By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
SANTA CLARA — This is how you start, how the 49ers start, by choosing, talented, intelligent players, by selecting men you’ve judged to be one of the best — and your opinion is shared by others, even the television analysts who could find fault with Miss Universe.
Hey, she’s slow getting off the line.
©2017 The San Francisco Examiner
By Art Spander
SAN FRANCISCO — That’s who they are. Bruce Bochy said it about the Giants. He didn’t mean losing to the Dodgers, as they did, 2-1, Tuesday night. He meant pitching well and fielding well and having chances to win, unlike those three games at the end of last week against the Rockies in Denver.
The Giants, built on pitching, desperate for hitting, lacked both in those games, losing them 12-3 and 8-0, respectively. That can happen at Coors Field, said Bochy.
But it didn’t happen for the Giants, just against them, against a staff that is supposedly among the best in baseball but last in the National League with an earned run average above 5. After two beautifully pitched games at AT&T Park against L.A., a 2-1 win followed by a 2-1 defeat, their ERA is still is up there at 4.39.
You allow only three runs total in two games, win or loss, and you can’t be displeased. Bochy wasn’t. The way Matt Cain pitched Monday, then Ty Blach — the spot starter, filling in for Madison Bumgarner — pitched Tuesday, had Bochy believing once again.
Had he been on the mound, and not on the disabled list — you do know about that dirt bike accident, of course — Bumgarner couldn’t have pitched much better or had much less offensive support than Blach. Then again, the guy starting and starring for the Dodgers, Clayton Kershaw, is a Cy Young Award winner.
“All we ask,” said Bochy, “is our starters give us a chance to win.” Blach, a lefty like Bumgarner — and Kershaw — certainly did that. He also doubled to lead off the third, then after a couple of strikeouts scored the game’s first run on Buster Posey’s single. That the Dodgers, quality team that they are, responded with two runs in the top of the fourth, showed why L.A. is the favorite in National League West.
In this agonizing season of injuries and inconsistency — on Tuesday night, Brandon Crawford strained his right groin rounding first base after a single in the eighth — the Giants are trying to stay close and relevant. And, reminded Bochy, play their style of baseball, keeping in the game, as they did against the Dodgers, as they didn’t do against the Rockies.
They brought up the kid everyone thinks will be the star of the future, the next Buster Posey, infielder Christian Arroyo — only a few days after the front office said he would stay in the minors for a while. On Tuesday, Arroyo, 21, got his first major league hit, off the brilliant Kershaw, no less. His family was in the stands.
An omen for the Giants? Could be. As the injury to Crawford could be. Posey was out with a possible concussion. Cain pulled a hamstring. Bumgarner tumbling on his pitching arm and destined to miss two months. So much pain, and very little gain.
Crawford was to travel Wednesday to southern California to attend family services for his sister-in-law, who died last week. He would be on bereavement leave for three days. Bochy hoped Crawford would get an MRI before departing, but Crawford didn’t think it would be possible given time constraints.
“I’ve never had anything like this before,” said Crawford about the injury, “so I can’t tell you how bad it is.”
The other day, after losing four in a row, one to Kansas City and then the three to Colorado, the question was how bad the Giants might be. In the clubhouse Sunday, Bochy, invariably upbeat, sighed, “We’re not very good.” Then, maybe realizing how that sounded in just the third week of the season, added, “Right now.”
The two games at home against the Dodgers proved an antidote, a reassurance. “Ty did a real nice job,” he said of Blach. “He had his pitches going. It was a hard-fought, well-pitched game by both guys.
“This is our type of game. Two to one, close games, that’s who we are.”
Bruce Bochy, Christian Arroyo, Giants, Ty Blach Email Article By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
Someone asked Russell Baze, who won more races as a jockey than anyone, anywhere — which is a relatively large segment of society — how many times he had fallen off a horse of the 53,000-plus he had ridden.
“None,” said Baze before he was inducted Monday night into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame. “Been thrown off some and jumped off others, but never fallen off any.”
©2017 The San Francisco Examiner
articles Email Article By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner
OAKLAND — The pregame questions carried a sense of worry and a hint of panic. Kevin Durant wasn’t going to play, and my goodness, what were the Warriors going to do without him? Play basketball, of course, as brilliantly as demanded.
You thought otherwise?
©2017 The San Francisco Examiner
JaVale McGee, Trail Blazers, Warriors articles, basketball Email Article By Art Spander
SportsXchange
OAKLAND, Calif — The Texas Rangers had their ace, and for five innings Yu Darvish pitched exactly as everyone, including his manager, knew he could. The problem for the Rangers is they were facing X-factor, Andrew Triggs, who nobody suspected would win this pitchers' duel.
Triggs was up and back last season, a reliever who couldn't quite stay on the Oakland Athletics' roster. Then, the decision was made to make him a starter. So far, the decision has been brilliant.
Copyright 2017 SportsXchange
