Results tagged ‘ Bruce Bochy ’
Looking Forward [to the NLCS] and Looking Back [to the NLDS]
Once again, I’ve been terrible about not blogging during the most crucial time in the baseball season, especially considering my team is still in it.
I guess after watching both champagne showers on TV, hearing more Lincecum f-bombs and going to both NLDS home games for the San Francisco Giants, it still hasn’t completely sunk in that my team is in the postseason, let alone in the National League Championship Series.
Before I move on to the Phillies and the much-anticipated Lincecum-Halladay (The Freak vs. The Doc) matchup this Saturday, I figure I should talk about the National League Division Series with the Atlanta Braves.
To preface, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend both these games with my older brother Ryan (see previous entries with the “For the Love of the Game” column link), and I know it was an experience that neither of us will soon forget. On the train ride over to the ballpark, my brother realized that he hadn’t been to a Giants playoff game since the 1989 earthquake World Series game, and I meanwhile had never been to one.
I could not have asked for a better atmosphere; there’s no way I can eloquently encapsulate it all. Instead I remember it all in little bits and pieces: the sea of orange towels waving; how when our PA announcer Renel Brooks-Moon said “Your 2010 National League West Division Championship San Francisco Giants” it finally sunk in with me that my team was in the playoffs; and of course, the strikeouts. I remember how often my brother and I turned to each other and high-fived, me standing on my toes to reach his outstretched palm and saying, “Oh my God!” and “Can you believe this?!” over and over.
This is my favorite scene from the night (besides the end of the game, of course): Tim Lincecum completely shutting it down in the 8th inning before coming off the field to “Dynamite,” playing in the background. At over 100 pitches for the night and with Bruce Bochy’s typically conservative managing style, I figured this game was now in the hands of The Cardiac Kid himself, Brian Wilson. But Timmy is The Freak, after all, and so he came trotting out of the dugout in the middle of the ninth to a collective standing ovation, rally rag-waving, screaming crowd and, of course, shut the Braves down one more time to end it. 9 innings, no runs, 14 strikeouts. At the last out I turned to my brother and hugged him, knocking my cap off in my exuberance. Later we would both say it was the best-pitched game we had ever seen in person, and definitely one of the best games we’d each ever been to.
I left AT&T Park that night with a scratchy throat and an unquenchable excitement for the next game.
Then came Game 2, and little did I know that I would be leaving 24 Willie Mays Plaza that night with the complete opposite feeling as I did after Game 1.
It started off well enough; Matt Cain had a good first inning, and then Pat “The Bat” Burrell hit a three-run homer into the left field bleachers to give us an early lead. I was screaming my head off again and waving my pom-pom (by the way: rally rags > rally pom-poms) and shouting, “Po-sey’s be-tter!” at the top of my lungs every time Jason Heyward came to bat. I had that, “What could possibly go wrong?” feeling, and of course whenever that happens Murphy’s Law pretty much dictates that something will go wrong.
Matt Cain was his usual workhorse self and pitched well enough to win (see <a href="'http://www.facebook.com/v/484205710738‘>this video of him leaving to a standing ovation–not great because I took it with my iPhone, FYI), and who could’ve expected the complete collapse of our set-up guy Sergio Romo and our closer Brian Wilson? And then for our potential Rookie of the Year Buster Posey to come up with 1 out and the bases loaded and hit into a double play?! It was just unfathomable, and I knew when we didn’t win it there that we wouldn’t recover. Call me negative if you want, but I was just being realistic, and I just didn’t feel that we would come back after that. And when Troy Glaus hit that towering home run into McCovey Cove…well, that cinched it right there.
Leaving that ballpark after the final out of Game 2…wow. I had never felt so dejected over Giants baseball before. The last time I remember having that pit-in-my-stomach, knocked-out feeling was the walk-off grand slam game in Colorado last year, and before that it was probably the Steve Finley grand slam game in 2004 (notice a pattern here with the grand slams?). I couldn’t help but feel like that would be the last time I walked out of AT&T Park for the 2010 season, and I would bet that many of the 44,000+ Giants fans leaving the ballpark that night felt the same way.
I was really grateful to my brother, though, for being optimistic and talking me out of my little bout of misery after that game. Usually I’m aware of the fact that baseball, of course, isn’t everything, even though it is a significant part of my life; however after that loss I couldn’t help but feel totally dejected. My brother helped me keep the faith in the orange and black, though and made me remember that the best part of coming to these games, win or lose, was to share this experience with him. Now, sitting here in Santa Cruz on a warm Thursday afternoon a few days after my Giants won Game 4 to move on to the NLCS, I couldn’t be happier that I’ll get another chance to wave my rally rag and scream my lungs out for my home team with my older brother–and my mom as well this time–by my side.
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…so now it’s time to turn our attention to the National League Championship Series. I’m definitely weary of having to face the Phillies (actually, weary is an understatement; I’m pretty concerned), but I feel like our pitching staff can definitely match up against theirs. Our offense? Well, that I’m not so sure about. We were lucky with several of the runs we got against the Braves in that series; the first and last games were all about errors and a couple crucial missed calls by the umpires that went our way (aka Buster Posey sliding into second in Game 1 and how he was called safe when replays showed he was out). We can’t depend on those kinds of gift plays against this well-oiled Philadelphia machine, who has proven themselves time and time again these past few years in the postseason. Our pitching staff and defense has to be near-perfect and we can’t strand runners in the few RISP situations I expect we’ll get.
I don’t want to get my expectations too high; I’m definitely not invisioning the parade down Market Street already or anything like that. But I feel like my team, which has been labeled this chippy, lucky-to-be-here underdog by so much of the national media, has a legitimate shot against the Fightin’ Phils.
Here’s looking forward to Saturday and what I hope will be a great series for the world to watch.
Red in the Face
Well, I was right–sort of.
The Giants were unable to take the series from the visiting Boston Red Sox, who made AT&T Park Fenway West this weekend. But in no way did I expect them to win Friday night, then lose the rubber match with Lincecum on the mound.
My concern for the athlete that I jokingly call the love of my life has definitely heightened with each bad start this season, and after today it’s pretty much reached its peak. Apparently he is not hurt, but at least if he were that would give him–and us fans–an explanation for his poor outings this season.
Some say that Lincecum just isn’t a power pitcher anymore and he’ll never get his velocity back; that he’s slowly becoming just an average, run-of-the-mill thrower. Others are saying chill out, Lincecum was facing one of the best offenses in all of baseball and this isn’t shocking; he’ll bounce back. And some are saying Lincecum just isn’t smoking enough dope anymore, a la the “let Barry surf” chants that echoed around the airwaves when Zito wasn’t pitching well.
I would like to side with the ”relax, he was facing a great lineup” argument, but I know that Timmy would’ve torn up the BoSox, Big Papi or not in his Cy Young years of ’08 and ’09. He still isn’t doing horribly for himself; he’s got an 8-3 record, an ERA still hovering around 3.00 and close to 120 K’s. But his erraticness at times definitely presents cause for concern and makes you think that this isn’t the same Freak we’ve come to know and love since May 2007.
On a related note, I was listening to the local sports radio station KNBR tonight, and the later host asked callers the question, “Should Lincecum be in the All-Star game?” If someone had told me before the season started that this would be a contested question in June, I would be pretty surprised. I still think that Lincecum definitely deserves to make the team, if not for this season’s performance than at the very least for his moniker of being the two-time reigning Cy Young winner. While I’d be bummed if he didn’t, I could understand the argument that this’d be beneficial for helping him have a break and work out any kinks he might have mentally or physically. I have a feeling he’ll make the team, though, especially with Bruce Bochy as one of the managers.
All right. Time to ditch interleague play for 2010 and go beat LA (hopefully).
See all you Dodger haters at the ballpark tomorrow night.
2010 Season Preview
“It’s one thing to follow the team from afar, running a finger down the television schedule, checking the score on the radio, setting timers and recordings, reading newspapers. But here beneath the red marquee, the huge expanse of Wrigley Field beating down on her, she’s reminded of what it is to miss something. She hadn’t realized how much a part of her this was: the bleacher seats and the press boxes, the men selling T-shirts and hot dogs and beer.”–from The Comeback Season by Jennifer E. Smith
You know that scene in Fever Pitch where Jimmy Fallon gets his Red Sox season tickets in the mail in March, when he hugs the UPS delivery man and runs inside to open them with his friends? When they breathe in the smell of the tickets and smile wanly at the thought of a new season, a clean slate, a redeemed sense of hope?
Well that’s pretty much how I feel right now. It seems like just last week when I was getting psyched about pitchers and catchers reporting to Scottsdale, and now they’re packing up and heading back to San Francisco for the start of the season.
There’s no way I can eloquently articulate how excited I am about the start of the season. I get this way every year, even if I don’t have high expectations for the Giants; it really is just great to have them back. It feels like a friend who moved away has come back to town for the summer and you get to see them again and reminisce about the old times and create some new memories. As corny as that sounds, that’s how Opening Day feels to me; it’s the return of an old friend whose presence you didn’t realize you took for granted until they were already gone.
But anyway, enough of my attempts to wax poetic. I love baseball, you love baseball. If you’re reading this blog, you may very well love the San Francisco Giants like I do (if not, that’s okay too; you’re welcome into the fold). So the following is going to be as much of an non-bias offseason-in-review/season preview of the Giants as I can muster. I’ll try not to ramble too much, but knowing me I probably will…anyway, let me know whatcha think of my musings!
OFFSEASON IN REVIEW
Key Additions: Mark DeRosa, Aubrey Huff, Bengie Molina, Juan Uribe, Todd Wellemeyer
Key Subtractions: Brad Penny (?) <–I’m really reaching on this one; can’t say there was really a key subtraction unless I’m totally forgetting someone
Best Move: Resigning Bengie Molina (1 yr, $4.25 million); avoiding arbitration with Tim Lincecum (2 yrs, $23 million)
Worst Move: Giving Freddy Sanchez a 2 yr, $12 million deal (although at this point it’s a little early to say if this was a bad move)
KEYS TO THE SEASON (IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)
1. Can the starting pitching continue to be this stellar?
I know off the bat this probably sounds like a stupid question. I mean, it’s not like we’re the Los Angeles Dodgers whose best pitcher is, according to Joe Torre, Vicente Padilla. We’ve got two-time reigning Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum leading this staff, and he only makes up half of the one-two punch that is him and Matt Cain. Jonathan Sanchez and Barry Zito are a little iffier, but both left Giants fans feeling somewhat hopeful at the end of last season, and Todd Wellemeyer looked really good in spring training (which doesn’t necessarily count for anything, but it’s still something). But my point is that for the Giants to go anywhere this season, their pitching staff as a whole needs to pretty much do just as well as last year; we can’t afford for them not to uphold their dominance. The starting pitching carried this team last year, and even with some offensive upgrades and the resigning of Bengie Molina it’ll still be up to the five guys in the rotation to carry this team. That would mean Lincecum and Cain would have to have a great season again, Zito and Sanchez would need to step up and we’d need to get as much production as possible out of the fifth spot in the rotation. Do I think they can do it? Yes. But I don’t like having to put it all on them.
2. How much of a hinderance will the defense be?
A lot has been said this offseason and spring training about the Giants’ defense, or possible lack thereof this year. Let’s face it: Aubrey Huff is no J.T Snow at first base, and no one can live up to Omar Vizquel at shortstop (although Omar Vizquel is pretty much a magician as a shortstop, so it’s hard to compare anyone to him, really). Edgar Renteria doesn’t have much range anymore, Aubrey Huff has never been known for his glove and can’t DH anymore, so he’ll have to get better as a defensive first baseman or risk getting pulled in the middle of a game for Travis Ishikawa. Freddy Sanchez is hurt for the next month, so Uribe will be manning second and can do a decent job defensively there. The Panda’s got third covered pretty well, but then you’ve got Mark DeRosa in the outfield which he’s not used to. Really the best guy in the starting lineup defensively on the Giants is Nate Schierholz, and he might be replaced by John Bowker in right field for Opening Day. The defense could be some cause for concern, as the pitching staff needs to be able to rely on a good infield and outfield around them to turn those double plays quickly and make some tough catches in the San Francisco fog. Otherwise it could end up costing them runs, and with the offense still not entirely proven they can’t afford to give up many runs each game because of simple defensive miscues.
3. The great catcher debate
Giants fans seemed pretty split when news broke that Bengie Molina would be a Giant this year, after all; either they supported the return of Bengie to give Buster Posey more time to develop or they disliked it because they felt like Posey was ready to go. As I said during the offseason, I supported Bengie’s return because I don’t feel like Posey has really proven himself at the Major League level and could use some more mentoring instead of being given the starting job right away on Opening Day. Bengie has been the most valuable Giant for the past couple years both for his offensive power and the way he handles our pitching staff, and while I think Buster Posey could replace Molina offensively, I think he could use more time to get used to catching the various pitchers on this staff before being thrust into the starting role. That being said, I think Posey should be kept on the 40-man roster upon leaving Scottsdale because he has hit well in spring training and would be a good-back up both as catcher and at first base if need be. He could be catcher when Bengie needs a day off or come in as an in-game replacement or pinch hitter. If they decide to send Posey back to the minors for now, I wouldn’t gripe too much at the coaching staff for that decision; however I would hope that he’d be called back up soon.
It’ll be interesting to see how this catcher story plays out this season. Bengie Molina knows his replacement is already waiting in the wings and that he’ll be expected to mentor him, and if Posey shows he’s capable of being a starter at the pro level then it’ll definitely put pressure on the coaching staff and management to give him playing time, perhaps over Molina depending on how far we are through the season and how we’re doing.
4. Will the veterans step up to the plate?
One of the main complaints from Giants fans over the past few years is that Brian Sabean has signed too many veterans past their prime. He brought veterans onto the team to build around Barry Bonds, but that didn’t really work out and we were still stuck with some of them after he left. And although the team has definitely brought up some young players who have turned out to be good hitters (a la Pablo Sandoval), the offense is still pretty dependent upon the success of older players like Aaron Rowand, Edgar Renteria, Freddy Sanchez and Bengie Molina. Now Aubrey Huff and Mark DeRosa can be added to that list, and the pressure’s especially going to be on them to perform since they were signed this offseason to be offensive upgrades. There are reasons to be hesitant about how well all of these players will do; DeRosa is coming off wrist surgery, Huff is joining the National League for the first time and will be in a winning environment for the first time in his career and Edgar Renteria and Aaron Rowand did not meet expectations with the bat last season. There are some signs of hope, however; for example, Rowand hit well in spring and showed up to Scottsdale a lot slimmer and more fit. It looks like Bochy is going to plug him in at the leadoff spot for now, which is where he had a decent amount of success in ’09. Besides that Aubrey Huff has also been hitting well in spring training, and Renteria and DeRosa both have spring training averages hovering around .280. Again, I know you can’t take spring training into account too heavily, but it’s at least a good sign that some of the veterans look like they’ll be making offensive improvements on last season, as pretty much all of them (excluding Molina) need to have [much] better years in order for the Giants to have a somewhat threatening lineup.
5. Sanchez vs. Sanchez
I’ve heard some local media guys say that thiscoming season really depends on Freddy Sanchez and Jonathan Sanchez, and I think that’s definitely true. We gave up one of our top prospects to get Freddy Sanchez midway through last season, and he didn’t really have an impact last year due to injury. Now he’s banged up again (which the Giants organization kept hush-hush for about a month, possibly to get a better deal with Juan Uribe as Andrew Baggarly with the San Jose Mercury news implied) and will miss the first month of the season. Needless to say, he will need to bounce back and start helping the team with his bat pretty quickly upon coming off the DL.
When it comes to Jonathan Sanchez, he showed promise at several points during 2009, most memorably of course with his no-hitter in July. At the same time, however it still seems like whenever he gets into a difficult situation he can’t dig his way out of it; his first time through the lineup is great, but by the fifth or sixth inning he starts to come undone and then falls apart altogether. It’s time for Sanchez to become a more consistent pitcher and add to this starting rotation’s prowess, and if he can do that this year could be a breakout one for him.
OVER OR UNDER? LAST YEAR’S STATS VS. THE YEAR TO COME
1. Bengie Molina home run total in 2009: 20
This year: Under
Why: Bengie Molina isn’t getting any younger, and with a catcher waiting in the wings in Buster Posey, Molina may get more days off to rest his legs in favor of giving Posey a chance to start, especially if Buster does make the 40-man roster and his great spring training can carry over to San Francisco.
2. Tim Lincecum’s strikeout total in 2009: 261
This year: Under
Why: It’s hard to come up with an argument against Tim Lincecum being just as good as last year. And while I do think he’ll have fewer strikeouts than last season, I don’t think it’ll necessarily be significantly less. My reasoning for why take the under? Just that he has another season of wear on his arm and that his velocity was down in spring training, which may mean his stuff might not be as entirely dominant as 2009. I hope I’m wrong, of course; I didn’t think he could win another Cy Young last year and he did, so I definitely could be mistaken.
3. Fred Lewis’ strikeout total in 2009: 84 (in 295 AB’s)
This year: Under
Why: I only say under because a. I think he’ll get less playing time this year and b. I don’t think he’ll be a San Francisco Giant much longer, if he even is at all going into the start of the season. Time to bid farewell to the man KNBR’s Damon Bruce appropriately refers to as “K-Fred.”
4. Barry Zito’s win total in 2009: 10
This year: Over
Why: I’m not sure if this is based on a lot of concrete evidence; I think it’s more of a “gotta have faith” situation. But if you want some concrete stats, 2009 backs up my belief that this season could be the best one he’s had in a Giants uniform so far (which I know isn’t saying much, but still). If you compare 2009 to 2008, he cut his ERA down dramatically (from 5.15 to 4.03), his earned runs (103 to 86) and his opponents’ batting average (.270 to .250). So here’s hoping Zito can pitch better and have better run support behind him this year so he can get past the 10-win mark that he’s been stuck at the past two seasons.
5. Jonathan Sanchez’s win total in 2009: 8
This year: Over
Why: We all know that Jonathan Sanchez has good stuff and is capable of being a great pitcher. We’ve seen glimmers of it before with his improbable no-hitter last season as the primary example; his problem has just been a matter of keeping everything under control and not letting the game unravel if someone gets a hit or walk against him. I think this year will be the one where Sanchez really steps up, though. He’s appeared really confident in spring training, according to local media guys who’ve been in Scottsdale; he knows he has a good arm with some power that could wreak havoc on hitters. Now’s his time to put it all together and show that he can be a mainstay for this rotation for years to come, like Cain and Lincecum have proven.
6. Aaron Rowand’s batting average in 2009: .261
This year: Over
Why: I really hope I’m right on this one, because I’m putting a lot of stock into Rowand’s spring training and ignoring the fact that his stats have been trending downward for the past few years. He showed up to Scottsdale in great shape, dropping some pounds to try and become a better hitter and perhaps attempt to steal some bases. And if his spring training stats are any indication–he’s hitting .444 as opposed to .189 last year at this time, with 20 hits and 9 RBI’s in 16 games–he may be able to get back into the groove he was in as the leadoff hitter for a time with us last year, as it looks like that’s where Bochy is going to put him come Opening Day.
7. Giants’ win total in 2009: 88
This year: Over
Why: Las Vegas has the Giants’ over-under for wins in 2010 at 82.5, which to me shows one thing–numbers can lie. Like I said before, I’m trying to put aside my bias and look at this objectively, and in doing so I really, truly think the Giants will have a better season than last year. Hell, on paper they should; they didn’t have any significant losses in terms of losing players to free agency, and they only improved their offense with the additions of Mark DeRosa and Aubrey Huff. Bengie’s back, Uribe’s back and our starting rotation and bullpen look just as solid if not better than before. Theoretically if we were able to get almost ninety wins out of last year’s team and we went out and made improvements during the winter, then why shouldn’t we be able to win more games than 2009?
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…so there’s my big season preview. I just want to say in closing that I am really excited about what 2010 has in store for my Gigantes. Honestly I don’t want to get my hopes up, but after last year’s surprise push for the playoffs it’s hard not to be anticipating more of the same for this year. I’m not saying it’s time to start printing postseason tickets whatsoever, but I do think the Giants could be playing some interesting baseball come late September. For the sake of myself and all the other diehard Giants fans who haven’t sniffed the playoffs since 2003, let’s hope this is the case.
Posey Starting Tonight, Last Night’s Game and Why I’m Still Going to Follow the Giants This Season
Finally it’s Posey time.
He’s getting the start behind the dish tonight, catching Tim Lincecum as the Giants face Carlos Zembrano and the Cubs.
So after last night’s crushing loss that Bruce Bochy said was a must-win, is this a sign that the Giants are waving the white flag with nine games to go? Yes, it’s happening when Bengie’s unavailable after getting hit in the catching hand, but why is Bochy turning to Posey now after sitting him for over three weeks for Whiteside or Molina? Is this a(nother) sign that management realizes they need to start giving Posey chances because they’re thinking less and less about resigning Bengie? Guess it’s hard to say now with Molina; we’ll have to wait until the offseason for real verification on that. It’s just nice to see that Posey is getting his long-overdue first Major League start tonight.
Speaking of last night’s game, Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a pretty eloquent article on the Jeff Baker home run off Brian Wilson and how it pretty much symbolizes the sure end of the Giants’ playoff hopes in the eyes of the players and fans. He put it a lot better than I could by recapping it, so here’s a link to it:
Bruce Jenkins Article on Last Night’s Loss
So I know by now there are probably a lot of Giants fans who are questioning why they should even watch the remaining games and/or go to the ballpark besides to see a Tim Lincecum start. I can understand those sentiments, as now that it feels like the rest of the season is meaningless unless Colorado goes into a big tailspin and I feel like I don’t need to be as attached to the radio or TV following the game. But like I’ve said before after disappointing losses, I’m still going to follow the Giants for the rest of the season as much as my class schedule will allow me. It’s not so much because I have a sliver of hope left, a whisper of “Maybe, just maybe” meandering in my mind. Right now it’s more for the simple pleasure I get out of listening to my favorite team and my appreciation for baseball. The last time I went to the ballpark I made sure to take the atmosphere in more than I already do because I knew it would be my last game of the year, the last time I would see the Giants play for six months. That’s what I’m going to do the next week and a half by continuing to pay attention to the games: appreciate the little things that I love about this team and the game itself. I know it may sound kind of corny, but I love the sport of baseball irrevocably, and I know how much I’m going to miss it when it gets to be December and January and all I have left are my lackluster Golden State Warriors to follow. So I’ll continue to listen to hear Jon Miller as he describes the fog rolling into San Francisco Bay and banters with Dave Fleming. I’ll watch the games just to see my favorite players, to see the wide expanse of emerald green grass and hear the crack of the bat (insert Giants lack-of-offense joke here). I’ll watch for the Kung Fu Panda, the Franchise and Shotgun Cain (credit to Mychael Urban for the latter nickname). I’ll watch to hear Mike Krukow and Duane Kuiper pick on a fan with a ‘boiler’ in the bleachers and for an Amy Gutierrez update (kidding on the last one).
Nine more games to take in Giants baseball. However disappointingly they may finish, I will still try to take this small window of time to just appreciate the game of baseball itself, as I feel that I may overlook the little things that I love about the sport too often.
Feeling Black and (Dodger) Blue
It’s 7-1 Dodgers in the 7th inning and Bob Howry has (predictably) given up a couple runs after Merkin Valdez left with the bases loaded and nobody out.
I think it’s safe to tag this one as a loss.
Oh no, wait. 9-1 Dodgers.
Why is Bochy still using Bob Howry??? Get him off the team!!! He doesn’t contribute anything!!! He’s Tyler Walker all over again!!!
Okay, breathe.
It’s just hard to grasp what has happened to the Giants in the past couple weeks. Ever since they came off that amazing homestand where they swept the Rockies, they’ve been slowly spiraling downward, whereas it’s been the opposite with Colorado, who has been 9-1 since then.
Talk about cruel irony for the orange and black.
But while it is ironic, I wouldn’t say it was a horrible twist of fate or anything like that, because that would suggest that the Giants had a lot of bad luck. But if the Giants don’t make the Wild Card (and each day it’s looking more and more unlikely), it will be wholly their own fault.
Everyone knew going into offseason that our biggest need was hitting, yet the front office did nothing about it until the All Star Break when the Giants were unexpectedly in contention. Yes, Freddy Sanchez was a nice pick up, but what was stopping Sabean from making a move to pick up a solid hitter in the offseason? Why did he have to wait until halfway through the season? Besides not having a lot of power, this team as a whole is often terribly impatient at the plate (hence why Kuroda only had a pitch count of 62 going into the 7th inning tonight against, and it’s been well documented that they can’t play small ball through their lack of bunting skills.
Speaking of which, that reminds me of an interesting quote I heard earlier today. As I think I’ve mentioned before, this summer I’ve been working as an intern at KNBR. Today was my last day since I’ll be going back to college next weekend, and I worked a KNBR sponsored client batting practice at the ballpark. It was a pretty cool event that gave people an opportunity to hit and field at AT&T Park, and along with that they got to meet former Giants Vida Blue and Tito Fuentes. After the batting practice a Q&A session was held in the visitors’ dugout where guests got to ask Vida and Tito questions about their careers, although not many people asked questions; a lot of it was the two of them going off and telling their own stories, which was just as interesting and entertaining. Anyway, at one point Vida Blue brought up the Giants’ inability to do the little things and used Kevin Frandsen’s pop-up bunt in the eighth inning of a game against the Padres a few days ago as an example. He essentially said that you can’t do that because it’s Major League Baseball, and he joked, “Tito could’ve gone up and gotten it done.” While Vida was mixing humor into what he said here, you could tell he was still being serious, and I just found it interesting that he was pretty blunt about it.
On a side note, although I’m only nineteen and therefore wasn’t alive to see Fuentes and Blue when they played, I appreciated being around them today. They were both really friendly and outgoing and interacted with fans the entire time, with Fuentes giving people coming up to bat hitting tips and Blue throwing a short live pitching session to some of the clients. I also thought Vida was especially classy when he called for a moment of silence during the Q&A to honor the victims of 9/11.
I really don’t enjoy complaining about my baseball team; like I’ve said before, in the end no matter how critical I get of the Giants, they will still always be my favorite team. But lately they haven’t been giving us fans much to be happy about, and tonight was no exception. They got shut down by another not-so-great pitcher in Hiroki Kuroda, who at one point retired nineteen batters in a row. It seems like ever since the final game against the Rockies during the homestand, the momentum they kept rebuilding has finally run out. Tonight they had an opportunity to start building it back up again after a poor series against a poor team, but instead they got blown out by their archrival with one of their aces on the mound. Needless to say, this was the worst case scenario in terms of how to start the biggest six-game stretch of the year.
I really want to believe in this team. I’ll fully admit I was one of the people who had very, very little hope left after the 14-inning game in Colorado. Well, they proved me wrong and stormed back to tie the Rockies in the Wild Card the same week I thought they were done. But based on how the past few series’ have gone for the Giants, my hope is starting to fade.
I was going to end this entry with, “Oh well, at least the Rockies lost”, but no. They came back against the Padres and won 4-1.
Bumgarner Starting Tonight (!)
So when I first heard that Madison Bumgarner was coming up to start tonight in place of Lincecum, my concern about Lincecum possibly being really hurt superseded any excitement about Bumgarner being called up.
But now it sounds like (according to Bochy) Lincecum just has a bad back and will be reevaluated in a couple days. That made my blood pressure go down significantly, but of course I can’t help but think doomsday and wonder if Lincecum could be more hurt than management will let on. I have to shove those thoughts out of my head, though and just continue hoping Lincecum will be fine for his next start. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to seeing what Bumgarner will do tonight.
A Frustrating .500 Road Trip
I know the title of this entry might sound oxymoronic since generally a 3-3 road trip is lauded as decent, especially for a Giants team that has been anything but road warriors this year.
But when your pitching staff gives up only nine runs in six games to two teams that can definitely hit for power and the offense can barely do anything to support them, it’s frustrating as hell.
The series in Philadelphia was an especially bitter pill to swallow. We lost the first game 1-0 as our offense was unable to get anything done against Cole Hamels, who has been shaky this year for Philly but looked like the World Series MVP that he was in ’08 against the soft-hitting Gigantes. The Giants’ pitching staff (well, Brad Penny and Jeremy Affeldt) then combined to shut out the powerful Phillies offense the next night in a 4-0 victory.
So then came the rubber match of the series, which was wholly set up in the Giants’ favor with Lincecum on the mound against three-time Cy Young winner Pedro Martinez.
But oh man. Talk about ‘Party Like It’s 1999′ for Martinez.
He made the Giants look ridiculous and gave baseball fans flashbacks to a much younger, more dominant Pedro…so of course the Giants got Lincecum zilch run support. Well okay, one run often can be enough for Timmy, but unfortunately it wasn’t that night. He only gave up two runs and had 11 strikeouts but still got tagged with the loss because–say it with me–the offense failed again.
Oh, and a side note on that game before I move on to Milwaukee–Bochy, stop using Fred Lewis as a pinch-hitter!!! Why do you continue looking to him as a reliable guy to come up in an important situation??? The only unpredictable thing he did in that at-bat with two on and two out in Philly was that he grounded out instead of striking out. I don’t care what the situation is; throw the traditional righty-lefty match-up stuff out the window when it comes to Lewis. Unless he’s the last guy left on the bench or he’s got (in the words of Mike Krukow) serious, serious ownage on the opposing pitcher, I don’t want to see him.
The bottom line with the Philly series: I give the Giants pitching staff a lot of credit for holding the best lineup in the National League to only three runs in two games. But when you do that and still manage to lose the series, it pretty much erases that accomplishment.
Moving on from cheesesteaks to cheeseheads, where it was unfortunately more of the same. Yes, the Giants took the series from the Brew-crew, but that was to be expected for a team trying to make the playoffs. They still barely eeked out the first two wins by 3-2 finals, and today they had a chance at a sweep with a recently much better Jonathan Sanchez on the mound. Sanchez pitched well again today but ended up with a no-decision since the Giants couldn’t do much against Braden Looper. Their best opportunity came in the sixth inning with two on, nobody out and Aaron Rowand at the plate, but then came the triple play that pretty much summed up the Giants’ offense this road trip and the year overall. But hey, I’ll give them credit for finding a new, more dramatic way of not getting the job done with runners in scoring position.
So the game inched on into extra innings and I just had that sinking feeling in my stomach that it wasn’t going to end well. It started when Bochy brought out Bob Howry, which signaled ‘walk-off home run’ alarm bells in my head, especially when Prince Fielder came up. Turns out I was right, but a bit premature as Howry struck out Fielder and barely managed to get out of the inning without giving up the game-winning hit. But then when Juan Uribe popped up a bunt which Brewers catcher Jason Kendall caught, the bad feeling intensified. Granted, Kendall made a great catch…but still, a pop-up bunt for an out? Bad, bad bad. I won’t get too annoyed with Uribe about it, though since he’s been one of the best, most surprising guys in our lineup this year…but still, the entire team needs a huge workshop on bunting.
So then came the 12th inning with Merkin Valdez pitching for the G-Men, the guy who gave up the infamous walk-off grand slam to the Rockies in what has been informally dubbed The Game Which Cannot Be Spoken Of. And here comes Prince Fielder. Sure enough…
…the Giants got bowled over by the Prince, thus sending them back to the city by the Bay with a not-so-great .500 road trip and a loss that sends them two games back of the Colorado Rockies.
Speaking of the Rockies…can they just lose already?! The New York Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks did us no favors this past week except when the Mets beat’em on the night where Lincecum took the hard-luck loss in Philly. Colorado’s schedule continues to look pretty soft for the remainder of the year; tomorrow they open a four-game series at home against the Cincinnati Reds before going on the road to play the Padres, us and the Diamondbacks. Besides the series against us, the only other time they’ll play a team above .500 the rest of the month is when they play the Cardinals at home; then in October they close out the regular season by going to LA. Meanwhile, the Giants have to face the Dodgers and Rockies back-to-back thiscoming homestand, then go on the road to Los Angeles and Arizona. They close out September at home against the Cubs and Diamondbacks (man, lots of Arizona in the span of a week), then end the regular season in San Diego.
So overall I think the Rockies have the softer schedule; however, San Francisco has a couple advantages in that a. they play three more games at home over the remainder of the season than the Rockies do and b. they have an easier last week on paper in that they play the Cubs, D-Backs and Padres while the Rockies play the Cardinals, Brewers and Dodgers. But I guess the question is whether or not the latter point will matter once we hit the end of the month. The Giants’ offense seriously needs to step up in order to stay in contention, and whether or not that happens will determine if they make the playoffs. It’s not about the starting pitching; they’ve shown time and time again that they can be relied upon. Does the realization that the Giants’ Wild Card hopes rest on this lineup make me queasy? Definitely. I think the keys to this offense stepping up rely on three components: veterans like Aaron Rowand and Bengie Molina, Pablo Sandoval getting hot again, and the return of Freddy Sanchez off his DL stint. If all these ingredients come together for the Giants in a positive way and the pitching staff does what they’ve done all year, then we’ve definitely got a shot.
On a side note, as I’ve been writing this entry and others I realize I may come off as really cynical, harsh and pessimistic about the Giants…and I guess the truth is I am. But it’s kind of like if you have a friend who you know is smart but constantly slacks off in school by cutting class often and not doing his homework: you get really angry with them and may come off as mean by doing so, but in the end it’s because you care about them and know they have a lot of potential. That’s how I am with this baseball team; I can love them one day and hate them the next, can praise a player one day and scream profanities at the TV when they strike out again the next day, but it’s not fickleness–it’s because I have my heart 100% invested in this team and want them to succeed. This is the team I started watching in the 2002 World Series and didn’t turn away from even after Game 6, that I’ve stuck by ever since the good times and the many bad ones from recent woeful years. I’m not one of the bandwagon fans who left with Barry Bonds and his home run chase after the 2007 season, and I’m not one of the bandwagon fans that will start showing up if (big if) the Giants make the playoffs. Even after the horrible loss in Colorado a couple weeks ago I didn’t start tuning out their games, even though I did feel like our playoff hopes had been dashed. So no matter how this season ends, I’ll still find myself quickly counting down the days til they return.
I’ll be out at the ballpark tomorrow and am looking forward to seeing Brad Penny’s AT&T Park debut as a Giant. No better way to spend a holiday afternoon than out at the yard, in my opinion.
In-Game Update: Giants vs. Rockies
Why does Bruce Bochy think it’s at all logical to use Fred Lewis as a pinch-hitter? This is the second time in a span of a few games that he’s done this, and–surprise, surprise–he struck out again with runners on. Reminds me of when Tim Flannery was filling in as the backup to the backup manager and brought in Aaron Rowand to pinch-hit with one out and a runner on and he hit into a double play like everyone figured he would. But Flannery is only the third base coach, not the manager, so he has an excuse there, I guess.
Makes me think more and more that Damon Bruce’s nickname of K-Fred is completely fitting.
Winn on third, two outs and Bengie up. Let’s go Big Money.
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