19 posts tagged “san francisco giants”

Can you imagine Randy Johnson out of the bullpen?   The Giants have been exploring that in September...

I got to realize a childhood dream when I was able to take the field at AT&T Park and play first base & take batting practice (from both sides of the plate).   Thank you to SF-BIG, MySpace, and Adify for making it possible!

 

 

 

The Giants are in a weird slump at home (lost 11 of the past 13!)...    Matt Cain pitched well for seven innings, striking out 11 in seven innings (I think he had eight strikeouts after 3)!   The A's Kurt Suzuki was the player who came through in the clutch innings -- throwing out a stealing Fred Lewis, and hitting an RBI line-drive triple:

 

 

 

But the real story of this game was the starting pitching.    Rich Harden and Matt Cain were both throwing in the mid-90s for seven quick innings, but Harden had the slight edge, and was pitching with a 1-0 lead since the first inning...   Both teams went to their bullpens in the 8th.  

 

 

Lunch at Casa Mexicana in Noe Valley

A good burrito for lunch, and then a smorgasboard of fine food at the Giants game (playing against Chris' hometown Cincinnati Reds) for dinner:

 

Santana had 10 strikeouts in eight innings of 2 hit work -- then he gave up a solo home run and single to open up the ninth inning and got pulled before San Francisco closed out the 3-1 victory.

 

Barry Zito dropped to 0-4 on a beautiful day in San Francisco...    I enjoyed the game with Pete Vlastelica, Yardbarker's CEO (he gave me the hat, below) and the Kevin Gottesman, celebrating his birthday:

 

 

Merkin Valdez is a bright spot in the Giants' thin bullpen; he throws some serious heat (his top pitch today was 99mph):

 

 

Even though the Giants have gotten off to a slow start in 2008, they have not lost a series at home...

In Sunday's 7-4 victory, there were three notable highlights:

1)  Tim Lincecum fanned 11 Cardinals in six innings of work (giving up 2 earned runs)

2) John Bowker hit his second HR in two days -- his first two as a major leaguer, and racked up an amazing 7 RBI in six at-bats during the two games!

3) Annabell Schwartz attended her third MLB game in her three weeks of life -- and has a 3-0 record!   She is 2-0 with the Giants and 1-0 with the As!

 

 

 

 

Another interesting part of the game was watching the two catchers match up -- Benjie and Yadier Molina, who both played well.   Watch out for the Giants' Merkin Valdez too, he got up to 98mph on the radar gun on Sunday:

 

The Giants might have to put Annabell Schwartz on the roster soon, she's undefeated in three weeks of life:

 

 

Greg Maddox vs Matt Cain -- Maddox is showing his mastery today..

Without him in the lineup, there is no tension in the air...

Barry did pinch hit late in the game...