From the Porch: Whew

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Padres 6, Giants 5 at Petco Park

SF (32-25) 300 012 000  6 11 0

SD (19-38) 200 011 100  5  9 1

WP: Bumgarner (7-4)

LP: Richard (2-7)

SV: Romo (3)

HR: Blanco (2); Maybin (2)

Bumgarner: 6ip 7h 4er 4bb 4k 3.26 era

Richard: 5.2ip 10h 4er 0bb 1k 4.58 era

In the NL West: Dodgers beat Phillies 6-5, Arizona beat Colorado 6-1. Giants still in second, 4 games behind LA.

Comments: Whew, that was a bit shaky; are Giants really going to battle like crazy people to beat teams 20 games under .500? Bumgarner was a little shaky today, giving up 4 earned runs in 7 innings. Bullpen held on, especially Romo to get the save despite increasingly crotchety knees. MadBum might be slightly unfamiliar with the Matt Cain speciality, the shut-down inning (hanging a zero after grabbing a lead). After Giants made it 6-3, he immediately loaded the bases but managed to give up only one run in the sixth.

Offense: Loved that first inning when Gregor Blanco again set the tone with a leadoff hit (and later hit an unlikely homer), followed by a Ryan Theriot single and Cabrea double. Seven pitches, nice SF lead.

Defense: Really continuing the recent trend of getting back on track; one error last eight games, none by Crawford. He made a couple of spectacular plays tonight, especially a diving stab and great throw to grease former Jesus Guzman in the fourth. On the other hand, the Forstythe two-run error was huge.

Baseball quote of the day: "People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." (Rogers Hornsby)

Next game: Giants vs. Padres, 12:35 p.m. PDT Thursday, June 7 at Petco Park. Matt Cain (6-2, 2.62) vs. Jason Marquis? Really? Must have missed something (0-0, --). TV: CSN-BA

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FTP: Late Padres rally

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Padres 6, Giants 5 at Petco Park

SF (31-25) 001 003 100  5 13 0

SD (19-37) 040 000 011  6 8 0

WP: Street (1-0)

LP: Edlefsen (0-1)

SV: None

HR: Quentin (4, 5); Forsythe (1)

Lincecum: 6ip 5h 4er 1bb 8k 5.83 era

Bass: 5.1ip 7h 4er 1bb 4k 4.21 era

In the NL West: Dodgers beat Phillies 2-1, Arizona beat Colorado 10-0. Giants fall back to 4 games behind LA.

Comments: Well, shoot. Lincecum was really good except during a 4-run second inning that put Giants in a 4-0 hole, lotsa swing-through strikeouts finally. Still trailing 4-1 in sixth, they scored three to tie it up and then scratched out a beautiful run in the seventh to take a 5-4 lead, only to give it away on a Quentin homer (he's incredibly hot right now) in the 8th and a Forsythe (the voice of Charlie on "Charlie's Angels," by the way) walk-off in the ninth. So it was a shaky start and two bad relievers (Affeldt and Edlefsen), and I can't remember a game that went that way for a very long time. Unreal that putting Lincecum on the mound and getting 13 hits results in a loss to the lowly Padres in the Giants' home away from home. SF always outdraws SD in Litterbox Park. Giants have won only two of Lincecum's 12 starts; he's the New Zito. Ryan The Riot is still going absolutely nuts both on defense and offense; he had three run-scoring hits tonight.

Baseball quote of the day: "I want to be remembered as a ballplayer who gave all he had to give."I don't talk. I just let what I do talk for myself." (Roberto Clemente)

Next game: Giants vs. Padres, 3:35 p.m. PDT Wednesday, June 6 at Petco Park. Bumgarner (6-4, 3.04) vs. Richard (2-6, 4.44). TV: CSN-BA

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The View From Down Here

Life as a Cubs fan.....

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2Hot's iMPACT Recap May 31, 2012

iMPACT is LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVVVVVVVVE!!


Hey Fuckers!


It’s the network’s only TNA fan here with YOUR iMPACT RECAP!!, Now cue MY Music!


-Remember how last week we spent the entire episode building to a match with the champ only to have the champ win and have Sting come out of nowhere and face him down?  No? Well lucky for you, TNA does.  And because of this they’ve surrounded the ring with lumberjacks because apparently we’re going to kick things off with a lumberjack match between Sting and Ravishing Bobby Roode.  Its MAIN EVENT OPENING MATCH TIME!! I’m going to go ahead and just say that this will be the match of the night before I even see it and 5 stars for how could the powers that be possibly mess this up?  As you’d expect, Roode bumps like crazy for Grandpa Sting and Sting no-sells everything Roode has.  The lumberjacks get minimal use with faces tossing Bobby back in and heels beating down Sting every chance they get. After a while, Sting’s age catches up with him and he blows up, allowing Roode to take control.  Mark out moment for me was when Roode reversed a Scorpion Deathlock in to a Crippler Crossface.  The obvious follow-up to that was for Sting to lock in the Deathlock a second time and tap out the champ.  Awesome TNA, you just jobbed out your champ on free tv.  Remember how I said earlier that there was no way they could mess this up?  Well, I underestimated them.  Fucking assholes...


-Hulk Hogan is here to tell us that the Main Event for Slamiversary will be Ravishing Bobby Roode against Sting for the World Title.  This is not good.  This is not good at all.


-Tonight!  AJ Styles will take on one third of the KKK, Kristopher Daniels.  RBD will face an opponent chosen by YOU the viewer, as you choose between BVD, Robbie E, Ed Hardee and Mister Kenderson.  Also they decided to revive a storyline they gave up on 4 months ago, but this time it’s the She-Hulk Brook Hogan in charge of the Knockouts so that will be better, right?  Right?


-Back stage some hooker is ironing her belt and talking to herself in a mirror like she’s high.  Oh wait, that’s no hooker, that’s Madison Rayne!  Oh but the rest is true...


- “Every Segment” Bully Ray is in the ring wondering if we know who he is.  How could we not, Bully.  You are in every goddamned segment!  Anyway, he’s here to yell at Renown Chicago Lawyer Joseph Park, who, inexplicably, is still sitting in the audience.  Bully wants to fight him right now because apparently every night is Open Fight Night if you’re Bully Ray.  As the camera faces the crowd, I am left to try to imagine just how many family photos have been ruined in this audience.  My guess is a lot.  Anyway, Park finally gets goaded in to the ring. Bully admits to leaving Abyss for dead (Even though he showed up in the iMPACT zone like 2 weeks ago). Park has had enough and he wants to fight!  Bully decides that this match needs to happen at Slamiversary.  Great...


-Let’s wash that taste out of our mouths and BRING ON THE SPOT MONKEYS!  This week we get an X-Division Title match between Triple A Austin Aries taking on former champ Chris Sabin.  I can’t say a bad word about this match because matches like this are the reason I can sit through two hours of this show.  Regardless, the champ retains on your textbook reversal/roll-up/fast count scenario.  There is no way this wasn’t the match of the night.  5 Stars being the glimmer of light in the darkness.


-Backstage we see Hulk Hogan cornering Taz and forcing him to be a Gut Check judge because I guess Ric Flair doesn’t work there anymore but no one is willing to admit it on air.  Mike Tenay will probably blurt it out during a match later because apparently he has Spoiler Tourettes.  So just when you hoped TNA would pull a TNA and just forget about this gimmick/storyline altogether, we get a 4 hour backstage segment with Brother Love, Al Snow and Taz talking about that abominable tryout match last week for that kid who’s name doesn’t matter because after that match he had against Aries, he’ll be lucky to even get to jerk the curtain at the MBYTWF. Buhleedat playa.


-In the ring, Dixie Carter is here to play a little kissass with the fans, and announce that TNA is getting its own Hall of Fame.  She is also here to let us know that we have a new authority figure heading up the knockouts division.  We already know who it is because Tenay blurted it out last week.  The She-Hulk comes out and she looks like she is about to burst out of her dress, and not in a good way. Lucky for us, the Hulkstress got her dads body and her mom’s charisma.  I can barely stand to listen to her babble.


-Since Slamiversary is coming soon, we get a video package of Christian Cage putting everybody over.


-It’s TV Championship Time!  Tonight, as if this belt wasn’t stupid enough, TNA decided to let the fans decide who’d fight RBD tonight.  The winner, with 40something percent of the vote is Ed Hardy.  That sucks.  I was really hoping to tie Andy’s tongue with an RBD VS BVD match.  That would have been fun.  Anyway, we get to see these two fight and since they’ve been fighting each other in tag matches since the 70’s I expect this should be a pretty tight match.  I’d describe it but you’ve seen it before, I’m sure.  The twist this time is that the Robbies came out and caused the No Contest, allowing the champ to retain.  This was the match of the night for sure.  5 stars for not messing up a sure thing for once.


-Down on the farm of James Storm, we get to listen to him cry some more about how much he sucks and doesn’t want to come back to iMPACT.


-Gut Check is in the ring.  Joey Ryan is out to beg for a job one last time.  I’m having trouble staying awake.  Thankfully they did the right thing and kicked his greasy ass to the curb.

-Finally, it’s MAIN EVENT MAIN EVENT TIME!!  One third of the KKK, Kristopher Daniels takes on AJ Styles in a Blackmail Match.  These two know each other very well so this match is outstanding from start to finish.  AJ unleashes his patented offence and Daniels attempts the same (patent pending). The two trade sick offence for twenty minutes and AJ finally gets the pin.   Immediately following the pin, another third of the KKK, Kazarian, comes out to attack AJ.  The final third, Kurt Angle finally comes out and is apparently on AJ’s side for some reason.  What kind of world do we live in when the KKK can’t even keep united?  Anyway, the faces? get beat down and Kaz and Kris take the opportunity to give us more information about AJ’s ahsexual proclivities if you wheeeeel.  Daniels seems to think we don’t believe his story but the reality is that we just don’t give a crap.  So Daniels plays the audio from a phone call between Dixie and AJ and it is apparently scandalous for a reason that is completely lost on me.  Dixie completely loses her shit however and goes ballistic on the inside of the production truck.  I guess we’ll have to find out next week just what this all means.  Oh goodie...  Since this match set up yet another stellar “We have nothing better for this guy to do” match for Slamiversary as Kurt and AJ will now take on the KK, this is probably the match of the night.  5 stars for um... Why the hell does Kurt care what happens to AJ exactly?


Anyway...


That happened.


You can follow me on Twitter at @2hot2k, or send your questions or comments to 2hot@flawedcast.net


See you next week!!


 

Your Pal

2HoT

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FTP: Deadball Era?

Monday, June 4, 2012

Giants 3, Cubs 2 at AT@T Park

CH (18-36) 020 000 000  2 8 0

SF (31-24) 010 010 10x  3 8 0

WP: Vogelsong (4-2)

LP: Marmol (0-2)

SV: Affeldt (1)

HR: None

Samardzija: 5ip 7h 2er 5bb 6k 3.13 era

Vogelsong: 7ip 8h 2er 0bb 3k 2.38 era

In the NL West: LA and Phillies just starting, Colorado-Arizona tonight; Arizona off, apparently. Giants trail Dodgers by 2.5 right now.

Comments: What an interesting series and finally, first Giants sweep of the year: 4-3, 2-1, 2-0, 3-2; all hard-fought pitching duels. Hard to imagine the Cubs have won only 18. Christy Mathewson's photo graces today's FTP because it seems kind of appropriate to have that 1912 theme at Saturday's game, as these games must have resembled dead-ball-era games more than today's baseball, especially that of the hopefully-gone Steroids Era. Remarkable starts in the series by Bumgarner, Cain, Zito and Vogelsong; Vogie was the only one not to make it 8 innings, and he made it 7. That's good for a bullpen that's kind of dinged up. Not a lot of offense; only XBH today was a double by Crawford.

Panda News: Pablo Sandoval is playing for San Jose tonight then Fresno starting tomorrow; they hope to reactivate him a week from Tuesday, the real bloggers say. He apparently got a pretty good chewing out Saturday from Bochy over the sexual assault incident and gaining weight while off. Seems to me they should just give him the weight number they want, put him in Fresno and call him up whenever he reaches it. If it's a week, fine, if it's two years, cool.

Baseball quote of the day: "Let's play two." (Ernie Banks)

Next game: Giants vs. Padres, 7:05 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, June 5 at Petco Park in San Diego. Lincecum  (2-6, 5.82) vs. Bass (2-5, 4.00).

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From the Porch: Karma

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Giants 2, Cubs 0 at AT@T Park

CH (18-35) 000 000 000  0 4 0

SF (30-24) 000 010 01x  2 4 0

WP: Zito (5-2)

LP: Wood (0-2)

SV: Romo (2)

HR: None

Wood: 7ip 3h 4er 2bb 7k 4.86 era

Zito: 8ip 8h 2er 0bb 11k 3.04 era

In the NL West: Arizona and San Diego just starting, Rockies beat Dodgers. SF just 3 games back of Damn Dodgers now.

Comments: Karma, bitches; I can't remember what Nate from Wait 'Til Next Year said, but it was something about Barry Zito being gay or something. I guess we can ask, if Barry is gay, what does that says about the fucking Cubs if he pretty much shuts them out (with a little help from Sergio Romo)? What was it? Nothing? (Cricket sounds). That's three in a row over Suckville Cubs, hopefully first sweep of the season by Giants over Cubs tomorrow. Zito was brilliant tonight. Great defense -- particularly Arias, The Riot and Pagan. Not much offense but enough by Melky, Pagan, Buster and Blanco.

Baseball quote of the day: "I've only been doing this fifty-four years. With a little experience, I might get better." (Harry Caray)

Next game: Cubs vs. Giants, 12:45 p.m. PDT on Monday, June 4 at AT&T Park. Samardzija (5-3, 3.09) vs. Vogelsong (3-2, 2.36).

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FTP: Giant baseball

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Giants 2, Cubs 1 at AT@T Park

CH (18-34) 000 100 000  1 5 1

SF (29-24) 000 002 00x  2 6 0

WP: Cain (6-2)

LP: Garza (2-4)

SV: Romo (1)

HR: DeJesus (2)

Garza: 6ip 5h 2er 1bb 6k 4.10 era

Cain: 8ip 5h 1er 2bb 6k 2.62 era

In the NL West: Arizona beat San Diego and Damn Dodgers beat Rockies. Giants still 4 games back.

Comments: If you are new to Giants baseball, that's the kind of game SF tends to win; ultra-boring dead-ball-era 2-1 game in which opposing starter (Garza) seems to be in control but Giants' pitching is JUST a little better and they take advantage of some little opportunity and steal a win. Matt Cain was a monster, as were Javier Lopez and Sergio Romo. Key run was a bases-loaded walk by Garza of, of all people, buck-fifty hitter Aubrey Huff, who, in my memory, hasn't lifted the bat off his shoulder all year. Huff gets a player-of-game medal and isn't hitting as well as any SF pitcher except Vogelsong.

Baseball quote of the day: ""One percent of ballplayers are leaders of men. The other ninety-nine percent are followers of women." (John McGraw)

Next game: Cubs vs. Giants, 1:05 p.m. PDT on Sunday, June 3 at AT&T Park. Wood (0-1, 5.94) vs. Zito (4-2, 3.41). TV: CSN-BA.

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FTP: Bumsnorter

Friday, June 1, 2012

Giants 4, Cubs 3 at AT@T Park

CH (18-33) 000 000 003  2 11 0

SF (28-24) 202 000 00x  4 9 0

WP: Bumgarner (6-4)

LP: Maholm (4-4)

SV: Lopez (1)

HR: Soriano (8)

Malholm: 5.1ip 8h 4er 2bb 4k 4.82 era

Bumgarner: 8ip 8h 2er 0bb 11k 3.04 era

In the NL West: Smasage. Rockies crushed damn Dodgers, San Diego smashed Arizona. Giants are now 4 games back of LA; oh... yeah-yeah-yeah.

Comments: Bumsnorter struggled a little early but wriggled off the hook, and after that settled down and was absolutely dominant, striking out 11. For some reason Bochy pulled him and bullpen made it way more interesting that it had been, but hung on for a 4-3 series opener. Saturday game, I think, is in throwback uniforns, one of my least-favorite things in baseball and football. I have a feeling both teams will look stunningly dumb. (Pink Floyd, I think? "I have become stunningly dumb?") Offensive stars were, of course, Melky and Buster, but ex-Cub Ryan The Riot had his best hitting/scoring game of the year so far.

Note of Oddity: If you ever start to forget what a weird game baseball is, consider: Toward the end of spring training, it became clear that young catcher Hector Sanchez had hit his way onto the Giants roster as Buster Posey's backup. You'll remember that last year after Dickhead Cousins broke Buster's leg off, the catching duties were split between Eli Whiteside and Chris Stewart. On the basis of his very slightly better bat, Giants decided to keep Whiteside and let Stewart go. Well, Eli is now batting .211 in AAA in Fresno and Stewart is the backup catcher, and has played 14 games so far, for the Yankees. The Freaking Yankees. Weird.

Baseball quote of the day: "I don't talk. I just let what I do talk for myself." - Johan Santana (Congrats, dude, by the way. You are now as good as Jonathan Sanchez. This was the first fake no-hitter in Mets history, if you look at replay on Beltran's hit.)

Next game: Cubs vs. Giants, 4:15 p.m. PDT on Saturday, June 2 at AT&T Park. Garza (2-3, 4.22) vs. Cain 5-2, 2.79). TV: Big FOX.

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