Documenting the Rich History of One of the Senior Circuits Most Storied Franchises
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SAN FRANCISCO — Short, quick, and enjoyable for the San Francisco Giants and its fans. It was a classic pitcher’s duel as divisional foes met at AT&T Park for the finale of a four-game series between the San Diego Padres and San Francisco Giants.
Giants’ starter, Barry Zito, continues to improve with each start. Since his return from the disabled list in mid-April, Zito has dominated his opponents. He has pitched 21-innings in which he has allowed only 13-hits and just a total of 3-runs.
But, Thursday’s game against the Padres really proved a testament to his recent success since being activated. His toughest outing has been against the Detroit Tigers where he only lasted six-innings, but did not allow a run. However, against the Padres, fans got to witness that Zito still can pitch in games that go down to the wire.
In Thursday’s game, Zito fanned seven batters over eight-innings. He allowed only four-hits and his only mistake was a pitch to Ryan Ludwick in the seventh that ended up in the left-field bleachers to cut the Giants lead in half. But in the end it would not matter in the long run as Giants closer, Brian Wilson entered the ninth and recorded his 25th-save and preserved Zito’s third straight victory. Going forward, Zito may be the fourth starter the Giants will need and use if they are to win the division.
Cory Luebke of San Diego however was not as dominant. He was able to strikeout eight Giants, but it came with two-earned runs and an exit in the sixth.
San Francisco’s, Eli Whiteside, got a piece of Luebke, sending a leadoff homerun in the third to the fans in the left-field stands.
In the sixth, Miguel Tejada got on with a one-out double, later advancing to third on Pablo Sandoval’s single. Another single by Pat Burrell brought home Tejada for a 2-0 lead, which would later turn out to be the game winner as the Padres would homer the very next inning.
But at the end of the night, this game was decided by the pitchers. After the Ludwick homerun, neither team got a base-hit; 14-batters retired.
Since his return from the disabled list, Zito has dropped his ERA from 6.23 on April 16th, to 3.18 after his eight-inning victory over the Padres this past Thursday.
DETROIT — The Detroit Tigers scored five unanswered runs as they overcame a 3-1 deficit to defeat the defending champion, San Francisco Giants in their final Interleague game of the season. Magglio Ordonez’s two-RBI single in the seventh with two-outs ensured a Tigers win, 6-3.
San Francisco is sending four pitchers to Phoenix for the 82nd All-Star Game. One of the four, Ryan Vogelsong, started for the Giants Sunday afternoon in Detroit, but the bullpen let the game slip away in the final innings.
Vogelsong went 6 2/3 innings, getting the first two Tigers in the seventh to fly out, but a walk issued to Brandon Inge ended Vogelsong’s day. The All-Star did not impress much on the score sheet, allowing three-runs on four-hits with just five strikeouts.
The Tigers also are sending four of their own to Arizona, which includes one of the best starters in the game this season, Justin Verlander, and whom is much deserving of starting for the American League in Phoenix.
However, on this affair, it was Rick Porcello who got the nod for the Tigers and earned his seventh win of the season. Porcello pitched seven-innings, striking out six, while surrendering three-runs on five-hits.
San Francisco got first blood, scoring in the fourth on Brandon Crawford’s RBI-groundout. Aubrey Huff walked to start the inning, advancing to third on Cody Ross’s groundball that was deflected by the Tigers shortstop, Ramon Santiago, allowing play to continue. Crawford brought Huff home following a Nate Schierholtz strikeout.
But the Tigers answered immediately in the bottom half as Brennan Boesch sent a solo homerun to tie the game at 1-all.
In the fifth, Porcello hit the Giants, Emmanuel Burriss, and surrendered a double to Pablo Sandoval which advanced Burriss to third. Porcello then threw a wild pitch with Huff at-bat to give the lead right back to the Giants. San Francisco increased their lead further as Sandoval scored their third run of the day from third on Ross’s grounder to left.
The Tigers though put up another run of their own in the sixth as Miguel Cabrera singled home Boesch who had doubled earlier in the inning; the Tigers still trailed 3-2.
In the seventh and eighth, the Tigers were able to jump out a head of the Giants as the Giants bullpen could not contain Detroit.
After the Giants were able to record the first two-outs in the seventh, Inge and Jhonny Peralta were each issued a walk, and Boesch kept the inning alive by reaching first on a throwing error by the Giants Miguel Tejada. Ordonez was due up next and singled to drive in two-runs to give the Tigers their first lead of the afternoon, 4-3.
Things were not getting much better for San Francisco in the eighth as the pitching woes continued. Again, the Tigers had two base-runners reach because of walks, and additional poor pitching prevented the Giants from escaping when they had two-outs in the inning.
Before anything further could be done, Inge tripled to drive in two more runs for the Tigers, who now led 6-3 and closed out the ninth for a victory that places them ½ game behind the division leading Cleveland Indians.
SAN FRANCISCO — It appears that the time off from his last start that the Giants starter, Madison Bumgarner would be well rested going into Sunday’s contest against the Cleveland Indians. Bumgarner bounced back from his previous start in which he allowed eight-runs while just recording one-out before being yanked.
Sunday evening Bumgarner showed that he had no intention of repeating that feat, striking out a career-high eleven over seven-innings. The thrilling victory for San Francisco dropped the Indians a game behind the division leading Detroit Tigers.
Sunday’s finale was the most distanced affair, with the previous two games resulting in one-run wins for the Giants; Sunday’s was a two-run win.
Cleveland sent out their starter, Fausto Carmona, who struggled with his command all day long and was never given any sort of run support. Seven Giants got on base with hits while three more reached as a result of walks issued by Carmona.
In the second-inning, Cody Ross and Bill Hall both singled and with two-outs Chris Stewart doubled to right-field to bring both base-runners home for an early 2-0 lead. Aubrey Huff’s RBI-single in the third scored Pablo Sandoval which now increased San Francisco lead at 3-0.
It took Cleveland 20-innings to score a run against the Giants as Saturday’s shutout continued the drought. The lone run came on Asdrubal Cabrera’s RBI-groundout.
That would be all the runs recorded in Sunday’s 3-1 win for San Francisco, which also gave San Francisco the sweep over Cleveland in their Interleague weekend matchup.
The Giants will rest Monday before traveling to Chicago for a four-game series at Wrigley. Cleveland however, will open up a series in Phoenix to take on the pestering Arizona Diamondbacks.
OAKLAND — The rematch of the cross-bay rivals resumed Friday evening as the Oakland Athletics were hosts to the San Francisco Giants. The last time these two teams met in May, San Francisco swept Oakland in their weekend series. Oakland however, began their revenge with a 5-2 victory last night.
The victory came as a great surprise as Oakland stands last in their division while San Francisco sits atop in the NL West at the moment. But, the other shocker to last nights game was the Giants starter who suffered the loss.
The Giants Tim Lincecum had a polar opposite start Friday evening as compared to his nine-inning shutout in which he allowed just three-hits during the first series. Last night, Lincecum went just six-innings, allowing three-runs in his first career loss to the Oakland Athletics.
Oakland struck first on Conor Jackson’s RBI-single in the opening frame to grab a quick 1-0 lead. However, that was counterbalanced the very next inning in the second as Cody Ross’s solo-homerun tied the game at 1-all.
In the bottom-half of the third, the Athletics opened up the game further to their advantage as they scored two additional runs for a 3-1 lead. Josh Willingham came up big this inning, doubling home Hideki Matsui from first. He then made an attempt to steal third which worked to his and the Athletics favor. Giants catcher, Chris Stewart, air-mailed the throw to third into left-field, allowing Willingham to trot in.
San Francisco added another run in the sixth with Bill Hall scoring from second on a fielding error by Oakland shortstop, Cliff Pennington, but that would be the last run the Giants would score.
The real hero(s) in last nights Athletics victory was Oakland’s pitching. Graham Godfrey started his second major league game as he allowed two-runs on six-hits over seven strong innings to earn his first major league win.
Oakland’s bullpen was just as impressive, pitching two perfect innings when it mattes the most against an arch-rival. The series continues tonight with Jonathan Sanchez ready to take the mound for game two.
SAN FRANCISCO — The Good and The Bad both occurred Friday evening at AT&T Park during the San Francisco Giants victory over the Cincinnati Reds. San Francisco yet again had another last-at-bat walk-off win; their ninth this season. But the bad news occurring from this game was the injury suffered by second-baseman Freddy Sanchez in the fifth-inning.
In the fifth, the Reds Brandon Phillips hit a sharp grounder up the middle that Sanchez was able to knock down on a diving play, but in the process of the dive, dislocated his right shoulder. Sanchez would have to exit the game with Manny Buriss taking over duties at second. Further tests will be completed Saturday with an MRI scheduled to take place and Sanchez already being placed on the 15-day disabled list.
With Buster Posey already out for the remainder of the season, an injury to Sanchez is the last thing the defending world champs need in mid-June.
Trailing 1-0 after a Cody Ross RBI-single in the first, the Reds got a pair of solo runs in the fourth and fifth to grab a quick 2-1 lead over San Francisco.
Reds third-baseman, Scott Rolen, smacked a triple to Ross in right and scored the tying run on Ryan Hanigan’s grounder to Ross too. In the fifth, Brandon Phillips reached first due to the Sanchez injury. A walk to Joey Votto and a line drive single by Jay Bruce advanced Phillips to third which loaded the bases.
With one-out, Chris Heisey was hand-cuffed on a pitch from Giants starter, Ryan Vogelsong, but hit it hard enough to first baseman Aubrey Huff to drive home Phillips and give Cincinnati the lead.
However, San Francisco responded immediately in the bottom-half of the inning to tie the game at 2-all. Chris Stewart singled and advanced to second on Vogelsong’s sacrifice-bunt. Miguel Tejada’s double to left both scored Stewart and tied the game, preventing a loss for Vogelsong at the moment.
Despite throwing 100+ pitches over six-innings, Vogelsong’s performance was effective to maintain his 1.81 ERA. As for Reds starter, Travis Wood, his eight strong innings were not enough as he probably should have gone the distance and pitched in the ninth too.
The Reds bullpen was able to get within an out away from sending the game into extras, but in the process of recording those two-outs, three Giants were walked to load the bases for pinch-hitter Nate Schierholtz. And Schierholtz continued the Giants late-inning heroics with a walk-off single that went past Rolen’s outstretched glove for San Francisco’s 3-2 victory.
ST. LOUIS — Where’s Kanye when you need him?
After a sixteen-minute stadium delay due to a pair of light towers going out in the eleventh, a frustrated Brian Wilson in dugout returned to throw one pitch for the final out of the game.
San Francisco fell behind early and for the rest of the night would be playing catch-up till the eleventh when the Giants finally went out in front.
Even starter Tim Lincecum could not shutdown St. Louis’s high-powered offense. Lincecum pitched 6 2/3 innings allowing five-runs on ten-hits; definitely one his least productive outings up till now.
Daniel Descalso led-off the St. Louis third with a single, advancing to second-base on a sacrifice bunt from Jake Westbrook. Ryan Theriot’s RBI-single that followed gave the Cardinals the first run of the night. In the fourth, Colby Rasmus was busy; hitting a single, stealing second, advancing to third on Yadier Molina’s single and scoring on a groundball up the middle off the bat of Skip Schumaker allowing Molina to take third-base standing up with the deflection off an infielder’s glove.
Even when something good on the stat sheet showed up for Lincecum, something bad happened on the exact same play too. Descalso struck-out swinging to a ball ruled a wild-pitch, scoring Molina for the Cardinals 3-0 lead.
In the sixth though, the Giants were able to quickly add some runs, tying the score at 3-all. Nate Schierholtz lead-off single was awarded a trip to the rest of the bases on Cody Ross’s double. Ross moved to third on a single by Brandon Crawford who took second on a wild pitch by Jake Westbrook. Eli Whiteside’s sacfrice fly to the outfield was deep enough to advance both runners; scoring Ross as Crawford headed to third. Finally, a two-out RBI-double by Andres Torres tied things up at 3-3.
The Giants quickly grabbed the lead in the seventh, but St. Louis scored two in their half of the inning to reclaim the lead, forcing the Giants to rally once again. San Francisco was able to overcome the one-run deficit as they tied the game in the ninth, sending it to extras.
It was in the eleventh that San Francisco took hold of the lead and was able to maintain it despite the lights forcing an in game timeout for several minutes.
RBI-singles by Schierholtz and Crawford gave the Giants a comfortable two-run lead to hand it over to their closer.
Wilson must like drama because he allowed Molina to reach on a single, but got Schumaker to ground into the twin-killing. He also allowed Descalso to get aboard for a two-out single.
After it was apparent the game would be delayed, Wilson could be seen in the Giants’ dugout getting a drink and whipping his cup to the ground in a clear form of frustration over the delay.
Nonetheless, no one will ever know how much Wilson’s game was thrown off due to the light delay as the very next pitch he threw was a groundout that ended the game for a Giants victory.
According to an Associated Press article on ESPN, (sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=6605589), Buster Posey is out for the season after surgery was needed to repair three ligaments in his ankle. This is devastating for the Giants organization and hopefully San Francisco can maintain their lead and Posey can bounce back from this injury with intense physical therapy during the off-season and be ready for Spring Training 2012.
MILWAUKEE — Welcome to Major League Baseball Brandon Crawford!
With the San Francisco Giants trailing the Milwaukee Brewers 3-1 entering the seventh inning, the momentum of the game was completely altered by the Giants next four batters. Aubrey Huff, Nate Schierholtz, and Miguel Tejada all reached base safely with no outs to load the bases for the new kid on the block, Brandon Crawford.
The kid from Mountain View, California did not disappoint his teammates nor Giants fans, but in the process probably annoyed a fair amount of Brewers fans. Not only was it his first game in the majors but also a night he will never soon forget.
Prior to the seventh, Crawford had already lined-out and grounded into a double-play. But in the seventh, he would not only give the Giants lead but also join a select few with his first major league hit.
Brandon Crawford is now the sixth player in Major League history to hit a grand slam in his first game, and the second Giant added to this rare list, joining none other than Bobby Bonds who went deep June 25, 1968.
Brewers starter, Shaun Marcum, was already struggling prior to Crawford’s at-bat as he had already allowed the Giants first three batters of the inning to reach base. He did not get much of a chance to get Crawford out as he sent the first pitch Marcum threw to him in the seventh into the Giants bullpen in right-center for a 5-3 lead, and preserve a win for Tim Lincecum.
Milwaukee grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the third off Rickie Weeks two-run homerun, and in the fifth, Weeks added another RBI on a fielder’s choice allowing Nyjer Morgan to score.
In the bottom of the eighth though with back-to-back Brewers strikeouts the game looked unattainable, but, the heart of the Brewers lineup prevailed as Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder were both issued walks and Casey McGehee followed with a single to load the bases for a late-inning rally.
And for a few seconds, it seemed that this game might reach extras as Jonathan Lucroy singled to left, scoring Braun with Fielder running right behind him. Again though, in too short a time frame, Giants players and fans would have their heart skip a beat as another home-plate collision occurred. This time, Eli Whiteside having plenty of time to position himself for the tag of Fielder resulted in no damage done thanks to a perfect throw from Ross.
Brian Wilson, the Giants closer, had another effective ninth, facing just four batters for his 14th-save and a Giants victory as they look to continue winning without their star catcher, Buster Posey.
My apologizes for not putting up news immediately after the collision between Posey and the Florida Marlins, Scott Cousins. But here’s an ESPN link for those interested about the severity of the injury. Posey season over.
SAN FRANCISCO — Interleague Play began this weekend with a majority of MLB teams taking on their arch-rivals; the Oakland Athletics visited the San Francisco Giants in a three-game series. Upon a Giants walk-off single in extras, the Giants were able to complete a sweep of their cross-bay rival.
Emmanuel Burriss’s RBI-single in the eleventh ensured a sweep of Oakland, who has now dropped their fifth straight, as Darren Ford scored from second giving the Giants a 5-4 win.
San Francisco sent south-paw Jonathan Sanchez to the mound in the finale. He surrendered one-run on five-hits over six-innings. On the other side, Athletics starter, Gio Gonzalez, struck-out eight over 6 2/3 innings and allowed two-runs.
Oakland seemed deemed early for a loss with Gonzalez’s third pitch hitting Andres Torres to start the bottom of the first. Torres proceeded to score on Freddy Sanchez’s double to left field for an early 1-0 lead.
San Francisco would add another solo-run in the third off an error by Athletics third-basemen, Andy LaRoche. With Buster Posey at third reaching on a single and advancing to third on Pat Burrell’s double, the Giants scored their second run of the day. Cody Ross’s hit was misplayed by LaRoche, allowing both Ross to reach first and Posey to cross home for a 2-0 lead.
However, those two-runs did not put Oakland away as they briefly grabbed a hold of the lead. Josh Willingham cut the Giants lead in half with his seventh home-run of 2011 to straight-away center. In the seventh, the Athletics scored two more runs to grab a 3-2 lead.
Cliff Pennington led-off the seventh with a single and took second on a sacrifice bunt from Gonzalez. Coco Crisp then doubled to bring home Pennington for the tie, and immediately following Crisp, Daric Barton’s RBI-single gave the Athletics their first lead of the day with Crisp scoring from second.
In the eighth, Hideki Matsui’s sacrifice fly increased the Athletics lead further, which now sat at 4-2, but, that was short-lived. In the bottom of the inning, the Giants deficit vanished with the swing of a bat. Nate Schierholtz two-run homerun over the right-field wall tied the game and sent the fans into a frenzy.
Going into extras, the Giants took advantage of last-at-bat, scoring the game-winning run and completing the sweep of Oakland off Emmanuel Burriss’s RBI-single.
CHICAGO — The Friendly Confines had a surprise guest Saturday evening during the San Francisco Giants and Chicago Cubs game. The wonderful mother nature made an appearance and as a gesture of respect, the game was official after six-innings.
After the stingy Giants pitching staff gave up eleven-runs to the Cubs Friday afternoon, the Giants sent Ryan Vogelsong to prevent another blow-out. He did just that in first career shut-out despite it being a shortened affair, but, I am sure he will take what he can get.
Vogelsong went six-innings as the Cubs got to him for seven-hits, all being singles as the Cubs continue to come up short on turning hits into runs. He also managed to strikeout seven Cubbies and decline his ERA further which now sits at 2.36.
Vogel song entered the game relaxed with one-run lead to work with. Freddy Sanchez cracked a one-out double over right fielder Kosuke Fukudome. After an Aubrey Huff strikeout, Buster Posey hit an RBI-single into left scoring Sanchez for the Giants early 1-0 lead.
Mother nature did not help on the defensive-end either as the Giants and Cubs both complied for a total of five errors. Two Cubs errors in the third however led to two Giants runs.
Vogelsong led-off the third with single and Aaron Rowand followed with a double to right giving the Giants a huge threat with runners in scoring position and no outs. Quickly though, it seemed as if the threat would be put away on consecutive infield outs. But, a walk to Posey loaded the bases.
With the bases load, Cody Ross was next for San Francisco and reached first on a throwing error by catcher Koyie Hill scoring Vogelsong. Pat Burrell also reached first safely on back-to-back errors by the Cubs resulting in another Giants run and 3-0 lead.
The rubber-match between the Giants and Cubs will have to wait as mother nature decided to spoil the fun again and postpone Sunday’s matinee. The Giants will now travel to Colorado for a three-game series with the Rockies. 2010’s dominant pitchers will square off as Tim Lincecum goes up against the struggling Ubaldo Jimenez Monday night a Coors Field.
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