San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Giants Rookie Got Back on Track Against Milwaukee Brewers
On the cusp of being officially eliminated from the 2024 MLB postseason race, the San Francisco Giants are going to just be playing out this final stretch in what has been a very disappointing campaign.
The most important thing for the team over the final few weeks of the year will be getting their young guys as much experience as possible at the Major League level.
That will improve the team’s overall outlook heading into 2025, and potentially fill some holes that may need to be addressed.
One of the players who will be looking to finish the season strong is pitcher Hayden Birdsong.
The starting pitcher had a great start to his Major League career, recording a 2.97 ERA over six appearances. Unfortunately, he has spent the majority of the second half trying to find his way again.
In six conseucitve starts beginning on July 27, he failed to complete five innings. His ERA was a ghastly 8.31 and he went 0-5.
Lack of command with his fastball was dooming him. Self-inflicted damage was piling up as he walked 20 batters over 21.2 innings. Giving the opponents scoring opportunities and rapidly building up his pitch count led to an inability to work deep into games.
That was something he wanted to change, and quickly.
Ahead of his start on Thursday against the Milwaukee Brewers, Birdsong revealed the goal he had for the rest of the 2024 season.
“I just want to eat innings and stop killing the bullpen,” he said last week per MLB.com.
Not many people were expecting that to happen against the Brewers, who are running away with the National League Central and are closing in on clinching a playoff berth.
But, that is exactly what happened.
Against the strong opponent, Birdsong had the best start of his career. He was able to find a rhythm, tossing five shutout innings and needing only 68 pitches to do it.
Five shutout innings from Hayden 🤝 pic.twitter.com/aIBp94CXcg
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) September 13, 2024
Four strikeouts were recorded as he scattered two hits and one walk. Getting ahead of batters was key to his success.
He threw a first-pitch strike to 11 out of 17 batters. That 65% clip was a major improvement from the 46.7% he had over his last six outings.
A first-pitch strike is essentially what determines the at-bat for Birdsong.
As shared by Maria Guardado of MLB.com, “… opposing batters entered Thursday with a .642 OPS when they’ve fallen behind 0-1 against him, compared to a .910 OPS when they’ve gotten ahead 1-0.”
If the young righty can get ahead in the count, he is putting opponents at a distinct disadvantage.
“It was nice to actually just be in the zone from first pitch to last pitch,” Birdsong said. “Obviously, I had a walk, but it didn’t bother me at that point because I was in the zone for the whole game. That’s all I really wanted to do. I want to keep doing that and keep showing that I can pitch through five and beyond. Today, I was really happy with what I did. Hopefully, we keep that going.”
The Giants were unable to take advantage of the strong start, as they lost the game 3-0, but the most important takeaway was that Birdsong showcased his immense talent against a very good opponent and could have built his confidence going forward after a rough stretch.
San Francisco, CA
Sea lion pup found in San Francisco’s Outer Sunset malnourished but ‘feisty’
A California sea lion pup found last week on a San Francisco street corner is malnourished but “active and quite feisty,” The Marine Mammal Center said Monday.
The sea lion, believed to be about 10 months old, had apparently wandered into city’s Outer Sunset neighborhood and was discovered early Thursday morning, authorities said.
The pup was spotted near 48th and Irving Streets, one block from Ocean Beach and Sunset Dunes park. A trained responder from the Marine Mammal Center was joined by San Francisco park rangers and police officers to safely corral the pup, now named ‘Irving’, into a carrier crate.
Dubbed ‘Irving’ by his rescuers, Irving weighed in at 40 pounds and is considered malnourished, the Marine Mammal Center said.
“The sea lion is active and quite feisty which is a positive initial sign in terms of general behavior,” the center said in a news release on Monday.
During an exam by veterinarians, a series of blood samples were also taken to determine whether there’s any underlying ailment.
Irving is being tube fed a fish smoothie blend two times per day to boost hydration and weight; offers of whole herring will also begin shortly.
The quick actions by police, recreation and parks staff and Ocean Avenue Animal Hospital gave the young sea lion a second chance at life, said Lauren Campbell, animal husbandry manager at The Marine Mammal Center.
“As a roughly 10-month-old pup in his first year of learning how to forage on his own, this animal has a long road to recovery due to his severe malnutrition,” Campbell said. “We are hopeful that in the coming weeks with continued specialized care that this pup starts to make positive strides toward recovery and release.”
Irving will be held in the Center’s Intensive Quarantine Unit until clearing medical protocols, before likely being transferred this week to a traditional rehabilitation pool pen. A long-term prognosis and potential release timeline are not currently known.
San Francisco, CA
Giants Head Home to San Francisco After Shutout Loss
After Sunday’s 3-0 loss to the Washington Nationals, the San Francisco Giants headed back to the West Coast. They’re going back to the Bay Area, too.
The Giants have a date with the Los Angeles Dodgers for a three-game series at Oracle Park starting Tuesday night.
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So, San Francisco probably wanted to get out of Washington, D.C., with a win. That didn’t happen at Nationals Park on Sunday afternoon.
Nationals reliever Andrew Alvarez, the third pitcher used by the team on Sunday, picked up the victory with 4 1/3 innings of work. Giants starter Robbie Ray absorbed the loss, falling to 2-3 this season.
Ray worked six innings, giving up seven hits, three runs (all earned), walking one, and striking out seven Nationals. If the Giants’ offense had found a way to tack on some runs, then Ray’s outing wouldn’t have looked so bad.
The Giants’ bats, though, had eight hits. The big number for Giants manager Tony Vitello to look at in the box score after this one was, well, pretty big. San Francisco left 10 runners on base on Sunday, going 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position. This indicates that San Francisco had plenty of opportunities to score some runs.
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They just didn’t get the job done.
Let’s go to the bottom of the fifth with the Giants and Nationals in a scoreless tie. With nobody out, the Nationals’ Keibert Ruiz connected for his third double this season. Nasim Nuñez scored to put Washington up 1-0.
With one out, Curtis Mead sent a Ray pitch over the left-field wall, a two-run blast that gave the Nationals a 3-0 lead.
San Francisco had a scoring threat in the top of the eighth inning. With runners at first and second base and nobody out, Casey Schmitt grounded into a double play. Matt Chapman, who was on second base, went to third. But the Giants were unable to bring him home.
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Rafael Devers and Drew Gilbert went 2-for-4 at the plate for the Giants, producing half of the Giants’ hits.
The Giants fall to 9-13 this season, sitting in fourth place in the National League West Division. The Nationals’ record goes to 10-12, good enough for third place in the National League East Division.
All eyes now turn toward Oracle on Tuesday night. It’ll be a chance for two longtime rivals to renew their rivalry.
Baseball fans know that the Giants-Dodgers matchups usually are must-see TV.
That’s probably going to be the case once again as Giants fans watch their team battle the Dodgers. Those lucky to have tickets to the three-game series at Oracle Park will show up in Giants colors, hoping to see Los Angeles head back to Southern California with either a series loss or a Giants’ sweep.
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Buckle up, Giants fans. It’s about to get rowdy at Oracle Park.
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San Francisco, CA
Why do gray whales keep dying in San Francisco’s waters?
The 4,140-sq-km bay is the largest estuary on the west coast of the US. Before 2018, this species of whales wasn’t known to stop seasonally or consistently in the bay, bypassing it on their migration route down to Baja California and back up the Arctic, said Josephine Slaathaug, who led a recent study on gray whale mortality in the bay.
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