Bummer Ending But Belt Comes Through Again as a PH
These 9th inning heroics from Belt off the bench are going down easy like a cold brew in the Summer time. Or any time. Baha. I’ve gone back and forth on the Flannery call. He might have thought Panda got a better jump than he did and by the time he started sending him it was too late to stop him. I dunno. Bochy wasn’t having any of it when he got asked the question about the Flannery-send. Of course, he’s not going to call him out publicly, ever. But even had Sandoval gotten a good jump he was dead at the plate. Even had Noonan ran for him—also dead at the plate. Ross was playing shallow and his throw was perfect.
I’m not sweatin’ the Flannery decision. He put the pressure on Ross to come through and he did. Tip your cap.
_________________________________________
A great win by the Warriors last night and they could easily be up 2-0 right now. But Marc Jackson calling Klay and Curry the best shooting back court in the history of the game? Um, wow.
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
Many shoulda, coulda, wouldas in the game. A heartbreaker for sure but not a heart breaker, this team is as gutty as any and will put it behind them. Afternoon game, maybe I can get a full 8 hours in tonight.
Flannery’s was only the first mistake in a highly concentrated series of them — obviously, no guarantee they score if Pablo holds. As they like to say, fucking up is contagious!
It was a total fuck up by Flannery. There’s maybe two situations when you send Pablo, regardless of the inning: the pitcher is due and won’t be hit for. Or Juan Pierre is playing RF. It was a stupid, dunderheaded decision.
My kind and gentle heart cries for Tim F. guitarist and 3rd base coach of my team. It is only a game this baseball, played by grown men, given freely for all to enjoy.
AND it is a new day, a day-game to be exact, not on my telly as the White Sox have claimed that spot and my backup channel is showing something called ‘NBA Playoofs’ – with nicked celtics. Is there an ESPN programmer anywhere that loves the SF Giants? Now that is 2 dunderhead plays you ESPN dunderheads.
As a protest I will get quite politely drunk everyday there is no Giants game on ESPN – try and stop me! EWG
If Klay and Curry can shoot like last night for the rest of the playoffs, then I’d agree with Jackson. Harrison Barnes was pretty spectacular last night.
To win the series they’re going to need to win a couple games shooting 40-45 percent, IMO.
What a damned roller-coaster last night. Was going to jump on here and follow the game with you Flappers, but chased momma into the BR and jumped on that instead (game recording/on pause). Hey, choice between a 4-0 stinker or a little sumpin’ sumpin’…easy decision.
Cain with decent enough outing (sans Goldphuck), but he did keep it close (seems to be a regular thing for most of our starters, of late). You have to like the team’s grit. Pagan and Pablo with two hits and Pence with three. Scoots needs to get it going. I agree that Flannery made a DUMB ASS call, and the circus of errors didn’t help, either. That was NOT Giant/Championship baseball.
Oh well, rubber match today, and we have MadBum SnotMeister (aka Paw Rugg) on the bump. I like the chances for a series win.
Yes – awesome win by the Dubs last night. The McNuggets have been tough as hell at home. With Lee out, someone beside Curry needed to step up, and Barnes, Jack and Thompson all did so with 20+ each. Curry with a great game double-double with 5 boards and 3 steals.
Schulman’s take on Flannery: Have to be “aggressive” there and “force” the issue. Two outs you take your best shot. I’m cool with that.
I saw that…not sure I agree. Here is the article if anyone is interested.
http://tinyurl.com/bqre3q4
Shulman was wrong.
You force the issue if Timmy is the next hitter, if it takes a good throw to get get him, if you get paid for being a numbskull…
Posey with the day off, but Belt back in the line-up and in the 5-hole:
1. Angel Pagan (S) CF
2. Marco Scutaro (R) 2B
3. Pablo Sandoval (S) 3B
4. Hunter Pence (R) RF
5. Brandon Belt (L) 1B
6. Gregor Blanco (L) LF
7. Brandon Crawford (L) SS
8. Guillermo Quiroz (R) C
9. Madison Bumgarner (R) P
And as it should be, Hector will probably the catcher to go down soon. He needs to work on his catching skills everyday.
Agreed
Agree, Michael. Henry said as much when he posted the lineup today. If Sanchez goes down, the question becomes who comes up. I would like to see Roger K. Tanaka is hitting the ball pretty well, but he has made six fricking errors in 49 chances, and there is always Pill, too. Again, my choice would be Keishnick.
This morning I read the Flap comments with anticipation. I have no time for checking out other shit going on in the world. In short, the Flap and my Fantasy League teams – that’s it and then I play tourist for the day. I was deflated when I saw Pawlie say good night (I knew it was about over then). In short, the comments got more and more subdued. Either the GMen had lost or they were about to lose was my interpretation of what happened. I rarely comment in the morning because I have no idea about specifics going on, so I rely upon you guys giving me the blow by blow. Thanks.
After the Giants lost, I began my day and boy did it start with a doosie – I saw the Pope in his PopeMobile sans the bullet proof bubble. I have no idea if they got rid of that a couple of Popes ago or what, but it was nice to see Pope Francis seemingly “bringing it” and telling anyone – go ahead, make my day. I finished a blog post about my experience and I am betting dollars to donuts that me seeing the Pope translates to a Giants victory today (umm, your day. My night here).
Go Giants!
Blade, where you are, Pablo was out by 1.609344 km.
Sounds like a country mile, huh?
Nope, Pope, this is new with the pope named after our city, He claims to be a man of the worshipers, tear down the walls. BTW, if your internet and battery let you you can watch today’s game now on MLB.com (on the right) find game listed as ‘free’ and click the tv screen. you can make an mlb account if you do not have one and watch
first pitch 9:45 Rome(O) time it is the comcast feed so K&K
That would be so bad-ass…sitting in a cafe in Rome, watching the Giants play…
Ed, thank you very much. I am beat though. I did quite a lot today besides seeing the Pope this morning. I must have walked 8-10 miles easily. I will pick up the thread tomorrow and you guys will do an outstanding job of giving me the “blow by blow” of the Giants inevitable victory.
for those of you that care:
today’s game is free on MLB video
Have never tried this, as I don’t have the video option (I have Gameday Audio)…fucking awesome…and it comes through our firewall at work WHOOT! Thanks, Edd…you DA MAN!
Let’s GO GIANTS!
thanks; but may have to run out
MLB is having “technical difficulties” processing my request; why am I feeling #paranoid ?
Fuck the Hall of Fame and the horse they rode in on.
Where in the hell did that come from? I’m missing the context.
Paw Rugg (aka MadBum Snotmeister) looking good in the 1st.
Pissed about an email Pawlie sent me and other Flappers regarding the imbecilic HOF and their treatment of a Flapper (Pawlie).
Pawlie or Blade – I would be interested in seeing the email. You both should have my email address…
Chi. I’ll FWD to you. It’s not for here. Do I have your email? If I have a problem locating it, hit me up.
Chuck, just sent you my “dialogue”
Got it and replied. Thanks.
Good, I usually delete everything I get and moreover, I thought it was Pawlie’s call.
Blade, did you give the pope my infallibly cordial regards? GIANTS BEING NO-HIT. #jinx #jinx #jinx #jinx #jinx #jinx #jinx #hijinx #jinx #jinx #jinx
What’s that you say? No hit? Pawlie, are saying this guy Kennedy hasn’t given up a hit? Why, that’s amazing.
On that note, I will skidaddle to bed and pray to the Holy See to turn this fricking train wreck around. Good night all!
Alright Craw.
OK, we’ve gotten a hit. Now it’s time to score.
Nice 2 bagger, Marco.
Time to Belt one!
Phuck!
I second that.
I think this is what they used to call a pitching duel…
We just need someone to “run into one.” Brandon Crawford…come on down! Or White Shark or Quiroz…just score a damned run. It’s looking like one is all it might take today.
100th pitch my Kennedy.
Let’s go MudBug!
Fuck yeah!
There’s that one run I was just talking about!
I was just going to say that Bum has thrown 92 pitches…wondering if he would be out to start the 8th. Him hitting, I believe, answers that question.
getting any work done?
🙂
🙂
Interesting strategy to let Bum hit there. He’s pretty good with the bat, but it backfired.
That was different
I’m a good multi-tasker, Edd. 😉
Listening on radio, I’ve never before heard or seen a pitcher warming up in a Pen grab a live ball in play and headed for a double — that was weird by Casilla…
Stupid managing by Bochy who gets what he deserves there
Let the pitcher hit and then replace him in the next 1/2 inning. Gee, what other manage used to do that?
The idea wasn’t for Bum give up a run, pal. Get over to “B” and wait.
Bum can hit, and he was mowing them down, with a pitch count OK. Why take him out in the bottom of the inning for a PHer? I think it was a reasonable move…
I agree with the move to let Bum hit. As snarkk said, Bum can handle the lumber pretty well, and he was pitching well. Room B…
Ain’t no thing, ain’t no thing. Let’s get that run back, Giants.
Bad defense the last two games by the Giants. Unusual.
Mijares in and gives it up. I don’t think Lopez came in, did he? If not, what’s going on, is he in the doghouse? He’s making the big bucks as the Loogy specialist…
Mjiares has been better than Lopez- and Pagan screwed this up.
Bochy has barely used Lopez. He’s making $4M and sitting on his duff, so unless he’s hurt, they better figure it out. A guy pegged only for LH hitters, and then not used for them, is fairly worthless to have around…
Now it’s Pagan. this one there’s no excuse.
Need some magic from the bottom of the order. I think we may see Posey as well.
CRAW!!!!!
MudBug 2!
Bangin’ Brandons strike again!…
CrAwford is blowing my mind!
At’s my boy!
Crawford looks like he’s up for about 15 dingers this year? What a bonus that would be…
How about that Crawfish ?
Absolutely
That is one MudBug who is NOT going to end up in an Étouffée…dude impresses more and more.
Yes Crawford is the man. Snarkk, I will be happy if Crawford just keeps his BA above .275. That would be the bonus
He doesn’t even need to hit .275 in my book. I would be good with anything over .260…10 or so bombs, and stellar D. Anything over .260 to me is gravy.
We need a Pa-GONE!
Scoots is SO DUE…
Gaudin regressing to his mean? Oops, they forgot to have Lopez up and warming — Rags went out to stall in the middle of an intentional walk. This is one weird game. Now Lopez is going to face a RH with the switch. That’s not good…
They did have Lopez up when Romo was warming up but they brought in Romo. It seems to me they feel more comfortable with Mijares in the Affeldt role.
Another come back, another fuck up. Pissed it away
Maybe they’ll come back again…
You’re such a pleasant fella, Jeff.
That situation is where the Giants lack of one or two flamethrower strike out artists Pen guys hurts. Needed the strike out there, or the DP, but give up the sac fly…
Unless he’s Barry Bonds you don’t pitch around the frigging lead off hitter. No guts, no glory.
Maybe they will but a weak BP performance today. These are the games were supposed to win, Boxhy being that brilliant handler of pitchers
Arizona looks like they’re for real this season. Good staff, and some hitting. Even without Upton…
let’s break the deja vu voodoo, fer feck sake
Belt comes through again with a clutch hard hit ball…
Damn.
SF was 0-10 today with RISP. Hope that stuff doesn’t start happening again on a regular basis…
It never really did happen a regular basis. In 2011 they actually hit a little better with RISP than “regular”, in 2012, just slightly worse.
Oh well. All along this offseason I’ve seen AZ as a threat to return to 2011 form; not sure I made my formal predictions in line with that. But whaddaya gonna do?
Another day of coaching mistakes, fielding mistakes and a bullpen fuck up to a divisional opponent. Other than their bullpen, DBacks just as good as Giants right now.
AZ always figured to be right there at the end. This is not new.
That last part of your statement is the most important “Right now”.
After Quiroz caught a very good game today, would not be surprised if Hector heads to Fresno soon, as Oracle has surmised. I don’t see what flexibility a third catcher really offers, except in a long extra inning affair, beyond what another OFer might, especially if that OFer can hit and run…
Well, lets not forget this is only April. 140 games to go. The Giants will play the D’Backs again, no reason to give them the crown just yet.
Yep, they play again early next week in AZ…
Arizona is a good team. With the Bum pitching woes, and the Rockies figuring to go feet up, they’re our competition. These games were lost by some uncharistically poor defense late, everything will be just mahvelous..
I’m still wanting to know what Bochy is doing with the Mijares/Lopez deal. He puts Mijares in with the game on the line and he throws a hit me belt high slider that Parra hit into LF over Craw for the go-ahead RBI. That used to be Lopez’ role, and he’s making the bigger cake. Lopez gets brought in later, so he’s not hurt. The obvious is that Bochy has lost confidence in Lopez, but I’m not sure its so clear Mijares is up for that more clutch role…
There’s no AB by Parra if Pagan doesn’t fuck up. The bigger issue is that the 9th inning in a tie game at home is for the closer. If Romo is too tender to handle it, he shouldn’t be the closer.
I didn’t get home till the Crawford HR, what did Pagan do?
Misplayed a fly into a double; I heard it, didn’t see it…
He did just like Torres last night. He doinked around with the ball a little bit and the guy took second base.
He misjudged a fly ball, it dropped in front of him,then he didn’t throw to second right away. It appeared he had the runner if he’d thown right away.
Point of emphasis for the outfielders- get the ball back into the infield quickly.
The ball falling in front of him is forgivable- he was staring straight into the sun. But not being aware of the guy taking second is not acceptable.
Sorry, these guys have it covered.
Just saw the play, having missed the game. What everyone says, another delayed mistake by an outfielder, very similar to Torres last night, and D-Backs again take advantage. This is Little League stuff: Get the damn ball in.
Misjudging the flyball would be more forgiveable if it didn’t happen so often.
Pagan gets a lot of slack in my book. The Giants did stuff like win a World Series with him as their centerfielder.
They won a WS with Torres playing CF, too. No one disputes that Vungo and Gregor are better defensively.
If you want to concern-troll Pagan again for the zillionth time, go for it. You’re the only one that’s worried about him.
deleted by Flavor…
And it is my contention that it was deleted unfairly. I will never tolerate being called a troll. Craig let him get away with it because I was mean to poor Z in my reply to him. Oh boo-hoo.
As far as Pagan, Bochy, in discussing the Pagan and Torres screw ups, called them both brain cramps. And it should be noted that Pagan said he didn’t lose the ball in the sun. It was just a bad read- noting that is a fact, and it’s not picking on him. Just as comments I made about Belt and Torres screwing up weren’t picking on them. It’s unfortunate and a total fabrication that I don’t criticize my “favorites”. Now we aren’t going to have Z calling me a troll again, are we now?
Btw, how about taking care of a real troll, this “Jeff” creature?
On to San Diego….we’ll see how their reconfigured ballpark plays these days.
Is there a reason that Angel can’t play LF? We have 3 CFers and he’s the worst defensively.
I think the sun was a problem in that Pagan misplay. When the Gyros were up next, the LF for the Dbacks somewhat misplayed Belt’s hard shot, the replay looks like he was having trouble seeing it. Pagan’s gotten a lot better as a CFer, he could stay there or switch with Blanco/Torres, it wouldn’t matter to me one way or the other. But, I’d just be concerned the switch might mess up all the guys heads a little, and I don’t think Pagan has played much LF in his career, has he?…
I don’t deny the sun was a problem,but bad routes and misjudged fly balls are nothing new to him. He did improve defensively in 2012, he’s regressed somewhat this year. As to playing LF, he’s played there in 109 games- but any CFer should be able to play LF.
LA’s Crawford does a Pagan, Baxter hustles to 2nd, Wright hits 2-out RBI single and the Mets tie the game.
Bums lose on walk-off grand slam!
loverly; just effing loverly
“Pablo Sandoval: The guy with a higher OPS+ since 2009 than Justin Upton, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Ryan Zimmerman, Aramis Ramirez, Adrian Beltre. Pablo Sandoval: Some kind of genius, or else some kind of disjointed fever dream that we’re all having together.”
That’s from Baseball Prospectus from an article about his wonderful Panda-ness. Here’s a pitch chart of his AB with Stults.Obviously, Stults walked him. Not so fast- Pablo swung at all 5 pitches, and on the fitfh, he got a hit and drove in a run. Note for Z- and it wasn’t in Fresno!!!
“Note for Z- and it wasn’t in Fresno!!!”
Awesome chart, dude.
Actually it is an awesome chart, pal.
I said it was awesome.
The sincerity was rather undermined by “dude”.
There was a book published a few weeks ago about the 1973 season. That especially caught my eye because ’73 was such a great season for Bobby Bonds. He took some grief in his career for strikeouts, but in our current SABR era that wouldn’t happen. He had several seasons of 80+ walks.
As we all know, that season he almost went 40/40 HRs and stolen bases, but “only” had 39 HRs, and was the MVP of the All-Star game. In his prime, what kind of money would he make now? Those kinds of thoughts must be pretty hard to handle for some of the old ballplayers of that era.
Here’s a description of the book from Amazon. It’s called “Swingin’ ’73,” by Matthew Silverman. I think I’ll end up getting it.
“In 1973, new rules changed baseball, and three legendary teams thrived by playing by their own rules.
Interest and attendance were dropping, and football was ascending. Stuck in a rut, baseball was sinking. Then George Steinbrenner bought the Yankees, a second-division relic with wife-swapping pitchers, leaving the House That Ruth Built not with a slam but a simper. He vowed not to interfere—and then did just that. Across town, Tom Seaver led the Mets’ stellar pitching line-up, and iconic outfielder Willie Mays was preparing to say goodbye. But for months, Yogi Berra’s boys couldn’t get it right. Meanwhile, across the country, maverick owner Charlie O. Finley was fighting to keep the hirsute A’s underpaid.
But beyond the muttonchops and mayhem lay another world. Elvis commanded a larger audience than the Apollo landings. A Dodge Dart cost $2,800, and gas 38 cents per gallon. Vietnam had ended, the vice president resigned, Watergate had taken over, and a fiscal crisis loomed. It was one of the most exciting years in baseball history, the first with the designated hitter and the last before arbitration and free agency. The two World Series opponents went head-to-head above the baby steps of a juggernaut that soon dwarfed both league champions. It was a turbulent time for the country and the game, neither of which would ever be the same again.”
Do you read these books, or just quote the Amazon descriptions? And it’s total petty bullshit to ignore suggestions for your Good Reads gig. Curt Smith is a writer on sports broadcasting who definitely should be included.But I suggested it, so no go.