Giantsblog

According to an Associated Press article on ESPN, (http://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 14^th-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.

SAN FRANCISCO–  San Francisco defeated the Colorado Rockies in back-to-back night caps on walk-offs in the ninth inning.  Freddy Sanchez was the hero Friday night with his single and Mike Fontenot continued the late inning heroics with his sacrifice fly.

Clayton Mortensen remained dominant for Colorado in which he went six innings of four-hit baseball and surrendered two-runs, but, still maintained an impressive ERA which now sits at 0.64.

However, even with Mortensen’s performance, the Rockies still could not manage a victory over the Giants and Madison Bumgarner.  Bumgarner nearly matched Mortensen who also went six innings of two-run baseball.

The Giants got to business early as Aaron Rowand walked to lead-off the first inning, moving to second on Sanchez’s left-field single.  A Mike Fontenot ground-out moved both runners up, allowing Rowand to score on Buster Posey’s ground-out and give San Francisco first blood with a 1-0 lead.

In the fifth inning, Miguel Tejada reached first safely on an error by Jose Lopez and would later score the Giants second run from third on Sanchez’s double.

The game took a turn on San Francisco though in the seventh with a key error by Bumgarner that allowed Colorado to tie the game at 2-all.  Alfredo Amezaga and Carlos Gonzalez got on base with back-to-back singles.  Following a throwing error by Bumgarner off Troy Tulowitzki’s bat, both runners were able to move up an additional base and load the bases for Todd Helton with no outs.  Helton proceeded to drive home two-runs on his single to left.

Whatever momentum Colorado had going into the late stages of the game it quickly became an afterthought on Fontenot’s game-winning sacrifice-fly to right that scored Rowand from third, giving the Giants another walk-off victory in back-to-back nights.  San Francisco, now one game behind the formerly red-hot Colorado Rockies look to take advantage of a series with the Arizona Diamondbacks and climb atop the NL West standings.

WASHINGTON– San Francisco could not muster a rally against the Washington Nationals, falling 5-2 Sunday in the third of a four game series.  The final game of the series takes place Monday evening.

The Giants scored their only runs of the game in the second inning, scoring two.  Miguel Tejada reached first on a one-out infield single.  Mike Fontenot then crushed a double to right field putting both himself and Tejada in scoring-position.  Nate Schierholtz doubled to bring both base runners home, giving the Giants an early 2-0 lead.  But from then on, San Francisco would be playing catch-up.

Laynce Nix of Washington led off the bottom of the second with a single and scored on Alex Cora’s double to right field, cutting San Francisco’s lead in half.

Starter Matt Cain, of San Francisco, loaded the bases in the bottom of third after issuing two walks.  With Ian Desmond batting, Cain surrendered another run on a wild pitch, tying the game 2-2.

Another solo run in the fourth inning gave the Nationals the lead they had been seeking to have since their first run crossed home.  Washington got great contribution from the bottom of their order as the 7, 8, and 9 got the lead.  Ivan Rodriguez led off with a single, Alex Cora also singled and pitcher Jordan Zimmermann had a sacrifice bunt moving both in scoring position.  Jerry Hairston Jr. gave the Nationals the 3-2 lead on an RBI-groundout.

With San Francisco possessing the capability of a last-inning rally, the Nationals added a couple insurance runs in the eighth to put the Giants away.  With a new reliever, Dan Runzler, Danny Espinosa was walked to start the eighth.  Desmond singled after Adam LaRoche struck-out and scored along with Espinosa on Rodriguez’s line drive single to center.  The Nationals left their three-run lead to their closer Drew Storen who completed his fifth save of the season.

Washington will look to take the series tonight in Washington when they place Tom Gorzelanny up against Madison Bumgarner who is still seeking out his first win of 2011.