to do just that.  Still, 21 - 9 this month.  Keep that up and things will be just fine.

WHIPped Tim

Sorry for the tardy post, but I figured everyone would understand since last night was clearly one of the worst losses of 2015. Some games are best quickly forgotten. If you wanted to read about this 8-0 shellacking by the Braves, which ended our nice winning streak and knocked us out of first place, then I seriously worry about your masochistic tendencies.  As some frozen chick once said, "Let It Go."

Of course, I can never let go of my worry over Tim Lincecum. I think it is fair to say that his strong start (which had many of us hoping for an All-Star selection) has morphed in to tough times. Tim had gone for 23 scoreless innings at home but last night he surrendered four runs and eight hits in a feeble 4 1/3 innings. (It seemed as they started with a runner on each inning! Is that legal?) One thing about the "New" Tim is that he sure has to work hard. Lots of base runners, working out of the stretch, and high pressure situations. In the old days, the stat that "captured" Tim, if you will, was K/9. That has been replaced by WHIP. To Lincecum's credit, he does damn well even when putting a ton of guys on. After all, he can still get a few strikeouts and he doesn't give up too many dingers. So do I think this start means that Lincecum's year is headed for the tank? No,no,no!  The Freak will bounce back again and have another nifty run real soon. 

And then he will have a terrible stretch.  Get used to it. The "New" Tim is consistently inconsistent. 

Giants Move Into First

The Dodgers got shut out in St. Louis this evening with that old Giants nemesis John Lackey delivering the goods for the Cardinals.  In San Francisco the old man of the staff, Tim Hudson, tired of the smack-talk here at RMC, kicked some ass of his own and led the Giants to another win against the Braves. Buster Posey was Mr. Clutch with the bat and the home team prevailed 4-2 over Atlanta. The Giants sit at 30-20 for a nice .600 win percentage and have a half game edge over the Dodgers who are 28-19 (.596), falling to 7-12 on the road with the loss tonight.

The Giants have now won five in a row. It's a looooooooong season my friends, we cruised past the one-quarter mark when LA was getting smoked three straight two weeks back. We are creeping up on the one-third mark (game 54) which I believe will be Tuesday the 2nd versus the Pirates. It has been terribly exciting to watch the ballclub do everything right consistently for several weeks now (they are 25-10 or .714 since 4/21), but we know these things are fleeting. They will play stretches of bad baseball in the remaining 112 games, this we know for sure. But damn if they don't look good! What a lineup--I'm not sure I can recall a batting order this tough from top to bottom. In the Bonds Era they had some serious offense, but did they have the one-through-eight we see with these guys?

Tim Lincecum gets the start tomorrow at 7:05 pm. I hate weekend night games--all weekend games should be played in the day time. Save the night games for Monday through Friday.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

Fourth Straight Home Shutout

The Giants lead baseball in team shutouts with nine, just ahead of the Dodgers who have seven. Rookie Chris Heston bounced back with 7-1/3 scoreless, allowing only four hits and one walk. The closest thing the Braves had to a rally was Nick Markakis batting with runners on the corners and two outs in the 6th. Brandon Belt homered in the bottom of the 7th off a very tough Shelby Miller to make it 1-0 Giants. It looked to be another nail-biter until a six-run explosion in the 8th, one of those "hitting is contagious" events where the team batted around. The final was 7-0 and the Giants gain a half game on the idle Dodgers. That's the team's twentieth win in the month of May against only seven losses.

Heston gave up eleven runs in the two starts following his complete game gem in Houston. Tonight was the first time this season he has not allowed a run at all. The Giants beat Miller in Game Four of the NLCS last season when he was the starter for St. Louis. He also pitched in the 2012 NLCS against the Giants when he was only twenty-one. He went to the Braves as part of the Jason Heyward deal.

Tim Hudson tomorrow night. GO GIANTS!

--M.C.



p.s. Word on Jake Peavy is that he will require at least two more rehab starts.

Vogie and Giants Complete Sweep

That's 11 wins in their last 13 games if you are counting. The hirsute Ryan Vogelsong was a disaster, the de-whiskered version has been a beast. That's five consecutive starts of two runs allowed or fewer and five wins by the ballclub. Number 32 allowed 22 runs in his first five starts and only five since. One of those first five was a good one against the Dodgers, in the other four he failed to get past the 5th. If he can hit those spots low on the outside corner with his two-seamer he can get grounders instead of fly balls and it sets up his slow breaking stuff for swing-throughs. That worked well today--he got outs on the ground and key strikeouts as well. Walks have been a bugaboo but no freebies were issued this afternoon. That's three straight effective starts on the road in hitters parks. We know the Giants can keep the lid on things in their big yard so it's extra sweet to see them do it in the bandboxes. When Jake Peavy gets activated, I don't think he's going to bump Vogie.

Big blast today from Joe Panik right after the Brewers scored their only run. His two-run bomb came after Nori Aoki's leadoff single. Angel Pagan, hitting in the 7th spot, doubled and scored in the 9th for insurance. All the regulars, including Gregor Blanco, are positive WAR for the season and the lowest OPS of the bunch is Pagan's .728; the ML average is .709. The worst OBP in the lineup today was Matt Duffy's .333, he hit eighth (the ML average is .315).

Giants don't get a break until next Thursday--they come home for four against the Braves and three against the Pirates. Chris Heston gets the ball tomorrow night.

GO GIANTS!

--M.C.

p.s. Outstanding work, again, by the 'pen. My only concern is the usage--those guys are seriously racking up some innings! Let's hope Hunter Strickland can pick up some of the load. He looked good today and has done well (keeping fingers crossed!) since he was recalled to the bigs.

Sergio Romo Really Needs to Work on His Batting

Another win!  Another W for Madison Bumgarner, although, perhaps, not his best outing.  He went 6, 99 pitches worth, and threw 61 strikes.  Madison gave up 3 runs on 4 hits, uncharacteristically walking 2 and gave up a home run.   Madison also got a hit and scored a run.  After a solo home run in the 4th by Aramis Ramirez, the damage to Madison was done in the 6th.  George Kontos pitched the 7th, and Sergio Romo found the last out in that inning and then went through the 8th.   Santiago Casilla got a save for a 2 hit, 2 K 9th.

Nori Aoki had another fine night with 3 hits.  7 other hits were scattered throughout the lineup, with Matt Duffy delivering a 2 run homer and Brandon Belt adding a solo shot in the 7th to top off the score at 6 - 3.

In the 8th, Sergio Romo came to the plate.  No doubt Ron was apoplectic.  Sergio had a chance to tie Madison Bumgarner for home runs in 2015, but, as it turned out, he did not get a hit.  Nor did he hit into an out.  In fact, he struck out looking.  No matter, though, as he held the Brewers scoreless in the bottom of the 8th.  I personally believe the man has a hit in him somewhere, but perhaps tonight was just not the night for it.  Sergio will make it known when the time is ripe.

Well Supported Tim

Escaping last week's oppressive rains to shine again under Miller Park's shelter, the Giants dominated the Brewers 8-4 with plenty of offense and major contributions from Nori Aoki.  Lincecum picked up his 5th win of the season, benefiting from an outrageous bat-around, 7-run 6th inning. 

Tim Lincecum's performance was far from spectacular (5 

Innings, 5 hits, 4 runs, 3 walks, 4 strikeouts) and the noteworthy aspect of this win was probably not his favorite.  Until tonight, aggressive hitters had only claimed one home run in the 47 innings pitched since opening day, and tonight in 4 innings they bagged three; fortunately these were inconsequential.  Is it just the odds catching up with Tim, or a trend to be worried about? Only time will tell.

Game quirks:

Khris Davis was almost denied a home run due to celebrating with a "skip-step" which may have caused him to miss contact with home plate. The replay group in New York disagreed, but ultimately the home run didn't matter.  Curious. 

Nori Aoki had a  splendidly productive 4-4 game, inspired no doubt by my wife's recitations of the "Aoki Fight Song," which also made a guest appearance in Freshman English last week as an example of Japanese poetry in pop culture.  "Take your chances/Hit! Hit! Aoki!" Worked every time.  This same chipper cheerleader is ghost authoring today's Tim post, as our usual author is driving through our Golden State's parched Central Valley, partially dictating and musing about the game.

 All in all, a memorable Memorial Day victory.