Tag Archives: baseball

by | June 24, 2016 · 12:40 PM

The Friday Five: Road Warriors Return Home

Panik

AP Photo

The San Francisco Giants are heading home after a 6-1 road trip. They are 47-27, and 6 games up on the Dodgers. The Giants’ 47 wins are tied for the most in baseball with the Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers. It’s the third best 74 game start for the Giants in the San Francisco era behind 1993 (50-24! grrr) and 1971 (48-26). That 1971 team had 4 Hall of Famers, including an aging, but effective, Willie Mays.

I can’t stop looking at all these winning numbers. On April 21st, the D-Backs beat the Giants to complete a 4-game sweep and send the Giants 4.5 games behind first place LA. The Giants were 7-10, the low water mark of the season. Since then they have gone 39-17 (.629), the best record in MLB, and gained 10.5 games on the Dodgers. That’s a span of 9 weeks, an average of more than one game gained per week.

The Giants have won 11 of 12 heading in to the weekend. After the great road trip, the Giants are now 25-14 (.641) away from home, the 2nd best win percentage and most wins in baseball. They’re not too shabby at AT&T Park either, sporting a 22-13 (.628) record, which is second in the NL behind the Cubs.

Between today, and the All-Star Break, the Giants only travel once, to Arizona for 3 games next weekend. They don’t play a club that currently has a winning record until July 19th in Boston. There’s a chance for the Giants to keep streaking and try to distance themselves from the rest of the NL West. So let’s look ahead to the weekend and enjoy that 6-1 road trip one more time in this week’s Friday Five. Continue reading →

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by | June 21, 2016 · 2:19 PM

Episode 107: Keep Those Winning Streaks Coming!

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MadBum has allowed 2 ER or fewer in his last one million starts (photo courtesey of fxtribune.com)

Download the episode here!

Or, play it on Podomatic here! Or stream it below!

Chad and Eric talk about the Giants’ second 8 game winning streak of the season, the incredible pitching they have been benefiting from, All-Star voting, Duffy’s injury, who’s hot, and Timmy’s great performance in his first start with the Angels. And, if you’re not a Warriors fan, don’t listen to the first part of the podcast as Chad laments on what could have been the completion to a historic season.

Damn Warriors.

Chad

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by | June 13, 2016 · 5:18 PM

Episode 106: LA Beaten

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Buster Posey has magical powers

Click here to visit episode 106 on Podomatic

Click here to download the episode, or stream it below.

Chad and Eric discuss the weekend series against the Dodgers, which saw the Giants take 2 out of 3 very close, fun and competitive games. Other topics include splash hit #69, Belt’s offensive surge, Posey’s recent struggles, Timmy’s AAA starts for the Angels, MadBum wanting to participate in the homerun derby, and the Giants’ interest in a trade for Ryan Braun now that Pence is on the shelf until August.

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by | June 3, 2016 · 9:06 AM

The Friday Five: Life after Hunter

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Getty Images

It’s been a rough week despite the San Francisco Giants going 4-3 over their first 7 games of this 10-game road trip. During Wednesday night’s game in Atlanta, Hunter Pence left the game with what is being called a “severly strained” hamstring. In typical Pence fashion, he smelled an infied hit as he sent a slow roller towards 3rd base and burst out of the box, but it didn’t end with a hit. Hunter pulled up, grabbed his right hamstring, and stopped.

He’s on the 15-day DL, and will probably be out for a while. Update: Pence is having surgery and will miss 2 months. Jarrett Parker got the start yesterday  and will probably split time with Mac Williamson, who was recalled from Sacramento. With Angel Pagan still on the shelf that makes the Giants play with a regular outfield of Gregor Blanco, Denard Span, and the Parker/Williamson combo. Just like we all were dreaming of back in March.

Anyway, losing Pence sucks, but gaining ground on the Dodgers doesn’t. The Giants are now 5.5 games ahead of their rival in LA. Yesterday was the first time in 12 days the Giants were able to expand their lead. During the previous 11 days the Giants and Dodgers had the exact same result, every day. So let’s poke around with this week’s, Friday Five.  Continue reading →

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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 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?

peavy

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 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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