Giants: Hard to win when you don’t score

By Art Spander

Bruce Bochy was talking about the little things, about moving a runner, about laying down a bunt. It’s the big thing that’s beating the Giants, an inability to score, whatever which way, a ground out, a home run. And when you can’t score, you can’t win. That’s a sporting truism. And right now, a San Francisco Giants flaw.

Everyone was so worried about Matt Cain, the Giants starter, winless since the middle of last season. What happens if Cain gets battered around as he did in his last start against the Rockies? The question was academic. San Francisco’s offensive woes seem to be endemic. Cain had his best game of the year. So encouraging. The Giants, beaten 4-0 by Toronto on a chilly, Candlestick-type Tuesday night at AT&T Park, had another scoreless round — shut out for the second time in three games.

Three runs over the last four games for the Giants — who somehow won one of those games, but none of the last three. “We ran into some well-pitched games the last two nights,’’ said Bochy. No question. It was lefthander J.A. Happ on Tuesday night for the Blue Jays. He was within one out of his first complete-game shutout in six years. It was righthander Aaron Sanchez on Monday night in the 3-1 win.

“We just need one critical hit,“ said Bochy, “one at bat that works.” Nothing is working for the Giants when they have a bat in their hands. The heart of the order, Buster Posey (0-for-4 including a double play), Hunter Pence (1-for-4) and Brandon Belt (0-for-3 with a walk) seem mystified.

Three days ago, there was near-panic about the fourth and fifth pitchers in the Giants’ rotation, Jake Peavy and Cain. Peavy made it through five innings on Monday night. Not without problems, yet he allowed only three runs. Then Cain was very effective Tuesday, going eight innings — his hadn’t gone more than six in his previous 18 starts — striking out seven, walking none and allowing six hits.

And the Giants couldn’t get a single run. Just as on Sunday they couldn’t get a single run.

In order, the Giants lost 2-0 to the Rockies, 3-1 to the Blue Jays and 4-0 to the Blue Jays. The Bad News Bears weren’t that bad.

“We’ve got to find a way to beat them,” said Bochy. One way is to get people across home plate.

It's hard to knock your pitcher when he’s decent on the mound and botches something when he’s at bat, but in the bottom of the sixth the Giants had runners on first and second with nobody out and their pitcher, Mr. Cain, coming up. Everyone from McCovey Cove to Cooperstown knew he would sacrifice, and he tried, without success.

Cain’s bunt was fielded by Happ, who forced the runner (Jarrett Parker, who had walked). Then leadoff man Denard Span grounded into a double play, the sequence of a team for which everything of late goes wrong — and nobody goes home.

Cain was as upbeat as someone can be when the ballclub is losing.

“I felt like I limited my mistakes,” he said. “We did a good job of keeping those to a minimum. This is something to build off of and carry into the next one.”

Unfortunately, he’s now 0-5 and is winless in 14 consecutive starts.

The bunt? “I didn't get the angle right to third," Cain said. “That's our job as pitchers. We need to be able to execute. That could have changed the game.”

That’s the Giants right now, talking about what might have been, could have and would have. If this had happened... but what did happen was another defeat, and with the homestand ending Wednesday with yet another game against the Blue Jays, San Francisco has a losing record, 17-18.

“I’ve tried to shake things up,” said Bochy, who had Duffy batting sixth instead of second (he was 0-for-3 with a walk). “But our big hitters are cold.”

Maybe they can sign Steph Curry to bat cleanup.

Will Lincecum save Giants after the pounding?

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s all set up for Timmy.  All he has to do is show he still can pitch. Because the fourth and fifth starters in the Giants' rotation haven’t been able to thus far. So if little Tim Lincecum can show he’s a scintilla of what he used to be when he showcases Friday down in the desert, he very well could be the man to get his once (and former?) team out of the wilderness.

Life is timing. And that includes baseball. Who knows whether Lincecum, unsigned after hip surgery last year, still has enough to get batters out in the majors? But over the past two games, Wednesday in Cincinnati and Thursday night in San Francisco, the guys who took the mound for the Giants certainly didn’t. Suddenly there’s a sense of desperation at AT&T, a feeling of “OK, after Mad Bum, Cueto and Samardzija, what can we do?”

As capably demonstrated Thursday night on the banks of McCovey Cove, nothing. Except hope that Timmy still has something from his glory days of Cy Young Awards and that the Giants re-sign him.

On Wednesday at Cincy, Jake Peavy, the No. 4 starter, gave up three home runs in one inning. Then on Thursday night, the Gigantes (hey, it was Cinco de Mayo and that was the name on the uniform) were embarrassed by the Colorado Rockies, 17-7, giving up 13 runs in the fifth.

Yes, that’s been Matt Cain’s obstacle of an inning of late, but never was it as bad as on Thursday when, having been pounded for eight runs and 10 hits, he didn’t even wait for manager Bruce Bochy to take the ball but in a case of virtual surrender reached out and gave it to Bochy.

“We have to find a way to help the rotation like we should,” said Cain, certainly not willing to concede his place. “This is not easy. It’s frustrating.”

Cain had a 2-0 count on Colorado’s Nelson Arenado, with one on and two out in the first. A changeup got out over the plate, and Arenado, one of the game’s better hitters, hit it over the left field fence for his 12th home run of the year. The Rockies, just like that, were up 2-0.

“The biggest thing is to keep trusting myself,” said Cain, who threw a perfect game four years ago, before undergoing surgery in 2014. “My location was good, but the balls were just a little higher than we wanted.”

One game out of 162 can be ignored — in the World Series championship year of 2014, the Dodgers scored 14 in a late-season game against San Francisco — but when two-fifths of your staff are ineffective, you’re in trouble. And maybe in the market for replacements.

“We discussed Timmy,” Bochy said before the game, hardly contemplating what would happen during the game. “(General manager) Bobby Evans can say more about that than me. Timmy still is loved here. There are going to be a lot of teams there watching him. I can’t tell you what is going to happen.”

If the Giants don’t get help by Peavy and or Cain improving — as unlikely as that appears 30 games into the season — San Francisco signing Lincecum or trading for a top-line pitcher is a huge worry. Already the bullpen is a mess, and Vin Mazzaro, just brought up from Triple A, was a disaster after relieving Cain, allowing seven earned runs in a third of an inning.

Bochy was not so quick to dismiss Cain or Peavy. It’s the manager’s nature to keep on a level and never belittle his athletes, although thinking of the 12-run inning by the Mets and the 11-run inning by the Rockies, the manager shook his head. “It’s hit us twice in a week,” he said.

Knowing there may not be anyone better than Peavy or Cain, Bochy said that each of the pitchers, at times, has shown he still deserves to be part of the rotation.

“We just couldn’t get out of that inning,” said Bochy. “I thought our guys had good at bats this game, but the pitching just wasn’t there. Matt’s stuff was fine. It was his execution. He made a few mistakes.”

The question might be whether continuing to send out Peavy and Cain is a mistake. Then again, there may be no other option. Unless Tim Lincecum comes through in his glorified tryout and the Giants subsequently add him to the roster.

“We know our guys,” said Bochy. “We stand behind them. We know they’ll get better.”

They couldn’t get worse.

S.F. Examiner: Optimism escapes Bochy as Giants lose fifth-straight

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

He’s normally a man of silver linings and orange-and-black optimism. Bruce Bochy has spent a career believing everything’s not as grim as the rest of you would think. But there was a different Bochy after the Giants, his San Francisco’s Giants, were smacked around again Thursday by the Arizona Diamondbacks, a Bochy whose frustration could be sensed, whose disappointment could be heard.

Baseball, we’re told, is a game of ups and downs. There have been no ups for the Giants of late.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: Even years and errors: Differing expectations await Bay Area MLB teams

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

The Even Year Odds. That’s the headline in the regional edition of Sports Illustrated. In baseball, in the West, those four words are enough. It’s the Giants’ time for a World Series. That is if the Giants have enough.

For the other team, the one across the Bay, the Athletics, the issue is less about picking up a pennant than, having led the majors in errors, picking up or throwing a ground ball. It is a problem that during the exhibition games in March appeared as serious — and uncorrectable — as during last season.

Read the full story here.

©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

Samardzija on Giants-Dodgers: It’s a rivalry for sure

By Art Spander

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — They were booing the announcement of the other team’s lineup. Before an exhibition game. Before what, in effect, is a workout, if with a lot of accoutrements. But it was the Dodgers, and for a sellout crowd of 12,127 at the Giants spring ballpark, that fact transcended everything else.

As one of new kids on the block, and on the mound, understood full well.

“It’s a rivalry for sure,” said Jeff Samardzija. “I love it.”

The majority of the fans at Scottsdale Stadium did not love the result, the Dodgers winning 5-2. It wasn’t a good day overall for the Bay Area against L.A., with the Lakers throttling the Warriors.

Of course, that one mattered, in the standings and in the records. This one mattered only for the emotions of the spectators. Not that they should be ignored.

When people are chanting “Beat L.A., Beat L.A.” in Arizona, in early March, one grasps the significance of what, other than the individual performances, is a contest of insignificance. Except for the people who buy the tickets and buy into the idea that beating the Dodgers makes their lives better.

“It’s to be expected,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. He didn’t need to add that the Giants and Dodgers have been facing each other since 1890 when the Giants were in one New York borough, upper Manhattan, and the Dodgers in another, Brooklyn. They’ve played more than 2,400 times, not including exhibitions.

“The booing, the fans, probably adds a little excitement for the players,” said Bochy.

As usual this time of year, Bochy doesn’t get too excited or depressed, other than for a serious injury. He was upbeat about Samardzija, in his second Cactus League start, going three innings, striking out five and allowing just one run. It’s what the Giants need from a man signed as a free agent for $90 million who is supposed to be No. 2 or No. 3 in the rotation.

If Giants relievers Clayton Blackburn, who was the loser, and Jake Smith each gave up two runs, well, nothing to be worried about. Even if it’s against the Dodgers.

The Giants' lineup was without Buster Posey, taking a day off, and Hunter Pence, who’s been out with soreness in an Achilles tendon but is supposed to be ready on Wednesday.

Brandon Crawford again was the designated hitter — even when two National League teams meet, the DH is in effect in the exhibition season — because of a sore throwing arm. He should be back at shortstop the middle of the week. Crawford’s swing is fine. He homered in the sixth.

The Dodgers' Yasiel Puig, who singled and drove in a run, was the main target of the derision. Giants fans simply do not like the man. And Chase Utley, who reportedly has won the appeal of a two-game suspension he received for taking out (and breaking the leg of) Mets shortstop Ruben Tejada in the World Series, also was booed loudly.

“You’ve got two passionate fan bases,” said Samardzija, “and they’re going at each other more than the players are. That’s good.”

Although he’s new to the Giants, Samardzija is not new to rivalries. He pitched for the Cubs, who couldn’t escape the presence or success of the Cardinals. Before that, he played football for Notre Dame.

“It could be USC or Michigan,” said Samardzija. “Those were big games for us. We could have a down team or they could have a down team. It never really mattered. There was so much at stake.”

A wise man would say that virtually nothing is at stake in baseball during the first week in March, but when the opposing team has LA on its baseball caps, logic is secondary. Memories of Tommy Lasorda lording it at Candlestick Park remain, even with Lasorda retired and Candlestick destroyed.

For years, the Giants were the Dodgers' foils. As the lyrics went, paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep.

Giants fans cannot forget or apparently forgive.

“For the players, these games are just workouts,” said Samardzija. “But we have to understand the people take these games seriously. You don’t want to go out there and be too loose.”

To borrow from Samardzija’s thoughts, don’t we just love it?