The Giants Baseball Blog

After the Giants had the bases loaded with nobody out in the top of the 8th in that 6-3 ballgame on Saturday in New York, I had one last glimmer of hope. However when Brandon Belt, then Brandon Crawford proceeded to miss giving the team the lead by a few feet for the next two outs, I knew it just wasn't gonna be their day. What's been the theme for all of April continued on it's final day, as Jake Peavy on Friday, then Matt Cain on Saturday, just couldn't provide quality enough starts to give the Giants a chance to win. When your facing young flame-throwing strikeout artists like the Giants have the last few days you know your going to have little room for error if your pitching against them, and Peavy and Cain both were just too hittable. Now, I'm not going to turn this into a Peavy and Cain roasting, and I'm actually gonna keep it pretty short and simple because everyone who's watched this team to start the year know what they're capable of and they ...

The Giants started out the season 6-2, at which point I think many of us felt like this team was already clicking and probably would be a +.500 team pretty much from start to finish. However, the Giants offense hit a major funk while also running into some pitching problems and it caused them to lose 8 of 11 ballgames and before you knew it, they were a few games below .500. Well, much like that first 10 days of the season, the Giants look like they've somewhat gotten their grove back. They've finally gotten back over the .500 mark, now sitting at 12-11 (after sweeping the Pads this week), heading into Friday night's series opener with the Mets. I'm really looking forward to this weekend's series as it's the Giants first big test outside their division and they're having to go into Flushing Meadows to take on the reigning NL Champions. Luckily for the Giants, they won't have to face Mets ace Matt Harvey while getting to sport their two aces Johnny Cue...

After a red hot first week-plus to start out April, the Giants hit about a 2-week rough stretch, but it looks like they're finally breaking out of it. Oh yeah, that Johnny Cueto guy looks like he's going to be pretty good too! San Francisco has won four of their last five ballgames to get back to the .500 mark at 11-11, and they did it behind the best pitching performance we've seen to start the 2016 season, hands down! Johnny Cueto dazzled the San Diego Padres Tuesday night at AT&T Park, and while the Pads don't exactly supply the most imposing offensive lineup, it was impressive nonetheless. The Giants' 30 year-old prized off-season signing threw the team's first complete game of 2016, allowing 7 hits and a walk while using 11 K's to help get him out of any trouble he ran into, which wasn't much at all. This was the exactly what the Giants had in mind when they gave Cueto that big deal in December, and this is exactly why I was all for his 2-ye...

Sure it's just halfway through April, but each Giants' starter has had a chance to take the hill a couple of times now and thus far the main concern lies in the back-end of the rotation. Two rough starts by Jake Peavy and Matt Cain cost the Giants a chance at winning a series they really should have and those two have to be better going forward, especially Peavy. We all kinda know what to expect from the front-three guys (Madison Bumgarner , Johnny Cueto and Jeff Samardzija ), however, the two that follow those three horses have been far less than spectacular their first two times out. Now, to his credit, Matt Cain looked very good in his first outing vs. the Dodgers at AT&T last week throwing 6 innings of 2-run ball and I think that was a breath of fresh air for all of us. However, his second start of the year, granted it came in Coors Field, was a rough one. He cruised through the first four innings of the game looking like the Matt Cain of 2010, but all the sudden, li...

Through much of this first week of the season, the Giants have been in control, heading into Sunday's series' finale with Los Angeles at 5-2, and looking every bit the team many were expecting in December when they added to an already sturdy bunch. That being said, the Brewers were hardly the test the Giants will be facing with the likes of Los Angeles, Arizona, New York and Washington all the NL, so the Dodgers were their first big test.   After taking care of business in Milwaukee as hoped, they came home to face the Dodger's, the National Leagues best regular season team from a year ago. Most every one's radar was on Saturday's matchup of Madison Bumgarner and Dodger Ace and MVP Clayton Kershaw. The Giants wasted no time getting to Kershaw as his counter part, MadBum, took him deep for the games first run. Kershaw settled down after that allowing just a Ehire Adrianza jack as his only other blemish, but on this day the Giants were too strong. At the end, the ...

The home opener didn't start all that promising behind the arm of Jake Peavy as the Giants took on their arch rival Los Angeles Dodgers. Peavy was tagged for four runs throughout his five innings, and it took the Giants' offense a minute to get going but they indeed did just that. Now, before I delve into the home opener Thursday, two of the Giants biggest acquisitions of the winter made their debuts in Milwaukee and while Jeff Samardzija would probably like a do over, Johnny Cueto threw how I think a lot of us were expecting the premiere right-hander to throw. I wasn't able to give my thoughts on Johnny Cueto here after his outstanding start Tuesday and wanted to just briefly. Cueto showed his value in terms of just all the different quirks he has out there and how he can mix stuff up without losing his release point or running into mechanical issue. He went 6 strong, didn't walk a batter, allowed 6 hits and also struck out 6 Brewers' hitters and never really r...

Well, any minor concern there was over the rough spring training the Giants had pretty much got alleviated on Opening Day in Milwaukee on Monday. The Giants showed why they're one of the favorites to represent the NL in the World Series this year with an all-around team victory in MLB's biggest regular season game. Things were a little up and down early in the game, as Madison Bumgarner (who was battling illness in the start) was tagged for 3 runs, including two big flies, over a trying first three innings. However, he settled down a bit and managed to make it through the required 5 innings to secure the victory. MadBum certainly wasn't as sharp as we're used to seeing the big left-hander, walking 5 hitters which is uncharacteristically high for the Giants' ace. He gets hit sometimes, but he usually doesn't beat himself and after watching him walk in that run in the first and give up two homers on 1-2 counts, I think we wall knew it was going to be a struggle....