Author Archives: TortureCast

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About TortureCast

The podcast by and for fans of the San Francisco Giants, hosted weekly by our duo of Chad King and Eric Nathanson.
by | May 27, 2016 · 1:51 PM

The Friday Five: Let’s go streaking!

Matt Cain poses for the Jr Giants handbook on Tuesday, February 19, 2013.

Matt Cain poses for the Jr Giants handbook on Tuesday, February 19, 2013.

The San Francisco Giants just keep winning. Since losing to Jake Arrieta and the Cubs last Friday night, they’ve gone on another winning streak. After the 8-game streak was snapped the Giants have put together 5 more in a row. That’s a win in 13 of their last 14 games.

On May 15 the Giants woke up tied for 1st place in the NL West with the rival Dodgers. This morning they are 4.5 games ahead of LA, and 6.5 ahead of the Rockies. That’s 11 days worth of baseball. This has been an amazing stretch by the Giants, so let’s take a look to see if it continues if it continues in this week’s Friday Five.

1) Believe it or not, the Giants have three separate road trips this season that bring them to 3 different cities. Amazingly, unlike years past, this time the team gets a day off right before the trip starts, and right after it ends. Tonight starts a 3-game series in the house of horrors known as Coors Field. After that it’s 4 in Atlanta, where the Braves are 2-17 this season, seriously. The trip wraps up with 3 in St Louis next weekend. But we’ll get to that next week.  Continue reading →

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by | May 20, 2016 · 1:03 PM

The Friday Five: Here Come The Cubs

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Johnny Cueto/Instagram

The San Francisco Giants are currently 25-18 and on an 8-game win streak. They lead the NL West by 3.5 games over both Colorado and LA. Will it last? Is this the team we were expecting? Well, kind of, but the pitching has been far better than imagined. So let’s take a look ahead to the weekend and back on the week that was in this edition of “The Friday Five”. Remember, I always look ahead before I look back. This is in case the Giants are struggling and I don’t want to focus on negative baseball things. Obviously, that’s not the case now.  Continue reading →

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by | May 18, 2016 · 2:55 PM

Episode 105: Timmy the Angel

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Hey, look at that. Brandon Belt getting hit on by a giraffe.

 

Download the episode here, or stream it below!

Chad and Eric are giddy about the Giants’ 6-game winning streak that is buoyed by the team’s pitching, with an ERA of 1.86 over that stretch. Cain has two consecutive great starts, and even Peavy wasn’t bad. The top three continue to dominate, all with sub-3 ERAs, and the 3 run homeruns by Peavy and Crawford were huge game-deciders.

Of course, there’s Timmy, who decided to sign with the Angels. Bochy said that he might look good in red, but we’re not so sure (*cough* 2002 *cough*).

Let’s keep this “first place” thing a thing.

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by | May 9, 2016 · 10:58 PM

Episode 104: Warriors are Better than Everyone Else

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You can download the episode here, or stream it below:

Or, play it directly from Podomatic

Eric and Chad record episode 104 to discuss the recent series split against Colorado, and the first loss of the 3 game series against Toronto. The fact that we’re HAPPY that Peavy ONLY gave up 3 runs in 5 innings tonight is a bit sad. The back end of the rotation is now 1-8, while the first three are 12-5. Timmy isn’t necessarily the answer, but we’re not sure the Giants have many other options.

Oh, and Steph Curry is a god.

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by | May 5, 2016 · 1:44 PM

Episode 103: They’re in First?

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Download the episode here, or stream it below

Play it on Podomatic

Chad goes solo in this short 103rd episode to talk about the latest homestand and road trip, who’s hot, and who’s not (*cough* Jake Peavy *cough*), and what to do about the struggles from the back end of the rotation.

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The Friday Five: Hello Big Apple

Johnny Cueto and Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants

AP Photo

Guess what? The San Francisco Giants are tied for first place again. The Dodgers just lost 4 straight to the Marlins (thanks secret agent Bonds), and both teams now have identical 12-11 records. After being swept by Arizona to open a 10-game homestand, the Giants responded by going 5-1 the rest of the way to bring their record back above .500.

Let’s dive right in to this week’s Friday Five.

1) The Giants start a 3-game series in New York against the reigning NL champion Mets this weekend. The Mets are 13-7, have won 6 straight games, and 9 of their last 10. The last 3 teams they played were the Phillies, Braves, and Reds, so the Mets did their job beating up on the bottom of the NL. Somehow, Neil Walker leads the Mets with 9 home runs but Yoenis Cespedes and Michael Conforto are the hitters to be most worried about this weekend. Continue reading →

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by | April 29, 2016 · 11:37 AM
by | April 22, 2016 · 12:58 PM

The Friday Five: Barry Returns

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Are you ready for an old friend to drop in?  I am. This 5-game losing streak sucks and the San Francisco Giants could use some inspiration. The Giants are 7-10, barely ahead of the Padres for last place in the NL West. There’s six games left in this homestand, it’s time to kick it in to gear.

1) The Miami Marlins are coming to town for a 3-game series at AT&T Park this weekend. You may have heard, Barry Bonds is their hitting coach. It will be the first time Bonds ever steps foot in AT&T Park in an opposing uniform. It’s not going to be weird though, right? It’s going to make sense seeing Barry standing next to Don Mattingly in the visitor’s dugout wearing a Marlins uni. Sure, why not? Nope, still weird. It’s going to take an adjustment. More on Barry later. Continue reading →

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by | April 18, 2016 · 2:36 PM

Episode 102: “The Bristol Curse”

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Download episode 102 here or stream it below!

In our 102nd podcast, Eric and Chad break down the second week of the 2016 season that saw the Giants go 2-4 while our livers broke down even more. Our G-men dropped 2 of 3 in each city of Denver and LA, but not all is lost as we look at the positives of Samardzija’s and Cueto’s starts. Posey snapped his 18 AB hitless streak, Romo and Adrianza went on the DL, Duffy’s slump, Derek Law made his dad very happy, we share our concerns about Peavy and Lopez, how Samardzija met his wife, and Vin Scully’s dulcet tones as he recounts how MadBum and his wife saved a rabbit from a rattlesnake’s belly. Don’t forget to follow us @TortureCast on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and check out our articles, including Eric’s “Friday Five” at TortureCast.com!

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by | April 15, 2016 · 12:37 PM

The Friday Five: Beat LA, Again

Samardzija

AP Photo

 

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. Continue reading →

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by | April 11, 2016 · 11:52 PM

Episode 101: First Week of 2016

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Download the episode here, or stream it below:

The Giants started the season 5-2, taking 2 of 3 in Milwaukee and 3 of 4 from LA. All 5 wins were from the comeback variety. The Giants also hit 14 homeruns and for the first time since 2003, hit homeruns in their first 7 games. Chad and Eric discuss the details of the week in episode 101 of the TortureCast!

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