Rule 7.09 (h) on full display

http://m.mlb.com/video/?content_id=85380883&topic_id=6479266

Anytime you can walk-off win against the Dodgers is a god win. I agree with Don Mattingly though, my first impression was "Dang, Roberto Kelly just cost us an out, big-time", but he got away with one. The umpires should know he's new and just learning the ropes on the 3B coaching side. The 3B umpire had his head on a swivel looking into LF (Why, IDK).


from ESPN:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=350422126

 7.09 (h): It is interference by a batter or a runner when: (h) In the judgment of the umpire, the base coach at third base, or first base, by touching or holding the runner, physically assists him in returning to or leaving third base or first base. (i) With a runner on third base, the base coach leaves his box and acts in any manner to draw a throw by a fielder.

Mattingly on umpires' explanation: "He didn't see it. He was watching the play. I don't know why the third-base ump is watching the play. There's nothing for him to watch. It's a ground ball to left. I don't know who's watching to see if he touched the base. I really don't know what the umpires' responsibilities are there. But I do know there's no way in baseball they allow the third-base coach to come up and basically block the runner from going forward, and that's what happened tonight. That's obviously a missed call. It's not reviewable from their explanation."

Third-base umpire Fieldin Culbreth: "Don came out and asked me did I see him grab him. I told him no, I did not see him grab him. . . . The rule is pretty specific in the fact that he had to touch and physically grab him and assist him in returning to the base. That did not happen. If he doesn't physically assist him in returning to the base then there's no interference."

It is a win against the Dodgers and I am not sorry to say I don't much care how it was acquired. I do look the new-look Yasiel Puig, who seems to finally "get" how the game is supposed to be played and is taking the Dodger veterans advice about behavior modification to heart. He is going to be a flat out beast.

Oh, and F-you Chris Rock. It seems as if the lines of baseballs ascent and the descent of AA-participation, sad though it may be, have been running in a pretty neat little correlation. Kind of throws your little monologue, cute though it may be, right into the dumpster where it belongs. 

from FoxSports.com

http://www.foxsports.com/buzzer/story/chris-rock-major-league-baseball-diversity-042215

I'll take the culture of baseball and hockey over that of the NBA and the NFL any day. Let's just compare police blotters. Another day, another  ex-NFL star convicted of murder. Ho-hum. When exactly was the last murder attributed to an MLB or NHL player?  

Maybe the community should bend to the mores of baseball and hockey instead of the other way around. We'd all be better off. 

Bumgarner tries to beat Dodgers by himself and fails

Sometimes Bumgarner seems like the only Giants (except maybe Peavy) who gives a RFA about the way things are going in Gigante-land. You see even in this clip he stands alone for a pretty good length of time. 

It would be nice to see a few more Giants man up. Maybe they need a Marine recruiting poster in the locker room or the clubhouse guy putting some big-boy pants on each of the Desaparecidos locker. 

Bochy states the obviously dire situation facing the Giants rolling into the playoffs.

• Two OF's ailing (Morse & Pagan)
• Two starting pitchers scuffling (Hudson & Lincecum)
• Two hackers flailing (Pence & Sandoval) 
• Five golden rings......

from mercurynews.com

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/giants/2014/09/24/postgame-notes-bumgarner-keeps-slugging-gets-help-heart-order-pagan-scutaro-yes-scutaro-updates/#more-18467

The magic number is one for the Dodgers, and all of a sudden, the Giants need to make up two games on the Pirates just to make sure they don’t have to go to Pittsburgh next week. That’s a tough road — one-game playoff, Nationals, Cardinals-Dodgers winner, with all series being played primarily on the road — if that’s the way this ends up. Especially with Angel Pagan done for the year and Michael Morse possibly soon joining him on the ineligible list. And with Buster Posey, Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval all slumping at the same time.

 Posey had two hits tonight, but it’s still been a quiet road trip for him: 9 for 31 with only one extra-base hit, one run and two RBIs. Sandoval has 12 hits in 63 at-bats over the last 17 games. Pence is 7 for 55 over his last 15 appearances.

“It’s hard to score runs when the heart of your order is having a hard time,” Bochy said. “It’d be nice to get them going the last five games and take some pressure off the pitchers.”

Even Posey looks like he's in the dumpster lately, hitting seemingly everything straight up into the air. Who's hitting? Blanco and Crawford maybe? That's not going to do it. 

Oops, shows you what I know, expectations vs. reality: (HR's last month Posey 6, Blanco 4, Pence 3, Sandoval ??)

The pitching has to get help or it's going to be one and done. Looks like we'll be heading to Pittsburgh, like I expected a couple of weeks back, and perhaps a Liriano - Bumgarner match-up. 

from MLBFarm.com

http://mlbfarm.com/index.php?team=SF

Last Month:

Hits

Buster Posey [SF]

44 for 111

Joe Panik [SF]

34 for 117

Gregor Blanco [SF]

31 for 101

Hunter Pence [SF]

30 for 109

Brandon Crawford [SF]

30 for 87

Last 10 days:

Hits

Brandon Crawford [SF]

14 for 34

Buster Posey [SF]

13 for 40

Joe Panik [SF]

11 for 45

Gregor Blanco [SF]

9 for 41

Pablo Sandoval [SF]

7 for 42

Uggla ugly for Peavy, Giants MASH'ed by Dodgers

Right now, this is not a good team. Mainly due to the walking wounded who simply cannot get back in the lineup fast enough.

from ESPN:
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Francisco Giants - Recap - July 27, 2014 - ESPN:

Second baseman Dan Uggla committed two errors, including one that helped tie it early after he scored the game's first run in the bottom of the third. Uggla's fielding error leading off the top of the fourth allowed Ramirez to reach and Uribe later singled in the tying run. The Giants lost for the 19th time in their past 25 home games. 

"It's going to be important to put it behind us," Bochy said. "We have to regroup."

'via Blog this'

• Pagan is sorely missed at the top of the lineup even with Blanco finally starting to hit. 
• Uggla is a sieve at 2B right now, so Scutaro and/or Panik have to grab this thing by the throat or you trade two/three more prospects to chase Zobrist/Utley/Rollins and maybe Ben Revere for top of the lineup spark pending Pagan's return. We knew Uggla forgot to hit, that's why the Braves released him, we didn't know he forgot to field. Bochy can give him the "we rushed him up" defense all he wants, but he pulled the gate up on a routine grounder. The Braves don't give up on guys with production left in the tank. I think that will be confirmed with Uggla. 
• Belt has to come back quickly..

I have no problem with the trade for Peavy. Hembree may still be future closer type material, but he slipped a bit this year in velocity and if you're going to be a one-pitch closer, that one pitch better be HOT and Hembree's fastball  is more NOT right now.  Escobar IMO slipped a lot. From a shade below Crick at the top of the list to production more like DePaula who was recently DFA'd (dismissed). So yes we traded two prospects who have scattered support across Giants nation but from recent performance perhaps only one of the two will pan out in a meaningful way and perhaps neither will. Sabean is gambling here that the success rate falls closer to NEITHER than BOTH.  Right now, I'd say that is a safe bet but of course I reserve the right as a fan and blogger to employ the benefits of hindsight to second guess the decision in the future while limiting Sabean and the organization to make decisions with foresight. Fair enough?? OK.

Let's be fair and not set up unrealistic expectations here. Peavy is a band-aid replacing a disappointing Cain. And perhaps now we know the reason why the arm-slot was dropping, the sliders were hanging and the fly-balls were flying farther versus Cain the last year or so. He may need a 100,000 mile (slider?) tune-up on that elbow. If we see him back to form next year I would be happy. I am afraid this story line is leading up to a 2015 shutdown/clean up of the elbow and a 2016 return to form for Cainer.

So for two prospects we stabilized the staff. But at best we currently have only three reliable starters working in Bummer, Hudson and Timmy. Peavy and Vogie are the same guy, a 5th starter type who will grind out starts and eat up innings, but you better score runs for them to win. And the Giants don't score runs very well recently with a third of the starting lineup in the MASH unit.

It was interesting to watch Puig work Timmy in this series. It's hard to say for certain without putting myself in Puig's head (and who wants to do that?) but it seems like he played a little possum with Timmy during those AB's. He looked like he was "hitting backwards" in the same sense that you hear of pitchers "pitching backwards" ie: using the curveball to set up the fastball rather than vice versa.

Puig appeared to be spitting on (taking) FB's instead of jumping on them like a junkyard dog jumps a steak sandwich. He was signalling that he was laying on the CB. The bench or Posey should have recognized and made the adjustment. If he was employing this as his hitting approach, it worked like a charm with a 4-5 night and three triples. He may have felt like Timmy wasn't going to give him a FB in a spot he liked, so why not wait on the breaking ball, harder to spot, and just drill it wherever he puts it in the strike zone.

This approach roughly rhymes with the old saw that pops up when a catcher sets up in a certain spot (generally outside corner) and the pitcher delivers the pitch right to that spot, the umpire strikes it (even if it's a little off the plate) with "He sits there, he gets there". Don't laugh, Greg Maddux is in the Hall of Fame with a similar approach. Well, Puig might just be advancing to superstar status with a hitting philosophy of "He sits on it, he gits on it". At least he seemed to execute it versus Timmy and the Giants.

It was awesome to see except for the whole evil Dodger bludgeoning our poor little Timmy thing. The Giants may need to scout opponents better or make better on field adjustments if we're going to seriously get back in this thing. Or maybe all the injuries have slowed down the team's mental faculties as well.

Puig once again the clown

Maybe Mattingly ought to look at the tape of Brandon Crawford's HR. No bat flip and I'll bet it took Puig (which must be Cuban for Pig) twice as long to trot his fat ass around the bases. That's what the issue was. Maholm is right, this idiot flips the bat on outs. What he fails to account for is the time around the bases.

from Giants Extra:
POSTGAME NOTES: “I was just congratulating him. It was a really good hit.” – Giants Extra:

“I was just congratulating him,” he said with a straight face. “That was a really good swing. I don’t know why everybody got so mad. That was pretty impressive. I don’t know what happened.” There was a hint of a smile, but Bumgarner held back. 

A couple hundred yards away, the Dodgers, on the losing end of a close game for the second straight night, seemed not to be in a joking mood. Don Mattingly said he thought home plate umpire Will Little should have done something. 

 “It always surprises me when guys react to things when their team does the same type of stuff,” Mattingly told local reporters. “It’s always amazing to me.” Paul Maholm, tonight’s other starter, seemed to shrug it all off. “He bat flips when he gets out,” Maholm said of Puig. “I don’t think he was technically pimping it.”

'via Blog this'

Mattingly and some of the Dodger veterans tried to get this ass-wipe to play the game right, now they've clearly given up the fight and joined the chorus of "Oh, what's the harm? He's just having fun playing a kids game" meme.  See the NBA and the NFL -- both inherently kids games, also played by men -- where any measure of sportsmanship or respect for your opponent is a horse that long since left the barn.

Fortunately, MLB and the NFL remain self-policing and Mattingly knows this. So when his guys starts wearing fastballs, he can start blaming the umpires, as he is now shamelessly beginning to do, to step in and clean up the mess of his own failure to police his own ballplayer.

Beltran was right, and now Bumgarner is right. What is that these guys know, that Mattingly can't admit, cause he chooses to take the cowards way out in dealing with his player? It's a growing list of players and organizations that don't seem to understand poor little Miss Puig?

You're own guy doesn't respect you Donnie Baseball. WEAR THAT!!! And this is coming from someone who USED to respect you and what you stood for -- you USED to BE somebody who played the game right. Now, because you have one guy who can't fit in -- but maybe can win a game or two for you -- your values as a player are flushed down the toilet? Talk about being a pimp? Oh no, wait a minute, that's the definition of being a whore. My bad.

What happened to the example these guys are setting for the kids? Is it now OK for kids to disrespect and show up an opponent willy-nilly? I guess the ultimate PED argument goes down the toilet as well for these panty-waists in the media who never played the game.  Let the kids learn it's OK to be a clown-ass as a teammate, disrespect your opponents, as long as your having fun and making people laugh. Like a clown would. A hundred years of playing the game right flushed down the drain because one guy, who barley speaks the language, never mind understand the culture can't / or won't get acclimated. Yeah, where do I sign up for that logic?