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We’re through 10 games of the 2016 San Francisco Giants season and the team currently sits at 6-4. Right now it’s a tie atop the NL West with the Dodgers, who share the same 6-4 record. Although we all know that 3 of those 4 losses came at the hands of our guys in orange and black.
So let’s look ahead to the weekend and recap another week that was in The Friday Five.
1) It’s time for Giants-Dodgers part 2. The series kicks off with Madison Bumgarner vs Clayton Kershaw tonight at Dodger Stadium. Let’s hope this time Bumgarner and the bats don’t leave it up to the bullpen. Saturday night has Johnny Cueto vs Scott Kazmir. It appears that Cueto is all right after taking a tumble during the comeback victory over the Dodgers last week.
The Giants-Dodgers get primetime treatment and will be on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball. So it will be that funky time of day for a game on the west coast. Jeff Samardzija gets introduced to the rivalry and is coming off a stellar start Tuesday night at Coors Field. He limited the Rockies to 2 runs in 8 innings and gave the bullpen a rest as the Giants offense did their work. The Dodgers counter with RHP Kenta Maeda, a 28-year old rookie that has come over from Japan to play in LA. In 12 innings of work Maeda has given up 10 hits but hasn’t allowed a run.
2) Now some of the bad news. The Giants just lost 2 of 3 in Colorado and are a little banged up. Sergio Romo has been put on the 15-day DL with a flexor strain in his right elbow. He’s not even supposed to pick up a baseball for 2 weeks. Right hander Derek Law has been called up and will make his MLB debut whenever he enters a game. Buster Posey’s foot has been sore and he only played 6 innings against the Rockies. Joe Panik has a sore hip and sat out yesterday, and Ehire Adrianza fouled a ball off his foot and is day-to-day. Oh yeah, Brandon Crawford also has a sore hip. The infield is suddenly the walking wounded.
Note: Since publishing it’s been reported Ehire Adrianza has a fracture in his foot and will be out 6 weeks. A roster move is to come and I have no idea what it is, so don’t ask.
We don’t have to talk about the 5th inning root canal the Rockies gave the Giants yesterday. Let’s focus on something positive to come out of Coors Field. The Giants have homered in each of their first 10 games. Our pitching and defense first team has become a bunch of sluggers. Not to get lost either was Samardzija’s 8 innings on Tuesday. He showed us he can eat innings as well as keep the Giants in ball games.
3) Ryan Vogelsong got his first win for the Pirates since 2005 the other day. He pitched 2 innings in relief during a victory over the Reds. So far, Vogey hasn’t been limited to mop up duty. He got a start against Detroit and pitched 5 innings of 1-run ball while striking out 5 and walking none. Cheers to Vogey on a good and healthy season!
4) Tweet of the week, congrats to the Golden State Warriors and all the fans. Which is 3/4ths of this podcast:
#H73TORY pic.twitter.com/AsvoU92Xj7
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) April 14, 2016
5) Some links from the interwebs:
Earlier this week on TortureCast, I proclaimed the Giants would score 30 runs in Colorado. That didn’t happen.
Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area looked back on a college no-hitter thrown by Josh Osich against Downtown Trever Brown’s team.
Denard Span took over the Brandons Blog and wrote about what it’s like to come to the Giants as a free agent.
MLB rolled out new uniforms for the All-Star Game and every holiday imaginable. I love the Mother’s Day set and hate the HR derby stuff. The Giants do not look good in Padres colors.
Bruce Bochy shared why has the best job in baseball. Interesting little fact I noticed when reading this. Bruce Bochy is the 4th Giants manager all-time to be at the helm for 10 seasons. The other 3 are John McGraw, Bill Terry, and Dusty Baker. One other note on this, since Roger Craig took over for the late Jim Davenport in 1985, the Giants have had a total of 4 managers. The list is Craig, Baker, Felipe Alou, and Bochy.
After the LA series this weekend the Giants will come home for a 10-game homestand starting next Monday. Check back then for an all new TorutreCast podcast before the Giants host the D-Backs.
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Have a great weekend everybody, and most importantly, BEAT LA!
-Eric
The TortureCast 