Giants Look to Salvage a Game, Stay in First Place in Series Finale Against Dodgers

By Vince Cestone
@vintalkingiants






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The San Francisco Giants sit atop the National League West with a slim one-game lead, but the Los Angeles Dodgers and their new shortstop Hanley Ramirez have plans to share the top spot.

The Dodgers bolstered their lineup by acquiring Ramirez from the Miami Marlins in exchange for pitcher Nathan Eovaldi and a minor leaguer. Although Ramirez is batting just .252 for the season, he has 15 home runs and is 6-for-16 with the Dodgers.

In his first at-bat with Los Angeles against the St. Louis Cardinals, Ramirez tripled and then came in to score. He proceeded to hit a game-winning home run for the Dodgers on a hanging slider from Sergio Romo in the 10th of inning of Friday night's game against the Giants.

So far, the Giants have countered by acquiring Marco Scutaro,who will play third base in the absence of Pablo Sandoval, who was placed on the 15-day disabled list on Saturday with a hamstring strain. Scutaro is batting .271, with four home runs and 30 RBIs.

Although the Giants may be short-handed, San Francisco will send Ryan Vogelsong against the retooled Dodgers in the series finale. Vogelsong (8-4, 2.26 ERA) is 2-0 against the Dodgers this year with an 0.63 ERA.

In order to avoid the sweep at the hands of their rivals, the Giants will have to be on top of their game. The Dodgers' ace Clayton Kershaw (7-6, 3.14 ERA) will face off against San Francisco for the third time this season.

Vogelsong beat Kershaw twice this season by scores of 2-1 and 2-0.

The Giants lost Game 1 in the 10th inning on Ramirez's home run, after they tied the game in the eighth on a Brandon Belt two-run single. Los Angeles routed Barry Zito and the Giants 10-0 in Game 2, thanks to seven combined RBIs from Matt Kemp and Hanley Ramirez.

Matt Cain received a no-decision in Game 1.

Too much great pitching from Chad Billingsley and too little hitting doomed the Giants.

San Francisco has still been hot since the All-Star break. They have gone 9-5 to start the second half, including a strong 4-2 East Coast road trip.

Here are some more news and notes about tonight's rivalry game.

• The Giants outscored the Dodgers 13-0 in their three-game sweep of  Los Angeles June 25-27 at AT&T Park.
• The Giants are 4-4 against the Dodgers this season.
• ESPN predicts the Giants will have a 45% chance of beating the Dodgers today.
• The Dodgers are 2-2 since acquiring Ramirez.
• The Dodgers have not shutout the Giants by this large of a margin since 1997, where they beat them 11-0.
• Kershaw's career ERA against the Giants is 1.45, the lowest all-time--over a minimum of 50 innings.

Weather Report:

The game-time temperature will be a cool 61 degrees. An 11-mph  west-northwest wind will carry the ball to slightly right of center, a spot Dodgers' slugger Matt Kemp loves to take the ball.

Who's Hot:

• Melky Cabrera: 30-for-79, .380, 3 HR, 13 RBI, .414 on-base percentage.

Who's Not:

•  Brandon Belt: 10-for-58, .172, 4 RBI, 25 strikeouts, .258 OBP, .207 slugging percentage, .465 OPS.

 ...

The Giants have been playing good baseball since the break. Although the Dodgers took the first two games of the series, the Giants can still escape with a two-game lead in the NL West by winning one-out-of-three.

Even if the worst happens and the Dodgers sweep, the Giants will still be percentage points ahead of the Dodgers, but if the Giants can continue to pitch well at home and get just enough offense, they should have a great chance of winning today's game.

Of course, they will need to catch the ball too. Shortstop Brandon Crawford committed one miscue in the game yesterday, and Melky Cabrera failed to hit the cutoff man on a play at the plate.

San Francisco must also improve on their situational hitting. Both in the second and fifth innings, the Giants had a runner at second with nobody out, but failed to move the runner over or get him in.

With the Giants needing to play scrappy, especially with Sandoval out of the lineup, they cannot fail in those productive-out situations if they expect to win ball games. Once again, the Giants were plagued with their overaggressiveness with runners on base.

Still, the Giants are in first place by one game. They must realize that the pressure is on the Dodgers--not them--so it is their job to stay loose and look like the team ahead in the standings.



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Information from ESPN.com contributed to this article.

Check out my NBCBayArea.com article on the San Jose Giants' Joe Panik.

Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Francisco Giants 4/11 Preview

Once again, the Giants will be severely handicapped defensively. Aubrey Huff will patrol right field with Aaron Rowand in center and Pat Burrell in left. Let's see how the tri-water buffalo defense works out tonight.

Here is tonight's lineup.

Tejada SS
Sanchez 2B
Huff RF
Posey C
Burrell LF
Rowand RF
Belt 1B
Sandoval 3B
Bumgarner P

With the injuries to Cody Ross and Andres Torres, this is the best offensive lineup that Bruce Bochy has to work with. Defensively, not so much.

I would have liked to have seen Nate Schierholtz in there against the tough lefty Clayton Kershaw. Schierholtz did well against the St. Louis Cardinals' left-hander Jaime Garcia and seems to hit lefties better than righties.

Mychael Urban of CSN Bay Area said it best -- "Bruce Bochy loves him his veterans." That said, it is not a surprise that everyone in the outfield is in their late to mid-30s

Will Bochy's reliance on proven veterans backfire? Tune in to CSN Bay Area at 7:15 p.m. to find out.






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San Francisco Giants: Clayton Kershaw, errors too much in opener at L.A.

The Giants did not expect to start their trek to a repeat title like this.

The Giants hit a road block on Thursday's opening day at Dodger Stadium, kicking the ball around in the sixth inning.

Miguel Tejada botched a throw to second with a runner at first with one out, followed by a rare Posey throwing error with the bases loaded. Just nanoseconds before, Posey made a great save on a pitch by Lincecum in the dirt.

The Dodgers drew first blood in the game on the error.

As Posey threw the ball, the runner at third, Matt Kemp, appeared to already be back on the base.

"I thought he was off the base," Posey said after the game. "I would not have thrown it if I thought he wasn't."

To complicate matters further for the Giants, Clayton Kershaw was dominant for the Dodgers. In seven shutout innings of work, Kershaw held the Giants to four hits and one walk, including nine strikeouts.

Cleanup hitter Buster Posey was one of the few to get something going against Kershaw, finishing the night one for four, but with two strikeouts.

"He did a good job of moving the ball around and mixing up some off speed pitches," Posey said of Kershaw.

The Giants seemed to struggle in all facets of the game in their three error debacle -- except for pitching. Tim Lincecum was nearly as fantastic as Kershaw, but earned a tough loss, pitching seven strong innings of unearned one-run ball.

The Dodgers tacked on another run in the eighth inning on a James Loney RBI double.

The Giants avoided embarrassment by scoring in the ninth off Jonathan Broxton. Burrell lined a screamer over the left-field wall, reminiscent to his game-winning home run off Jonathan Broxton last July.

Brandon Belt had a game to remember. In his first at bat, he accomplished an important milestone -- his first major league hit, an infield hit.

Belt had impressive at bats throughout his one-for-three night, including a walk off Clayton Kershaw.

 

Who should replace Tejada at SS if he struggles?

Mark DeRosa

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Although he made the last out of the game on a soft line drive to Uribe, Belt battled Broxton till the end.

Starter Tim Lincecum shrugged the loss off as best he could.

"Games like this are going to happen," Lincecum said. "Hopefully, we'll get them tomorrow."

One noticeable improvement was the defensive play of Pablo Sandoval. During the sloppy sixth inning, Sandoval shined, as he saved two runs with a diving play on a line drive to his left. Runners were on second and third at the time.

The good news for the Giants? Tomorrow is a new month.

WP: Clayton Kershaw (1-0), LP: Tim Lincecum (0-1), Broxton (S, 1)

HR: Pat Burrell (1, 9th inning off Broxton)

...

Aside from the errors in the sixth inning, the Giants cannot expect to win many games by scoring two runs. Clayton Kershaw is a great pitcher, but some questionable at bats hindered their chance at mounting a rally.

An at bat of note was Andres Torres' eighth inning plate appearance. Hong-Chih Kuo threw six straight balls to start the eighth inning, but Torres swung at what appeared to be ball three.

Torres would go on to have a good, long at bat and line out to Andre Ethier in right field, but Torres probably should have taken a strike there. If he takes the 2-0 pitch, the count might be 3-0 and who knows what happens?

Although Belt did not get the ball out of the infield, his approach was good. In the fifth inning, Belt somehow laid off Kershaw's two-strike off-speed pitches and worked out a walk. Even his last at bat off Broxton was a two-strike battle, although it was a line drive out to third base.

A questionable defensive miscue came from Buster Posey in the defensive nightmare sixth inning.

After Posey made an amazing block to keep the runner at third, there was no reason to throw the ball. Matt Kemp, the baserunner, was standing on the base, as Posey fired an errant throw to third.

The bottom line is the Giants did not get it done offensively -- or defensively. Scoring one run will not win many ball games.

Regardless of the errors, the Giants gave up few enough runs to win. Every team makes mistakes, but the good teams make up for those errors and pick up their teammates who caused the blunders.

The Giants have to do what they did last year to win. That is to catch the balls they could get to, get timely hits, and have fun.

One more thing. Here is some baseball 101 from Eric James Byrnes of Sportsphone 680:

"When a pitcher takes more than 1.3 seconds to deliver the ball to the catcer, it's a good time for a decent base stealer to go."

"Generally, switch hitters are better left-handed than right-handed. 

Other than that, tonight's game was really fun to watch. If there are more games like this throughout the season, fans are in for an exciting season.

This is unconfirmed, but I wanted to pass this along. Pablo Sandoval may have tipped Posey to throw to third by flashing his glove at Posey. This does not excuse Posey's throwing error, but it could have been a contributing factor to the errant throw.

Still, there is no reason to fire a throw to third when the runner is already standing on the base.

...

The Giants will try to rebound tomorrow against the Dodgers at 7:10 p.m. from Dodger Stadium. Jonathan Sanchez will make his 2011 debut against Chad Billingsley.




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San Francisco Giants vs. Los Angeles Dodgers 3/31, 5:00 p.m. short preview

Opening day for the Giants is just a little over an hour away. Here are tonight's lineups, along with their spring stats:

San Francisco Giants
1. Andres Torres - CF - .258, 1 HR, 9 RBI
2. Freddy Sanchez - 2B - .237, 2 HR, 7 RBI
3. Aubrey Huff - RF - .369, 6 HR, 16 RBI
4. Buster Posey - C - .396, 3 HR, 12 RBI
5. Pat Burrell - LF - .255, 2 HR, 10 RBI
6. Miguel Tejada - SS - .234, 1 HR, 6 RBI
7. Brandon Belt - 1B - .282, 3 HR, 13 RBI
8. Pablo Sandoval - 3B - .280, 3 HR, 13 RBI
9. Tim Lincecum - 3-0, 4.37 ERA, 22.2 IP, 26 H, 11 ER, 8 BB, 24 SO

Los Angeles Dodgers

1. Rafael Furcal - SS
2. Tony Gwynn Jr. - LF
3. Andre Ethier - RF
4. Matt Kemp - CF
5. James Loney - 1B
6. Juan Uribe - 3B
7. Rod Barajas - C
8. Jamey Carroll - 2B
9. Kershaw - P

Quick tidbits: Clayton Kershaw has a career 1.68 ERA against the Giants. This is Lincecum's third opening day start. Brandon Belt is the first Giants first baseman to make his major league debut on opening day since Will Clark. The Giants went 10-8 against the Dodgers last year.

Alright fans. It's time to relax and get ready for baseball! Postgame comments coming later.