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[San Francisco Giants]

Thursday BP: What games do you watch on off-days?

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

The Giants have a day off today before heading back to San Francisco for the home opener. What games do Giants fans prefer to watch when they’re not playing?

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants are off once again today before they head back to Oracle Park for their home opener tomorrow.

Which means now is the perfect time to ask you all what your priorities are for picking games to watch/follow when the Giants aren’t playing.

Later in the season, of course, viewing interest can change based on standings. But at this point in the season, I feel like viewing choices are more based on personal interest. So I’m curious to find out how you choose which games to watch.

Personally, at this point in the year, I will just put on whatever game happens to be going on. Mostly for background noise. I don’t tend to have a ton of interest in watching the NL West, just because the Giants play them enough throughout the year for me to get my fill.

So I’ll usually pick a game where it’s a team I don’t tend to follow otherwise. That is quite literally how I ended up becoming a somewhat-fan of the Toronto Blue Jays.

What games do you watch on off-days?​

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...rancisco-giants-community-scoreboard-watching

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Minor League roundup, 4/2: David Villar returns in style

Photo by Andy Kuno/San Francisco Giants/Getty Images

Yesterday’s action on the farm.

Minor League Baseball fans, rejoice! Today is the last day for many, many months where only one San Francisco Giants affiliate is in-season. Starting on Friday, the AA Richmond Flying Squirrels, High-A Eugene Emeralds, and Low-A San Jose Giants will join the AAA Sacramento River Cats by starting their respective seasons. You can find their rosters here. Furthermore, the Arizona Complex League season — which should feature some extremely exciting Giants prospects like Rayner Arias and Jhonny Level — starts in exactly a month. It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Link to the 2025 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

All listed positions in the roundup are the positions played in that particular game.

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AAA Sacramento (2-3)​

Sacramento River Cats lost to the Las Vegas Aviators (A’s) 6-3
Box score

It wasn’t a great game for the River Cats, but two players who recently looked like they might be core parts of the Giants plans started their 2025 season with triumph.

On offense, it was third baseman David Villar. After a spring in which the writing was firmly on the wall, Villar was designated for assignment, but cleared waivers. He was outrighted to Sacramento, and made his season debut on Wednesday.

It went swimmingly, with the righty going 2-4 with a gorgeous opposite-field home run. Perhaps with the stress of trying to keep his spot on the 40-man roster behind him, Villar can find the swing that led to 36 home runs in 2022 between AAA and the Majors ... a number that fell to 22 the next year, and 17 last season. There certainly should be ample opportunity for Villar in Sacramento, at least for as long as the Giants continue to carry a pair of backup infielders in the Majors.

The other player with a much-needed feel-good day was RHP Mason Black (No. 7 CPL). It’s been tough going for Black, ever since he had a dominant 2024 Spring Training, began the year virtually unhittable in AAA, and was called up for his MLB debut. Since then he struggled in the Majors, was optioned, struggled in AAA, struggled again in the Majors, struggled in Spring Training, and was in the first group of camp cuts.

But the future is still bright for the 25-year old former 3rd-round pick, who still has another option year after this year. And despite the camp struggles, his 2025 is off to a hot start.

With Sacramento having an embarrassment of riches with starting pitcher prospects, Black was forced into a piggybacking starter role. He entered to start the 5th inning, and pitched the final 4 frames. Pitched them dominantly, I might add, as he allowed neither a hit nor a run, ceding just 2 baserunners (1 on a walk, and 1 a hit batter), while striking out 7.

Perhaps more importantly, he looked good. To my (extremely amateur) eye, Black looked slimmer and twitchier than last year, and had a more prominent leg whip. The result — again, to my very amateur eye — was that Black’s pitches seemed to be moving with much more vigor than we’ve grown accustomed to. He still doesn’t have overpowering velocity, but my goodness did all of his pitches dance around for 60 feet, before usually finding Logan Porter’s glove.

The lack of velocity might by why the Giants continue to develop Black as a starter, and seem fairly hesitant to throw him in the bullpen. One look at the players they did (and, crucially, didn’t) put in the MLB bullpen on Opening Day makes it pretty clear that they’re joining the “velocity is king” wave, and understandably so. But as Logan Webb continues to prove, movement and control and craftiness can do wonders to turn a lineup over twice or thrice, and hopefully this was a step towards emulating that.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go well for the pair of pitchers in front of him, who are also trying to get back to the Majors. RHP Keaton Winn was given the starting assignment, and unfortunately he made it 2 straight clunkers by the River Cats’ rotation, after a brilliant weekend of starts. Winn struggled to find the strike zone, throwing just 30 of 57 pitches for strikes, and making it through just 2 innings. That lack of control made for a lot of free batters — 2 walks and 1 hitter plunked — and also led to some ugly counts, which produced get-it-in meatballs, with predictable results. In all, he got tagged for 3 hits — including a home run by A’s top prospect and the No. 4 pick in the 2024 draft, Nick Kurtz — and 4 runs, 3 of which were earned. Hopefully there are better results next week!

RHP Sean Hjelle will be hoping for the same. After a fantastic season debut over the weekend, arguably the most surprising omission from the Opening Day roster had a rough go of it on Wednesday, giving up 4 hits and 2 runs in 2 innings of work, with 2 strikeouts. He just wasn’t fooling a lot of hitters and, like Black, he doesn’t have overwhelming velocity, which is a difficult reality for a player who is now firmly a reliever.

The struggles were also on the offensive side. Second baseman Osleivis Basabe hit 2-4 with a double and a strikeout, but other than him and Villar, no River Cat reached base multiple times. The top of the order — populated by 40-man guys trying to earn chances — particularly struggled, with center fielder Grant McCray going 1-4 with a strikeout, shortstop Brett Wisely hitting 0-4 with 2 strikeouts and an error, and left fielder Marco Luciano going 0-3 with a walk, a strikeout, and a misplayed double.

All 3 are having tough seasons: McCray has a .659 OPS and a 91 wRC+, Wisely a .611 OPS and a 75 wRC+, and Luciano a .563 OPS and a 48 wRC+, though I’ve been pretty impressed by his at-bats, honestly (and unlike McCray and Wisely, Luciano has done a good job suppressing strikeouts).

Hopefully the bats wake up soon!

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Thursday schedule​

Sacramento: @ Las Vegas, 6:35 p.m. PT (SP: Carson Seymour)
Richmond: Season starts Friday
Eugene: Season starts Friday
San Jose: Season starts Friday

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...-baseball-sacramento-david-villar-mason-black

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Friday BP: Will you be attending the home opener series?

Photo by Loren Elliott/MLB Photos via Getty Images

Giants baseball returns to Oracle Park this weekend.

Good morning, baseball fans!

San Francisco Giants baseball returns to Oracle Park today as the Giants begin their home opener series against the Seattle Mariners tonight.

This will be the first opportunity for fans to watch this red-hot (super small sample size) team on their home turf.

So I wanted to check in and see if anyone is heading to a game this series to celebrate. If so, what are you looking forward to most in your return to Oracle Park?

Sadly, I live too far away to get to more than a game or two per year. But my favorite thing to do when I return the park for the first time in a while is to get into town early and take my time walking from either the BART station or Ferry Building and appreciate the view. I usually make my back along the player entrance and over to the marina to enter at that gate.

This is my favorite place to enter the park for many reasons (short lines usually being at the top of that list). I also really like entering the field right there at the corner of the arcade level and the fan lot. The best food is there, there are a lot of things to do, and the view is simply spectacular. There’s nothing quite like getting that first cold beverage down near the kale garden, walking up the stairs, and being greeted by the sight of the field and the sounds of batting practice.

So what about you guys?

Will you be attending the home opener series?​

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...25-san-francisco-giants-home-opener-community

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Welcome home, Willy

Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images

Things got a little dicey...but Willy saved the day in the end

When LaMonte Wade Jr. struck out on a high cutter from Seattle’s Carlos Vargas, I dropped my head into my hands and groaned. A necessary release of stale, anxious air that had built up over the past four hours. Bottom of the 11th, down a run — and another San Francisco Giants hitter couldn’t muster a deep enough fly ball or a well-placed grounder to advance the runner the final 90 feet home.

It was the Giants’ eight blown opportunity to knock in a run with an out, and this latest failure felt like the decisive blow. You only get so many chances in this life, and San Francisco had more than their fair share in this tilt: 16 hits, 6 walks, 27 at-bats with runners in scoring position — and only 8 runs??

How the game would appear to end felt impossible considering how it began. Riding the high energy of a packed crowd for their 2025 season home opener, along with the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the opening of their stadium, the Giants looked primed to score early and often.

Leadoff man Wade doubled on the first pitch he saw in the 1st and later scored on a Matt Chapman infield single to erase the Mariners’ early lead. In the 2nd, Wade Jr. plated two with another double of the game, setting up runners at second and third with nobody out.

But the heart of San Francisco’s order couldn’t find a way to add on. They made contact, just the wrong kind. Willy Adames flew out to shallow center. Jung Hoo Lee’s hard grounder went right to first baseman Rowdy Tellez. Chapman walked, and Heliot Ramos worked the count full but ultimately grounded out to third.

The 3-1 lead handed to Justin Verlander quickly slipped through his fingers. Yes, Verlander, once upon a time, did pitch in this game, but he managed just 2.1 innings, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits, 2 walks, and 2 strikeouts.

The main culprit of his early exit: Cal Raleigh’s 13-pitch walk in the 3rd. An inning in an at-bat. After working the count full, Seattle’s catcher fouled off seven straight pitches (5 sliders, 2 fastballs) before spitting on a low and in curveball. The walk pushed the bases loaded and broke Verlander’s spirit. Tired, ticked-off — but now more efficient! — the righty needed just five more pitches to walk in Seattle’s second run. More count trouble necessitated a center cut fastball to Jorge Polanco who lined it into center to tie the game.

From there, advantage and momentum continued to teeter and totter between the two sides. San Francisco’s two-runs in the 4th were answered by Seattle’s two in the 5th. The Giant lead regained in the bottom of that frame was lost with three runs in the 6th scraped together by hard-hit one-hoppers that caromed off Adames at short, by base thieves running rampant on the slow motion motion of Camilo Doval and San Francisco’s first defensive error of the 2025 season. Seattle’s hard-fought two run advantage disappeared within the inning after a solo shot by Matt Chapman and a defensive alignment SNAFU which prevented their second baseman Ryan Bliss from turning a potential double play ball off the bat of Patrick Bailey.

By the 7th inning, so many leads had been won and lost, scoring opportunities capitalized on as well as squandered, that nothing felt tenable. For the Giants, everything came close, but nothing was enough. Mike Yastrzemski pulled a drive down the right field line that missed the foul pole by a couple of feet — the next pitch, he struck out. Adames lined a 2-out RBI double in one inning but failed to advance runners with situational contact the next. He plucked a line-drive from the air, but got bruised by grounders on the ground. Verlander became the first Giant starter pulled mid-inning. Other than an immaculate Randy Rodríguez (1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 K), the shiny clean sheets of San Francisco relievers had been thoroughly scuffed with Lou Trivino giving up a two-run homer to Jorge Polanco, and Doval, though technically all unearned, forfeiting three runs. Erik Miller teased disaster in the 7th after another feisty Cal Raleigh at-bat with the bases loaded that ended with Jung Hoo Lee blindly reeling in a line drive on the warning track.

The Giants again botched a runner-on third-no-out opportunity in the bottom of the 9th after Bailey doubled off the wall in deep right center and pinch runner Christian Koss advanced to third on a wild pitch. The winning run just 90 feet away — yet neither Tyler Fitzgerald, Adames, or Lee could knock him in, forcing them into extra innings for the first time in 2025.

It was about minute 240 of play — when Wade K’ed and my head dropped into my palms — that my wife returned to our apartment and exclaimed: “You’re still watching this game?” In her arms she bore the fruit of her labors at the ceramics studio: hand-built vases and spun bowls from clay that were then dried and bisque fired, glazed and fired again and unloaded from the kiln — all done, seemingly, in the same amount of time it took the Giants and Mariners to labor through 20 back-and-forth frames. Meanwhile all I had accrued was a sore rear end and a bad attitude. I was cranky, my eyes bloodshot. I wanted out, nor could I accept this. I pulled at my cheeks in disbelief that this wild and wildly frustrating game would be decided by a wild pitch from Spencer Bivens. For all the tight-rope walking Bivens did in the 10th and 11th innings up until that point: Five outs recorded, all with runners in scoring position — then to just dive-bomb a fastball like that…

I bemoaned the end as Willy Adames stepped into the box. In retrospect, it was ridiculous. The Giants’s big off-season signing, the new face of the franchise had the bat in his hands with the team’s back against the wall. Man and Moment were meeting, and I grumbled under my breath. He had a couple knocks on the day, a stolen base, but he had also spent the day unleashing some unwieldy upper-cut swings. Opening up too much, falling behind in the count, chasing out of the zone — in my worn down and sour state, Adames was the last person I had faith in to choke-up, adjust his swing, poke a pitch to the opposite field, or just make contact of any kind. I mean, there was a reason Vargas, with a base to work with, elected to go after him rather than Lee. They would nibble on the outside of the zone, not give him anything to substantial to hit, just tempt his worst tendencies and see if he bites

That was, I imagine, the brief. And to a certain degree, Vargas did exactly what he set out to do: a cutter outside, barely scratching the zone — the only problem is Adames did the thing he set out to do. He adjusted. He knew they’d pitch him away, so he just needed to keep his shoulder closed and look for a pitch out there. Lo’ and behold, he got it, and he got it — the prettiest and most surprising little, end-of-the-bat bloop to shallow right I’ve seen for some time.

The sacrifice fly in the 2nd sure would’ve saved us a lot of grief — this is more fun though.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...2025-recap-mariners-mlb-willy-adames-walk-off

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Minor League roundup, 4/4: All systems are a go!

Photo by Brandon Sloter/Getty Images

Yesterday’s action on the farm.

What a wonderful Friday it was. The San Francisco Giants won a thrilling walk-off in their home opener, while three of their Minor League Baseball affiliates began their seasons. Baseball is truly here, in all her glory!

Link to the 2025 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

All listed positions in the roundup are the positions played in that particular game.

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AAA Sacramento (3-4)​

Sacramento River Cats lost to the Las Vegas Aviators (A’s) 6-4
Box score

LHP Kyle Harrison made his second start of the year for Sacramento, and took another step towards reclaiming a rotation spot in the Majors. The former top southpaw prospect in baseball — still just 23 years old, I might add — had hitters off balance all day, striking out 6 batters in 4 scoreless innings.

He did occasionally get into some trouble, as he walked 3 batters. But hitters looked uncomfortable against him all game, and the contact was weak. He only gave up 2 hits, both of which were singles and, honestly, with a Major League defense behind him, his box score probably would have looked even nicer.

Harrison is still getting back up to speed after offseason shoulder rehab and a severe illness in camp. He’s slowly working his pitch count back up ... he got to 69 pitches on Friday (45 of which were strikes), and was still sitting 94-95 in his final inning. It will be very interesting to see what the team does with him when he’s fully caught up ... especially if he’s pitching like this.

Unfortunately, another pitcher on the 40-man roster who is clamoring for MLB time did not have the same results. RHP Trevor McDonald (No. 15 CPL) was set to be the piggybacking starter, but only made it through 1 inning of work, ceding 4 hits, 2 walks, 4 runs, and 3 earned runs, while striking out a pair. He has a dazzling array of pitches, but it wasn’t fooling anyone on Friday.

Meanwhile, LHP Helcris Olivárez continues to impress, and pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout.

It certainly wasn’t the most exciting offensive game but, for the second day in a row, second baseman Brett Wisely had a nice outing, hitting 1-4 with a strikeout, a walk, and his first home run of the season.

wisely gets us on the board with a 2-run blast pic.twitter.com/6cTkZ2Aozm

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) April 5, 2025​

The lefty is up to an .880 OPS and a 142 wRC+ after the first week of games, and continues to make a run for taking one of the Giants backup infield spots from Casey Schmitt or Christian Koss.

Right fielder Hunter Bishop (No. 34 CPL) has also had a slow start, but had a big hit on Friday, smashing a home run for his only hit of the day. It was a truly impressive swing for Bishop, who had a smooth and casual swing that resulted in the ball nearly clearing the large grassy expanse beyond the right field wall.

bishop's first home run of the year makes it 3-0! pic.twitter.com/9pnJdqdYRo

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) April 5, 2025​

Center fielder Grant McCray and designated hitter Marco Luciano continued their slow starts to the year, with each hitting 1-4 with a walk. McCray struck out once and Luciano twice, though the latter continues to be clutch.

Luciano's base knock brings McCray home, and we're all tied up at 4! pic.twitter.com/ti2vEQaZcA

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) April 5, 2025​

AA Richmond (0-1)​

Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Akron RubberDucks (Guardians) 7-4
Box score

Not a lot going for the Squirrels in their season debut, on either side of the ball. They managed to score 4 runs despite having just 6 hits and no extra-base hits, so ... I guess that’s impressive, in a kind of negative way.

Center fielder Carter Howell had a nice game, hitting 1-2 with 2 walks, a hit by pitch, and a stolen base (though he was also caught stealing and struck out). Howell is probably a little disappointed to have drawn an opening assignment with Richmond, after spending all of 2024 there, and finishing with a .738 OPS, a 113 wRC+, and a sub-20% strikeout rate. He could be the next man up if someone in Sacramento is injured, or gets promoted to the Majors.

Designated hitter Jairo Pomares (No. 41 CPL) also had a nice game, hitting 2-3 with a walk. This is a pretty critical year for the lefty, who was once one of the top hitting prospects in the system, but has fallen on struggles with both health and performance.

On the mound, LHP John Michael Bertrand drew the opening assignment, but unfortunately it didn’t go well. He was pulled after 3.1 innings, after allowing 2 hits, 3 walks, and a hit batter, which tagged him for 3 earned runs. He struck out just 1 batter. AA has proven to be a bit of a challenge for the control pitcher, who is back for a third assignment at the level following a midseason promotion in 2023.

RHP Will Bednar (No. 42 CPL) had a performance straight out of his 2024 playbook. He showed some electric stuff and struck out the side in his inning of relief work. But he also allowed 2 hits, 2 walks, and 2 runs. That’s been the story for the 2021 1st-round pick lately ... last year, across 3 levels, Bednar struck out 12.7 batters per 9 innings ... but walked 7.8 and had a 6.00 ERA.

RHP Nick Garcia, a Minor League Rule 5 selection before last season, retired all 4 batters he faced. That’s what he did last year, when he dominated AA but mightily struggled in a brief AAA stint.

High-A Eugene (1-0)​

Eugene Emeralds beat the Hillsboro Hops (Diamondbacks) 8-4
Box score

Eugene started the year with a win, and it was all about the heart of the order, with the teams 3-5 hitters doing all sorts of damage.

That trio began with right fielder James Tibbs III (No. 3 CPL), who had a highly encouraging season debut. It’s easy to overreact to Tibbs’ struggles following a promotion to Eugene shortly after being drafted in the 1st round in July. He hit just 9-67 with 25 strikeouts for the Emeralds last year, and started his tenure with the team by going 1-41.

This time around? So much smoother. Tibbs reached base all 5 times that he came to the plate on Friday, knocking a pair of singles and drawing a trio of walks. Delightful!

Batting cleanup was third baseman Charlie Szykowny (No. 43 CPL), who opened eyes last year. He kept those eyes open on Friday, hitting 2-3 with 2 walks, a strikeout, and a caught stealing.

And rounding out the trio was left fielder Jonah Cox (No. 26 CPL). Cox is mostly known for his defense and base-stealing, but on Friday it was all about the offense: he hit 3-5, and all 3 of his hits were doubles.

How important was that trio? Tibbs, Szykowny, and Cox combined for 7 of the team’s 11 hits, all 3 of their extra-base hits, 5 of their 8 walks, 6 of their 8 RBIs, and 4 of their 8 runs scored. And that’s how they won!

Not much of note on the pitching front. RHP Josh Bostick (No. 27 CPL) didn’t have the best start, giving up 3 hits, 1 walk, 3 runs, and 2 earned runs in 3.1 innings, though he struck out 4. So far in his career, Bostick hasn’t quite been able to get the results to line up with the stuff, and that’s how his 2024 started.

RHP Tyler Vogel had a delightful outing in relief, though, pitching 2.2 scoreless and hitless innings, while walking 2 and striking out 4. Vogel lost a chunk of 2024 due to injury, so hopefully he can stay on the field this year, and we can see the talent that the 2022 12th-round pick has to offer.

Low-A San Jose (0-1)​

San Jose Giants lost to the Modesto Nuts (Mariners) 6-3
Box score

Ahhh, A-ball. And season-opening A-ball, at that. It sure is lovely, but it sure is flawed. The baby Giants committed 5 errors on the day, and that’s the A-ball experience.

All the offense came on one swing of the bat, as catcher Drew Cavanaugh — who finished the day 1-3 with a walk — blasted a 3-run home run in the 5th inning to start and end the scoring for San Jose. Like in Eugene, it was a trio of batters who got the job done, though unlike the Emeralds, the Giants did it at the back of the order: No. 6 hitter, third baseman Robert Hipwell (No. 25 CPL) went 0-2 but drew 2 walks with a strikeout, while the No. 7 hitter, right fielder Jose Ortiz (No. 22 CPL) went 2-4 with a strikeout, and Cavanaugh hit 8th.

The other 6 batters? They combined to go 1-22 with 2 walks and 7 strikeouts.

On the mound was LHP Jacob Bresnahan (No. 31 CPL), a 19-year old who has the ability to really open some eyes this season. He was pretty strong, though sequencing and poor defense made his ERA not reflect that. In 4 innings he gave up just 5 baserunners (3 singles, 1 double, and 1 walk), while striking out 5, but he got tagged for 3 earned runs. He was fairly decently stretched out for the first start of the year, throwing 67 pitches (42 of which were strikes).

He was followed by a pair of players who made their professional debuts, RHPs Drake George and Ryan Slater. That pair shares more than just a team and having two first names, as each was a late draft pick by the Giants in 2024.

George, taken in the 13th round out of Lewis-Clark State (not to be confused with the Pacific Northwest liberal arts school Lewis and Clark), piggybacked with Bresnahan and pitched very well, giving up just 3 baserunners (2 hits and a walk) in 3 innings, while striking out 3. Poor defense behind him (and in him, for that matter, as he committed an error) tagged him for 3 unearned runs and the loss, though his ERA remained unblemished.

Slater (no relation to Austin), an 18th-round pick out of Florida, had a perfect debut, retiring all 3 batters he faced with 1 strikeout.

The only note of concern for San Jose is that RHP Gerelmi Maldonado (No. 36 CPL), who missed all of last year while recovering from Tommy John surgery, was initially listed as the scheduled starter, but did not pitch. Hopefully that’s nothing.

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Home run tracker​

AAA Brett Wisely (1)
AAA Hunter Bishop (1)
Low-A Drew Cavanaugh (1)

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Saturday schedule​

Sacramento: @ Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m. PT (SP: Carson Whisenhunt)
Richmond: vs. Akron, 3:05 p.m. PT (SP: Manuel Mercedes)
Eugene: @ Hillsboro, 4:05 p.m. PT (SP: Cesar Perdomo)
San Jose: @ Modesto, 6:40 p.m. PT (SP: Greg Farone)

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...eball-kyle-harrison-hunter-bishop-james-tibbs

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Sunday BP: What was your favorite play of the week?

Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images

Another week has gone by, so it’s time to see what Giants fans think was the play of the week.

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants will be wrapping up their first home series of the year today against the Seattle Mariners. Which means they will also be wrapping up their first full week of baseball, and that means it’s time for another look back on the week that was and discussing our favorite moments.

Personally, nothing made me happier this week than Wilmer Flore’s three-run home run in Monday night’s game against the Houston Astros. Patrick Bailey and Jung Hoo Lee set things up by both getting walked to put two runners on for Flores. While the Giants already had a 2-0 lead going into that sixth inning, Flores’ three RBI made the winning difference, as the Astros would come back to score two runs in the eighth.

It was also his second three-run home run of the season. In just four games. Not too shabby.

What was your favorite play of the week?​

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...25-san-francisco-giants-highlights-best-plays

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Walk-off — but Wilmer this time!

Neville E. Guard-Imagn Images

Sweep x2

The biggest miss of the afternoon goes to Christian Koss.

It didn’t come with a bat in his hand, or a glove either — but with a Powerade cooler. As his teammates mobbed Wilmer Flores after his pinch-hit walk-off single, Koss, dutifully in his back-up infielder role, took up the celebratory fount, jogged the jug out onto the field, and looked for the man he aimed to anoint in the knot of bodies.

But this wasn’t Flores’s first rodeo. He spotted Koss right as the rookie launched the contents of the cooler. Flo dodged the flow, drenching Willy Adames instead.

Here’s a screen grab gallery of how it went down.

Hey, Wilmer or Willy, both had walk-offs in this series sweep — close enough. And Heliot Ramos, like an old pro, got the right guy in the end.

WALK-OFF WILMER. IS ANYONE SURPRISED?

— Giants on NBC Sports Bay Area (@nbcsgiants.bsky.social) 2025-04-06T23:16:19.011Z

Only one pitch needed to punch in Flo’s 12th run of the year and seal the eighth consecutive victory for these San Francisco Giants, and much like Adames’s winner on Friday, or Heliot Ramos’s RBI single, or Mike Yastrzemski’s 3-run homer in the 4th, the hit went to the opposite field.

Mike Yastrzemski’s first homer of the season floated San Francisco in this one. Not much was happening with San Francisco offensively against Bryan Woo before it, and not much happened after it either.

Woo, an Alameda native, who loves throwing fastballs even more than Hicks does, had few issues until the 4th. His elevated four-seam and sinker gave Matt Chapman fits all afternoon. If there was contact, it was weak. The only hit San Francisco could muster was a Jung Hoo Lee specialty, an opposite field double that left his bat at the max speed of my 2001 Volkswagen EuroVan.

The only success the Giants were going to find against Woo’s heater would be to try and see it deep and push it to the opposite field. Ramos, who has now hit safely in the first nine games of this season, did exactly that to plate San Francisco’s first run and cut Seattle’s lead in half.

On the very next pitch, they had a lead.

Knowing he’d get a fastball, knowing he was going to get it in the zone (because Woo rarely starts at-bats with pitches off the plate) and knowing what he needed to do, Yaz delivered, for us, and also for his daughter, who he promised he’d hit one out for her before the game.

In a way, we are all Yaz’s daughters…

WITH ONE SWING OF YAZ'S BAT, GIANTS LEAD

— Giants on NBC Sports Bay Area (@nbcsgiants.bsky.social) 2025-04-06T21:11:17.392Z

In his debut start, Hicks spent the evening in a delightful repartee with the Big Blue Behind The Plate. The right hander would throw a fastball and Big Blue would call it a strike. Big Blue waved his magic arms and the corners became an open field for diving sweepers and back-door sinkers to frolic. When the umpire is your friend, I imagine there’s no better place to be than the pitcher’s mound.

Four pitches on Sunday was all it took for Jordan Hicks to learn that home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn was not his friend, not even close.

A couple of batters into the 1st, Hicks embarked on a meditative retreat down the back of the mound, huffing and puffing through his intentional breathing exercises, desperate to calm down.

Two sinkers painted on the outside corner to Julio Rodríguez — strikes 2 and 3 in the eyes of many, most notably the ABS system — had been spurned by Reyburn. Ticked off, Hicks threw a flat, elevated, angry-dumb sweeper to Rodríguez that he deposited into the left field seats. Another elegant sinker on the inside to Cal Raleigh was again ignored and again, the less compelling follow-up was doubled.

The “injustice” of a missed call might feel idiosyncratic, as if in the 125 history of the modern game your inside fastball was the first inside fastball deemed a ball, but as we all now, this happens all the time. This fact of life drives some people crazy — I kind of think it’s the point. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: home plate umpires are philistines. Their caveman sensibilities are the ultimate obstacle, the one all artists must face and respond to. This is what baseball is really about: reaction, response. Mike Krukow preached this truth from his broadcast booth in those early innings. Yes, Jordan Hicks, your 97 MPH late-breaking sinker is often misunderstood — so what are you going to do about it?

Well, Hicks compromised... and things worked out! He stayed true to his mix (67% sink, 24% sweep), maintained velocity (97.5 MPH avg.), and gave in a little to the heart of the plate. The sinker was put in play more, but that often just means we get more plays like this!

Adames robs Rodriguez again

— Giants on NBC Sports Bay Area (@nbcsgiants.bsky.social) 2025-04-06T22:14:42.146Z

9 of the 11 outs recorded on balls-in-play were on the ground. The two homers allowed — one to Rodríguez, the other to Raleigh in the 3rd — came with no one on base.

An outing not unlike Ray’s in tone on Saturday. Some underlying individual frustrations will nag him in the morning. Hicks wasn’t his sharpest, he definitely felt a little clipped in the wing thanks to the zone — but at the end of the day, he pitched into the 6th, and when the book closed on him, the Giants had the lead.

A lead preserved through Randy Rodriguez’s mopping-up of the 6th (though he did allow a hit and an inherited runner to score), Tyler Rogers’s breezy handling of the top of the order, Erik Miller’s nail-biter 8th, until Camilo Doval’s 2-2 slider to Randy Arozarena in the top of the 9th.

The game-tying double was Arozarena’s first hit of the series, and it felt inevitable. Good hitters always get their dues, also... Doval, man. Just doing that thing he often does, getting himself into bad counts which often produce bad situations. His downfall is his transparency. The first two pitches it was incredibly clear to everyone in the ballpark that he didn’t have a feel for his cutter. Back in the good ol’ days falling back on just the sinker and slider was more than enough, but Camilo has been far from tranquilo for some time now. He needs all the space and time he can get, yet he so often works himself into a cramped corner with no room for error.

To his credit, he did get two early groundouts. The problem became the Victor Robles single sandwiched between them. Robles advanced to second on a fielder’s choice and stole third easily. With the tying run a wild pitch or passed ball away, Doval had to revert back to the offering he felt most comfortable with. The slider wasn’t necessarily a bad one in terms of location, it was just the fourth of the at-bat. That many sliders in a row is a triggering experience for all of us, and honestly, Doval might feel similarly about pitching in the 9th. Bob Melvin shelved Ryan Walker for this one since he pitched in the last two games. If Doval turns in more outings like this one though, resting Walker will be a luxury San Francisco can’t afford.

Mariners outfielder Victor Robles was helped off the field and taken away in a cart after this scary collision

— Giants on NBC Sports Bay Area (@nbcsgiants.bsky.social) 2025-04-06T22:49:22.627Z

On a final note: Victor Robles made one of the better defensive plays I’ve seen in the 9th. He made the catch before leaping into the side-netting where it looks like his shoulder may have popped out. I’m not sure, but he fell back onto the field of play and for a moment it looked to me like he was about to pass out from the pain. A long injury delay that ended up being a weird prelude to the Powerade bath that followed immediately after.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...f-wilmer-flores-mike-yastrzemski-jordan-hicks

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Monday BP: Which series are you looking forward to most this week?

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

The Giants will finish their homestead this week and then head back out on the road to the East Coast. Which series are Giants fans looking forward to the most?

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants are embarking on a new week of baseball today. This week, they will play the Cincinnati Reds for the second and final time this season, this time at home. After that, they will be heading to the East Coast to take on the New York Yankees.

As much as I enjoy home games (better start times, full broadcast squad, great views, etc.), I feel like I’ve seen just about enough of the Reds this year. Which is good, since it will be the last time.

So for this week, I think my pick is going to be the Yankees. It’s the one time this season the two teams will face each other, which gives it a sense of novelty (for me, at least). Also, I feel like the Yankees are the Dodgers East, aka my second favorite team to root against. So that adds a layer of interest as well.

What about you?

Which series are you looking forward to most this week?​

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...sco-giants-look-ahead-schedule-upcoming-games

 

[San Francisco Giants]

4/7 Gamethread: Giants vs. Reds

Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images

Logan Webb vs. Hunter Greene

The San Francisco Giants welcome the Cincinnati Reds to Oracle Park tonight as they kick off a three-game series.

Taking the mound for the Giants will be right-hander Logan Webb, making his third start of the year. So far this year, Webb has a 3.00 ERA and 3.09 FIP, with 11 strikeouts to three walks in 12 innings pitched. His last start was in the Giants’ 3-1 win over the Houston Astros last Tuesday, in which he allowed one run on five hits with six strikeouts in seven innings.

He’ll be facing off against Reds right-hander Hunter Greene, also making his third start of the year. Over those starts, Greene has a 2.25 ERA and 2.00 FIP, with 16 strikeouts to two walks in 12 innings pitched. His last start was in the Reds’ 1-0 loss to the Texas Rangers on Wednesday, in which he allowed one run on three hits with eight strikeouts and a walk in seven innings.

---

Lineups​

Giants​

1. LaMonte Wade, Jr. - 1B
2. Willy Adames - SS
3. Jung Hoo Lee - CF
4. Matt Chapman - 3B
5. Heliot Ramos - LF
6. Mike Yastrzemski - RF
7. Wilmer Flores - DH
8. Patrick Bailey - C
9. Tyler Fitzgerald - 2B

RHP: Logan Webb

Reds​

1. TJ Friedl - CF
2. Blake Dun - RF
3. Elly De La Cruz - SS
4. Gavin Lux - 2B
5. Christian Encarnacion-Strand - 1B
6. Jeimer Candelario - 3B
7. Spencer Steer - DH
8. Jacob Hurtubise - LF
9. Jose Trevino - C

RHP: Hunter Greene

---

Game #10​

Who: San Francisco Giants (8-1) vs. Cincinnati Reds (3-7)

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 6:45 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: n/a

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...o-giants-cincinnati-reds-how-to-watch-lineups

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Tuesday BP: How many minor league games do you plan to attend this year?

Photo by Kirby Lee/Getty Images

The season is underway for the Giants at all levels. How many minor league games do Giants fans plan to attend this year?

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants have started their 2025 season off in a big way. But they aren’t the only players in the organization who have returned to the field. The 2025 minor league season has begun as well.

The Giants have minor league affiliates in Sacramento, San Jose, Eugene, OR and Richmond, VA. Which means there are a lot of opportunities to get to a game this year, even if you can’t get to San Francisco.

If you’re planning to see the River Cats, this might be the best time of year for it, before the temperatures in the Sacramento valley reach those of the surface of the sun for approximately eight-to-ten business months. And if you time it right, you might be able to take in a [redacted] Athletics game as well!

How many minor league games do you plan to attend this year?​

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...-san-francisco-giants-minor-leagues-community

 

[San Francisco Giants]

4/8 Gamethread: Giants vs. Reds

Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images

Landen Roupp vs. Nick Lodolo

The San Francisco Giants continue this three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds tonight at Oracle Park.

Taking the mound for the Giants will be right-hander Landen Roupp, making his second start of the year. His first start was in the Giants’ 6-3 win over the Houston Astros last Wednesday, in which he allowed three runs on four hits with eight strikeouts and four walks in four innings.

He’ll be facing off against Reds left-hander Nick Lodolo, making his third start of the year. So far, he has a 1.42 ERA, 3.54 FIP with 5 strikeouts in 12.2 innings pitched. His last start was in the Reds’ 1-0 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers, in which he allowed one unearned run on four hits with four strikeouts in six and two thirds innings.

---

Lineups​

Giants​

1. Heliot Ramos - LF
2. Willy Adames - SS
3. Jung Hoo Lee - CF
4. Matt Chapman - 3B
5. Wilmer Flores - DH
6. Luis Matos - RF
7. Casey Schmitt - 1B
8. Tyler Fitzgerald - 2B
9. Sam Huff - C

RHP: Landen Roupp

Reds​

1. TJ Friedl - CF
2. Blake Dunn - LF
3. Elly De La Cruz - SS
4. Gavin Lux - 2B
5. Christian Encarnacion-Strand - 1B
6. Jeimer Candelario - 3B
7. Spencer Steer - DH
8. Jake Fraley - RF
9. Jose Trevino - C

LHP: Nick Lodolo

---

Game #11​

Who: San Francisco Giants (8-2) vs. Cincinnati Reds (4-7)

Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California

When: 6:45 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: n/a

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...how-to-watch-lineups-landen-roupp-nick-lodolo

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Wednesday BP: Who do you think is the most unlucky MLB team?

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

The Giants find themselves in a pretty good spot to start the season and other fans have taken (jealous) notice. Who do Giants fans think is the most unlucky MLB team?

Good morning, baseball fans!

The San Francisco Giants are off to a pretty hot start to the 2025 season. A fact that has not gone unnoticed by fans of other teams in the league. So today’s question is courtesy of my best friend, the New York Mets fan from Norway. They wanted me to ask who Giants fans think is the most unlucky MLB team.

Now, it’s pretty easy to understand why that might be a pertinent question, coming from a Mets fan. But I don’t think the Mets get to win this one. (Either.) That’s not to say they aren’t near the top of the list! They absolutely are.

At the end of the day, you can’t say the Mets don’t try. They really do. Are they successful? Not as such. But they try! And sadly that’s more than can be said for some other teams.

Personally, I have to put the [redacted] Athletics at the top of my list. Now, I can hear the arguments coming, are the A’s unlucky? Or do they have bad owners who make bad decisions and screw over the fanbase and players and anyone else they can manage at any given turn?

Both are true! However, since you can’t do anything about who owns the team, I think this falls under the unlucky umbrella.

Who do you think is the most unlucky MLB team?​

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...nts-new-york-mets-athletics-unlucky-community

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Yaz saves

Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

Walk-off #3

A one-run deficit felt insurmountable in this series against the Cincinnati Reds. Down 6-1 though?

Just when the magic of this charmed season appeared to be wearing off, the San Francisco Giants plated seven late-inning runs, topped off by Mike Yastrzemski’s 2-run Splash Hit, to salvage a 8-6 win.

This game ended up being a tale of two innings — and frankly, an apt recap would be Dickens’s first line: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...”

Cincinnati’s 5-run 3rd was definitely the “worst of times”, sending the Giants spiraling towards sweep.

Despite dominant outings from their longtime ace and up-and-coming starter in the last two games, the Giants had been completely handcuffed by Reds pitching. Handing out three more goose eggs on Wednesday, starter Nick Martinez had run up San Francisco’s scoreless drought to 21 straight innings just as Cincinnati erupted for five against Justin Verlander.

Erupted might not be the most accurate verb. Justin Verlander had strolled through the first six batters he faced. He had struck out four in two innings, including striking out the side on 11 pitches in the 2nd. Cincinnati’s rally kicked off with a one-out walk and a well-struck single by Austin Wynns that deflected off Matt Chapman’s glove before squirreling into left field. Should I have got that? Was that gloveable? These would be the nagging questions Giant defenders would ask themselves for the remainder of the inning. The Reds’ next four hits didn’t register an expected batting average above .280 nor would any of them qualify as “hard-hit” according to Statcast’s definition of the term.

TJ Friedl’s RBI double that scraped off the arcade had an xBA on the interstate. Espinal followed it with an infield single to load the bases before Elly De La Cruz drilled an inside slider into the dirt in front of home before the baseball skipped 90 feet up the line and kicked off the glove of a leaping LaMonte Wade Jr. into right field for a 2-RBI double.

The toughest ball in the inning though came off the bat of Gavin Lux.

How this one was ruled a hit by the official scorekeeper is beyond me — but a routine grounder just to the right of second base should result in an out. Instead it rolled, not past, but through Tyler Fitzgerald’s ethereal form for another two runs.

To answer the previous question: Yes, Fitz, it was gloveable. Clearly Fitzgerald thought so too, he was already making his throw home before he had actually caught the ball. An error — let’s call it what it is — similar to one he made during the 6th inning of Friday’s game when he missed a grounder trying to rush a throw to the plate.

Verlander threw 34 pitches in that 3rd inning. Less weathered individuals probably would’ve called it quits after that. But after retiring the next two batters without incident, he went on to pitch clean 4th and 5th innings. He would’ve finished off the 6th too had it not been for another misstep by Fitzgerald who, on a two-out grounder towards the middle that Willy Adames fielded, had broke for the ball first, before redirecting to the bag. A wrong initial move meant he was out-of-position and received Adames’s throw in motion while blindly searching for second base with his big toe. He didn’t find it. Everyone was safe on the “error” by Adames, and instead of Verlander walking off the mound with a done-and-dusted 6th under his belt, the Reds received the gift of an extra out by transforming it into another run on consecutive walks.

5.2 innings pitched, 6 runs (5 earned) on 5 hits and 3 walks is a pretty ugly pitching line and definitely the worst of his three appearances as a Giant. It was also his best performance so far. He struck out 9 and logged 90 pitches operating pretty much exclusively with a two-pitch mix of fastball and slider. His fastball averaged in the mid-90s and topped out at 98 MPH. The slider generated a 55% whiff rate off 20 swings. Though still a little ticked off by the unfortunate breaks in the 3rd, Verlander noted that it was probably the best he had felt on a mound in years.

The added run for the Reds in the top of the frame was a good indicator of how the game was going at the time. Cincinnati’s sixth didn’t require a hit. The pitching and defense were handing out runs. Meanwhile, the Giants had twice as many players thrown out a home in the previous five innings than they had runs in the series. Any well-struck ball, despite its glowing Statcast qualifications, found its way into the web of a Cincinnati glove. No surefire scoring opportunity was guaranteed. Lead runners, ripe for advancing, withered on the base path vines. In the 5th, Patrick Bailey’s double placed runners at second and third with nobody out and…nobody scored. Through five innings, the Giants were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position — their only RBI hit, Jung Hoo Lee’s triple in the 4th, came with a runner on first.

But something shifted in the bottom of the 6th. The odds and probabilities of solid contact finding gaps started to revert back to the mean after a period of unfavorable skewing. Hits started falling.

Jung Hoo Lee, after singling to leaf-off the frame, idled on first through back-to-back strikeouts by Chapman (0-for-12, 1 BB in series) and Heliot Ramos before advancing to third on a double by Yaz. A spiked change-up from Martinez allowed Lee to score. Two pitches later Wilmer Flores brought Yaz home with a single that chased Martinez from the game.

Forced to the right-side by southpaw reliever, Taylor Rogers, Bailey drove the sixth pitch of the at-bat over the head of Jake Fraley for his first hit of the year right-handed. As the ball kicked around the warning track of faraway right-center, speed-demons Flores and Bailey busted tail for 270 feet of base path with Flo scoring easily and Bailey sliding safely into third. In a 1-2 count, Fitzgerald made up for some shoddy defense with another RBI knock to get San Francisco within one.

Though it felt inevitable, with the vibes high and offense resurrected, the Giants would have to wait for the tying run. Willy Adames nearly knocked in Fitzgerald in the 6th if not for a nice play by third baseman Santiago Espinal. Jung Hoo Lee led off the 7th with a double, but Chapman, Ramos or Yaz couldn’t bring him home.

Meanwhile the bullpen held strong and kept the lead within reach. Randy Rodríguez, Tyler Rogers, Ryan Walker and Erik Miller teamed up to allow just one hit over the final four frames. Rogers struck out the side for the seventh time in his career — and first time in nearly two years.

It wasn’t until the 8th — the first pitch of the 8th — when Tony Santillan tried to sneak an inside fastball past the bat of Wilmer Flores that the Giants tied it up.

WILMER. TIED GAME.

— Giants on NBC Sports Bay Area (@nbcsgiants.bsky.social) 2025-04-09T22:11:31.436Z

Emilio Pagán tried something similar in the 10th. 95.5 MPH, round it up to 96, right on the inside corner. A good pitch met by a better swing.

Dugout angle of

— SFGiants (@sfgiants.com) 2025-04-09T23:30:46.131Z

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...ski-walk-off-justin-verlander-reds-mlb-scores

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Thursday BP: What do you think of the new City Connect uniforms?

Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

It’s an off day for the Giants, so let’s argue about uniforms.

Good morning, baseball fans!

On Tuesday night, the San Francisco Giants debuted their new City Connect uniforms. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area wrote a pretty great piece outlining the design process for the new uniforms, and how they were inspired by the rich musical history of San Francisco, and have a connection to the team’s New York days.

As a concept, I think it’s really well thought out and executed. The players have bought in and were even consulted during the process, as Logan Webb told the broadcasters during Tuesday night’s game. The park itself is even in on the fun, as they have adjusted the lights to shine more purple for these games.

Additionally, each uniform is technically unique, due to the sewing on the sound waves on each uniform.

Overall, it’s clear they really put a lot of thought and effort into the process and execution of the switch to the new uniforms, which will be worn at every Tuesday night home game.

All of that said, I have a completely unserious reason for disliking them. Sure, they’re cool and different and bring a bit of a different vibe to the park. But the purple. Oh god, the purple. It’s giving Coors Field. It’s giving waking up to Dinger staring murderously into your soul.

What do you think of the new City Connect uniforms?​

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...ncisco-giants-city-connect-uniforms-community

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Minor League roundup, 4/9: Dakota Freaking Jordan

Photo by Michael Wade/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Yesterday’s action on the farm.

Wednesday was a busy and bustling day for the San Francisco Giants. Most excitedly and importantly, the big league team won in dramatic fashion on yet another Mike Yastrzemski splash walk-off. But down on the farm, there were a bunch of exciting performances as well for the four Minor League Baseball affiliates.

Let’s dive into it.

Link to the 2025 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

All listed positions in the roundup are the positions played in that particular game.

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AAA Sacramento (6-5)​

Sacramento River Cats beat the Tacoma Rainiers (Mariners) 3-1
Box score

Yet again, it was a Sacramento game where the main story was the starting pitching. On Wednesday it was RHP Carson Seymour (No. 21 CPL) who took the mound for the third time this year, fresh off winning PCL Pitcher of the Week.

Seymour has been fantastic to start the year, and he continued to pitch well in this start, though it was definitely his worst of the three. The powerful righty struggled with command for much of the game, throwing just 45 of his 72 pitches for strikes. And that resulted in a whole bunch of free passes: in 5 innings, Seymour walked 3 batters and hit 3 more.

But once again, hitters couldn’t do anything with the bat when Seymour was on the mound. He allowed just 4 hits all day, and all of them were singles. As a result, even with the sextet of free baserunners, the Rainiers only put 1 run on the board against Seymour, the first he’s allowed in 14 innings this year. It’s a 0.64 ERA and a 2.81 FIP for Seymour in the early going, and what a sight those numbers are.

After Seymour, it was utter dominance from the bullpen. Dominance as in, perfection! 4 innings without a baserunner allowed. RHP Sean Hjelle and LHP Joey Lucchesi both struck out 2 batters in their respective perfect innings, while RHPs Tristan Beck and Justin Garza had 1 strikeout in their flawless frames. On the year, Hjelle has a 3.00 ERA and a 1.20 FIP; Lucchesi a 4.15 ERA and a 2.84 FIP; Beck a 2.84 ERA and a 2.74 FIP; and Garza a 0.00 ERA and a 2.13 FIP.

It wasn’t a good offensive day for the River Cats, with the bulk of the damage coming on one swing. In the eighth inning, second baseman Osleivis Basabe broke a tie with a 2-run home run, which set the final score at 3-1.

BASABEEEEEEE

a little 2-run homer puts the rivercats back in the lead pic.twitter.com/togCBkKcKQ

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) April 10, 2025​

Basabe isn’t much of a power threat — he has just 20 career home runs in 453 Minor League games — but if he can show something with the bat he could be an interesting depth piece for the Giants, and he’s already on the 40-man roster.

Catcher Logan Porter had the only other notable offensive day, hitting 2-4 with a double and a strikeout. Porter is really just an emergency depth option for the Giants at catcher, and is certainly behind Max Stassi on the depth chart, but he’s playing well.

Unfortunately, more rough games for the notable 40-man players who populated the top of the lineup: center fielder Grant McCray went 1-3 with a strikeout; left fielder Marco Luciano went 0-4 with 3 strikeouts, and shortstop Brett Wisely hit 0-4 with a strikeout.

AA Richmond (1-4)​

Richmond Flying Squirrels lost to the Harrisburg Senators (Nationals) 3-1
Box score

Wednesday featured an excellent season debut for a very exciting player, as LHP Joe Whitman (No. 9 CPL) took the mound for the first time this year. Whitman, the team’s Compensation Round pick in 2023, who really impressed last year despite not having the best numbers, could be in for a huge year. Wednesday was an excellent step in that direction, with the 23-year old southpaw giving up just 4 hits, 0 walks, 1 hit batter, and 1 run in 5 strong innings of action, while striking out 4. He’s starting the season fairly stretched out, as he threw 79 pitches.

Joe Whitman is on the board with his first Double-A K! pic.twitter.com/pMAeN7Kf04

— Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) April 9, 2025​

It’s a sign of how much the organization values Whitman that he’s starting in Richmond, after just 11 starts in High-A last year following a promotion (and those starts yielding just a 4.96 ERA). And they seem to have the evaluation correct, if this start is to be believed!

RHP Will Bednar (No. 42 CPL) showed off his electric strikeout stuff that has been returning to his profile, even though the walk remain a huge issue. He issued a pair of free passes in 1.2 innings, but didn’t give up a hit or a run ... and all 5 of the outs were recorded by way of strikes. A 1st-round pick in 2021, Bednar is attempting to reinvent himself as a reliever, and the stuff certainly is more interesting and higher velocity than when he was a starter. He’s a little bit in the Camilo Doval/Randy Rodríguez territory of looking really interesting if he can figure out how to stop walking people. So far this year he’s walked 4 batters in just 2.2 innings ... but he has retired 8 batters, and all of them struck out.

All of the offense came from left fielder Jairo Pomares (No. 41 CPL), who homered for the second consecutive game as part of a 1-4 day. I still have high hopes for Pomares, who not long ago was considered a top-10 prospect in the system. The lefty slugger fell on hard times with both performance and injury the last few years, but there’s still a ton of talent — and power — in his bat. Let’s hope his hot start to the year (he has a .967 OPS and a 186 wRC+ through 5 games) portends a good season ahead.

JAIRO BOMB TWO DAYS IN A ROW pic.twitter.com/nZOoB6ZVQR

— Richmond Flying Squirrels (@GoSquirrels) April 9, 2025​

Third baseman Sabin Ceballos (No. 18 CPL) had another good game as well, hitting 2-4 with a double. Ceballos, one of the talks of the spring, went 0-8 with 2 strikeouts in the first 2 games of the year ... since then, he’s 5-12 with a home run, 2 doubles, a walk, and 2 strikeouts.

High-A Eugene (2-2)​

Eugene Emeralds beat the Tri-City Dust Devils (Angels) 4-3 (10 innings)
Box score

A fun and exciting game for the Emeralds as they made their way to .500. The Ems trailed 3-2 entering the 9th inning, but tied the game when shortstop Cole Foster, who was 0-3 with 2 strikeouts to that point, blasted a leadoff home run, his first of the year.

Foster came to the Giants with a bit of hype after they selected him in the 3rd round of the 2023 draft, but so far he hasn’t been able to really put it together. It had been a slow start to the year for him before that swing, so hopefully this jump starts the year.

And then, in the 10th inning, with the game tied 3-3, the Emeralds walked it off with some small ball, advancing the Manfred Man with a pair of productive outs to end the game. Fun!

While Foster had the big hit, the most encouraging day went to right fielder James Tibbs III (No. 3 CPL), who hit 2-5 with a double, and also had the first of the 10th inning productive outs (he was also thrown out trying to steal). Tibbs is off to a mesmerizing start to the year, one that is erasing his 2024 stint with Eugene in a hurry. After making his way to the Pacific Northwest last year, shortly after being drafted in the 1st round by the Giants, Tibbs fell on hard times, hitting just 9-67 with 3 extra-base hits, 7 walks, and 25 strikeouts. So far this year, Tibbs is already 6-15 with 3 extra-base hits, 4 walks, and, wait for it ... 0 strikeouts. That’s the high-contact advanced bat that was advertised after the draft!

Another player shaking off a slow 2024 is catcher Onil Perez (No. 37 CPL), who is back in Eugene for a second season. Perez has never been a guy who hits the ball hard, and that’s unlikely to change, but he’s always been a standout bat-to-ball hitter, sporting high batting averages ... until last year, when he had just a .236 batting average with the Emeralds. After a 3-4 day on Wednesday, Perez is rocking a .364 batting average in the early going of the 2025 season. Let’s hope that continues!

It was an odd pitching game, and turned into a bullpen game after RHP Cale Lansville struggled in his season debut. The 14th-round pick in 2023 couldn’t find the strike zone or miss bats ... he only pitched 2 innings, but gave up 4 hits and 3 walks, without a strikeout. Yet despite that, Lansville limited the damage to just 1 run on his ledger. He found his way out of a lot of jams!

RHP Austin Strickland and LHP C.J. Widger had strong season debuts out of the bullpen, the former giving up 1 hit in 2 shutout innings with 2 strikeouts, and the latter striking out 2 in a scoreless frame, with a hit batter the only baserunner he allowed. Widger was acquired in the Minor League phase of the Rule 5 Draft, so this was his organizational debut as well.

But the best performance from the bullpen came from RHP Marques Johnson, who handled the 10th inning with ease, finishing with 1 walk and 1 strikeout while keeping the Manfred Man stranded on the bases ... and setting up the walk-off win.

Low-A San Jose (2-3)​

San Jose Giants beat the Visalia Rawhide (D-Backs) 11-3
Box score

After starting the season 0-3, the Baby Giants have scored 11 runs in consecutive games. And it was a downpour on Wednesday, with 12 hits ... 7 of which went for extra bases.

The most exciting performance came from center fielder Dakota Jordan (No. 8 CPL), who went 3-4 with a walk, and finished a double shy of the cycle. Jordan is essentially playing in his debut season, after 7 plate appearances last year following the draft. But there’s absolutely no doubt about his ability to make violent contact when he puts the bat on the ball; there’s only ever doubt about his ability to actually make contact.

Dakota Jordan -- the @SFGiants' No. 6 prospect and 2024 fourth-rounder -- belts his first pro homer, capping a three-hit performance for the Single-A @SJGiants. pic.twitter.com/adr2W5qYZJ

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) April 10, 2025​

He changed his swing over the offseason and the reports from the spring were fantastic. And so far? The results are justifying the massively overslot bonus that the Giants gave Jordan after selecting him in the 4th round in July. He’s 7-24 to start the year, with a home run, a triple, 4 walks, and just 5 strikeouts (plus 2 stolen bases, and daily starts in center field).

In my opinion, no player in the system has a ceiling nearly as high as Jordan, it’s just always been very unlikely that he comes anywhere near that ceiling. With every game that he punishes baseballs without striking out, the excitement builds.

Also a fantastic day for the guy hitting behind Jordan, and his fellow 2024 draftmate, first baseman Jakob Christian (No. 30 CPL). Christian’s power has been on display in the early going, as he homered for the 2nd consecutive day, with he and Jordan going back-to-back in the 8th. Christian finished 2-4 with a double (his 3rd straight game with one), and also a hit by pitch. Christian, a righty taking in the 5th round last year, has 6 hits through 5 games, and 5 of them have gone for extra bases.

Rounding out the dinger party was catcher Drew Cavanaugh, who finished 1-4 with a walk. He’s off to an excellent start to the year, though it’s his 3rd consecutive season spending time in San Jose.

“He’s looking up and it’s GONE!!”
- @JoeRitzo ️@drewcav1 goes deep for the second time in the early season with a solo HR! #OppoTaco

Giants lead Visalia, 3-1, in the 6th. #SJGiants pic.twitter.com/AZCcMiaWdi

— Tom Cavanaugh (@tcav30) April 10, 2025​

Second baseman Jose Ramos made his season debut and shined, hitting 1-3 with a walk and 2 stolen bases, while right fielder Carlos Gutierrez continues to look like he didn’t miss nearly all of 2024, going 1-4 with a double, a hit by pitch, and a stolen base. Designated hitter Jose Ortiz (No. 22 CPL) continues to be red hot to start the year, and went 2-4 with a double.

Unfortunately, it was a reversion to the 2024 struggles for shortstop Walker Martin (No. 14 CPL), who went 0-5 with 4 strikeouts and an error.

On the mound, San Jose had piggybacking starters who were both making their professional debut. Getting the start was RHP Niko Mazza, last year’s 8th-round pick. He was utterly sensational, striking out 4 batters in 4 shutout innings, while giving up just 4 hits and 1 walk. Now that’s an introduction!

Then it was LHP Charlie McDaniel, an undrafted free agent. He showed some awesome stuff by striking out 6 batters in 4 innings, but his 4 hits did some damage, tagging him for 3 runs, 2 of which were earned. Rounding it out was RHP Nicolas Herold, an undrafted free agent making his season debut after 9 games last year. Can’t start better than striking out all 3 batters you face, which is what Herold did.

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Home run tracker​

AAA Osleivis Basabe (1)
AA Jairo Pomares (2)
High-A Cole Foster (1)
Low-A Jakob Christian (2)
Low-A Drew Cavanaugh (2)
Low-A Dakota Jordan (1)

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Thursday schedule​

Sacramento: @ Tacoma, 7:05 p.m. PT (SP: Mason Black)
Richmond: Postponed (doubleheader scheduled for Saturday)
Eugene: vs. Tri-City, 6:35 p.m. PT (SP: Josh Wolf)
San Jose: vs. Visalia, 6:00 p.m. PT (SP: Drake George)

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...ramento-richmond-dakota-jordan-carson-seymour

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Minor League roundup, 4/10: Marco Luciano has a day!

Photo by Scott Marshall/Getty Images

Yesterday’s action on the farm.

We’re starting to get into a good groove with the 2025 Minor League Baseball season. The San Francisco Giants only had three of their affiliates in action on Thursday, though, as AA Richmond had their game postponed due to poor weather — they’ll play a doubleheader on Saturday to make up for it.

Let’s get into the action.

Link to the 2025 McCovey Chronicles Community Prospect List (CPL)

All listed positions in the roundup are the positions played in that particular game.

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AAA Sacramento (7-5)​

Sacramento River Cats beat the Tacoma Rainiers (Mariners) 17-7
Box score

Oh yeah. Now that is a Pacific Coast League score! It was an offensive explosion for the River Cats, who finished the day with 15 hits and ... wait for it ... 12 walks. Needless to say, there were plenty of strong offensive days ... in fact, second baseman Brett Wisely, who hit 1-6 with 2 strikeouts, was not just the only River Cat who didn’t reach base multiple times, but he was the only Sacramento hitter to not reach base at least 3 times. Sorry for the negative stat there, Brett!

In a day full of great performances, the best one belonged to someone who I am very, very happy to see have a good game: left fielder Marco Luciano.

Luciano had been mired in quite a slump to start the year. Following a nice Opening Day, he had gone ice cold for the next 10 games, hitting just 4-39 with 0 extra-base hits, 4 walks, and 17 strikeouts. Still, there were reasons for some optimism: he was still hitting the ball extremely hard, and his strikeout issues were mostly due to a passive approach rather than an inability to make contact. I remain hopeful that he can put things together and make them click quickly.

Hopefully Thursday was a step in that direction, because Luciano had a dynamic day, hitting 3-5 with a home run, 2 walks, and 1 strikeout. His dinger was absolutely gorgeous, and traveled 415 feet with a 105.6-mph exit velocity.

did someone say double digits?

a homerun by Marco luciano brings the river cats to a 10-6 lead pic.twitter.com/hxtYV3qPCF

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) April 11, 2025​

Always a good sign when the outfielder doesn’t even think about moving!

Luciano’s overall numbers are still poor — he has just a .595 OPS and a 55 wRC+ — but he has some of the best batted ball data in AAA, a 14.5% walk rate, and a fair amount of bad luck (his .222 BABIP is 80th out of 93 PCL hitters with at least 30 plate appearances). There are at least some reasons to think that he’ll come roaring out of this slump at some point. Hopefully that already began.

a luciano single= another cat comes home pic.twitter.com/uQnCURMO7R

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) April 11, 2025​

Center fielder Grant McCray also had a sensational day, hitting 3-5 with a double, a walk, a strikeout, and a sacrifice fly. McCray also started the year slow but has been putting in some excellent numbers lately: in the last 3 games, he’s 6-12 with a double, a walk, 2 stolen bases, and just 2 strikeouts. In a complete reversal of his profile, McCray is hitting for average (.319) but not power (Thursday’s double was his first extra-base hit of the season).

THE CATS DON'T COME TO PLAY

a double by stassi + a single by mccray= the cats leading 6-0 in the top of the first pic.twitter.com/B9g9lGF9gC

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) April 11, 2025​

Right fielder Brett Auerbach and catcher Max Stassi both doubled and drew 2 walks, with Stassi also reaching base by way of getting plunked.

doubles after doubles brett auerbach brings another river cat home pic.twitter.com/imD3ygOMAE

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) April 11, 2025​

First baseman David Villar continued to hit well since getting outrighted, going 2-5 with a walk to raise his OPS to .826 and his wRC+ to 122.

david villar with a quick single to left field puts the rivercats in the lead in the top of the first pic.twitter.com/TyBKYqsmj1

— Sacramento River Cats (@RiverCats) April 11, 2025​

The pitching was less successful. RHP Mason Black (No. 7 CPL) got the start and struggled with command, walking 3 batters in as many innings, while also allowing 2 hits and 2 runs, with 3 strikeouts. His season numbers are still awesome — he has a 2.57 ERA and a 3.24 FIP — because he was so dominant in his season debut. But he’ll want to bounce back from this performance, in which he threw just 41 of 67 pitches for strikes.

RHP Kai-Wei Teng followed and was worse, giving up 3 hits, 1 walk, and 4 runs in just 2 innings, while striking out 3. Teng had a very nice camp and an awesome season debut, but his season has quickly gone downhill since then.

But props to LHP Helcris Olivárez, who continues to dominate. The offseason signing tossed a perfect inning with 2 strikeouts, and threw 12 of 13 pitches for strikes. In 3.1 innings this year, Olivárez has allowed 0 hits and just 1 walk, while striking out 5. Can’t do much better than that!

High-A Eugene (2-3)​

Eugene Emeralds lost to the Tri-City Dust Devils (Angels) 7-6 (10 innings)
Box score

An interesting and dramatic game but, if we’re being honest, not a lot of interesting performances for the Emeralds, as no one really had standout days.

Right fielder James Tibbs III (No. 3 CPL) continued his awesome debut full season ... the lefty had arguably his worst game of the season, which shows just how strong he’s been: he went 1-4 with 2 strikeouts, but also drew 2 walks. They were his 1st strikeouts of the season, which is quite impressive.

Having a similar line was left fielder Scott Bandura, who went 1-3 with 2 walks, a strikeout, and his 2nd stolen base of the year. Like Tibbs, Bandura — a 7th-round pick in 2023 — is off to a stellar start to the year, with the lefty hitting 5-12 with a whopping 5 walks against just 2 strikeouts.

RHP Josh Wolf got the start and had a bit of a funny game. The Mets’ 2019 2nd-round pick pitched 2.2 no-hit innings with 4 strikeouts ... but walked 5 batters. Blake Snell, is that you???

LHP Tommy Kane and RHP Ian Villers both pitched quite well in relief, but RHPs Cody Tucker and Ryan Vanderhei really struggled, and that cost Eugene the game.

Low-A San Jose (3-3)​

San Jose Giants beat the Visalia Rawhide (D-Backs) 8-7
Box score

Another fantastic outing for RHP Drake George, the Giants’ 13th-round pick in July’s draft, who didn’t make his professional debut until Opening Day this year. George was great in that game and he was great in this one, where he started and tossed 4 shutout innings, allowing just 2 hits and a walk, while striking out 3. Through 7 pro innings, George has allowed just 6 baserunners, 3 runs that were all unearned, and has struck out 6. What a great start!

Unfortunately the rest of the pitching struggled. RHP Ubert Mejias got rocked, while RHPs Evan Gray and Ben Peterson weren’t very sharp, either.

The offense was a bit more balanced. The best day belonged to third baseman Jean Carlos Sio, who was utterly dynamic, going 2-3 with a home run, a walk, and a stolen base. Sio, a left-handed hitter who just turned 21, is repeating San Jose after posting a .738 OPS and a 108 wRC+ there last year. I’ve got to assume he’ll be ticketed for Eugene at some point this year.

Jean Carlos Sio hits a two run homer and the Giants take a 4-0 lead! pic.twitter.com/q82S4cwkOS

— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) April 11, 2025​

Left fielder Lisbel Diaz (No. 17 CPL), who has been in need of a good game after slumping to start the year, had a very nice showing, hitting 2-4 with a double, while right fielder Jose Ortiz (No. 22) continued to be an on-base machine, hitting 0-2 but drawing a walk, getting hit by a pitch, and stealing a base.

Lisbel Diaz ropes a double down the line to tack on an insurance run! Giants lead 8-6 as we head to the ninth. pic.twitter.com/9IPl2FbMi6

— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) April 11, 2025​

First baseman Jakob Christian (No. 30 CPL) only hit 1-4, but doubled for the 4th consecutive game (he also has 2 home runs during that span), while center fielder Dakota Jordan (No. 8 CPL) hit 1-3 with a walk and 2 strikeouts. The 2024 draftmates have been dynamic to start the year: Christian, a 5th-round pick, has a 1.013 OPS and a 154 wRC+ while Jordan, a 4th-round pick, has a 1.091 OPS and a 191 wRC+.

Stay hot Jakob Christian! A two-run double puts the Giants up 2-0 in the first. pic.twitter.com/YpVl4Tawo2

— San Jose Giants (@SJGiants) April 11, 2025​

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Home run tracker​

AAA Marco Luciano (2)
Low-A Jean Carlos Sio (1)

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Friday schedule ​

Sacramento: at Tacoma, 7:05 p.m. PT (SP: Kyle Harrison)
Richmond: at Harrisburg, 4:00 p.m. PT (SP: John Michael Bertrand)
Eugene: vs. Tri-City, 6:35 p.m. PT (SP: Josh Bostick)
San Jose: vs. Visalia, 7:00 p.m. PT (SP: TBD, possibly Jacob Bresnahan)

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...es-marco-luciano-grant-mccray-james-tibbs-iii

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Giants storm out of the gate on rainy night in NYC

A bundled-up Jung Ho Lee goes deep in the first inning Friday night. | Photo by Gregory Fisher/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

A five-run first inning chased Yankees starter Marcus Stroman and gave the Giants a big cushion for a game that was called for rain in the 6th inning.

Start spreading the news! The Giants are hitting today! Everyone in the lineup wanted to be a part of it in New York, New York Friday night, as the San Francisco Giants defeated the New York Yankees, 9-1, in a game called after 5+ innings due to rain.

The decision to suspend the game was made easier by an offensive explosion from the Giants, a tough four-inning start from Robbie Ray, and Yankees reliever Yoendrys Gomez walking four batters in the top of the sixth inning while complaining about the wet baseball.

Eight members of the Giants lineup either scored or drove in a run, and the one who didn’t, Tyler Fitzgerald, went 2-for-3. The Giants drew 11 walks, hit three doubles and a home run, and scored nine runs, all in 5 2⁄3 innings in a game that ended with the bases loaded.

After the start of the game was delayed by 26 minutes by some miserable New York City weather, the Giants’ bats delivered a storm of their own. Mike Yastrzemski led off the game with a double, Willy Adames walked, and Jung Hoo Lee hit his first home run of the 2025 season. Wearing a cold-weather mask that covered most of his head, Lee hit a Marcus Stroman sinker 387 feet over the right-center wall.

JUNG HOO LEE HOME RUN

이정후 홈런 pic.twitter.com/OD2qbdCyFK

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) April 11, 2025​

A rattled Stroman lost his control, walking Matt Chapman and Heliot Ramos, throwing only two pitches out of 11 in the strike zone. Stroman got ahead 1-2 to LaMonte Wade, Jr., but “La Guardia Lamonte” worked a full count and then doubled in two runs.

LaMonte makes it a five-run first pic.twitter.com/cAUGFTlueJ

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 11, 2025​

That would do it for the first-inning scoring, but the Giants would chase Stroman after a two-out single from Tyler Fitzgerald brought the inning back to Yaz. Stroman’s line:

0.2 innings, five runs, all earned, four hits, three walks, one strikeout.

The Yankees got on the board in the second inning, on a play where the Giants and Robbie Ray got lucky. Anthony Volpe walked on a 3-2 count and stole second, Jazz Chisholm struck out on a 3-2 count, and Austin Wells came inches away from a home run with a double that bounced off the top of the outfield wall. Thanks to the rain, it was technically a hit that splashed, but not a Splash Hit.

But after another full-count walk, Ray got Trent Grisham and Paul Goldschmidt to fly out. While Ray got into deep counts the whole game — he threw at least five pitches to 12 of the 18 hitters he faced — Ray minimized the damage. He walked four Yankees, including Aaron Judge twice, but he struck out seven, and only yielded two hits, one of which was a grounder to third too wet for Matt Chapman to throw swiftly to first.

And due to an obscure rule that Jon Miller presciently pointed out on the telecast, Ray was able to earn his third win while working only four innings, thanks to the game being called after five innings.

Reliever Ryan Yarbrough came in and settled things down for the Yankees, working 2.2 innings and giving up only a hit and a walk. With Tyler Fitzgerald on second base with one out, Ian Hamilton relieved Yarbrough and got a rare 5-3-6 double play, when Goldschmidt nailed Fitzgerald trying to advance to third, something you really aren’t supposed to risk with two outs. Of course, Fitzgerald stole second to begin with, so his baserunning was a net neutral on the inning, if ultimately embarrassing.

Hamilton didn’t last long, as Lee tormented him out of the game. First, Lee fouled off three pitches on his way to drawing a nine-pitch walk. Then Hamilton seemed distracted by the threat of Lee stealing and issued Chapman one of Chappie’s three walks.

After Ramos struck out looking, Wade fought back from being down 0-2 to get a nine-pitch walk off of reliever Tim Hill. Then Lee got a great jump on a Wilmer Flores groundout that only went about 60 feet to score the Giants’ sixth run. Hill’s next pitch nearly drilled Patrick Bailey, going all the way to the backstop and scoring Chapman from third. Bailey drilled Hill’s second pitch into right field for an RBI double.

Patty Barrels goes the other way to drive in a run pic.twitter.com/b6EuCJ2XUz

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 12, 2025​

Spencer Bivens struck out two in an uneventful bottom of the fifth that made the game official, then Wade ended the scoring with a bases-loaded walk for his third RBI.

While it was a shame to see a game end with the bases loaded and the Giants swinging the bat so well, the team won’t mind getting a short game at the start of a 10-game, 10-day road trip. The Giants don’t get an off-day until April 28, so they got the best of both worlds: A rainout that still counts as a W. The bullpen is preserved, everybody padded their stats, and Bob Melvin can get a full night’s sleep before Saturday’s 3:05 local time game.

Tune in tomorrow when we’ll learn if torpedo bats still work when it’s wet.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...rm-out-of-the-gate-on-rainy-night-9-1-yankees

 

[San Francisco Giants]

4/12 Gamethread: Giants at Yankees

Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images

Jordan Hicks vs. Will Warren.

After a dominant, rain-shortened victory on Friday night, the San Francisco Giants will look to secure their road series against the New York Yankees this afternoon, and set themselves up for a sweep on Sunday. They already have two of those this year, and another sure would be a delight!

Taking the mound for the Giants is right-hander Jordan Hicks, who makes his third start of the season. Hicks has been awesome to start the year, and is 1-0 with a 2.38 ERA, a 4.65 FIP, and 11 strikeouts against three walks in 11.1 innings. After a dominant season debut, Hicks had a few hiccups his last time out, giving up three runs in 5.1 innings against the Seattle Mariners.

On the other side is right-hander Will Warren, a 25-year old with just eight career games in his young Major League career. In two starts this year, Warren is 0-0 with a 6.00 ERA, a 4.09 FIP, and nine strikeouts to five walks in nine innings. In his last start, Warren gave up four runs in as many innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Enjoy the game, Giants fans!

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Lineups​

Giants

1. Mike Yastrzemski - RF
2. Willy Adames - SS
3. Jung Hoo Lee - CF
4. Matt Chapman - 3B
5. Heliot Ramos - RF
6. LaMonte Wade Jr. - 1B
7. Wilmer Flores - DH
8. Sam Huff - C
9. Tyler Fitzgerald - 2B

RHP. Jordan Hicks

Yankees

1. Ben Rice - DH
2. Aaron Judge - RF
3. Cody Bellinger - CF
4. Paul Goldschmidt- 1B
5. Jazz Chisholm Jr. - 2B
6. Anthony Volpe - SS
7. Austin Wells - C
8. Jasson Domínguez - LF
9. Oswaldo Cabrera - 3B

RHP. Will Warren

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Game #14​

Who: San Francisco Giants (10-3) vs. New York Yankees (7-6)

Where: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York

When: 12:05 p.m. PT

Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area

National broadcast: FS1

Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...-schedule-tv-station-jordan-hicks-will-warren

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Yankees torpedo Giants with five-run 5th inning

Jordan Hicks didn’t make it out of the fifth inning Saturday in New York. | Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images

Paul Goldschmidt and Paul Goldschmidt hit the Giants hard, just like old times

The San Francisco Giants knocked out the New York Yankees with a five-run first inning where they knocked out the Yankees starter. The Yankees returned the favor Saturday, knocking out Jordan Hicks during a five-run fifth inning that gave them a TK-TK victory in the Bronx.

Wilmer Flores hit his sixth home run and knocked in all four Giants runs, but the Bronx Bombers and their torpedo bats of doom were too much. Cody Bellinger scored two runs and knocked in a pair, while longtime Giants killer Paul Goldschmidt had two RBIs and Ben Rice hit his fourth homer.

Bellinger got the scoring started with a first-inning triple that was creatively played by Heliot Ramos off the left field wall. That extra base put him in position to score on Goldschmidt’s sac fly.

Belli with a triple to bring home Judge pic.twitter.com/Ztp5IsQ6j2

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 12, 2025​

Flores got the Giants even by knocking home Ramos, who opened the inning with a ground-rule double, with his major-league-lead-tying sixth home run.

Wilmer Flores pulls into a tie for the MLB lead with his 6th home run! pic.twitter.com/p21w2hYgin

— MLB (@MLB) April 12, 2025​

Hicks got into trouble in the bottom of the second, walking the bases loaded before getting Aaron Judge to ground out to short. He settled down until the fifth inning, when the wheels came off.

Rice, Judge, and Bellinger all singled, then Goldschmidt bounced a double over the right-field wall to make it 5-2. A walk to Jazz Chisholm ended Hicks’ afternoon, then Anthony Volpe’s sacrifice fly off Randy Rodriguez scored Bellinger and advanced all the Yankees runners one base. That would prove crucial when Jasson Dominguez singled with two out to give the Yankees a five-run lead.

The Martian mashes pic.twitter.com/urVVwOvcSp

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) April 12, 2025​

Yankees starter Will Warren yielded after striking out six and giving up two runs in five innings, and the Giants got to Fernando Cruz in the top of the sixth. They loaded the bases with no one out on a single, an error, and a walk, then scored two on Flores’ two-out single.

Who else but Wilmer pic.twitter.com/oZOiX7wdIK

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 12, 2025​

That gives Flores 19 RBI on the season, second in major league baseball to only Judge.

Ben Rice homered off Lou Trivino, then the Giants finally stopped Bellinger thanks to a diving catch by Mike Yastrzemski that helped Camilo Doval to a perfect eighth inning.

Yaz robs Bellinger pic.twitter.com/EssLe4WxBt

— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 12, 2025​

But after Yaz walked and Willy Adames doubled to lead off the ninth, the Giants went meekly against new Yankees closer Devin Williams and the game ended 8-4.

The Giants fell to 8-4 in a game that came down to clutch hitting and a few crucial extra bases taken by the Yankees and given up by the Giants outfielders.

We’ll see a slightly different Giants lineup against their old friend, lefty Carlos Rodon, as he goes up against Logan Webb Sunday. Rodon has never faced the Giants before in his career, and has only faced Matt Chapman (0-for-3, two strikeouts) and Willy Adames (3-for-13, two RBIs) before. Sounds like a perfect opportunity for Wilmer Flores to go deep!

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2025/4/12/24407099/yankees-torpedo-sf-giants-five-run-5th-inning

 

[San Francisco Giants]

Jung Hoo Lee opens the heavens

Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images

Lee’s first multi-homer in MLB game fuels a come-from-behind win in New York

The sun finally broke through the clouds over The Bronx in the rubber match between the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants.

If my memory serves me well, golden rays of light bathed the field the moment Carlos Rodón released his 1-2 curveball to Jung Hoo Lee in the 6th. The clouds parted as the sloping breaking ball rolled out of his hand, pinwheeling like a beach ball, and Lee didn’t miss it. The 3-run homer turned a dominant outing by Rodón into a forgettable one — and I imagine as he saw the baseball land a row up in right that he, for a moment, longed for those spacious grounds at Third and King.

JUNG HOO LEE. AGAIN. GIANTS LEAD

— Giants on NBC Sports Bay Area (@nbcsgiants.bsky.social) 2025-04-13T19:13:54.398Z

Lee’s second homer of the day, and third of the series, had an expected batting average of .150 and would’ve gone out in seven other parks. Yankee Stadium giveth, and it taketh away. For Rodón, it’s taketh alot-eth.

After earning an All-Star appearance and top-10 Cy Young Award finish in a Giants uniform in 2022, the wardrobe swap for pinstripes has been far from slimming. He’s been hurt, his strikeouts have dipped, walks have increased, and his home run rate has shot up. He allowed 31 home runs last year, giving up 15 homers in 14 games in The Bronx. That one-to-one ratio has continued into his fourth year. Sunday was his 50th game as a Yankee, and has been taken deep 51 times.

So it was reasonable to expect that a Giants hitter was going to lift one out. Players like Heliot Ramos, Wilmer Flores, even Casey Schmitt have reputations as southpaw-killers. But looking at Rodón’s career splits against same-side bats, no one would’ve expected that the player to deal the lethal blow was the sole lefty swing in the line-up.

Over his ten year career, left-handed batters have batted just .212 against Rodón. In 955 plate appearances, they’ve managed to knock a ball out of the park only 19 times. Make that 20 and 21 times now.

Lee’s first homer came with one out in the 4th inning. Rodón hadn’t allowed a hit up until that point, the sole base-runner a Patrick Bailey walk stranded at first. Known for an elevated fastball as his primary weapon, he had been effective all afternoon working off-script. He threw his four-seam 35 times, and his slider 36. A 1-2 mix that was anything but predictable. Giants’ hitters played spectator to 23 called strikes, 18 of which were either fastball or slider.

A heavier helping of slider than usual, and Lee took notice.

In a 3-2 count, with Lee just fouling away a sinker down, you’d expect Rodón to change the sightline with the elevated gas. Maybe he thought himself into a corner pre-pitch. Maybe he thought the slider was his sharpest pitch — he had just struck out the previous three batters with the pitch. Whatever the logic was, Lee clearly anticipated it. His solo shot left the bat at 103 MPH and would’ve been out of every Major League park but Oracle.

Lee blasts his second homer of the series

— Giants on NBC Sports Bay Area (@nbcsgiants.bsky.social) 2025-04-13T18:42:09.142Z

To give Rodón credit, the homer didn’t rattle him. With a 3-run lead, he challenged Lee and lost in that moment, but he followed it up with two more K’s (both with the slider) to end the inning, then pitched an easy 1-2-3 5th.

Solo shots won’t lose him games. 3-run homers, however, will. Sometimes dinky grounders to short spoil outings do too. Christian Koss’s first Major League hit came on a discrete daisy-cutter to short. It was San Francisco’s second hit and first lead-off man to reach. A walk by Willy Adames pushed their first runner into scoring position, and in the first plate appearance with a legitimate scoring threat to work with, Lee cashed them in.

Another 2-strike count, another breaking ball, and another souvenir for the fans. Rodón chose to go with the slower curve. An interesting choice given how he had only thrown seven of them in the game up until that point. The slider was clearly off the table given what had happened in the previous AB, so perhaps he thought he could catch Lee jumping ahead with something off pace. Still, with count leverage, if the pitch wasn’t a mistake, the location was.

Jung Hoo Lee went deep again, crushing a three-run shot off Carlos Rodón to put the Giants ahead, 4-3, in the top of the sixth. It's his first career multi-homer game.

— Maria I. Guardado (@miguardado.bsky.social) 2025-04-13T19:08:18.939Z

Three games that began in a downpour of gray, frigid rain and ended in sunshine. This weekend ran the gamut in terms of spring weather, and Jung Hoo Lee could not care less. Like the USPS, no matter the weather, he’ll deliver. First time playing in one of the most hallowed grounds in baseball, he reached base in 8 of 13 plate appearances with 4 walks, 4 extra-base hits, 5 runs and 7 RBIs. Asked by Sergio Romo if apples were his favorite fruit considering the bite he just took out of the Big Apple, Lee responded that he preferred peaches.

On the hill for the Giants was Logan Webb, making his fourth start of the year.

From the get-go, it was clear Webb was not going to follow up his dominant outing against Cincinnati with another gem. The Yankees plated three runs in the first two innings on five hits. Aaron Judge’s 1st inning double registered as the hardest hit ball of the year with an exit velocity of 117 MPH. He scored on basically the opposite kind of contact off the bat of Paul Goldschmidt — one of the three ghosts of NL West Past now in pinstripes — who shoveled a change-up into right that doinked off the end of his bat at 73 MPH. More doubles from the bottom of the line-up set up a two run 2nd.

Goldschmidt nearly struck again in the 3rd if it wasn’t for an incredible leaping grab in the right field corner by Luis Matos. That inning was Webb’s quickest and cleanest, but it didn’t save him from an early exit. Lead-off walks in the 4th set-up a stressful inning that cost Webb 20-plus pitches, though he got out unscathed. Similarly in the 5th, walks to both Judge and Goldschmidt meant Webb needed to throw through traffic and stress — something he ultimately pulled off when he got Anthony Volpe to chase an off-the-plate sweeper for the third out in the 5th. His fifth K of the day, and also his 97th pitch.

MATOS ROBBERY

— Giants on NBC Sports Bay Area (@nbcsgiants.bsky.social) 2025-04-13T18:23:13.840Z

An unusual day for Webb in terms of results, but far from unusual in terms of grit. Despite getting knocked around a bit early, he didn’t surrender another hit after the 2nd. The four free bags he handed out was another rare occurrence — it was just the third time he had walked as many in a game since 2021. Though the walks torched his pitch count, none of those baserunners scored.

Webb’s outing was just so-so, but the bullpen’s was excellent. With a newly minted lead to protect, Hayden Birdsong dominated in his two innings of relief. He breezed through the first two batters he faced — six pitches and six strikes. While Lee’s homer opened the heavens, Birdsong’s curveball to J.C. Escarra revealed the face of god. Leaving the box, he appeared dazed, blinded — even through his Pit Vipers — by the light of that breaking ball.

With another run to play with thanks to a double by Casey Schmitt and another feisty at-bat from Koss, Birdsong cruised through the top of the Yankee line-up in the 7th. His only blemish: a whoopsie curveball that slipped out of his hand hitting Judge in the shoulder.

Tyler Rogers got burned with his first run allowed of the season when Jazz Chisholm Jr. cashed in on a Yankee Stadium Special. His solo shot would’ve been out in just five other parks. The lead cut back down to one, Rogers induced three straight ground outs before Ryan Walker closed the door — his fourth save in four opportunities — with a picture-perfect sinker to ring-up Judge.

The 5-4 win sealed the San Francisco Giants first series victory in the Bronx in franchise history.

On to Philadelphia tomorrow.

Source: https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2...es-recap-jung-hoo-lee-carlos-rodon-mlb-scores