Sacramento River Cats & SF Giants Press Clips SUNDAY, June 18, 2017 Article Source Author Page Suarez strikes out eight in debut, but River Cats drop opener River Cats Barsanti 1 Blach, Chatwood to duel on Father s Day MLB.com Haft 2 Giants simply haven t measured up against Rockies SJ Mercury News Baggarly 2 FIVE TAKEAWAYS FROM GIANTS 5-1 LOSS TO ROCKIES CSN Bay Area Pavlovic 5 THE GIANTS LOST AGAIN, BUT BUMGARNER TOOK A POSITIVE STEP CSN Bay Area Pavlovic 6 Cain is lone bright spot as Giants skid hits 5 SF Gate Shea 7
Sacramento River Cats Suarez strikes out eight in debut, but River Cats drop opener By Robert Barsanti The Sacramento River Cats (26-41) welcomed prospect Andrew Suarez to their staff Saturday night, and the lefty was quite impressive. The new addition was not enough to earn the team the win though, as the River Cats fell to the Albuquerque Isotopes (34-34) 8-4 at Raley Field. The 24-year-old Suarez made the start for Sacramento in what was his Triple-A debut. The lefty looked sharp early and got through the first four innings allowing just one run. In the fifth, however, the Isotopes strung together four singles against Suarez to push across three runs. He left with two outs in the sixth after giving up five runs on 10 hits and one walk. He matched his season high with eight strikeouts. The River Cats got on the board in the first inning when Chris Shaw singled home Orlando Calixte, but the Isotopes answered back and did not let up. Sacramento put up single runs in the third, seventh, and eighth innings, but it was not enough to keep pace with Isotopes. The loss is the team's seventh in their last 10 games. The River Cats will look to bounce back tomorrow night in a Sunday matinee. Sacramento expects to reinstate left-hander Michael Roth (4-4, 4.44) from the Disabled List to make the afternoon start. The Isotopes will counter with lefty Tyler Anderson (0-0, no ERA) who will be with Albuquerque on a rehab assignment. First pitch is set for 1:05 p.m. and the game can be heard live online at rivercats.com and on the air on ESPN 1320. Postgame Notes Suarez Debut: Left-hander Andrew Suarez was promoted from Double-A Richmond this week and made his Triple-A debut on Saturday night the 24-year-old was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2015 June Amateur Draft by the San Francisco Giants, and was their 10th ranked prospect coming into the season according to MLB.com before being promoted, Suarez compiled a 4-4 record in 11 starts in the Eastern League with a 2.96 ERA, 55 strikeouts, and just 15 walks. Leading-off: Orlando Calixte was a great catalyst for the River Cats tonight, leading off both the first and third innings with base hits went 2-for5 with a triple, a single, and a run scored, and is now hitting.304 on the season over his last four games, Calixte is hitting.409 with six runs scored, a double, and three triples the jack-of-all-trades is among the team leaders in nearly every offensive category. Hwang RBI: Jae-Gyun Hwang collected his 40th RBI tonight with a sacrifice fly in the third inning the infielder currently leads the team, and has 10 more RBI than second-place RBI-man Ryder Jones (30). 1
MLB.com Blach, Chatwood to duel on Father's Day By Chris Haft On Father's Day, the Giants will give the ball to a favorite son, so to speak. Rookie left-hander Ty Blach, who grew up in the Denver suburb of Centennial, will make his first career start against the Rockies, the team he followed as a youth. Blach turned 3 years old shortly after the Rockies' 1993 inaugural season ended. Full Game Coverage Blach recalled rooting enthusiastically for the Rockies during his childhood. "That was one of my first memories," said Blach, whose favorite player was Andres Galarraga, who spent time with both clubs. "There was so much excitement. You live for those moments." Blach (4-4, 4.24 ERA) takes on Colorado's Tyler Chatwood (6-7, 4.16). Three things to know about this game If the Giants selected an all-opponent team, Chatwood definitely would be in the starting rotation. Chatwood owns a 7-3 record and a 2.81 ERA in 13 career starts against San Francisco. That includes a 3-2 mark with a 4.24 ERA in six Coors Field outings. Chatwood's June improvement is reflected in his opponents' weighted on-base percentage when he throws his two-seam fastball. It was.420 as the month began, and it has dwindled to.270 in his three June starts. Colorado's DJ LeMahieu took a.344 lifetime batting average against the Giants into Saturday's game. It's the highest figure among all active players. SJ Mercury News Giants simply haven t measured up against Rockies, lose another at Coors Field By Andrew Baggarly DENVER It doesn t matter whether it s a cool night at AT&T Park or the still and sultry conditions that favor a Coors Field slugfest or even a relatively mild and breezy day like Saturday afternoon when baseball mostly resembled itself here on the Front Range. The Giants have been a couple runs short and a step behind the Colorado Rockies all season. Their 5-1 loss Saturday afternoon was their eighth consecutive to the Rockies the worst stretch against them in franchise history. The Giants have lost nine of 10 against Colorado this season. Their deficit in the NL West now stands at 18 ½ games. Oh, the Giants have their issues with other opponents, too. They are 26-44 and on pace to finish 60-102. 2
They could not win when they scored nine runs on Thursday or eight runs on Friday. They did not score enough to win Saturday even when Matt Cain set aside his epic road struggles to give them a chance while holding the Rockies to two runs (one earned) in five innings. Manager Bruce Bochy turned to gallows humor when asked to identify a common thread in losing nine of 10 to the Rockies. They re a very good club having a great year. They have young arms and a lot of dangerous hitters to navigate through. You ve got to be on the top of your game to beat this club, especially here. How can the Giants hope to avoid a four-game sweep on Sunday? That question might be too granular. At this stage, other than draft position, what does it matter? The better question, then: to what extent can they blow up this roster, and how soon can they push the detonator? They are not wired for a teardown. Too many underperforming players are owed future money. One of them, Brandon Belt, will see his salary jump from $2.8 million this year to $16 million in each of the next four seasons. Reading this on your phone? Stay up to date with our free mobile app. Get it from the Apple app store or the Google Play store. Belt somehow went hitless while the Giants scored 17 runs in the first two games of this series. He received a mental break on Saturday but appeared as a pinch hitter in the sixth, and struck out to strand two runners. His average is at.220. As the front office approaches the July 31 trade deadline will officials reconsider whether Belt should be a part of their long-term future? What kind of expectations should they set for Hunter Pence, who is owed $18 million next year but has been a liability in right field in this series and is fouling off pitches down the middle of the dish? And is there a reason that.150-hitting infielder Aaron Hill, despite being a solid clubhouse presence, is still on the roster of a team going nowhere? The Giants must end the year with a good feel for their internal outfield options, since that area of the club will require an overhaul. At best, Pence and Denard Span look like platoon partners next year. It s clear that the Giants will continue to look at outfielder Austin Slater. A first big league promotion likely is coming soon for Ryder Jones. Third baseman Jae-gyun Hwang has a bit of leverage with a July 1 opt-out. Outfielder Chris Shaw could slug his way into a second-half look. We haven t seen the last of Christian Arroyo, who is currently out with a bruised hand. Jarrett Parker (fractured collarbone) is close to a minor league rehab assignment and still could make something of this season. Then there is the matter of Cain, their longest tenured player and one of the most accomplished pitchers in franchise history. He is in the final guaranteed year of his $112.5 million extension. 3
Everyone knew he would be coming in for a landing this season, and the front office hoped it would be a gentle one. Assuming a team-wide crash position was not supposed to happen. For Cain, whose first four seasons in the major leagues were on losing Giants clubs, his career has come full circle. It s definitely been hard for all the guys, the staff, everybody watching, Cain said. It is hard, but that s our duty when we put the uniform on and what we sign up for. You can t expect to win all the games and for everything to be peaches. More like the pits. The Giants inconsistent offense played into the hands of left-hander Kyle Freeland, who entered with the best ground ball rate among NL starters and induced so many bouncing balls that the sellout crowd could ve sung along. Would you like some play-by-play? Well, you re in luck. Cain gave up three consecutive singles in the second inning as the Rockies took a 1-0 lead. The Giants pitched to No.8 batter Tony Wolters with second base open and two outs, and he burned them for an RBI hit. The Giants tied it in the fourth when the Rockies pitched to No.8 batter Gorkys Hernandez with first base open and two outs, and he burned them for an RBI hit. Offense begets offense here at Coors Field, where managers are compelled to make different decisions. Nick Hundley scored on Hernandez s double and bumped shoulders with Wolters as the Rockies catcher absent-mindedly stood in the lane while awaiting a throw. Hundley appeared none too pleased. It was an interesting little moment. Both starting pitchers took a shot back to the mound. Joe Panik hit a ball off Freeland s pitching arm, but he remained in the game. Cain got a glove up and deflected Carlos Gonzalez s whizzer at his ear, and shortstop Kelby Tomlinson picked up the carom for a forceout that stranded the bases loaded in the third. Cain also managed to get DJ LeMahieu, who has nine hits the first three games of this series, to fly out to strand two runners in the fourth. But the Rockies pushed ahead in the fifth thanks in part to Cain s inattention and a passed ball. Ian Desmond hit a two-out single and got a better jump than Bob Beamon on Cain while stealing second base. Then a cross-up with Hundley resulted in a fastball off the mask of plate umpire Gabe Morales as Desmond took third. I just completely forgot what we were doing, said Cain, who gave up the tiebreaking run on Trevor Story s single up the middle, which was as well hopped as a Double IPA. I feel bad for Gabe. You never want to be a part of that. I hope it doesn t stick around. I know it caught him pretty well. I was not supposed to throw a fastball. I got our signals wrong. 4
Cain entered with an 8.40 ERA in six road starts and did not do anything to pitch his way out of the rotation in a tough ballpark. But the time will come when the Giants must weigh the opportunity cost of giving starts to a player who does not project to be part of their future. Cain has seen fire and rain, and a procession of World Series parades that some thought would never end. It s been a better year for him, Bochy said. Overall, it s been a much improved year. He gave us all he had today. The Rockies scored three runs against reliever Bryan Morris, including a pair when Pence s woes in right field continued. He couldn t catch Pat Valaika s blooper, which went for a two-out double. Pence had two singles that he chopped through the left side. He also grounded into a pair of forceouts at second base. The Giants had 10 hits but went 1 for 7 with runners in scoring position. Meanwhile, the Rockies collected 11 of their 14 hits with two outs. The Giants also forsook tradition by wearing blue hats for Father s Day weekend. Now let this thought settle in your gut: any Dodgers fan with good sense is rooting for the Giants to win at Coors Field on Sunday. Madison Bumgarner threw roughly 40 pitches in simulated game conditions at the Giants minor league complex in Arizona. Bochy said the session went well, and that Bumgarner would repeat it in a few days. CSN Bay Area FIVE TAKEAWAYS FROM GIANTS' 5-1 LOSS TO ROCKIES By Alex Pavlovic DENVER With the wind blowing in and cloud cover keeping the temperature down, Coors Field almost played like a normal park on Saturday. That was bad news for the worst offense in baseball. The Giants went down in familiar fashion, losing 5-1 to the Rockies. They've dropped 14 of their last 18 games and are 18 games under.500. Anyway, here are five things to know from a non-coors day at Coors... --- Matt Cain entered with an 8.40 ERA on the road this season. He gave up two runs one of them earned in five innings at Coors Field. Can t predict baseball, as they say. 5
--- Cain was not knocked out on the mound, but rather at the plate. It came during a big sequence in the sixth that went Buddy Black s way. The Rockies manager intentionally walked Gorkys Hernandez to get to the pitcher s spot with two on and two out. Bruce Bochy countered by hitting Brandon Belt for Cain. Belt struck out. He s 0-for-Coors Field so far in this series. --- Joe Panik singled in his first three at-bats, giving him seven hits in the series. After several weeks chilling in the.240s, Panik s average is up to.274. --- Hunter Pence had another ball drop a few feet from him. It came with two outs in the seventh and brought the fifth Rockies run home. Pence was pretty much playing on the track with a lighthitting right-hander up. There s nothing you can do about the aging process, but perhaps the Giants can change their defensive charts a bit. --- Aaron Hill took an 0-for-4, dropping his average to.150. It s here that we ll point out that Ryder Jones, a third baseman, is the hottest hitter at Triple-A, and that Jae-gyun Hwang can opt out of his minor league deal in two weeks. At some point the Giants have to change their bench up, right? Right? Maybe? CSN Bay Area THE GIANTS LOST YET AGAIN, BUT AT LEAST BUMGARNER TOOK A POSITIVE STEP By Alex Pavlovic DENVER The Giants have lost 14 of their past 18 games, and there was nothing new to be gleaned from what happened at Coors Field on Saturday. It was a familiar feeling, so let s take a short trip to Scottsdale and start with some good news. Madison Bumgarner threw about 40 pitches in a simulated game at the club s facility there, and he came out of it feeling fine. Bruce Bochy did not have many details, but he said Bumgarner would likely repeat the drill in a couple of days, and then probably throw a third simulated game before being cleared for a rehab assignment. The Giants have been pretty tight-lipped about Bumgarner s rehab schedule, and the pitcher himself has only given two extensive interviews since crashing a dirt bike here on April 20. But it does seem that Bumgarner has been slightly ahead of schedule at every checkpoint he was supposed to throw 30 pitches Saturday and he does have the look of a man who will try to return in July, not early August as planned. Whenever Bumgarner returns, he will be boarding a sinking ship. The Giants fell 5-1 on a windy, muggy day at Coors Field, making the kind of mistakes that have become so normal in this season that could end with 100 losses. Two-strike pitches across the plate. Bloops that drop in the outfield. Defensive miscommunication. Poor at-bats with runners on base. This one had it all. The biggest moment came in the sixth, when Bud Black forced Bochy s hand. He intentionally walked Gorkys Hernandez with two outs and a runner on second, and Bochy had a quick conversation with Matt Cain. I knew I was getting close (to the end), said Cain. He asked me and I told him the truth. 6
Bochy sent Brandon Belt up to hit for Cain, who was charged with two runs in five innings in his best road start in two months. Belt struck out, extending his slump to 18 hitless at-bats. I m sure the pitch he would like to have back is the check-swing on 2-0. It was (going to be) 3-0 and maybe he gets a walk, Bochy said. He ended up striking out. That is a big swing. The Giants have now dropped eight straight to the Rockies, the leaders of the National League West. It is Colorado s longest ever winning streak against an NL West opponent. Ty Blach a pinch-hitter and pinch-runner already in this series will try and prevent the sweep, but no matter what, the Giants will not come out of here with good vibes. They re 18 games under.500. At this point, the only question is how many of the current Giants will be shipped out before Bumgarner returns. SF Gate Cain is lone bright spot as Giants skid hits 5 By John Shea DENVER As luck would have it, the season Matt Cain finally regained his health is the season the franchise would just as soon forget. The longest-tenured Giant has never seen anything quite like this. A team expected to contend that consistently plays bad baseball. Struggles across the board pitching, hitting, fielding. Shows no signs of recovery. And remains on target to set a franchise record for losses. The latest boo-boo was Saturday s 5-1 loss to the Rockies, featuring more mishaps on the bases, in the field, out of the bullpen and especially at the plate with runners in scoring position. Once we get back to the hotel today, we can kind of flush this one and start over tomorrow, Cain said. It s easy to sit here and say that. But it s something we ve got to find a way to grind through. It s definitely been hard for all the guys. All the staff. Everybody who s been watching. It s not been easy. Saturday s only positive was Cain, who gave up two runs (one earned) in five innings and did what fellow starters Matt Moore and Jeff Samardzija didn t do the previous two nights: keep the Giants close. Cain broke into the majors as a 20-year-old in 2005, and the worst season on his watch was 2007, Barry Bonds swan song, when the Giants lost 91 games and finished 19 games out of first place. This year s team is on pace to lose more than 100 and already is 18½ out. How do Cain and his teammates keep coping and grinding? It is difficult. But that s our job. That s our duty. Why we put our uniform on. That s what we signed up for, Cain said. You can t just expect to go out there and win all the games and for everything to be peaches. 7
Cain has had his share of clunkers this season, but Saturday s outing wasn t one of them. He retired his first five batters before yielding three straight singles for Colorado s first run. He gave up another run in the fifth. It was unearned because of Nick Hundley s passed ball, though Cain took the blame and said he threw a fastball, which wasn t called. The ball ticked off Hundley s mitt and pelted umpire Gabe Morales. After a brief delay, Cain needed to retire Trevor Story to escape the inning, but Story s single broke the tie. I just completely forgot what we were doing there, Cain said of his pitch that led to the passed ball. For Gabe right there, that s not fun to be a part of. I just hope he s all right. Manager Bruce Bochy pulled Cain in the top of the sixth for pinch-hitter Brandon Belt with two outs and two aboard. With his 94th and final pitch, rookie left-hander Kyle Freeland blew a fastball by Belt. Reliever Bryan Morris replaced Cain and surrendered three runs. After sporting a 2.30 ERA in his first five starts, Cain struggled with a 7.13 ERA in the next eight. He entered with an 8.40 road ERA. Saturday, he showed early-season form. That he simply shows up every five days is an improvement on the past three years when he missed extensive time with injuries. He hasn t made 30 starts since 2013. It s been a better year for him, Bochy said. Sure, he s had some hits and misses, but overall a much improved year for him. Today he gave us all he had. He wanted to break this streak, this rut we re in. 8