Category Archives: SF Giants

Emil Guillermo: Too bad Chris Heston’s No-hitter comes during those NBA Finals–Warriors should be playing so well.

There’s an attitude in the Warriors that is so super cool, and nonchalant. It’s hipster basketball. They’re good. They know it.  And throughout the season, most people have given them the space to do their thing. But now in the compressed space of a 7-game series, every loose ball becomes a challenge point. But the Warriors stop, the Cavs keep going.  That’s the margin for champions.

Solution: Show up Warriors, at the start. Don’t be too cool for the room. Get hot. You can’t take three quarters to heat up like grandpa’s hot plate. Start with a boil. Go amok. Otherwise, let fans know you’re not in it, so we can start paying attention to the Giants.

There’s still time. But  you don’t show up to a brawl with LeBron James and expect to be able to finesse your way to victory.

They show up with a sledge hammer and dynamite. The Dubs show up with a Swiss army knife and the flashlight on their iPhones.

Ah, but those Giants.

Chris Heston showed up on Tuesday. I’d like to see LeBron James hit his curve ball. The Metropolitans played like Podunkers.  And the Giants gave their pitcher support. Joe Panik showed his “home” fans his stuff and solidifies the notion that he’s the guy at Second Base.  This night it was his bat. The World Series showed us his glove.  But thank god for Heston. In a season where the vets are rocky, hurt, or recovering, Madbum is still the guy. But Heston.  The no-hitter puts him up their with Charlton. He could  be their rookie Moses to help lead the Giants to baseball’s October promised land.

Get to know Heston:

He really is nicknamed “Hesto Presto.”

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Emil Guillermo’s Linceblog: (updated) Tim had it a little bit, the Giants not at all; Bad mojo extends through Sunday. But Pirates start week with pleasant memory.

Tim Lincecum looked like he had his stuff.  Especially after the first inning when he induced two ground ball outs and struck out Atlanta’s Freddie Freeman.

As Lincecum walked back to the dugout, maybe he should have kept walking.

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He had 5 strikeouts after 4 innings, and had at most 1 walk. But the Braves were hitting them were they ain’t, scratching out one run each in innings 2-5. Suddenly, the Braves were up 4-0 and Lincecum’s home scoreless streak–which  had been at 22 innings before the game, the longest active scoreless  streak in the Majors– was a distant memory.

Lincecum was done after 4 1/3 innings, with this line: 8 hits, 4 runs, all earned, 4 BB, 5 Ks, and an ERA of 3. He threw just 83 pitches, 63 for strikes.

Close enough maybe for the Giants, the best team in baseball in May, to mount a comeback?

But the difference was Braves pitcher Williams Perez, who in his third major league gets his first win.

The 24-year-old right-hander had thrown five scoreless innings against  the Dodgers in LA last Monday.  On this night he topped it with 7 scoreless against the Giants at AT&T.

Perez scattered four hits, walked 4, struck out 3.

He had the Giants number more than Lincecum had the Braves where he wanted them.

After the game, Lincecum admitted he was pressured by the Braves leadoff hitters. “They had me working out of the stretch a lot, taking an extra base as well. Stealing a couple of bases definitely put some pressure on me and I had to make better pitches in those scenarios. They put some pretty good swings on some pretty good pitches.”

That they did. And the Giants didn’t.

Surprisingly, the Giants did have 8 hits and left 11 on bases.  But they never seemed to be really in this game offensively.

The Braves were, and finished with 8 runs, 14 hits.

With the season about  a 1/3 done, this is a game best forgotten by all.

But it was a bobble-head night.

UPDATE:

Whatever ailed Lincecum and the Giants on Saturday continued on through Sunday. Bumgarner looked good, until he gave up that homer to ex-teammate Uribe. The Giants seemed to come back on a Joe Panik home run. But homers by Panik, Belt and Crawford just weren’t enough. A blown save by Casilla, an error by Crawford, and the little things add up to a second loss to Atlanta.

Next, the Pittsburgh  Pirates.

Last time the two teams met was last year in October. It was the wild Wild Card game, one game, sudden death, winner takes on the Nats.  Bumgarner was dominant. Crawford hit a grand slam.  That’s the memory you live on.  You forget this past weekend.

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Emil Guillermo’s Linceblog: It’s Timmy Day again at the ball park

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Giants fans still look forward to every Lincecum start. Especially Filipino baseball fans the world over, as Lincecum remains the best ever-part Filipino baseball player to play in the Majors.

Saturday night the two-time Cy Young Award winner makes his 10th start of the season, and what a season.

He’s back to the Timmy of old at 5-2, and a 2.56 ERA in nine starts.

He looks good for tonight. Last year he was 2-0 against tonight’s opponents, the Braves with an ERA of 1.32.

The Giants overall just look good these days. If pace makes the race, they’ve reversed the trend of “fast start, lousy May” of previous years (remember 2013?). Now it’s lousy start, strong May, stronger June?

They’ve won seven of their last 8 at home. The Giants are hitting, fielding, pitching.

And now they’ve overtaken the Dodgers to be first in the NL West.

Can the defending world champs make it last?

Emil Guillermo’s Linceblog: Good night for Lincecum–shutout ball, strikeout milestone, good control; Giants’ bats inspired; Win!

We got the good Tim Lincecum tonight– unfortunately for the Dodgers.

The Linceline reads: 7 innings, 3 hits, 0 runs, 2 BB,4 Ks,  ERA 2.08.

Lincecum showed superb command and got to the 7th inning  with  106 pitches, 69 for strikes.

The strikeouts put  Lincecum at 1,680 for his career, surpassing  Giants’ great Carl “The Meal Ticket” Hubbell for third place among all-time Giants pitchers.

The Giants gave Lincecum  some good defensive support, but at first didn’t seem interested in providing much run support.

But remember, this is May 2015, and the Giants have discovered their offense.

A Crawford single in the 6th drove in Buster Posey to break a scoreless game.

The Giants scratched out another run in the 7th, when Joe Panik singled home Casey McGhee, who was on third after a walk, ground out and wild pitch.

And when that seemed sufficient, Buster Posey put one in the left-center field seats for good measure, clearing the bases, to make it 4-0 after 7.

Posey also made a great catch in foul territory, off the rail of the First Base dugout in the 8th.

And  that was it.

The Giants and Lincecum are back on a roll at home.

And the Dodgers? The team that so desperately wants to  be the best team money can buy is struggling these days, especially  against their rivals.

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