Giants stay alive and unbeaten against Dodgers at AT&T

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — Still alive. “We can’t lose a game,” said Bruce Bochy. Not if the Giants want to keep themselves in the dying pennant race. Not if they want to keep the Dodgers from ending it. And Monday night, late, very late, they didn’t lose a game. They beat the Dodgers, and they’re still alive.  

Twelve innings, a minute short of four hours. Dozens of deep breaths. What seemed like dozens of relief pitchers, but in actuality was only 12. A crowd that seemed overloaded with Dodger partisans who came to watch their team clinch a division but in the end a crowd that reaffirmed its loyalty to the home team, chanting, as always, “Beat L.A., beat L.A.”

And because Jake Peavy was brilliant as a starter and Kelby Tomlinson at second turned a wicked grounder with two runners on into a double play in the 11^th and pinch hitter Alejandro De Aza’s sacrifice fly scored Marlon Byrd from third in the 12th, the Giants did beat L.A., 3-2.

We agree. The lead is too large, now five games for the Dodgers, and the magic number too small, still two, meaning an L.A. win Tuesday night, Wednesday night or Thursday afternoon closes the deal. But the water drips slowly and the streak continues.

Monday was the seventh time the Dodgers have played at AT&T Park this season — and the seventh time the Giants have won. Things like that don’t happen in baseball. Or do they?

“A great game,” said Bochy. “A great outcome. Well played, entertaining. A lot of good things happened, and that starts with Peavy.”

Sunday, in the clubhouse at the Oakland Coliseum, Peavy was talking about the thrill of the chase, how being able to pitch against the Dodgers in a must-win situation was the challenge he embraced, the moment of truth, if you will, when you a man finds if he’s equal to the task. Peavy was more than equal.

“As an athlete,” said Peavy, “you want to face the best in league, knowing you have to win.”

Peavy faced Zack Greinke, who if he isn’t the best (he came in with an 18-3 record) is one of the three best, along with teammate Clayton Kershaw and the Giants’ Madison Bumgarner — who pitch against each other Tuesday night.

Peavy went seven innings, giving up a run and three hits. Greinke went seven, giving up two runs and four hits. Neither was in on the decision but both were in on the trend of the game, which was the sort of pitching battle one might have predicted.

Peavy’s catcher, Trevor Brown, was the guy who drove in the two runs off Greinke, in the second. “Ten days ago,” said Peavy about Brown, “he was sitting on a couch.”

Maybe not literally, but Brown was finished with his season at Triple-A Sacramento and had gone home to the Los Angeles suburb of Valencia.

He got a phone call at 1:30 a.m. on September 15 from Giants GM Bobby Evans and headed to the Bay Area. Then, with Buster Posey taking over at first base for the injured Brandon Belt, Brown steps behind the plate and also steps up to lash a double off Greinke.

“What a great performance,” said Peavy of Brown. “A huge hit. As great as he was behind the plate, he was just as great with the bat.”

When Peavy was on rehab at Sacramento he threw to Brown, so the pair communicated well against the Dodgers. Brown said he let Peavy dictate the pitches and pattern.

Greinke had two strikes on Brown in the second with Brandon Crawford — like Brown a one-time star at UCLA — and Tomlinson on the bases. “I was just trying to be as calm as I could.”  Calm or frantic, he powered a ball deep to center to get the runners home.

“And Kelby saved our neck a couple of times,” said Bochy of Tomlinson, another rookie, if one with a few more weeks on the Giants. “All around, this was a well-played game, then De Aza gets the hit that wins it.

“They tied us in the ninth, and that might have been discouraging, but we have fighters on this club. We’re tired, but we know what’s at stake.”

Just the season, that’s all.

For Dodgers, a magic number; for Giants, magic words

By Art Spander

OAKLAND — The Dodgers, the dreaded, despised Dodgers, are down to magic numbers. The Giants have to rely on magic words, those of manager Bruce Bochy. “Still alive,” said Bochy Sunday evening. And so they are, if not for long.

Giants-Dodgers, four games at AT&T, starting Monday night. Four games that could delay the inevitable. Or lead to the Dodgers clinching the division on the Giants’ home field. Which would be the cruelest of blows for the fans of San Francisco. But it doesn’t mean that much to a professional such as Bochy.

“We don’t think of that,” Bochy said of what by the Bay would seem to be the ultimate disgrace, to watch one’s eternal foe celebrating on your diamond. “We play to win the game. What happens happens. The standings are what they are.

“We’re in a tough situation, but we’ll come out fighting.”

What happened Sunday was the Giants managed a 5-4 victory against the stubborn Athletics. And in Denver, the Dodgers lost to the Rockies, swept in three games. So the magic number for L.A. to take the division stayed at two.

Which if the Giants were to sweep the Dodgers still would be two after Thursday. But we know that‘s virtually impossible, right, even though L.A. is 0-6 so far this season at AT&T, right? Hmmm.

For the Giants, yes, there’s hope. For the A’s there’s just the road. The game Sunday before a second consecutive sellout crowd of more than 36,000 was the last at Oakland until April.

The Coliseum belongs to the Raiders now, and infield dirt will be covered by turf. The green and gold departs. The green grass arrives.

The Giants are still alive, because after losing three straight games by scores of 5-4, the first two at San Diego, the third at Oakland, and having led in all three, they won the last two against the A’s.

“We wish were in a little better position,” Bochy conceded, “but we lost some tough games on this trip. That’s baseball.”

A cliché. Another cliché: Every major league team wants to be there in September, to be playing for something. The Giants are there, clinging, clawing, thriving.

“I’m excited the team has a chance for the playoffs,” said Jake Peavy. He’s the Giants starter for the first game against the Dodgers. He understands the gravity of the situation — sure, it’s only sports, but from that perspective, it’s serious — and he understands his role.

“Obviously it means us having to win,” said Peavy. “But it’s fun to play when everything rides on it. We, as professionals, get up for these games.

“This rivalry is great for baseball. The fans get into it every time we play the Dodgers. Look. I have the utmost respect for most of their guys over there. The Dodgers have incredible talent. But I expect to win.”

Who knows about expectations? In spring we expected the A’s to contend in the American League West. But the relief pitching was — to be kind — ineffective, and the defense is the worst in baseball. Hitting and pitching enable a team to survive unless you allow the opposition extra outs, as did Oakland.

A week left for the A’s. Their bags were packed and outside the players’ entrance to the Coliseum before the first pitch Sunday. Next it's on to Anaheim. The Giants only had to fight the Bay Bridge traffic and their own emotions.

“I’m proud of these guys,” said Bochy, ever the cockeyed optimist. “We’re still hanging in there.”

The Dodgers packed cases of sparkling wine when they left a few days ago for Denver. Now the bottles, still unopened, are in San Francisco. One win over the Giants, cutting the magic number to zero, zilch. One win in four games is all L.A. needs.

What the Giants needed, and what they received, were strong performances from the kids. There were five rookies in the starting lineup Sunday, including pitcher Chris Heston, who earned his first victory in two months.

The others were Kelby Tomlinson, Trevor Brown, Mac Williamson and Jarrett Parker, who after a home run Friday night and three homers Saturday had only two singles and a walk Sunday.

“He’s been impressive,” said Bochy. “A lot of these young players have been. We’re going to have some decisions to make during the off-season and in spring training.”

Without question, as the new players seek to replace the old. But now it’s the possible last dance, the series against the Dodgers. Can’t ask for more than that.

Giants' Tomlinson slams his way into the big time

By Art Spander

SAN FRANCISCO — He wears glasses. Not Madison Bumgarner, of course — he simply wears out the opposition. And not anyone from the Chicago Cubs, although given the frequency with which they struck out against Bumgarner, maybe that wouldn’t be a bad idea. But no, the reference is to Kelby Tomlinson.

As in Grand Slam Kelby, who Thursday, on the warmest (79 degrees at first pitch) and surely most enthralling afternoon of this often painful season at AT&T Park, hit his first major-league home run.

That it came in the eighth inning with the bases loaded of a 9-1 victory over the Cubs had Tomlinson’s teammates applauding like fans, and had Tomlinson a bit bewildered.

Barely a month away from the minor leagues, Tomlinson wasn’t sure how to respond when the slam was reshown on the big video board in center field. When your career has been limited to places like Augusta, San Jose, Richmond and, until August 3, Sacramento, there’s unfamiliarity with heroic celebrations in the bigs.

“Everybody got up and started clapping for me,” said Tomlinson. Including, one guesses, in absentia his optometrist.

In these days of laser surgery and contact lenses, the ballplayer who wears glasses is rare. Across the Bay, Eric Sogard of the Athletics chooses them. And although he’s not competing, Cubs manager Joe Maddon wears glasses, the horn-rimmed variety.

Tomlinson has astigmatism. He tried contacts, on the suggestion of his wife. But he feels more comfortable in the spectacles, he said facing a dozen newspaper and TV types, half of whom also were wearing glasses.

Years ago when he first played for the Lakers, Kurt Rambis wore horn-rims, leading a group of young men who called themselves the Rambis Fan Club to show up at games in the same sort of glasses, whether they required vision correction or not. Maybe some of the Giant partisans should try the same stunt, although Tomlinson’s glasses are not particularly unusual.

Tomlinson, 24, born and raised in Oklahoma, isn’t unusual either. Although the way he’s started with the Giants definitely is. In 20 games, he’s had 18 hits in 52 at bats, a .346 average, and now 11 runs batted in.

“He’s a base-hit guy,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Tomlinson. “Has a short swing. Good speed. One of the most complete players from this club.”

A club with so many players injured that men such as Tomlinson, Juan Perez and Ehire Adrianza have to start. But it’s also a club that, after going winless in five games against the Cubs, won the last two — and the series.

As always, Bumgarner was at least in part responsible. The first six outs he recorded were strikeouts. By the time Bochy decided to “give him a break,” taking him out after six innings, MadBum had 12 strikeouts and his 16^th win.

He allowed only two hits and two walks, and in August was 5-0 with a 1.45 earned run average.  “A great athlete,” said Bochy. “He was disappointed because when I sent him up to pinch hit (in St. Louis) he didn’t get a hit.” That was a night after Bumgarner pinch hit and did get a single.

The Giants have lost Joe Panik, Angel Pagan and now for a few days Brandon Crawford. So they reach down and grab Tomlinson, and Tomlinson grabs the spotlight. “It’s a long season,” said Bochy, “and you learn to deal with it because you have no choice.”

Wednesday night, on first, Tomlinson beat a throw to second on a grounder when it appeared he would be out. “That’s how the game should be played,” Bochy said of Tomlinson’s hustle.

His power isn’t bad either. “You play in the yard,” Tomlinson said about growing up, “and you never dream about getting a hit. You dream about hitting a home run and hitting a grand slam. I don’t hit that many home runs, so that was great.”

Marlon Byrd, a few days from his 38^th birthday, does hit that many home runs. He had 21 for the Mets in 2013, 25 for the Phillies in 2014 and his shot in the third for the Giants was his 21^st of 2015.

He was the one who urged Tomlinson to step up and acknowledge the ovation for the grand slam.

“I’m so happy for him,” Bochy said of Tomlinson. “I loved the way he came through.”

S.F. Examiner: Bonds shows side we’ve rarely seen

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

They had dined on steak. Then came the induction ceremony and Barry Bonds figuratively had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. But of course.

This was his city, San Francisco, where his game helped build a ballpark and a reputation. These were his people packed in the ballroom of the Westin St. Frances Hotel, across the cable car tracks from Union Square, for the annual Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame program Monday.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner 

S.F. Examiner: Erratic Giants leave no clue on whereabouts

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

The problems remain — a worrisome lack of offense and some unnerving relief pitching, with the Los Angeles Dodgers showing no intent to fade. And yet games like the one Sunday, when the Giants win one they could have lost and probably should have lost, indicate that this season is destined to be as wild as any, if not as successful.

The 3-2 win over the Miami Marlins was an end to a series at home that might at the same time have been the beginning. We shall see.

Read the full story here.

© 2015 The San Francisco Examiner