Category Archives: blog

Linceblog: Tim Lincecum’s first inning blues; one pitch golfed into the stands makes all the difference.

cuLincenohitterday_edited

(Lincecum pictured here on a much better day).

He still made batters miss tonight. But the Giants’ Tim Lincecum’s  28 pitch 1st inning set the tone against the Rockies Wednesday night.

A walk and a hit put runners on base for Colorado batter Nolan Arenado, last night’s defensive star.  ‘

Tonight he was the offensive star.

With two pitches, Lincecum fooled him badly and looked like he had him with two strikes in the count. But Arenado anticipated the next pitch, a slow curve outside, and golfed it into the left centerfield seats to make it 3-0, Rockies.

Usually you can weather that if you have a decent offense.

But when you have a team that can barely muster a run, giving up three in the first make the home team’s bats even heavier.

Lincecum had some good ball movement in the first. But he isn’t showing much velocity. His fastball only hit the gun at 88 mph, which doesn’t make for enough of a speed variance to fool hitters consistently.

The Arenado sequence went 72, 80, 78.  Even with some movement, the pitches start looking the same.  Lincecum tried one more slop pitch away and Arenado got him.

Lincecum’s line didn’t look all that  bad.  He went 5 innings;  88 pitches; gave up 6 hits; 4 runs, 3 earned,1 walk (good control), and 4 strikeouts (he still fooled some of them).

He just didn’t get run support.

But then, this is the team that scores in the post season with  sac bunts, double plays and normal outs.

It just seems more charming in the post-season. Early in the regular season, it just seems …less  charming.

Giants got back a run in the first with Aoki (HBP) and Pagan with an RBI single scratching out some offense.

They didn’t get shut out.

The Rocks added a run in the second  to make it 4-1.

And you know Lincecum would have wanted that one pitch to Arenado back, as he watched the rest of the game from the dugout.

UPDATE: Matt Duffy added a homerun for the Giants in the bottom of the 8th.  And that made the score appropriate for Jackie Robinson Day.  In a game where everyone wore No.42, the score ended up appropriately, 4-2.

 

 

Emil Guillermo: SF Giants may miss Panda more than they think, but maybe they can build an identity around Nori Aoki?

For non-fans of the SF Giants, “C. Heston” is Chris, not Charlton.

But the way the team is running these days, they can use a guy who can walk on water.

Still, they’d settle for someone who could hit with men on base.

In the home opener, the Giants left 12 men on base and went 0-7 with runners in scoring position.

That’s a lot of offensive tease and fail. It’s a pattern Giants observers have seen before.

The Giants lost to the Rockies just 2-0, making the home team’s opening day highlight Heston’s good pitching which kept the game close. (I mean we’re not counting Madbum on the horse as a game highlight, are we?)

On these kind of pop-less bat  days, Giants fans may have to grow to love Nori Aoki.

noriaokiondeck

That’s Aoki doing his impression of Buster Posey.

From the first at bat at the leadoff position, Aoki was  offensive spark on Monday.

The new Giants left-fielder has a 16-game hitting streak dating back to last season with World Series opponent, the Kansas City  Royals, who incidentally  have started the new season undefeated.

Aoki, a skilled contact hitter, finished the opener with two hits and is now hitting .412. .

Shouldn’t take long for fans, especially with the Giants large Asian American fan base, to warm up to Aoki.

But maybe the Giants will end up missing Kung Fu Panda, Pablo Sandoval more than they think.

Sandoval  made his mark in October and with his  big personality, it all contributed to the Giants identity as a champion.

Now that he’s gone, the team is really all about Posey and the pitchers.

And almost all of them  are “lead by example” guys.

Sandoval led by his gut, literally and figuratively. Even when he was in a down cycle production wise, he was still entertaining to watch.

Maybe Pence will come back after his injury and spark the team.

But I sure felt the loss of Sandoval in the home park when I was there on Monday.

It’s just strange not seeing any panda hats in the stands for the first time in years.

Remember those days?

pandapandas

This was from the2014 post-season.

I guess we can’t expect them  to be playing like that in April.

That’s why they play 162.

UPDATE: Again on Tuesday night, Giants abysmal with runners in scoring position.  Hudson, like Heston on opening day, pitched well enough to keep the game close. If he had any run support, it would have been good enough. But it’s  tough when you have three-run pitching and a no-run offense.

Giants score to make it 3-1 in 8th,  as Matt Duffy  gets an RBI on a sacrifice fly to right. It comes  only after a runner moved up on a foul-out.  Sound familiar? That’s the Giants post-season offense last year—the productive out strategy. But then Posey’s 8th inning blast to center turns into a long non-productive out.  And the inning and the threat ends.

Two runs in the 9th to extend, three to win? It’s not October.

UPDATE: Game ends, 4-1, Rockies. The last two out by the two early season heroes. Justin Maxwell strikes out looking. And Aoki strikes out swinging.  Five losses in a row. The champs rely on the Freak to play stopper on Wednesday.

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Emil Guillermo: Here’s the relative worth of chess to golf on the same weekend that their respective masters played.

At the U.S. Chess Championships, Hikaru Nakamura, 27, won the crown and $45,000.

hikaru

Total prize money for all the  players at the U.S. Chess Championshps? Around $175,000.

In other words, it’s about the amount  golfer Jordan Spieth should tip his caddy.

For the Master’s win, Spieth won $1.8 million.

No wonder Hikaru’s looking down.

If you play chess,  better to trade your queen for a set of Calloways.

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Emil Guillermo: Did you get an email from Hillary Clinton? I think Ted Cruz wants you to think it’s encrypted with old state department secrets…

Now all we need is someone to play Ralph Nader and that should wrap up casting for big show in  2016 .

And shouldn’t there be an Asian American? Maybe to be in position to squeak in for veep in either party?

https://www.hillaryclinton.com/running

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