SF Giants Press Clips Sunday, April 9, 2017
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SF Giants Press Clips Sunday, April 9, 2017 San Francisco Chronicle Giants fall to 1-5 despite Bumgarner complete game Henry Schulman SAN DIEGO - The Padres, who were supposed to lose something like 159 games this year, started a Rule 5 shortstop Saturday night who had not played one game above rookie ball before Opening Day. As Allen Cordoba and the rest of the Padres have shown the past two games, if nine players are wearing major-league uniforms, they can beat you, especially if you play subpar baseball. Heaven knows Giants have not been able to dust the word "subpar" off their uniforms, which hardly got dirty in a 2-1 loss that secured a series loss to a team widely being mocked and criticized for tanking the season. For the first time since 2008, the last of four straight losing seasons, the Giants have started with five losses in six games. They conclude a terrible opening week Sunday. How terrible could be settled by Johnny Cueto, who pitched and ran the Giants to their only win Tuesday. Madison Bumgarner took his first loss Saturday despite overcoming a rough first two innings and holding San Diego to two runs over eight innings in a complete games. 1 With one out in the eighth and nobody on, manager Bruce Bochy let him hit for himself. Bumgarner could have used the two solo homers he hit on Opening Day, but neither he nor his eight mates could solve Jhoulys Chacin, who shut them out on three hits over 6 2/3 innings after the Dodgers torched him for nine runs in 3 1/3 in his first start. The Giants could count all of their hard-hit balls against Chacin in one hand. They scored their run with two outs in the ninth against reliever Ryan Butcher on a Buster Posey single, his advance on defensive indifference and a Brandon Crawford single. This was not a makeshift Giants lineup either, but had all the regulars with Span returning from his hip injury. On Opening Day, Bumgarner hit 94 mph on the gun and retired his first 16 hitters before allowing three sixth-inning runs. Saturday's Bumgarner was throwing 91 mph was out of the stretch one batter into the game when Manual Margot doubled. Margot is tormenting Giants pitching in the series. He homered in his first two at-bats against Matt Cain on Friday night and doubled in the first and second innings against Bumgarner, each hit contributing to a run as San Diego took a 2-0 lead. The second rally started with a single by Cordoba, his first big-league hit. Bumgarner was so off that pitching coach Dave Righetti visited the mound, a rare sight anytime but especially in the first inning. Bumgarner retired the two hitters after the visit to leave three Padres on base. Bumgarner was fighting it. Even in a scoreless third he threw 11 pitches to No. 7 hitter Austin Hedges, who walked. The big fella found his stuff by the middle innings and kept his listless team in the game. 2 Jarrett Parker started in left and went 0-for-2 with a strikeout, making him 0-for-12 on the season and the Giants left fielders 0-for-22. For now, Bochy is showing faith in Parker. "All the guys are going to have rough weeks," Bochy said. "This happens to be the first week. A couple of guys haven't gotten a hit, and when it's the first week everyone notices." San Francisco Chronicle Giants to add experience outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. Henry Schulman SAN DIEGO - The Giants knew they were heading into 2017 with an inexperienced outfield beyond Hunter Pence and Denard Span. When Span got hurt after one game, the Giants saw how vulnerable they were in the outfield. They cannot add star power in April, but they can create depth, which is why they signed former Reds and Rockies outfielder Drew Stubbs to a minor-league deal earlier this week and will grab another in Melvin Upton Jr. Upton, who formerly called himself B.J., was released by the Blue Jays at the end of spring training and will get a minor-league deal with the Giants, probably official Tuesday. He is due to earn $16 million as he completes a five-year, $75.25 million deal he signed with the Braves before the 2013 season, but the Giants only would be responsible for the prorated share of the big-league minimum. His former teams will pay the rest. The Giants say Upton is not being promised a major-league job, but after the first week it's hard to imagine that an outfielder who hit 20 home runs between the Padres and Blue Jays last year and still plays above-average defense would be in the minors for long. Manager Bruce Bochy is preaching patience with his current platoon of Jarrett Parker and Chris Marrero. But neither had a hit entering Saturday's game. Including Aaron Hill, Bochy's left 3 fielders were 0-for-20 with 10 strikeouts. Moreover, Gorkys Hernandez, who replaced Span in center for four games, was 2-for-19. So the question on Upton is "why not?" "Anytime you can have depth and experience in your system, that's pretty good inventory," Bochy said, speaking generally because he had not spoken with general manager Bobby Evans about the Upton deal Saturday. The 32-year-old is the older brother of Tigers outfielder Justin Upton and was the Rays' first- round selection in the 2002 draft. He is a career .243 hitter with 164 homers, so at best maybe he can be what the Giants hoped to get from Michael Morse, but with a superior glove. Padres people raved about Upton on Saturday. One team official said Upton was all over their defensive highlight reels. "He was clutch for us last year," outfielder Travis Jankowski said. I don't know how many walkoffs he hit last year. I know the Blue Jays wanted him for a playoff push. I think it's in there. He's just got to get his confidence back. I don't think he'll have a tough time doing that." Upton carries a reputation as a bad teammate, but Jankowski disputed that, calling him "one of the best teammates I've ever had." Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Leading off HR king: Madison Bumgarner entered Saturday’s game with 16 homers, most by any active pitcher and four more than Yovani Gallardo, now with the Mariners. 4 San Jose Mercury News Giants are off to their worst start since 2008 after loss to Padres Andrew Baggarly SAN DIEGO – Madison Bumgarner did not make a statement with his bat Saturday night. He struck out looking at a breaking pitch, grounded out to third base and then he dropped his matte black model in disappointment after hitting a fly out to center field. The Giants don’t require Bumgarner to hit a home run every time he pitches. But they really should beat the San Diego Padres when they have their ace on the mound. And they need their eight paid professional hitters to give them more than meek swings and poor plate discipline. The Giants barely touched right-hander Jhoulys Chacin, mustered nothing against the Padres bullpen and are off to their worst start in nine years after a 2-1 loss at Petco Park. They have not started 1-5 since the 2008 season, when they lost 90 games and finished fourth in the NL West. And they’ll need a little more spark behind Johnny Cueto on Sunday to avoid being swept by a Padres team that makes no pretense that it is playing for 2019. Bumgarner threw 114 pitches in an eight-inning complete game – the sixth time he’s gone the distance and lost. Chacin mesmerized the Giants one start after his stinker on opening day, when the Dodgers ripped him for nine runs in 3 1/3 innings. He came to the Padres as a reclamation project but might have felt a little more confident against the Giants, a team he often fared well against during his time with the Colorado Rockies. Chacin mixed four pitches and didn’t allow a truly hard-hit ball until Eduardo Nuñez doubled off the glove of right fielder Hunter Renfroe in the seventh inning. Bumgarner did not have the searing, 95 mph fastball he displayed in his opening day assignment at Arizona, but he found a way to pitch through early traffic. Manuel Margot continued to be a pain. One day after he collected his first two major league home runs against Matt Cain, the rookie doubled twice against Bumgarner to fuel a pair of scoring rallies. Margot started the game with a double, scored on Renfroe’s double and it took a pair of fly ball outs for Bumgarner to strand the bases loaded in an inning that drove up his pitch count. Allen Cordoba, a Rule 5 draft pick who probably should be in Low-A ball, led off the second inning by collecting a single for his first major league hit. He advanced on a sacrifice and Margot 5 doubled him home. The Giants avoided the shutout when Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford, who starred for Team USA in this ballpark during the World Baseball Classic, collected consecutive hits with two outs in the ninth. Posey doubled and scored on Crawford’s single.