SFGiants Game 19 - Happy Easter!

First and foremost, hope you all had a Happy Easter! Or if it's your preference, hope you had a Happy 420. Whatever floats your boat.

I went to church with my mom Sunday morning and then had lunch after. As we were eating our dessert, a tall, beautiful woman walked by with an adorable little boy. She looked familiar and then I realized that it was Nicole Vogelsong, with her Vogelchild, Ryder. I walked over to them to introduce myself, and she was so unbelievably sweet. She even knew me by name and mentioned my twitter handle. I even got two Vogelhugs. I made friends with Ryder too - what a great kid. Looks just like daddy. We even talked baseball a little bit and were excited when Buster Posey hit his home fun. Not going to lie, I loved meeting her. And Ryder, of course <3 

I mean, seriously. How cute are the Vogelsongs??? Anyway, onto the game!

1st inning highlights

Angel Pagan popped out to start the game after a seven pitch AB. Hunter Pence then walked. On the first pitch Posey saw, he hit his 4th home run of the season, and just like that, the Giants had two runs for the first time in what felt like forever. That hit was much needed after getting into a 1-24 slump at the plate. Michael Morse worked a seven pitch at bat as well, and subsequently struck out.

2nd inning highlights

After Joaquin Arias flied out to Seth Smith, Brandon Hicks coaxed an eight pitch walk. Brandon Crawford moved Hicks over to third with a single to center. Erlin then walked Lincecum to load the bases. Pagan came through with a single of his own to center, scoring Hicks and Crawford. Those two RBIs gave Pagan a total of 12 in the young season. After his teammates gave him a 4-0 lead, Lincecum had a shut down inning and headed back to the dugout after striking out Tommy Medica, giving up a single to Nick Hundley, and then getting Alexi Amarista to GIDP. 

3rd inning highlights

The Giants were quiet in their half of the inning, but the Padres were not. With two outs, Will Venable singled, followed by a single from Smith to move Venable to third. Former Giants Xavier Nady walked to load the bases. Chase Headley then doubled to right, with Venable and Smith scoring. The Padres also sent Nady home, and was initially called safe. Bruce Bochy challenged the call, and it was overturned. That was a perfect time to challenge, especially since it went our way. 4-2 going into the 4th was much more manageable than 4-3, especially given how anemic the Giants offense has been.

4th inning - Uneventful on both sides.

5th inning highlights

Another quiet inning from the Giants offense, but the highlight of the inning was seeing Posey gun Everth Cabrera out trying to steal 2nd. POSEY AIN'T HAVIN' IT. He is seven for 18 on getting the runner out on stolen base attempts.

6th inning - Uneventful on both sides. 

7th inning highlights

Lincecum was at 101 pitches, but Boch put him back out there, and Hundley promptly hit the first pitch he saw out, to bring the Padres within one run of the Giants. Jeremy Affeldt came to relieve Timmy and pitched a clean inning. 

8th inning highlights

Nothing going on as usual on offense, but the 8th inning gave Giants gamer babes a chance to see Javier Lopez pitch to TWO batters. WHOA. He was then replaced by Santiago Casilla. 

9th inning highlights

Sergio Romo came in to save the game. He walked leadoff batter Headley, who went to second on a wild pitch. After that, he got three consecutive pop ups from Yasmani Grandal, Hunley, and Yonder Alonso to secure the save and end the game. This was Romo's fifth save.

NO SWEEP. Little victories are important. It also ended their three game losing streak.

Some interesting fun facts:

- The Giants' last 10 games have been decided by 11 runs.

- The Giants had more runs (4) than hits (3). The Padres outhit the Giants seven to three. 

- After Pagan's RBIs in the 2nd, the Giants did not get another hit. 

- The win game Lincecum his 90th victory. 

- The Giants bullpen is currently number one in MLB with their combined 1.79 ERA.

- Pagan was interviewed after the game and we got to hear him say happy flight :)

Excited for the game tonight. Hoping for a strong start from Vogelsong and also hoping our bats come alive at hitter friendly Coors Field. 

GO GIANTS!

xoxo,

JC

SF Giants Game 15

Sup y'all. To be honest, I'm still pretty happy about last night's game. I'm running on empty since I only slept four hours last night, so it was probably dumb to go on a short hike after work especially since I didn't eat much today. Thankfully, I survived! I didn't want to be a jerk and say "Umm, is it time to turn around yet? The game starts soon..." but we completed our 4-mile loop just in time for me to turn on the radio and listen to the first inning on my drive home.

1st inning highlights
Dee Gordon led off the game with a single. Carl Crawford flied out to left field, and then Hanley Ramirez grounded into a double play. Angel Pagan grounded out and then Hunter Pence ended up on 2nd due to a field error by Kemp. HAHA, Kemp. Pablo Sandoval and Buster Posey stranded Pence at 2nd.

2nd inning highlights
After Adrian Gonzalez was out for interfering with Posey, Kemp walked. Kemp was picked off at first and called out. Don Mattingly challenged and four very long minutes and 25 seconds later, the call was upheld. HAHA, Kemp. I wish the umps hadn't taken that long, but glad that Ryan Vogelsong was able to stay loose. 

Side note: Jon Miller mentioned that the Giants were down one Brandon tonight. Brandon Crawford was given the night off due to tightness in his hamstring. It happened last night when he was racing around the bases. Miller mentioned it wasn't that serious. Fingers crossed!

3rd inning highlights
Juan Uribe singled to left field and then during Drew Butera's at bat, Posey gunned him down trying to steal 2nd. POSEY AIN'T HAVIN' IT. In the bottow of the 3rd, Paul Maholm walked Pagan. He was out at second on a ground ball force out by Pence. Sandoval singled and the Posey singled deep enough to Crawford, giving our speedy kale-monger more than enough time to make it home. Unfortunately, Morse hit into a double play to end the inning.

4th inning highlights
Quiet inning from both sides. Nice to see Vogey cruising along without any issues.

5th inning highlights
Gonzo was out on one pitch and Pagan singled. That's about all that happened this inning.

6th inning highlights
With two outs, Vogey walked Maholm. The other PITCHER. That was annoying enough until Gordon tripled to right, driving Maholm in to tie the game. It sucks so bad when a two out walk to a pitcher ends up scoring. In the Giants half of the inning, Posey walked, but then Morse hit into ANOTHER double play. Please stop that shit. Belt singled and then made it to second on a wild pitch. Brandon Hicks hit a deep fly ball to center, ending the inning and leaving the score tied.

7th inning highlights
HanRam was hit by a pitch, directly on the hand. Looked pretty awful. Hope he's ok. Gonzo singled, knocking Vogey out of the game. I'm glad the fans gave him a loud ovation. Jean Machi came in to pitch and promptly struck out Kemp. Andre Ethier singled on a weird ass play where Hicks looked like he was going to throw to Belt, but threw to Machi instead. With the bases loaded, our nemesis Uribe hit into a double play, to the delight of Giants fans everywhere. Our turn! Arias was walked on four pitches. Ehire Adrianza bunted him over to 2nd. Pagan struck out and then the Dodgers intentionally walked Pence to pitch to Panda. In all honesty, I thought that was a wise choice, given Sandoval's struggles at the plate this season. Thankfully Sandoval made them pay with a single to center, scoring Arias. This put the Giants up 2-1.

Side note: The Giants bullpen has been pretty amazing thus far. They currently hold the 2nd lowest ERA in the National League. I am confident that they will continue to be strong.

8th inning highlights
Butera and Puig were out rather quickly versus Santiago Casilla. After Gordon singled, the Giants brought in Javier Lopez. He sidearmed to first on a pickoff attempt and threw it away. It ended up being harmless as Crawford grounded out on the first pitch to end the inning. Nice to see Morse get a hit this inning, considering he had to GIDPs in this game. Brandon League was surprisingly good. Shocker!

Side note 1: 
X-rays on HanRam's hand were negative. It looked really bad, so it's good that it's not broken.

Side note 2:
Twitter couldn't get enough of some Giants fans misspellings, and rightfully so. There was a group of six people, each with an individual letter to spell out Beat LA. Unfortunately they were in the wrong order so #BaetLA was trending for a while. I like to drink at games too, so I'll pretend they were just too drunk to realize. How hard is it to remember to stay in the the same order when you do that though? Spelling error number 2 featured a sign that said "Go Gaints!" Come the fuck on, people. Get it right.

9th inning highlights
Sergio Romo came in to save the game. Justin Turner - one pitch, one out. El Mechon then struck out both Gonzo and Kemp to end the game. THAT'S WHAT'S UP!!!

Fun tidbits:
- Great to see Happy Panda during his post game interview. 
- The Giants have won four out of six consecutive one-run games.
- Vogey pitched his best game of the season, allowing only four hits and one run. He also faced only 15 batters through five innings and only gave up one hit during that time.
- The Giants won their 2nd game today in honor of Bruce Bochy's birthday. Happy birthday skipper!
- The Giants are now in 1st place.

- I'm going to relax now and either watch P.S. I Love You or last night's episode of The Voice :)

Sweep LA.Duck the Fodgers. Together, We're Sleepy. Enjoy the rest of your night!

xoxo,
JC

SFGiants Games 6 & 7

Sup. I felt blogger's withdrawal yesterday since I didn't have time to recap the game. One of the things I love about baseball is the highs and lows. And because they play so much, it's generally easier to pull yourself out of your baseball depression. Clearly, I've wiped last season from my memory! (Not really.)

Recap of Saturday's game? Don't mind if I do...
- Celebrated my friend's birthday all day yesterday, so I was trying to be polite and be present, but I couldn't help myself so I turned the game on and talked about clothes, makeup, and gossip while keeping an eye on the game. Had a blast with my girl friends though!
- Madison Bumgarner pitched well and got his 50th career victory. He is 24 years old. I repeat, HE IS TWENTY FOUR YEARS OLD. 

MadBum makes snot rockets sexy. Kinda.
- Bumgarner had a solid outing and struck out 10. I have a good feeling that he's going to have a kick ass year. Additionally, he always pitches well against the Dodgers. A definite plus.
- Michael Morse hit is first home run in a Giants uniform in the top of the 4th. 
-- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. .
- The top of the 5th inning was awesome. Madbum started it off with a single, followed by another single from the red hot Angel Pagan. After Hunter Pence flied out, Pablo Sandoval hit a three run home run. Yay, Panda! Batting next, Buster Posey wanted a piece of the action too and followed that with a solo home run. Back-to-back, y'all!
- Admittedly, I was bouncing around on Union St. in San Francisco from the 6th inning on, but even as I had a late boozy lunch with the girls and then cupcakes and champagne for dessert, I discretely keep an eye on my phone until the game was over.

Today's game:
I spent the day in Oakland with my best friend and my favorite boys. I love them all so much despite the fact that they're A's fans. Hey, no one is perfect! We were talking so much shit to each other, it was hilarious. I was so riled up when they jokingly talked about Eric fucking Sogard being the Face of the MLB. Jerks. Ha.

Anyway, I walked into my condo right in time to see Matt Kemp's home run off Matt Cain. Lovely. I was even more annoyed in the bottom of the 4th inning when HanRam hit a solo home run, and then Kemp hit a two run home run. All off Cain. I hate seeing teams, especially the Dodgers, tee off on our Rally Horse. 

I was pretty depressed because I really wanted to see our guys kick more Dodgers ass today. Side note: I HAD to watch the season premiere of Game of Thrones during the East Coast broadcast. I just had to. It's one of my favorite shows that I obsess over. I'm even going to do recaps of this season, just so I can geek out about it some more. 

In the top of the 6th, Brandon Belt homered off of Zack Greinke to finally put the Giants on the board. Three batters later, a cleanly shaven Pence also hit a solo home run. I was so happy I changed the channel in time to see that. I love him. You probably were unaware of that...

Another side note, I'm still so pissed that I forgot to check my fantasy baseball lineups this morning before 10am. I'm so competitive that I hate that I left FOUR, yes FOUR, starting pitchers on my bench. Get it together, Saturday.

In the bottom of the 8th, HanRam went yard again, this time off David Huff. It's so gross that he and Kemp both had two home runs against our pitchers today. Yuck. Even typing that made me feel dirty. And not in the good way!

Alas, the Giants were unable to complete the sweep of the Dodgers. Taking two out of three was pretty awesome though. Unhappy flight home, but our boys have the day off tomorrow before the home opener at the best ballpark in the MLB, our beloved AT&T Park. I can't wait to be back there, cheering our guys on in person with some amazing friends! <3

C U Next Tuesday ;)

xoxo,
JC

SFGiants Game 1

Random musings from tonight's game:

- Day 1 and I'm already annoyed with our in game reporter that shall remain nameless [insert horse neighing noises].

- Brandon McCarthy is one of my favorite non-Giants. Any player that survives that awful hit to the head AND tweets crotch pictures is a winner in my book.

- My dinner of mahi mahi with cous cous and mashed vegetables was so good...good. Too bad I didn't take a picture to post on Instagram. Just kidding, I don't do that shit! 

- Brandon Belt's pop-up dance in the 1st cracked me up. I'll definitely be watching that gif a few times.

- The Giants have some pretty glorious hair. Angel Pagan, Brandon Crawford, Michael Morse...they make long hair sexy. And I don't even like long hair. Anymore. I did go through that weird phase at UCSC though. Good times.

- Furthermore, from a female's perspective, how lucky are we to have so many handsome ballplayers to root for? Seriously, there are so many attractive men on the team. BONUS! Excuse me, I need a cold shower...

- Hunter Pence's kale fueled throw in the 3rd inning to gun out Mark Trumbo at third made me so happy. I love Pence so much, have I mentioned that yet?

- The back to back errors in the 4th were pretty rough. I suggested that MadBum aim his snotrockets at Belt and Pablo Sandoval when that inning was over. The Giants defense overall in this game was awful. I know it's game 1, but they need to work out those kinks ASAP.

- It was great to see the offense step up late in the game. HR from Belt and Pagan getting some RBIs was nice to see. Even seeing Pence's patience at the plate with the bases loaded to walk in the tying run was a ray of light for this often frustrating offense.

- I was so annoyed when I kept seeing Belt bumbling around on defense. Truth is, I'll forgive that if he can be consistent at the plate. He shouldn't have made those errors, but I think he'll be just fine. I'm more worried about his offense.

- Forgot about Shawn Estes when making My Favorite Giants list earlier. My dad was a little concerned about how much I loved him in high school. He bought me an Estes shirt nonetheless. Awesome dad. Estes was my favorite lefty back then. 

Not gonna lie, I think he's still pretty attractive. Speaking of sexy lefties of yesteryear...

- Noah Lowry <3 That is all. Excuse me, I need another cold shower.

- I LOVED seeing Buster Posey throw out Cliff Pennington in the 7th. The joy of tweeting "Ain't havin' it" when that happens is lost on people that aren't on twitter. Plus, seeing it from 10 different people in a row on my timeline warms my baseball loving heart.

- I will always think "Goldshit" whenever I hear or see Goldschmidt. Mostly because I'm as mature as a 5-year old when it comes to things like that. Also because he's a Giants killer and I will never like him.

- I took a break mid-game to watch the finale of HIMYM. Didn't miss too much of the game because I was following along on the MLB app and the Giants were in the midst of their shit show. Tuned back in an hour later to see them rally back. That episode of How I Met Your Mother though </3 Not at all what I expected and still unsure how I feel about it. I'll probably watch it again tomorrow.

- Posey's 2-run home run with two outs in the 9th off of Addison Reed was a thing of beauty, wasn't it? I changed into one of my Posey shirts midway through the 7th. I like to think that it brought him some good vibes. That's how baseball works, right? 

- Learned my lesson when I lost a shit ton of typed out bullet points that I should save more often. Rookie mistake. DERP. 

I like seeing Randy Winn on the post-game show. I have his bobble head! Glad he's still part of the Giants family. Last but not least, it was fun live tweeting with the best fans in baseball. So clever, so sarcastic, and so wonderful. 161 more games, friends and fans. I'll probably overreact and swear about 1,000,000 more times by the end of the season.

Good night & GO GIANTS!!!

xoxo,

JC