SF Giants: The Colorado Rockies came to town on a seven game win streak, and with rookie starter Mason Black giving up three runs in the 1st inning, it looked like it was going to be eight, but not so fast! The bullpen held up well, and in the 4th inning, 2B Thairo Estrada, after taking a foul ball off his ankle, smacked a three-run home run, to give San Francisco the lead. Rookie center-fielder Luis Matos, who is now the center-fielder designate for the Giants after the season-ending injury to Jung Hoo-Lee, drove in FIVE runs, a career high, as the Giants bats came alive with 14 hits and won, 10-5. Spoiler Alert: Matos wasn't done being an RBI machine. <grin>
Saturday's day game had Kyle Harrison starting on the mound, and got thru five innings and only giving up three runs. The bats continued to stay hot, bashing out 18 hits, nine of those were doubles, tying a club record! Oh, Luis Matos is in a "cant' stop, won't stop" RBI mode, setting a new career high with SIX RBI's, including three-run home run! The Giants scored in almost every inning, and crushed the Rockies, 14-4!
SF Giants RBI machine: Luis Matos. And now NL Player of the Week!
Sunday's getaway game saw Giants starter Jordan Hicks take the mound, and after giving up a solo home run in the first inning, only gave up two other hits, and the bullpen, especially middle relieve Sean Hjelle ( the H is silent, and his walk-out song is Destiny's Child's "Bootylicious"! There is line in there that goes "You cant handle this jelly" <grin>) continued his dominant pitching, as did the rest of the bullpen that gave up zero hits in four innings! The offense got Hicks the win with the smallest of small ball...two dribblers, and a ball that got under the Rockies 3B glove to produce three runs, and then added a Heliot Ramos solo home run later to make the Giants winning score, 4-1. Btw, Luis Matos is human! Didn't drive in a run today! Happy flight to Pittsburgh to play the Pirates on Tuesday! Before the game, it was announced that Luis Matos was named National League Player of the Week after what you just read what he did! Saw the first half of this game against the Pirates in Pittsburgh. Logan Webb started, and pushed thru five innings before he was pulled due to high pitch count, and the Giants were leading, 4-1 at that point when I stopped watching. The score was 6-2 going into the 9th, but Doval and sloppy defensive plays allowed the Pirates to tie the game, and eventually won in the 10th, 7-6. Ouch!
Wednesday's game saw the return of pitcher Blake Snell from the injured reserve list, and he went 3 1/3rd innings, but everything fell apart in the 4th inning, where Snell loaded the bases, and Hjelle gave up a grand slam, and left the game with the Giants trailing, 5-0. San Francisco scratched its way back though, with Matt Chapman hitting another homer (his bat is heating up, finally!), and eventually tied the game in the 9th, when they were just one out away of losing. In the 10th, with some timely hitting, walks, and smart base-running, the Giants scored four runs to take the lead, 9-5 ( "aint no way to make a livin"), Doval shut down the Pirates in the bottom of the 10th, ending with an 87 MPH laser of a throw from 3B Chapman to 1B Lamonte Wade, who btw, was on base all six times he was at the plate. Nice payback game with the 9-5 win.
Thursday's day game features the Pirates, and all of MLB with the phenom pitching rookie, Paul Skenes taking the mound, and lived up to the hype, allowing only one run in six innings. The Giants threw bullpen starter game, and the 2nd guy pitching for the Giants helped give up four runs in the 4th inning. At one point of the game, the Pirates were up 6-2, but once they pulled Skenes out due to high pitch count (93), the Giants pounced on a very tired Pirates bullpen, with Matt Chapman hitting his third homer in three days ( Chappy really likes PNC Park!) , a three-run shot, to pull the Giants to within 6-5. San Francisco than got some timely hitting, with rookie Brett Wisely jumping on an 0-2 pitch, to bring in the lead run, and the Giants won the game, 7-6 for a happy flight to the Big Apple to take on the Mets on this Memorial Day weekend!
I just realized I have not done this- a status of where the Giants are in the standings! Well, after today's win, the SF Giants are now 25-26, one game behind the 2nd place Padres and 7.5 games behind the Dodgers in the National League West. I;ll have to remember to update this as the season goes on!
Random Puppy eye candy pic! (and what is this puppy's breed, folks?) Meet Leo, whose daddy has just recently said that his pup is now more popular than the F1 driver that he is!
PGA Championship: Yea, I throw in the major golf titles, and saw the last two rounds of this major which were tight among several major players. My fave golfer, Colin Morikawa, a UC Berkeley grad, was in the lead or tied for it until Sunday, where he ended up tied for 4th. Xander Schauffle, who opened round one with a record breaking 62, was the other golfer who was leading or tied with Colin, edged out Bryson Dechambeau on the final hole to avoid a playoff and secure his first ever PGA Championship. Very happy for Xander! Oh, there was an "incident" involving current PGA golf leader, Scottie Scheffler getting arrested on Thursday night that made headlines...you can read all about it here: https://apnews.com/article/scottie-scheffler-arrest-f896261b0307731d008fed6b670ac3fa
Horse Racing: In the second race of the Triple Crown, Simply the Grey (9-1 odds), beat Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan (2-1), on a muddy and rainy track in Baltimore to take the Preakness. Last one up is the Belmont in two weeks.
Golden State Warriors: Very happy to report that Golden State Warrior's rookie Brandin Podziemski was named to the first team Rookies of 2024. very deserving of "Podz", and the future can only get brighter for this young man's career. It helps immensely that you have Steph Curry to sponge knowledge of off, which Brandin did! Speaking of Steph Curry...Eye Candy time. On holiday with the fam, we get this nice beach shot!
Shaken, and stirred, Steph!
Locker Room Buzz: Well, it's been a quiet week on the Sports buzz front, and the Kendrick/Drake Feud...Nope, not gonna touch it. We will just continue with the weirdness that I started last week.
With the current Survivor season ending as I write this, for those who don't watch the show, you missed one of television's EPIC meltdowns. After contestant Q won the reward competition, he had the choice of taking three other contestants to the Applebee's reward feast. Liz, who LOVES Applebee's and has a weekly Applebee's date with her daughter, and who hasn't had any real food (she has a host of allergies) in at least two weeks, was NOT chosen to go on this reward, and to say she lost it would be an understatement! The video below is the concrete definition of nuclear HANGRY!
Science! That's my excuse for posting this link about a study that has found micro-plastics in testicles of men and dogs, suggesting why the male sperm count has been decreasing over the last few years. If I were a comic, so many directions I could go here (like Colbert did!), but I'll let y'all cross your legs, and educate yourself via this link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/20/microplastics-human-testicles-study-sperm-counts
We shall close with another shot/portrait of Leo, sleeping in his Daddie's hoodie pocket! Leo's daddy will be revealed in the next Zoom Zoom column, the Monaco GP, which airs on ABC 9am EST/6am PST this Sunday! Yes, there will be a LOT of pics of Daddy and son!
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