Giantsblog

SAN FRANCISCO — Colorado salvaged some of their season in the final regular season game against the San Francisco Giants.  They avoided getting swept for the third time in their last four series as they defeated the Giants 6-3 Wednesday afternoon.

The game had little meaning as the defending champs had been eliminated from the division and wild card last week.  But Colorado needed this win to have something positive to head into the off-season than dropping 11 of their last 14.

Colorado jumped out early and never looked back in the regular season’s finale.

Eric Young hit the first pitch of the game to right field for a lead-off triple.  Dexter Fowler then singled to drive in the first run of the day for Colorado.  Later in the inning, Kevin Kouzmanoff doubled to advance Fowler to third, allowing Seth Smith to groundout to second base, scoring Fowler for a 2-0 lead.

The Rockies doubled their lead in the fifth as both Kouzmanoff and Jordan Pacheco hit RBI-singles, giving Colorado a 4-0 lead over the former World Series champions.

However, in the bottom of sixth, San Francisco crawled to within a run of the Rockies as they piled up three runs in the inning.  Justin Christian led-off with a double and Jeff Keppinger brought him home on his RBI-single.  Brett Pill hit a two-out double to put runners in scoring position for Mark DeRosa and he delivered a two-RBI single to center as the Giants now only trailed 4-3.

In the seventh though, Kouzmanoff and Pacheco drove in two more runs as the Rockies doubled up the Giants 6-3 in the final regular season game of 2011.

The Rockies will have to reevaluate a lot of things after this season.  Their rotation will look very different without Ubaldo Jimenez in uniform in mid-February.  Another concern is Todd Helton.  He is getting old, 38, and maybe not be able to be an everyday position player.  His best option now would be to join the American League as a designated hitter.

In addition, the Rockies need better production out of Troy Tulowitzki, Ty Wigginton, and Carlos Gonzalez for an entire season.

PHOENIX — This is not an easy or enjoyable post to write.  However, as a professional, it needs to be written and shared for all to read who actually do keep up.

Last night, the 23^rd of September, the Arizona Diamondbacks used three runs over the course of the seventh and eighth innings to defeat the San Francisco Giants, eliminating the defending World Series champs from playoff contention en-route to their fifth NL West Championship in their 14-year history.

The Giants were limited, as they have been all season, to a low run total; one run in Friday’s loss.  At the moment, the Giants and D-backs are in the middle of game two in this three game set and San Francisco yet again has managed just a pair of runs while the D-backs have put up six spot in first following with a five run sixth-inning for an 11-2 lead.

As it looks right now, San Francisco’s season is over.  Atlanta just needed a win or Giants loss to eliminate San Francisco from the Wild Card race and it appears that will happen.  Atlanta now just has to get rid of those pesky Cardinals.

Arizona though is showing its determination to get that first-round home field advantage with a possible matchup with the Braves.  Otherwise, they will have to open up the best of five with the Philadelphia Phillies.

It has been fun and enjoyable to blog since February on the World Series champs and to write about this battle between the Giants and D-backs after the All-Star break.  I will have one more post on the Giants, that being their last game of the 2011 season.  We all know what the owners have to do in the offseason if they want to compete for a championship again next year.  I won’t say it because I have said it all season long.  Until next time Giants fans.

SAN FRANCISCO — I might be able to go from blogger to movie script writer depending on how the San Francisco Giants end their season.  One week ago, the Giants seemed all but out of gas with no chance of defending their title.

However, winners of eight straight and now just five games out with a three game series coming against the division leading Diamondbacks, San Francisco still has a chance to go to the post-season.  If they are somehow able to reach play in October and repeat as champs, this is definitely a Disney movie in the making of how to never give up as a team when things seem to be at their worst.

What the Giants are doing differently this past week that they were unable to accomplish the entire season is obvious to anyone looking at box scores; they are scoring runs in bunches.  Yesterday, they used six home runs to beat the Colorado Rockies 12-5 for a four-game sweep and second sweep in a row.  Finally, the Giants are playing like defending champs, but it may be too late.

This game was over after the fourth as San Francisco hit four long balls in the inning, two by Pablo Sandoval.

Esmil Rogers was in the trouble from the very first batter he faced.  He walked leadoff batter, Andres Torres, and Mike Fontenot followed by crushing a pitch to right field for an early 2-0 Giants lead.  Colorado cut the Giants lead in half as Seth Smith’s sacrifice fly scored Eric Young who was issued a leadoff walk in the third.

But, then the fireworks came.  Pablo Sandoval led-off with a solo home run.  Brandon Belt followed with one out solo blast of his own.  Brandon Crawford doubled and scored on Matt Cain’s first home run of the season.  Torres was walked again and Fontenot was hit by a pitch as Carlos Beltran’s RBI-single drove in Torres.  Sandoval came up to the plate for the second time in the inning and repeated his first action, but this time sent a three run home run into right for 10-1 lead as San Francisco scored eight in the fourth alone.

The Rockies scored a pair of runs in the fourth and fifth, but it was too much to overcome as the Giants easily won their eighth straight victory.  San Francisco is maintaining pace with the division leading D-backs who have cooled down since winning 18 of their last 21.  The window on the Giants post-season aspirations remains cracked open a little bit.  But with cold weather slowly coming back to the northern hemisphere, the window may be closed and locked on the Giants till Opening Day in 2012.

SAN FRANCISCO — Each win becomes even more crucial with just over two-weeks left in the 2011 season, however, wins are slowly starting to mean less for the San Francisco Giants.  Yesterday, the Giants blew out the Los Angeles Dodgers for an 8-1 victory but sit 8 ½-games out of first.

With the division-leading Diamondbacks playing phenomenal baseball as they have won 13 of their last 16 and the Giants struggling the entire second-half of the season to maintain their lead or grab it back from Arizona, it seems that fate is not on San Francisco’s side this year.  ESPN has the Giants playoff chances at 0.4%.

It is discouraging to win it all and not even make the post-season the following year especially when San Francisco brought back much of the team that won last year’s championship.  But instead of hanging their heads, this should be used a learning tool and motivation for next year.

The Giants know the problems they have had over the past two seasons, with it being clear that San Francisco must find a big bat in the offseason to be a run producer.  If they do not, I see a problem for the 2012 season as Arizona will likely contend again and Los Angeles is bound to bounce back from their less than disappointing 2011 season.

Starter, Madison Bumgarner, pitched a great five-innings as he struck out eight, opening the game by striking out the first four he faced and allowing just one run on three-hits.

Hiroki Kuroda of Los Angeles has pitched well the entire season, posting a 3.25-ERA, but like San Francisco’s starters, he gets little to no run support to back his strong efforts.  Sunday though was not one of those strong efforts, giving up three runs on eight-hits in 4 1/3 innings.

Los Angeles got their first run and first hit after four punch outs when Aaron Miles singled to left, taking second after a Rod Barajas walk.  Tony Gwynn then doubled on a live drive to right, driving in Miles from second.

In the home half of the second, Aubrey Huff’s hit was confirmed as a double after the play was reviewed.  Eli Whiteside tied the game 1-all on his ensuing RBI-single.

In the fifth-inning, San Francisco really began to pull away from the competition.  Jeff Keppinger’s one-out single led to Pablo Sandoval’s two-out RBI-double that broke the tie, giving the Giants a 2-1 lead.  Huff followed with a single to bring in Sandoval, extending their lead, 3-1.

But in the sixth, the Dodgers bullpen got roughed up as the Giants went up against three different relievers, pounding them for five runs in the inning.

Hong-Chih Kuo issued back-to-back leadoff walks as reliever, Josh Lindblom, did no better intentionally walking Cody Ross to load the bases for Keppinger with one-out.  He doubled to center, bringing in two base runners.

A new pitcher came in for Los Angeles, Scott Elbert, and got Carlos Beltran to strikeout, but then intentionally walked Sandoval to load the bases yet again. Another walk, the fifth of the inning, resulted in a run being walked in.  Mark DeRosa then put the nail in the coffin with his two run RBI-single, giving San Francisco their 8-1 lead.

In the final innings of play, both teams’ bullpens went into lock down mode as not a single hit was recorded over the last 3 1/3 innings.

San Francisco will now host the San Diego Padres as these two teams meet for the last time this season.

SAN DIEGO — After scoring seven runs in the first game of the series and following that with a six-run effort the next day, the San Francisco Giants bats must have been exhausted.  In the series finale, San Diego mustered out enough runs to defeat the defending champs, putting them once again seven games behind the division leading Diamondbacks.

Padres starter, Aaron Harang, dominated the champs, pitching seven innings of one-run ball with his only mistake of the afternoon being a pitch in the fifth-inning that left the park off Brett Pill’s solo home run.  That was the biggest hit of the night for San Francisco as no other batter hit for extra bases.

San Diego got off the start every team regardless of league wants to get off too.  Will Venable cracked a leadoff solo homerun to right field, backing up his pitcher early in the game.  Matt Cain should have thrown something other than the fastball, Venable watched it go by once and was ready for it the second time it came around.

Tied 1-all in the home half of the sixth, the Padres extended their lead over the Giants on two two-out hits.  Cameron Maybin doubled, scoring on Jesus Guzman’s ensuing RBI-single that broke the tie and gave the Padres a one run lead, 2-1.

Aside from Venable’s power in the first, he displayed his arm strength in the seventh by throwing out Pill at home on a double-play to end the inning, preventing a 2-2 tie.

Apparently that one-run lead was not enough for Venable who again got on base when leading off in this affair, reaching on a fielding error.  Maybin would then triple for an RBI, and a Padres two-run lead heading into the final inning of play.

Heath Bell, the dominant closer who did not find a new home before the trade deadline, dominated yet again.  After allowing a leadoff single to Pablo Sandoval, he got Cody Ross to ground into a double-play.  Pill would also groundout in the inning to end the game as the Padres avoided the sweep.

SAN FRANCISCO — With the calendar turning to September and the San Francisco Giants sitting in second-place in the NL West, let’s take a look back into the past of last year’s season at the end of August.

Last year at this time, the Giants’ were in second too, trailing the then first-place San Diego Padres by four-games.  Today, Arizona, who was dead last in the division last year, holds a five-game lead over the Giants as we begin baseball’s last regular season month.

San Francisco would go on an 18-8 run in September to win the division by two-games over the Padres with a 92-70 record en-route to a World Series Championship.  The Giants’ will hope to avenge their 11-18 record of August in 2011 by rolling in September again to another division title, as the look to defend their title.

The Giants’ got off the right start Saturday night by defeating the division-leading Diamondbacks with a 6-2 victory to move a game closer in the division, trailing by five-games now, with five regular season matchups still to be played between these two foes.

The game though got off to the start most Giants’ fans were afraid would happen in this weekend series.  Aaron Hill singled with one-out and moved into scoring position on a Justin Upton walk.  Miguel Montero then gave Arizona an early 1-0 lead on an RBI-double forcing many of the Giant fans to groan as they anticipated the D-backs going for their tenth straight win along with pushing their Giants out of contention.

But Matt Cain showed poise and was determined to give his club a fighting chance against these D-backs.  Cain went eight-innings, allowing just three hits after the Montero double and got some run support to back up his strong effort.

Arizona would get another run in the fifth after Ryan Roberts tripled to center, coming home on Hill’s sacrifice fly to right for their second run of the night.

Carlos Beltran had his biggest game in a Giants uniform going a perfect 4-for-4 and just coming up a double short of the cycle.  He got the two hardest hits in back-to-back at-bats, hitting a triple in his first plate appearance and cracking a two-run home run in the third to give San Francisco a 3-0 lead.  Earlier in the inning, Cody Ross took a two-out walk and scored the tying run on Jeff Keppinger’s RBI-double.

In the fifth, Beltran brought in his third RBI of the night, singling home Ross for a 4-2 lead.

For once though, the Giants’ offense did not take their foot off the accelerator as Ross hit a two-run home run in the seventh to extend the Giants lead further at 6-2.  Plenty of run support for Cain.

Santiago Casilla relieved Cain in the ninth to complete the victory with two punch outs as the Giants’ moved a game closer in the division, keeping the window open a little wider for another night.

Tonight is the matchup of the season with both clubs sending out their aces to face-off.  Ian Kennedy, the NL leader tied for wins, will go up against Tim Lincecum and the Giants of San Francisco that could go to either team.  Will Friday’s loss lead to a D-back’s losing skid or will they bounce back to a six-game lead in the division?