Ouch! SF Giants Walloped 13-1 in NY

Ouch! The SF Giants took it on the chin in NY against the Mets Friday night. The Mets came out firing on all cylinders as Jake Peavy struggled to find the strike zone. When you walk five batters in less than three innings it pretty much makes for an ugly loss. By walking so many batters the Mets were in the enviable position of just standing at the plate daring the Giants pitcher to throw a strike. When Peavy did find the strike zone the Mets were all over it.

Unfortunately for the Giants, Mike Broadway did not have any better luck with Mets batters and that led to a 12-0 lead and game over. The Mets showed why they won the NL East last year. They did it with pitching and hitting and Matt Cain will need his A-Game if the Giants are to even the series Saturday afternoon. If the Giants get behind early it will be a tough hole to dig out of against Mets pitching.

The bright side of this story is a 13-1 defeat is no different than 1-0 in the loss column. Every team has games like this during the course of a 162 game season. I remember very clearly a game late in the 2014 season against the LA Dodgers where the Dodgers scored sixteen runs in a rout. It happens and mentally you have to move on.

Keys to a Giants win today is for Matt Cain to contain the Mets early and for the Orange and Black to get the offense going ASAP against Mets pitcher, Jacob deGrom. Go Giants!!!

(No MLB videos to embed today. Sorry!)

New Temple Coffee Shop on K Street in Sacramento, CA

I needed to meet up with someone and they scheduled our meeting at Temple Coffee shop. I did not know this particular location existed. Temple Coffee brews a good cup and this particular location at 2200 K Street is very modern with good seating.

You can access Temple Coffee Roasters web site by clicking HERE.

I wrote a post on various coffee shops in Sacramento a couple months ago. Other coffee reviews can be found by clicking HERE.

Here are some pictures taken on my first visit. I think this Temple location has been open only about a month or so.

(Temple Coffee Roasters New Location)

Giants Taking Care of Business Against the Padres

On Tuesday night Johnny Cueto had a masterful performance and the Giants took the second game of the series against the Padres 1-0. The Padres left three baserunners on third base as the Giants pitcher picked up his 13th career complete game.

As I write this post the Giants are ahead of the Padres 13-8 in the Wednesday afternoon game, and Mike Broadway is about to come in to close out the game. The Giants have led the entire game. Despite Jeff Samardzjia not having his best stuff the Giants offense had a batting practice kind of day. Final Score 13-9!!! The Giants end this homestead 5-5, after losing the first four games.

On to New York to play the Mets!!!

SF Giants Win Series Against Miami Marlins

The San Francisco Giants got back on track over the weekend taking two of three games over the Miami Marlins. Is this fan disappointed the Giants did not sweep the Marlins? Sweeps are a really difficult thing in baseball. There is great parity in the league and usually the team losing the series will win at least one game. That being said it was tough to see the Giants not sweep the Marlins. The series came on the heels of the Giants being swept by the Arizona Diamondbacks in a four game series. That's not why this blogger was disappointed.

This fan was just a little disappointed because the orange and black had several opportunities to put the Marlins away and they could not make it happen. The most glaring example was when the bases were loaded with no outs and zero runs crossed the plate. It was a tough break to hit it back to the pitcher for a double play. As the season progresses this type of scenerio can't be repeated too often in close games or a "W" will not be recorded.

There is no time to dwell on these things. The San Diego Padres are in town and the Giants must put the loss behind them. No doubt they will. Go Giants!!!

San Francisco Giants End Five Game Losing Streak

The week started pretty rough for the San Francisco Giants. The Giants are at home and had lost five in a row before Jeff Samardzija took the mound and shut-down the Miami Marlins. Samardzija did it on the mound and with his bat. He held the Marlins to one run while getting two hits and three RBI's.

This was Jeff's first home start after pitching three games on the road. Performances like this will make any pitcher popular with fans. Samardzija and the rest of the Giants needed a good game to break out of this early season slump which included losing eight of the last nine games. This was a good team win as the offense broke the game open and hopefully the hitting will continue Saturday night.

Jake Peavy takes the mound tonight vs Jose Fernandez. Go Giants!

SF Giants-Madison Bumgarner takes Mound Tonight vs Diamondbacks

The San Francisco Giants have hit a rough patch early in the season. After a very strong start at seven wins and two loses the Giants have gone three and seven over the last ten games. As most baseball fans realize, rough patches are not unique during the marathon that is a MLB season.

The Giants will try to get out of this rut tonight when Madison Bumgarner takes the mound against Zack Greinke in what should be an awesome matchup.

What needs to happen in order to turn this series with the Diamondbacks around? This couch manager thinks the following things need to happen:

• Madison Bumgarner hits his spots and goes into at least the sixth inning, preferably the seventh or deeper.
• The Giants offense gets hits and runs early before Greinke gets into a rhythm. 
• Defense is the key to what could be a pitching dual. The Giants can't afford errors that put runners on base or give the Diamondbacks extra at bats.
• Close it out. The bullpen, especially the closer needs to spot their pitches and keep baserunners and runs to a minimum. 

The season is long and ups and downs are a common thing in baseball. Tonight would be a good time to start a new winning streak as the Giants ace, Madison Bumgarner takes the mound.

Tough Night for SF Giants at Coors Field

It was a tough night for the San Francisco Giants and Jake Peavy in Denver last night. Coors field can be tough on any pitcher including home starters. The Rockies got to Jake early and the damage could have been greater if the fence in right-field had not been moved back in the off-season. Trevor Story had two triples that would have been home-runs last year at this time. Jake set a record he won't be celebrating in giving up 10 extra base hits in one game. Coors field and the Rockies can be tough on pitchers.

Rockies starter Jordan Lyles did not fare much better. The Giants knocked him out in the fifth inning and he left the game with a 6-5 lead. The Rockies bullpen and extra base hits were too much for the Giants on this night and a quick regrouping will be needed before an early afternoon game on Thursday.

Next up, Matt Cain vs Jorge De La Rosa at 12:10 today PST.

SF Giants Win Opener at Coors Field

The San Francisco Giants went back on the road visiting Coors Field for a three game series. The opening game of the series went well for the Giants with both pitching and hitting finding the attitude of Coors field to their liking. Jeff Samardzija pitched eight strong innings holding the Rockies to just two runs. Samardzija no-hit rookie star Trevor Story spotting his pitches on the outside of the plate making the hot hitter reach for pitches out of the strike zone.

A big story of the night was two home runs by backup catcher Trevor Brown who has just three hits for the season, all home runs. I think this young player wants to stay in the line-up. He did a great job behind the plate, too! This was another all-around team win with big contributions from Hunter Pence, Angel Pagan and Joe Panik. The season has started well for the Giants. The exciting part of this great start is a different player is stepping-up every game which points to a strong overall lineup from top to bottom of the lineup.

Jake Peavy is back on the mound tonight against Rockies, Jordon Lyles. Game time is 6:40 p.m MT, 5:40 p.m. PST.

SF Giants Spoil Great Pitching Performance by Ross Stripling

The San Francisco Giants had two hits, but those two hits spoiled a brilliant pitching performance by Ross Stripling as both hits left the yard! It was a very improbable 3-2 win for the Giants who now go into Saturday's day game with at least a split in the series. Hats off to Ross Stripling for a brilliant performance. Kudos to Trevor Brown and Brandon Crawford for their timely home runs!

Madison Bumgarner has gone deep in Today's action at AT&T. The score as of 3pm PST is 1-1. Clay Kershaw is being his usual awesome self and it will be a tough battle to get hits again today.

Go Giants!!!

SF Giants Offense Takes Over the Show and Bullpen Shuts Down LA Dodgers

The San Francisco Giants had an entertaining and fun opening day win with the offense taking over and scoring 12 runs. The final score 12-6 over the rival Los Angeles Dodgers.

Jake Peavy started for the Giants after a fun opening day ceremony. Peavy struggled a bit giving up four runs in five innings. Jake was competitive and did keep the Giants within striking distance. All the attention went to the offense, but the bullpen stepped up and shut down the Dodgers for four strong innings. They did a great job last year and started this season stepping it up. Hopefully this will not be a trend. The bullpen got worn down last year when starters did not last more than four or five innings. Pitching typically does not get going until a few weeks in the season, so no need to panic by any means. The offense broke it open and demonstrated why there has been a lot of talk about this offense having the ability to score in bunches.

It was a great win for the Giants. Game starting time for the second game of the series is tonight 4/8/16 at 7:15 PST. Matt Cain will be on the mound for the 2016 night opener.

Go Giants!

SF Giants Win Milwaukee Series. Dodgers are in Town Today!

The SF Giants first series is completed. Two out of three is a fine start. The third game was not meant to be. A great play in the outfield by Milwaukee took a run off the board when Buster Posey was thrown out at the plate. Jeff had a decent start in the Giants 4-3 loss. Pitching gets better after a view competitive starts and there are reasons for optimisim with his first regular season start. Six strike outs and good stuff kept the Giants in the game. The negative from this fans perspective was too many walks. Walks were a key factor in the loss.

The Giants are home for their home owner Today against the rival LA Dodgers. Jake Peavy takes the mound for the Giants and Alex Wood for the Dodgers. Game time is 1:35 PST.

MLB Season Has Started! SF Giants Go Back to Back to Back!

Sunday was official MLB 2016 opening day! As a San Francisco Giants fan, Monday the 4th was a more important day. Madison Bumgarner took the mound. His start was what you might expect early in a season. It was an ok start. MadBum was able to limit the damage and the offense took off!

It was one game of 162, but a 12-3 victory is a great way to kick off the season. Brewers fans did not appreciate the visitors have their way. That's baseball and it can happen to any team.

Johnny Cueto is on the mound for the Giants at 5:10 PST. It will be our first real look at Cueto. Pitching usually gets stronger after a few starts, but a good showing would be huge for the Giants.

Have fun rooting for your favorite team!