Red-white-and-blue bunting hung over the railings Tuesday night, but there were few other indications at Oracle Park it was the Giants’ home opener.
No fans packed the stands. The ceremonial first pitch was prerecorded. It was a night game, of all things.
Indeed, the energy wasn’t at all like it was the first 20 home openers in China Basin, all of which were played during the day.
The Giants, because this is pandemic baseball, tried to create their own energy in this made-for-TV event, but a couple of home runs served up by Jeff Samardzija were enough for the Padres to spoil the evening for San Francisco, which lost 5-3 before a cutout crowd of 5,000.
“It’s definitely different,” shortstop Brandon Crawford said. “It’s a lot more like the practice games and exhibition games than a typical regular-season game. I know we’re trying our best with the cardboard cutouts and fan noise on the speakers and stuff like that, but it’s not even close to the same.
“We’re all playing through the same stuff, so we definitely can’t blame anything on that.”
It didn’t help the vibe that the scoreboard was broken. It worked throughout Spring Training 2.0 for the intrasquad games and exhibition against the A’s, but it went dark Tuesday because, well, it’s 2020.
So a powerful pregame ceremony that was prerecorded was seen on TV but not at the ballpark. Players lined up on the foul lines anyway and could only hear the ceremony led by public-address announcer Renel Brooks-Moon.
Brooks-Moon asked for moments of silence for civil rights leaders C.T. Vivian and John Lewis, who recently died, and introduced the a cappella Stanford Talisman to perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (the Black national anthem).
Brooks-Moon appeared on a video with Gabe Kapler, Farhan Zaidi, Jaylin Davis and Mike Yastrzemski to express support for the Black Lives Matter movement and opposition to racism with this resounding message: “Join us.”
During “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Kapler, Davis, Yastrzemski and several other Giants took a knee, as has been their ritual to peacefully protest racial inequality and police brutality.
The first pitch, by Mayor London Breed, was thrown at Oracle Park but recorded at an earlier time. As with everything else in the ceremony, it was seen only on TV because the scoreboard wasn’t operating.
“I thought the pregame ceremonies were really good,” Kapler said. “They were touching. It was nice to hear Renel’s voice. Obviously, we only had the audio, but we thought it came out really well. The ballpark looked great. It was well set up.”
Kapler said players from Hunter Pence to Mauricio Dubon helped energize the group, and another solid outing by the bullpen acted as a motivating force, too — “In general, the atmosphere had the intensity we needed,” Kapler said.
With the scoreboard out, no details of the game, including replays, were available to players or coaches. When the Padres challenged a third-inning play, nobody could turn his attention to the scoreboard to check the replay.
But it wasn’t necessary. It was clear it was the wrong call. Wil Myers’ soft liner wasn’t caught by Davis in right, it was short-hopped.
Myers got a single. Francisco Mejia worked a seven-pitch walk. And two batters later, Fernando Tatis Jr. hit an alarming home run over the right-field brick wall, a mighty poke for a right-handed hitter.
The ball flew out of the park, which it often did during the Giants’ training camp. It might be because the ball is juiced or the archways are boarded up or simply certain guys happened to barrel up in monstrous fashion.
“He’s heck of a player,” said Samardzija, who threw Tatis a 3-1 slider. “You fall behind in the count like that ... it’s the story of night. Instead of putting away guys early in the count, we were in a lot of three-ball counts. When you’ve got to throw him a strike and hopefully a good pitch at the same time, you’re asking for it.”
Samardizja cruised through two innings, requiring just 24 pitches. But he labored the next two innings. Tatis’ homer put the Padres ahead 3-1, and Myers’ two-run homer in the fourth made it 5-1, a shot into the Giants’ new bullpen beyond the center-field wall.
In recent days, the Giants raised their center-field wall to 10 feet. As part of the new layout, it initially was going to be 7 feet high, but the higher wall serves as a better backdrop for hitters.
Myers’ homer was an estimated 422 feet, so it would have been a homer with last year’s deeper dimensions. Then again, it’s Wil Myers. He homers in the Giants’ presence in any surrounding — it was his 18th against the Giants, his 10th at Oracle.
“I think Wil’s was gone in a hurricane,” Samardzija said. “Let’s give him credit. He crushed that ball.”
The Giants, who stayed in the game thanks to Conner Menez’s three perfect innings, rebounded with a two-run rally in the sixth, initiated with bloop doubles by Mauricio Dubon and Yastzremski, Zach Davies’ final two batters.
The first run scored on Wilmer Flores’ fielder’s choice, the second on Tyler Heineman’s single.
The Giants took a 1-0 lead in the opening inning when Yastrzemski singled and scored on left fielder Tommy Pham’s error.
Yastrzemski reached base three times including on a walk to open the eighth, but he was doubled off by Flores. The Giants went silently in the ninth, thanks ex-Giants lefty Drew Pomeranz.
John Shea covers the Giants for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: jshea@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JohnSheaHey
"lose" - Google News
July 29, 2020 at 11:45AM
https://ift.tt/2X3IsqY
Giants lose to Padres 5-3 in home opener that wasn’t seen in person by fans - San Francisco Chronicle
"lose" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3fa3ADu https://ift.tt/2VWImBB
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Giants lose to Padres 5-3 in home opener that wasn’t seen in person by fans - San Francisco Chronicle"
Post a Comment