Category Archives: SF Giants

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Linceblog: 442nd hero Lawson Sakai honored at San Francisco Giants Japanese Heritage Night; Then Cliff Lee and Phils end the Giants’ win streak with 6-2 beatdown; UPDATE-Giants doppleganged 6-2, by right-handed Lee clone

Lawson Sakai, 442 vet and Congressional Gold Medal awardee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Throwing out the first pitch on this night was a man who was playing third base for his college baseball team during the Pearl Harbor attack.

Lawson Sakai was a student at Compton College in Los Angeles,  but when Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during the war, his family was sent to live in Manzanar. While in camp, he volunteered for the Army where he served with the celebrated 442nd. The late Senator Dan Inouye was one of his company mates.

Sakai said he was saddened when his close friend died last year in December.  “He said Hawaii would lose so much if he retired,” said Sakai. “So he died with his boots on.”

 

left to right: Col. Brian Shiroyama; USAF Capt Kiyo Sato; Asa Hanamoto; Sakai; Terry Nakanishi, Women’s Army Corps, MIS; Dr.Howard Kline, physician to Nisei vets.

 

 

Sakai, 90 in October, is  retired and living in the South Bay, where he is a Giants fan and often reflects on what the 442nd accomplished.

“We were really outcasts, in 1943,” said Sakai. “If the Nisei didn’t join the 442nd and fight the Germans, we (Japanese Americans)  would not be here today.”

 

89-year-old Sakai throws out the first pitch

 

Now for the other pitches of the night in the actual game.

Oh yeah, the game.

This was supposed to be a pitching duel between the Phillies’ Cliff Lee, and the Giants’ best pitcher of the season, Madison Bumgarner.

In addition, the Giants came into this game euphoric with a six-game streak after sweeping the Dodgers.  The Giants are now also the official comeback kids of the National League, tied with the Orioles in the Majors with 11  late rally victories.

That’s a lot of drama.

So you know it was OK to spot the Philadelphia Phillies for 3 runs in the 2nd.

They would come back, right? Even with Cliff Lee, who’s been 3-0 with a 0.51 ERA at AT&T Park?

Big question marks.

For the Giants, only Hunter Pence stayed streaky hot. He homered in the bottom of the 2nd, and scored  the Giants second run after a double in the 8th.

He was the lone offensive spark on a night the other Giants couldn’t get on base.

So there was no drama. This was more an informercial for Phillies starter Cliff Lee.

The night belonged to Lee, who scattered five hits (including the Pence HR), and kept the Giants at bay with 6 strikeouts.

Bumgarner had 7 strikeouts, but the Phillies were hitting him hard all night.

S’not his night, you might say. 

Bum’s line: 8 hits, 5 runs, one homer run, 2 wild pitches, 100 pitches in all.

That really might have been enough to win if the Giants were hitting like they did in the Dodger series.

No such luck with the Phillies, not when Cliff Lee is on his game to shut down the drama.

UPDATE-5-8-2013  Giants doppleganged as Phils win again 6-2 

 On the anniversary of the first Japanese immigrants’ arrival to the U.S. (May 7, 1843), the coincidence of having a Filipino American starting pitcher may have seemed like the stars were aligned for the Giants on Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

But Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick doesn’t know much about history—as Sam Cook would say.

He created his own history against the Giants, facing them for the first time and making them look foolish at the plate

In 7 innings, Kendrick gave up just 6 hits, 2 runs, and posted six  strikeouts, with no walks.

He had it going.

And Giants hero Tim Lincecum didn’t.

Lince’s line: 7 innings, 9 hits, 5 runs, 3 walks, 7 strikeouts, 1 HR.

Getting to be a similar story each Lince-start.  Signs of brilliance, but it takes a while for it to show in a game. If he’s not on right away, he starts losing it. Runs score, maybe a big inning. And then he settles, is good. And then it’s up to the hitters. That’s the pattern.

Pitching wise, Lincecum doesn’t talk mechanics so much as his “rhythm.”  His rhythm is like a dancer’s. If he’s out of step, he’s all left feet.  In ballet, in baseball, it’s subtle but noticeable. 

Still, it may have been a good enough effort to win, if the Giants’ batters were able to solve Kendrick.

They weren’t.

The Giants were out-pitched,  out-hit, 12-7, and with  2 errors, out-played.

This early in the season, all you can say is, “Next.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Linceblog:Giants win 4-3, survive late Dodger surge to sweep series as Hunter Pence delivers key hits, Romo saves Cain’s first victory

Hunter Pence had played every inning for the Giants so far this year, and is the only Giant to do so  (that’s 30 games, 271.1 innings coming into the final game of this Dodger series). 

Good thing he didn’t take Sunday off.

Pence  drove in 4 runs, breaking out of a slump where he had just 5 hits in the last 32 ABs (.156)

It’s a hidden stat.  While he’s .328 with no one on base, he’s just .211 with runners on.

But on this night, Pence was hotter than the Mexican army at the Battle of Puebla, as the Giants staved off the Dodgers 4-3.

In the first inning, Pence’s fielder’s choice with the bases loaded, scored a run, but seemed like a mild improvement over his norm.

Then in the 3rd, with two runners on, Pence took advantage of Dodger starter Hyun-Jin Ryu’s control issues.  After  walking Buster Posey on four straight pitches,  Ryu threw three straight balls to Pence before coming into the zone for a strike. Pence promptly punched it down the left field line for a double, scoring  Marco Scutaro for a 2-0 Giant lead.

Then in the bottom of the 5th, after Ryu walked Sandoval  on four pitches, and gave up a hard  Posey single to center, Pence came up and delivered again— a double off the brick wall in right.

Both runners scored, giving a four-run margin and confidence to Matt Cain.

The Giants ace, who entered the game winless in six starts with an 0-2 record and an ERA of 6.49, was in control on this night.

After 6 innings, he was cruising on 91 pitches and 57 strikes. The Dodgers never seriously threatened.

Only in the 8th when Cain left, did the bullpen struggle.  The Giants had the lead, so this wasn’t a comeback situation  like the previous five victories, but it almost became one.

Adrian Gonzalez, pinch-hitting with the bases loaded and two outs, singled through the hole at second and drove in two runs  off Jeremy Affeldt, the third reliever for the Giants in the game.

Affeldt’s quick appearance ended after Dee Gordon’s  infield hit scored a third run in the inning to shave the score to 4-3.

With runners on first and second, Jean Machi came in to get pinch hitter Jerry Hairston to hit a grounder to Brandon Crawford at short, whose throw just barely got the speedy Hairston.

That set up the bottom of the 9th for closer Sergio Romo, and on Cinco De Mayo no less.

Romo, facing the top of the order, got Crawford to fly out to center. Then Nick Punto flied out to left. 

It left a classic showdown for the final out between Romo and the Dodger slugger Matt Kemp.

Romo had the count to 1-2 on Kemp, who then flied out harmlessly to Torres in center.

Could there be a better finale on a Sergio Romo gnome giveaway day? A better way to end a Giant/Dodger series sweep?

 

 

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Linceblog: Metallica sets tone, but Giants acoustic until Posey rocks the yard; Another game that defines the Giant-Dodger rivalry;UPDATE: Game 2 of series–a Guillermo walk-off homer

 

It wasn’t just the Dodgers and Giants at AT&T Park on Friday. It was the Dodgers and Giants and Metallica, one of the world’s most famous rock and roll bands ever.

 

Heavy Metal Baseballers:Metallica

Metallica? Just the net worth of lead singer James Hetfield is estimated at $175 million, a not so quiet fortune. He and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett both hail from the Bay Area. And Hammett is a Filipino American to boot–from the city’s Mission district.

 “18th and South Van Ness,” he said to me. “I played Little League for St. Charles.”

St. Charles?  Oh ,yeah. I’m a few years older than Hammett. But I was a Dolores Park guy back then, and I remember those guys with the gray khakis and the red sweaters and our teams  (me and Marcelino Dumpit) used to whip up on all the St. Charles teams we played.

Except, clearly we would have been trounced if they had a CYO heavy metal team and we had to jam with  the likes of Hammett.

I mean how could I compete with  my effing clarinet.

 

Hammett, big league axe in hand, did a version of the Star Spangled Banner that had shades of Jimi .

It should have set the tone for one heck-of-a-rocking-game. Even the scoreboard had the Giants’ pictures in Metallica drag.

 

 

Metal drag: They don’t call him Buster for nothing

 

 

And it did set a tone,  but the  game was more like an acoustic fantasy for the Giants.

So did the park rock? Nope. The Giants bats were unplugged.

The Dodger’s Clayton Kershaw had the Giants stymied with a perfect game through the first third of the game, and a no-hitter until the Giants’ Marco Scutaro tripled in the 6th.

Kershaw would go from 74 mph to 94 mph and back in one sequence to show how it kept batters off balance all night.

The Giants Barry Zito was almost as good, but with more key defensive help. In the 3rd and 4th innings, Dodger rallies died because of timely variations of the Arias/Scutaro/Belt double play.

But it looked like Kershaw would beat them again with his arm and his bat when he doubled to lead off the 5th.  A sac bunt moved him to third where he should have stayed, but a ground ball to Arias was too deep to start a double play.  But that allowed Kershaw to score the only run he might need–he was going that well.

A better ground ball came from the next batter, the dangerous Kemp, and this time, the Giants turned a DP to end the inning and limit the damage to just one run.

One run down? That’s just the beginning of the game for the 2013 Giants, who came into the game tied with the Pirates for most comebacks in the National League (9).

In their half of the 6th, the Giants woke up with the Scutaro triple, and scored on a Buster Posey double. 

With the game tied, Hunter Pence singled to center. Posey, running on contact with two out, rounded third and was waved on home to get the go-ahead run.

For Posey, it was nearly a reverse déjà vu moment that produced that heartbreaking moment Giants fans never forget from 2011.  

Only this time Posey was the runner, not the catcher. Would Posey score? Would he barrel into Dodger catcher A.J. Ellis for the dramatic and courageous go-ahead?

Kemp’s throw to the plate was perfect and beat Posey without question. He slid sensibly into the tag and saved the big splash for later. He was instinctively saving the passion and the drama for later.

Posey had another scenario in mind.

In the bottom of the ninth, game tied, facing the Dodger’ reliever Ronald Belisario, and a 3-2 count,  Posey knew exactly where to put the exclamation point in this game.

You need a shot in the arm? There’s nothing like a walk-off home-run against your dreaded rivals.  

Metallica? On the very last play of the game, AT&T was finally plugged-in and rocking, another game that adds to the legend of the Giant-Dodger rivalry.

UPDATE: A GUILLERMO WINS ONE FOR THE GIANTS IN SECOND GAME OF THE SERIES

Another win for the Giants (five straight), all comebacks, and the second in-a-row with a walk-off home run.

This time the hero is Guillermo Quiroz, the third-string catcher and minor league careerist,  who lives for moments like the bottom of the 10th.  As a pinch-hitter, Quiroz was the last position player available to Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy.

No one expected what would happen next.

Quiroz hit a beleagurered Dodger reliever’s pitch into the left field bleachers,  just as Buster Posey did the night before, to give the Giants a 10-9 win.

It was another classic Giant/Dodger game, a highly offensive affair that featured 19 runs and 30 hits between the two teams.

The walk-off home run for the Giants was the 12th in the LA/SF series since the two teams moved west in 1958.

 

 

 

 

 

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Linceblog: Filipino American fans see great game, but no San Francisco Giants victory on heritage night

The Giants should have taken a cue from the tinikling dancers.

You just can’t afford to make errors in the field when you’re a tinikling dancer.

Same goes for a baseball team.

Bowls, gloves, you can’t mess up–not on the field.

Playing the field, dancing with a bowl on your head, errors are costly.

 

The Giants made three deadly errors, that pretty much made the difference in the night’s 6-4 loss.

From the first play on a Parra groundball that led to the first run, to the last inning. The Giants made it exciting by tying the game in the 9th, 4-4. But in the 11th, a series of miscues gave the Diamondbacks the go-ahead runs. There was a misplayed ball by Torres in left that allowed a runner to second. Then a bad throw by Sandoval at third , dropped by Belt at first, followed by a wild pitch that scored a run.  For good measure, the Diamondback’s Parra doubled and another run scored.

A tough night considering the Giants staged a rally as if on Filipino Time, i.e., late.

Two-runs in the eighth, and two-more on a home run by Belt tied the game and thrilled the chilled crowd. But it wasn’t  enough to send fans home happy.

Those with theFilipino Night tickets got special scarves with the number of baseball’s premier Filipino American player, Tim Lincecum, No. 55.

Fan holds up scarf that features number of the premier Filipino American ball player in the majors

There may not be many Filipino American ball players in the “beeg leegs.”  And that makes diversity nights like this one at the Giants’ AT&T Park are important.  There was even a Filipino American ball dude–No. 6, Vince Gomez, retired music teacher.

 

Heritage nights bond the team and the game to the community, and makes a public event like a baseball game a special one. This is what sports does for us these days. It’s the reason the Boston Marathon bombs were so jarring, and why it was important for baseball as a game to respond the way it has to that tragedy.

 

When you include the fans in the stands, baseball really is a reflection of the country, even to how we’re somewhat stratified by where we sit and the ticket we can afford. But we’re all watching the same game, and cheering for the same team.

 

Better yet, though seasonal, it happens everyday, just like life.

 

When you win, you celebrate. And when you lose, you reflect, and get back up.  No time to get down. There’s another game today.

That’s baseball.