A Good Road Trip

Giants Win Five

Playing two last place teams the Rockies and the Brewers the Giants needed to win at least five of the seven games for it to be a successful trip.  All four games against the Rockies were rain delayed which  made it very stressful and caused the bullpen to be even further overworked.

The week was highlighted by the return of Hunter Strickland from Sacramento who pitched very well in three relief efforts.   He has added two new pitches, throws strikes and seems to be in control.  A big addition to the staff.

I was going to comment how Pence in his return from the DL list has looked much more patient at the plate until the last two games in Milwaukee when he reverted to some old habits of swinging at pitches a mile outside.

Our Texas blog members will  remember when Nolan Ryan was running the Rangers he started a program for his minor league pitcher so that they could learn to pitch nine innings when they reached the majors. The Giants would love to have starters that could go at least 7 innings.  The relief staff is over worked leading the majors in appearances and on a path to disaster such as happened to the Brewers staff last year. The combination of starters going only six innings, the managing philosophy of Bochy to keep changing pitchers and almost always having a new pitcher start the ninth and many close games contributes to the problem.

Strickland mentioned that there are at least three or four very good arms in Sacramento just waiting their turn.  Andrew Baggarly wrote this week that the Giants are well aware of the problem.  Will they be able to do anything to solve it?

The Giants have also proven in this past month that they can hit with the best of them with many of the starters hitting near or over.300.  They seemed to enjoy playing in Houston, Cincinnati, Denver and Milwaukee ball parks which are noted as hitters parks.  AT&T has proven to a different challenge  however the Giants have been saved over the years in the fact that the opponents can't hit their either.  I might add it is not just the ball park but the weather.  The heavier air near the water always makes hitting more  difficult.

The Atlanta Series at AT&T

Heston will open against Atlanta.  He has had some very good outings but also has hit pretty hard on more then one occasion.  This is a big start for him depending on how well Peavey does in his start for Sacramento.  It looked like on video that Peavy was able to throw all of his pitches when he started for San Jose last week.

Bochy has announced a big change in the line up starting with the home series.  Pence and Pagan will bat second and third depending on who is pitching. Why?  Panik will most likely be dropped to 7th in the batting order.  I am sure the future Hall of Fame manager knows what he is doing but I would take Panik in a clutch situation over both Pagan and Pence because he has a more controlled swing.


Stupid Plays of the Week

Posey had a 16 game hitting streak going into the game Tuesday night.  In the 9th inning Aoki leads off  with a hit.  With a 6-3 lead Panik does the unusual by bunting.  He wanted to stay out of the        double play so that Posey would get another at bat.  Then with Pence at the plate Aoki starts running from second base for no reason at all and is out at third.  What was he doing?  It was a very stupid play and not the first one he has committed on the base paths this year.  Pence then made the third out and Posey was left standing in the on deck circle saying good-bye to his hitting streak.

Bumgarner was on second with one out and Panik hit a drive over the center fielders head.  Instead of going half way Bumgarner went back and tagged up.  The result being that he was nearly tagged out at home but he made it with a traditional feet first slide.  Since he doesn't run the bases that often he can be excused but he himself said it was a stupid play.

Kaepernick the Forty Niners star quarterback tweeted some stupid "humorous" statement about the tragic Houston floods.  One of the leading PB's of sports had to apologize.  Veteran Forty Niner fans can only remember when the team had leaders like Albert, Brodie, Montana, Young and Benjamin.

Ex- Giants Stars in the News

Juan Urbie has been traded by the Dodgers to the Atlanta Braves.  I remember well when Juan signed with the Dodgers after the Giants 2010 world championship season.  I knew at that moment there was no way the Giants could repeat as world champions in 2011. It is almost impossible to replace a short stop who hit 24 home runs and produced many run scoring hits especially after the seventh inning. Last year he hit over. 300 for the Dodgers and was a runner up for a gold glove at third base.  Could the Giants use him this year?

Mike Morse who is barely hitting over the Mendoza line was placed on the disabled list by the Marlins.  One of the heroes of the 2014 Giants championship series has discovered that's it a little different playing for classless organization like Miami then the Giants.  It is obvious that he misses the great support that he received from the Giant fans and the continued encouragement from Bochy and Pence.

With all the rain delays in  Denver earlier this week I caught a few pitches of the Angels - Red Sox game. While I was watching Pablo Sandoval came up to pinch hit.  Immediately the Angels brought in a left hander to pitch so that the switch hitting Sandoval would hit right handed.  Seems Pablo has had only two hits right handed this year.  To the surprise of Giant fans Pablo batted left handed and got a single.  It was thought in the Giants organization that the MVP of 2012 World Series would never hit left handed against a left handed pitcher.

The Warriors

After 40 years the Warriors are back in the NBA finals.  Congratulations!  The team had a great regular season and have rolled through the playoffs as we predicted on this blog about 6 weeks ago.  with a 12 -3 record.  It hasn't been easy.  Playoff basketball is different.  In fact if the teams played during the season like they do in the playoffs there wouldn't be any players left for the playoffs.

Lets hope that the week off will help Curry get back to 100% and allow Thompson to play.  I believe it was Ariza of the Rockets who kneed Thompson right in the ear finishing him for the game and maybe the playoffs.  The Rocket should have been kicked out on the spot.  I was disappointed in the fact that the Warriors didn't have a chance to wish Howard a happy vacation by sending one to his chops.

Cleveland rolled to an easy 4-0 win over Atlanta completing a sweep of a  group of very weak teams.

Soccer Corruption

It is hard to believe that there is corruption in soccer the sport that almost every kid in American participates starting at the age of 3.  What's harder to believe that its going to take a group of crooks to prove it unless of course they are bribed and drop the charges.  Nike a major sponsor of soccer has lots of connections in Washington and money to burn.