Know Your Enemy: I Don't Trust Those Snakes

Know Your Enemy: I Don’t Trust Those Snakes

I have gone on record in the past as saying that I respect Kirk Gibson, manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks, more than any other National League West manager not named Bruce Bochy.  Feel free to substitute the word “fear” for that of “respect.”  What’s more, I know why I respect him more than any other and it dates back to that 1988 World Series, when as a Los Angeles Dodger, he limped to the plate with a hamstring injury to one leg, and a knee injury to the other.  He was also fighting a stomach virus when he slugged a 3-2 pitch from Dennis Eckersley over the wall for a first-game Series victory.  He hobbled around the bases and the Dodgers went on to win in five.

As John Schmidt said during the Season Opener, “That’s one thing that the Diamondbacks are going to be known for...the character of their manager is they’re going to play hard...They’re going to do all the things they have to, to compete...They don’t want to take second... They don’t want to just concede that it’s the Dodgers’ division.” 

Kirk Gibson will not quit.  His team could be down by six with two outs in the ninth, and he will not give up.  Entering his fourth season as skipper of the D-backs,  he instills this drive in his players and, after back-to-back 81-81 seasons, the team is fired up and working together to sort out the little things down in the desert, to be able to make a run at the playoffs.  Here is a look at what has been going on in that den of Snakes since the season ended last fall.

General manager Kevin Towers set out on a mission to do three things: improve starting pitching, replace his closer, and add power to the lineup.  First, the D-backs went all out in the Masahiro Tanaka sweepstakes before signing free agent Bronson Arroyo to a two-year, $23.5 million deal.  Next, they jettisoned closer Heath Bell, (D-backs were tied for worst with 29 blown saves last season), and traded third-base prospect Matt Davidson for White Sox closer Addison Reed.  Third, Arizona sent prospects Tyler Skaggs to the Los Angeles Angels and Adam Eaton to the Chicago White Sox and landed some thunder in the person of left-fielder Mark Trumbo, who hit 34 home runs last season with 100 RBI’s.  

Unfortunately, Patrick Corbin, slated to be the Opening Day pitcher, suffered a partial tear of his ulnar collateral ligament, requiring surgery on his elbow, so the acquisition of Arroyo became more of a stop-gap effort than the upgrade it was intended to be.  The D-backs will seek to supply a replacement for Corbin from three candidates: Randall Delgado (18 MLB games’ experience) Archie Bradley (4 games) or Bo Schultz (none).  

At least the bullpen looks deeper with Reed closing and J.J. Putz (3-1, 2.36 ERA, 34.1 innings), along with  David Hernandez (5-6, 4.48, 62 games, 62.1 innings) and Brad Ziegler (8-1, 2.22 ERA, 78 games, 73 innings), setting him up.  Second-year man Will Harris (4-1, 2.91, 52 innings, 61 games) and newly-inked Oliver Perez, will lend support.  Filling out the five-man rotation are newly anointed-Opening Day pitcher Wade Miley, Trevor Cahill, and Brandon McCarthy.

Kirk Gibson’s lineup will feature Miguel Montero at catcher, Paul Goldschmidt at first, Aaron Hill at second, Chis Owings at short, Martin Prado at third, Mark Trumbo in left, A.J. Pollock in center, and Gerardo Parra in right field.   A broken hand cost Aaron Hill two months last season but when he came back, he was the same veteran presence hitting .291 in 87 games.  Also, Cody Ross’s dislocated hip is allowing him to participate in spring training, but it’s impossible to say when he will be back. 

Having two, thirty-homer guys, gives the D-backs a lot of clout.  Playing in Arizona will certainly emphasize this point.  Paul Goldschmidt, who won the Gold Glove at first base last season, batted .302 with 36 home runs and 125 RBI’s.  He was heard to say this spring that he just wanted to win the World Series.  With the addition of Mark Trumbo (34 home runs, 100 RBI’s) the D-backs have a good shot, at least, of making the playoffs.

For all of the talk about the Dodgers being the obvious division winner in the NL West, the Diamondbacks are a serious threat indeed.  They gave up several valuable prospects this past winter and have stretched their payroll to a record $110 million.  This year’s division race will come down to how the top teams fare within their own division more than at any time in the past.  Call me naive, but I fear the Diamondbacks more than I fear the Los Angeles Dodgers.

I remember 2011, and the way the D-backs overtook the San Francisco Giants, the year Buster Posey went down.  I don’t trust those Snakes, and I don’t rust their leader, Kirk Gibson.  What we need is to have the Snakes rear up and bite the Dodgers, leaving them out of the picture, while San Francisco marches on to the division title.  After all, the Giants have an antidote for the Snakes-it’s called five All-Star pitchers, and they’re good at disabling their opponents.  

A Little Havoc: Giants Pummel Padres, 11-3

A Little Havoc:

Giants Pummel Padres 11-3

Madison Bumgarner threw seven shutout innings and Buster Posey clobbered a second-inning grand slam to lead the San Francisco Giants over the San Diego Padres, 11-3, tonight in Peoria, Arizona, under warm, cloudy skies.  Newly announced Opening Day starting pitcher Andrew Cashner was hit hard during his three and two-thirds innings, giving up eight runs on nine hits, with one walk. 

The Giants got things started in the top of the first when Gregor Blanco drew a lead-off walk. Then, after Brandon Belt flied out to the wall in center field, Pablo Sandoval doubled just inside the left field line, Blanco scoring easily.  After a Buster Posey ground out to third, Hunter Pence singled in Pablo with a second run, but the inning ended when Joaquin Arias popped out to first baseman, Tommy Medica, in foul territory.

After Bumgarner had quickly dispensed with the Padres in the bottom of the first, the Giants began the barrage again in the top of the second.  Brandon Crawford led off with a double, Juan Perez flied out to left field, and Bumgarner reached safely on a tough error by Everth Cabrera, on a ball bounding away from him behind second base.  Blanco plated Crawford with a solid single to right, and then, after Belt’s swinging strike out, Pablo singled to load the bases, setting the table for Buster, who obliged by blasting a grand slam, bringing the score to 7-0.  The Giants added one more run in the fourth, when Arias bounced yet another ball past Cabrera to score Buster, making the score 8-0.

Everth Cabrera played in tough luck situations all night.  He was simply not where the ball was hit, and though he made valiant efforts, again and again, he repeatedly came up short.  At one point MLB Baseball showed a clip of five agonizingly tough balls, none of which was successfully played by Cabrera.  It was really odd how the ball kept finding a way to sneak past him, especially when I compare the ball the Cabrera himself hit to lead off the game, which was rocketed directly at Brandon Crawford, effectively eating him alive.  Hard to say which is the preferable way to go.  

Cabrera did rob Buster of a hit in the sixth, by spearing a sharply hit ball between short and third, spinning and gunning him down at first.  Gunning him down may be stretching things as Posey was not trying to set any records making his way down the line.  That is not meant as a criticism of Buster, who needs to conserve his energy for more pressing responsibilities than trying to beat out a meaningless hit with an 8-0 lead, in a spring training game, especially after he had already hit a grand slam.

The Padres’ Alex Castellanos made a dazzling sliding, rolling catch off the bat of Juan Perez to end the seventh that was truly notable.  He was heading for the foul line, with the wall coming at him, so he went into a slide on his right side, snagging the ball, but then doing a 360, rolling over onto his stomach, and then rotating again to his back, hitting the side wall pretty hard.  But he bounced up instantly, and jogged off the field to the applause of the home crowd.

Madison Bumgarner continued his spring training mastery, having yet to give up a run.  He pitched seven complete, giving up five hits, while walking one, and striking out nine, on 96 pitches.  Juan Gutierrez pitched a scoreless eighth for the Giants, before the Giants erupted in the ninth for three more runs, when Hector Sanchez cleared the bases with a double that got past first, and then rattled around in the right field corner, allowing all three Giants to score.

Giants’ catchers accounted for seven runs, while three Giants had multi-hit games: Pablo (single, double), Posey (single, home run) and Pence (three singles).  On the down side, Javier Lopez had a rocky go of it in the bottom of the ninth, giving up a two-run home run to Kyle Blanks, on the way to giving up three runs altogether, before George Kontos came on to get the final out.  It marked the fifth consecutive successful appearance by Kontos, who has given up no runs during that stretch. 

On a night when Giants’ starting pitching looked dominant, and the offense came alive in a very satisfying manner, scoring eleven runs for the second consecutive game, I could certainly be persuaded to believe that the Giants will create a little havoc in the NL West this year 

Replacing Ivory Towers with Blogs

Replacing Ivory Towers with Blogs

Did you know that on a recent visit to Venezuela over the off-season, in the span of twenty days, Gregor Blanco of the San Francisco Giants personally witnessed three robberies?  I didn’t know that either until I read the March 10th entry from his blog entitled, White Shark-A Season with Gregor Blanco.  Not only that, Blanco revealed that when he was sixteen, he was kidnapped and held with a gun to his head for four hours, until his mother paid the $1,000 ransom. 

I also found out that Blanco had a specific question to ask Barry Bonds, when Barry spent some time in the Giants’ spring training complex, earlier this month.  Blanco maintained that Bonds “was like a super human playing baseball.  He had incredible focus.  I just want to know what he was thinking.”  He said, “I want to ask him [Bonds] what his mentality was at the plate.”  

I liked knowing that Gregor planned to pick Bonds’s brain because that was the plan.  Suppose Barry was there to answer questions, and no one asked him any.  Suppose Brandon Belt or Brandon Crawford asked the mega-star a question, and Gregor was standing there listening, and something clicked that made Blanco a better hitter.  It is one reason I like the former Giants’ heavyweight hitters like Bonds, Jeff Kent (though at a different time than Barry), Randy Winn and Will Clark being in camp.  There’s a method to the Giants’ madness.

I have been following White Shark, along with Brandon and Brandon since the beginning of last season.  Brandon and Brandon represents the writing of Brandon Belt and Brandon Crawford.  Each posts about every two weeks or so, and each covers baseball the way only a guy playing the game can cover it.  Do you want to know how Belt felt when he went down swinging with the game on the line?  He’ll tell you that it’s part of the game, and when he runs out onto the field the next day, he does his best to leave it behind him, because it doesn’t help.

When the Giants played the New York Yankees last September, Crawford wrote about being at Yankee Stadium for the Mariano Rivera tribute.  He commented that though he did not know Mariano personally, he knew enough about him to know that he seemed like “the perfect guy to model yourself after...”  Brandon went on to talk about the kinds of pitches Mariano threw, and what the usual result was.   On a day-to-day basis, I read a lot of commentary on sports from writers who cover their teams, but I never feel I really get to the core the way I do when I tune into the players’ blogs.

The blog represents something that was not an option when I was growing up.  Players lived in their ivory towers, and the fans paid reverence from afar.  I like knowing what at least three Giants are thinking, on and off the field.  Of course they all three include anecdotes about their families, and I like that too.  Belt will even give you ongoing reviews of contemporary movies, including his rating.  

Each player has a lively “voice” in his writing and humor is constantly present.  Blanco presents the additional perspective of a player who must contend with the newness of the American culture and how his family is adapting.  I leave a comment each time I stop by, because I blog, and I know that anyone who blogs,checks out the comments.  

It’s nice to know that I have the ear of three of my favorite players on the Giants.

Giants Rough Up Rockies, 4-0

San Francisco Giants Rough Up Colorado Rockies, 4-0

Madison Bumgarner pitched five innings of two-hit ball and Hunter Pence smacked two home runs to lead the San Francisco Giants over the Colorado Rockies, 4-0, today, under warm, cloudy skies in Scottsdale, Arizona.  Christian Friedrich started for the Rockies and gave up three earned runs on six hits and one walk.  Scott Oberg came on in relief, with two outs in the fourth, and induced a ground ball off the bat of Joaquin Arias, to get a force out at second base, stranding two runners, but not before Bumgarner knocked in a run with a sharp single to left. 

Four Giants’ pitchers, Brett Bochy, Jeremy Affeldt, Heath Hembree and Jean Machi, (9th inning) combined to retire the final twelve batters they faced.   Overall, Giants’ pitching faced three batters over the minimum, with two base hits and a walk from Bumgarner, while the pen retired their twelve in order.  Neither hit allowed left the infield.  Matt McBride hit a ball that deflected off of the glove of Bumgarner and went to Ehire Adrianza at short, while Paul Janish bunted to Pablo Sandoval at third.  At least for today, it would seem that Giants’ pitchers are ahead of Rockies’ hitters.

Eddie Butler pitched the fifth through seventh for the Rockies, allowing the fourth Giants’ run in the seventh when he walked a batter, allowed a Brandon Hicks single and then hit Tyler Graham with a pitch.  Butler got out of it, allowing only one run when Kelby Tomlinson grounded into a force out, shortstop Rosell Herrera to second baseman Juan Ciraco, Nick Noonan scoring on the play.

Featuring a line-up mainly of players fighting for back-up spots, the Giants scattered ten hits, including Pence’s two homers, his first of the Cactus League games.  Joaquin Arias, Brandon Hicks, Juan Perez and Ehire Adrianza each had a hit, making it a successful day for them in their efforts to compete for a spot on the roster.  Of the four, only Arias has a spot locked up.  

Typifying a spring training game by being anything but what you would expect, the Giants looked to be in great shape, for the shape they’re in.  I would not necessarily have thought that a Rockies-Giants contest could be played in such an efficient two hours and eighteen minutes, but that’s what transpired.  Just don’t expect to see a repeat once the season begins.  

Meanwhile, Madison Bumgarner versus Clayton Kershaw looms closer and closer.  Bumgarner stands poised at the edge of what very well could be a statement year, as in, “I have arrived.”  I’d say the Rockies would agree; they’re still checking the rear-view mirror, to see what it was that him ‘em today.  

Of course, it’s only spring training the haters would say.  No one cares about the spring, at which point I would politely disagree.  I’ll take Bumgarner’s 0.00 ERA right now, over anything else available, because if he can be this dominant this early, imagine what he could be like in September, not to mention the playoffs.  Hey, I know it’s early but that’s what we do in March, besides wait for the brackets to go up for the Madness.  We take what’s available and we make a big deal out of it.

Madison Bumgarner just makes the job easy. 

No More Limousines

No More Limousines

And thus it ends.  I tendered my resignation to Around the Foghorn this morning at 3:58AM, after laboring for an eternity on it.  Well, actually, it was closer to fifteen minutes.   The time-frame may hint as to why I will no longer sport the mantle of intrepid sportster for a glitzy sports rag.  I haven’t been getting much sleep anyway, it being spring and I, of course, being mired in March Mania.  But this non-paying gig is taking my insomnia to a whole new level.

It goes without saying that I will miss the limousines and the flashbulbs, and of course, hobnobbing with my pals Timmy, Hunter, The Buster and all the rest, but I figure I’ll see them on the tube, up close and personal, and isn’t that about the same thing?  

It’s no one’s fault.  I simply cannot access the technology, even though I gave it my best shot.  I invested more than a thousand bones to take a road-trip to Redding so as to learn from the master, Jack Thomas.  He hooked a brother up and we went through all of the components and I took the test.  Great success!  I passed it and thought I was in like Flynn.

The one thing I still can not do is gain access to word-press.  It’s all about those user names and passwords, the bane of my  existence. I struggled prior to going to Redding, to even gain access to the fansided site, which is the umbrella site for Around the Foghorn and 251 other cyber publications.  I finally asked the editor how she accessed it and she gave me my user name, markoneill, and that was that.  So simple.

I had tried upper-case M and O, spaces, apostrophe and then no apostrophe; I had tried a lot of things but to no avail.  It just does not come naturally.  So I am not surprised to be bailing out-just supremely disappointed.  There is just no one available to me, who can provide the tutoring I require.  Consider me a “special-needs” kind of guy, because that’s the closest assessment I can provide.

Now there is great excitement at ATF because the pageview numbers are way up.  Even a fellow who came on board after me sent out an email to this effect.  I just feel left out and it’s a disconcerting feeling.  I try to stay grounded on a day-to-day basis, so as not to get too far out there, and I’m pretty hyper-extended right now, so before I blow a head-gasket (much worse than the one under your car’s hood), I’m going to shut the engine down. 

In all fairness the editors have been very patient with me, including formatting my stuff so I could begin posting pieces of writing.  But writing is a funny thing-no matter how much I proof a draft, after it gets published, I almost always have to adjust something, and I can’t do that with ATF.  Or if it’s egregious, I can ask the editor to do it, but then it creates more work for her.

See, the editors both have regular jobs, and believe it or not, lives.  They actually do have better things to do with their time than fix my boo-boos.  So I sit and stew.  Stewing works well for tenderizing meat and potatoes, but not so well for a bipolar kind of guy who gets agitated when technology rears its ugly head.

The way I see it, words are words, no matter where they’re posted, so I’m just going to continue to blog.  I have posted more than a hundred pieces of writing on the Giants over the past two plus years on my blog and I will continue to do so.  “Mark’s Work” plus any title will take you to my blog, plus I will continue to comment on FaceBook so you will know when I have posted.  

Heck, it’s all in good fun anyway, so when I start to stress, I know something’s wrong.  Stress is for paying jobs, not for hobbies.  Writing is a hobby for me, and writing about the Giants is as good as it gets, because the Giants are as good as it gets.  So I’m stashing my anxieties in the locker room and returning to the field of play with a different tee-shirt, this one saying, “I’m giving up stress for Lent...”  lol.  

Besides, I was ready to bail anyway; I love ice cream and Hunter’s Paleo Diet won’t allow it, so this gets me off the hook.  See you on CSNBA.

The Proof Is in the Playoffs

The Proof Is in the Playoffs

Sports talk abounds!  Jason, representing the A’s, and I, The Orange and Black, have been exchanging pleasantries across the Bay for a spell now, pondering which team will claim bragging rights at the end of this season, the San Francisco Giants or the Oakland Athletics.  Jason’s main contention is that the A’s have a better team because they had a better record than the Giants last season.  I maintain that in the ebb and flow of baseball, players and teams rise, skyrocketing to the greatest of heights one year, and settle, collectively easing back down to Earth the next.  The Giants are one such team, already in the process of restoring normalcy to the baseball universe, by rocking their starting pitching down in the desert.  2014 is, after all, an even year.

The statements my worthy debating opponent has made are smooth and easy on the A’s fans’ ears, but that doesn’t mean they are accurate.  I zeroed in on five statements that he made that seem to be the most crucial and I’m going to take a look at them.  If I can refute three of the five, I will claim victory in our debate. So I’ll begin with this glaring nugget of false logic:  “The Giants have nine players that have been on both Championship teams.  Why is it then that those nine guys were only good for 76 wins last season?”  [This will be easy like Sunday morning.]

Nine core players can carry the load, especially if one is named Buster Posey, but they need a backup component; that’s why there are twenty-five players on a roster.  No pitcher (except Tim Hudson) finishes above .500 every season and no position player has stellar numbers year after year except maybe, Albert Pujols, of the Los Angeles Angels.  Such factors as lack of run-support, injury (Ryan Vogelsong, Angel Pagan, Marco Scutaro), fatigue, domestic challenges, and the grind of the 162-game schedule all take their toll.  Four of those nine core players on the Giants are All-Star pitchers: Madison Bumgarner, Matt Cain, Tim Lincecum and Vogelsong, not to mention the fact that their fifth guy, Tim Hudson, is an All-Star too. 

I couldn’t help but notice there was no mention of how many of the A’s pitchers are All-Stars and I wondered if maybe that shouldn’t be kept under consideration.  Most baseball fans would equate being an All-Star with quality, and five time quality ought to equal superior.

Additionally, and this is not an excuse, so much as a reasonable explanation that directly addresses the question as to what happened to the Giants in 2013, but consider The World Basic Classic.  Of the ten Giants who participated in the pre-season tournament, nine ended up on the disabled list.  Interestingly enough, no A’s were involved in the WBC.  It’s not good-it’s not bad; it just is.  However, in terms of explaining why the Giants won fewer games in 2013, it does provide a specific explanation.  In terms of debate points: Giants 1-A’s zip.

Next up for perusal is the statement that “They [the Giants] finished strong.”  The Giants did finish strongly, climbing out of last place, to regain a share of third.  Angel Pagan came back from the injury he incurred when he scored the winning run on an inside-the-parker, in a game played last May 25th, against the Colorado Rockies, mangling a hamstring in the process.  Ryan Vogelsong returned from a broken pinkie, as did Marco Scutaro.  Matt Cain, obviously trying to live up to his nickname, The Horse, tried to carry the load on his own, and Timmy (Tim Lincecum) was in the process of transitioning from power pitcher to finesse pitcher, a process occurring before our very eyes in spring training.  

Or maybe you didn’t notice that the Giants’ starters began the spring by only giving up one earned run in the first twenty-one innings?  I thought you might have.  So, yes, now that they have gotten the wheels back on the cart and WD-40ed, it’s go-time. The fact that the Giants finished strongly lends credibility to my contention that they are on the way back up.   I cannot argue with that; Jason is correct.  Giants 1-A’s 1.

Next statement up for debate is:  “The common rebuttal against A’s fans before 2010, when the Giants finally won anything...was to stop living in the past...”  The A’s won three Series forty years ago, and another in 1989, against the Giants, in an emotionally-packed Series that the A’s were obviously able to dominate.  This happened so long ago, that even a certain A’s writer named Jason was still not born.  By a month, or so, he said.  I agree: it’s ancient history. 

Now the Giants fans keep pointing back to 2010 and 2012.  However, the Giants’ most recent success took place a mere sixteen months ago, a period of time so short that more than a third of the team still plays for the Giants.  The A’s, on the other hand, have been to the playoffs the last two seasons, but haven’t been able to pull the trigger.  The proof is in the playoffs.  There’s a difference between ancient history and a review of a Series in which players from both teams are still playing for their respective teams.  Enough said.  Giants 2: A’s 1.

Next I want to address two statements about pitchers, one which I think is accurate and one that I think is invalid.  “He’s [Sonny Gray] already beaten Justin Verlander... once in the playoffs while only tallying 64 IP in the bigs.”  Hitting me up with Verlander on the losing end of a game does not impress me; Pablo Sandoval and the Giants sent Verlander packing and the Tigers with him.  And no matter how good Gray’s stuff is, assuming he can carry it out over a complete season, after only 64 innings’ experience at the big league level, is just making it all a little too convenient to suit me. 

Along the same lines the next point read, “Yes they [A’s] will be without Bartolo Colon in 2014, but contrary to what you said, they [A’s] still get to keep those 28  wins he supplied them with the past two seasons.  Actually, Scot Kazmir will be an upgrade over Colon this coming season.”  T=Despite the best-laid plans, there are no guarantees about attainable victories.  However, If Kazmir has a good season, he will more than adequately replace the departed Colon, especially since the assumption is that the A’s will not have to worry about Kazmir being suspended for any reason.  And I do not know that Sonny Gray will not have a good season.  So we’ll say A’s pitching has received an upgrade.  Giants 2-A’s 2 .

The fifth and last point of debate is kind of off-tempo, but I give credit for the attempt at a metaphor.  This is what was written:  “In business, when forecasting ahead for say, how many of a certain item to purchase to sell at your business, there are a couple of methods one can use.  The easiest method is to simply take the most recent data, and reorder that amount.  For the A’s that amount would be a 96-win season and a divisional crown, the Giants, 76 wins and hoping not to finish last.”  

I give bonus points for the metaphor, but it’s a mixed one, because the Giants and A’s cannot buy or sell victories-only the Dodgers can do that (My bad).  Unfortunately, we’re back to that irrelevant business of counting regular season victories.  No one cares.  What fans care about, once the season is over, is who has won the World Series-this century?  Not the A’s. 

Final in five: Giants 3-A’s 2.

Every debate has a conclusion.  Though the A’s play an enthusiastic brand of baseball, and even I have been known to watch them upon occasion, the bottom line is that the Giants have history on their side, along with the players to repeat it.  No matter who wins more victories this season in each respective league, the Giants are the team better-equipped to go further into the playoffs, and that’s where the proof is.

Giants Deny Dodgers 3-2

Giants Deny Dodgers, 3-2

The San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers engaged in their only Cactus League contest today, with the Giants coming out on top, 3-2.   Edwin Escobar pitched the first three innings for the Giants, giving up one run on one hit, and Brandon Hicks hit a two-run blast off of Klayton Kershaw, and eventually accounted for all three San Francisco runs.  Kershaw pitched the first five innings for the Dodgers, giving up a total of two runs and five hits. 

The Dodgers got things started with a bang in the bottom of the first inning.  With Edwin Escobar pitching for the Giants, Chone Figgins drew a walk and ended up scoring on the ensuing put-out of A.J. Ellis, a fine play by Escobar to snag a bullet of a grounder and get Ellis at first.  Unfortunately, Brandon Belt made a rare throwing error while trying to nail Figgins advancing to third.  When Belt makes an error, he does not fool around.  In commenting on the play, Jon Miller quipped that the ball “was over Pablo’s (Pablo Sandoval) head by eight feet.”

Before Escobar could collect his thoughts, Yasiel Puig drilled the first pitch down the right field line for a double and Adrian Gonzalez walked.  Escobar got out of it by getting Justin Turner to fly out, and after yielding yet another walk to Mike Baxter, getting Alex Guerrero to ground into a force-out, Pablo to Brandon Hicks at second.

The Giants came back in the second when, after there were two quick outs, Joaquin Arias singled and Brandon Hicks sent one out over the right field wall off of Klayton Kershaw, who had retired the Giants in order in the top of the first.  Jon Miller was laughing at the way Puig reacted to Hicks’s drive, saying, “Puig looked stunned to see the ball carry so far,” while Mike Krukow added, “The Giants have been looking for a guy who could hit off of Kershaw and they may have found him.” 

That was it for scoring until the bottom of the seventh when Dan Runzler, relieving Jason Berken, gave up two singles and two walks, the second to Drew Butera, forcing in a second run and tying the game at two apiece.  The Giants escaped when Juan Gutierrez got Brandon Harris to ground out to second, leaving the bases full.  Berken threw three shutout innings, recording seven of his nine outs on infield ground balls, while the final two outs came on called third strikes.  It made for an impressive stint and could not help but attract the kind of attention that every rookie in camp is seeking.

Brett Bochy came on to pitch the last of the eighth and Dee Gordon made it interesting by scampering around to third on an error by catcher Tyler LaTorre.  With two outs and two on, Bruce Bochy went out to the mound to talk to Brett Bochy.  “Just a little father-son chat...” as Jon Miller phrased it.  With Scott Van Slyke, son of former major leaguer Andy Van Slyke, batting, Peterson stole second uncontested, and Van Slyke went on to draw a walk, loading the bases.  

Bochy senior then returned to the mound, this time bringing the hook and replacing Bochy Junior with Jean Machi.  “This is the kind of a spot that Machi might be summoned for during the regular season,” commented Miller.  “He’s not afraid,” added Krukow.  Machi proceeded to get Butera swinging to end the inning, and the Dodgers stranded three for the third time in the game.

The Giants had to be encouraged by Escobar’s outing, and the fact that both Gutierrez and Machi came in with the bags jammed and retired the only batter faced for the final out.  Machi went on to slam the door in the ninth with a one-two-three inning.    

So look for Edwin Escobar to continue to make his presence known, now that he is demonstrating he can handle the hot seat at the major league level.  He sizzled at both Single and Double A ball last season, and the Giants feel that even if he cools off to hot, that might be enough to shore up the starting pitching over the course of the season. 

Meanwhile, after the lopsided loss yesterday, it was grand to see a return of National League action.  Get used to it.  The Giants play the Dodgers nineteen times this season, and most of them will end in one-run decisions.  It’s just nice to see that the youngsters have got the right idea already.