Kuzul

In the top of the sixth inning Monday night, the Colorado Rockies knocked out San Francisco Giants' starter Madison Bumgarner. They coaxed five walks out of him on the night and cut the Giants' 3-0 lead to 3-2 against him.The Giants bullpen would let the Rockies get no further. Santiago Casilla stranded the tying run at second base with a strikeout of Yorvit Torrealba to end the sixth before throwing a perfect seventh.Jeremy Affeldt followed with a scoreless eighth inning. Sergio Romo allowed a leadoff double in the ninth, but then struck out the next three hitters to end the game for his fourth save of the season.The Giants bullpen combined to throw 3.1 innings of scoreless baseball Monday night. They struck out six of the 11 hitters they faced while only allowing one baserunner. It was a dominant performance that helped vindicate general manger Brian Sabean's decision to invest ...

When Brian Wilson went down in the first week of the 2012 season, many Giants fans panicked. Some lost hope for the whole year. After all, the Giants didn't have any proven ninth inning options, and the last several World Series champions, including the 2010 Giants, had proven closers. Bruce Bochy didn't make many fans feel better when installing Santiago Casilla as the closer, and after a very good start as closer, Casilla folded and cost the Giants some games. So then, the Giants went to a closer-by-committee format. Why? Because they didn't fully trust Sergio Romo's durability at closer.Eventually, Bochy started giving most of the opportunities for saves to Romo, and he made Bochy's trust pay off in the regular season and in the playoffs. Romo went 1-0 with an 0.84 ERA and four saves with nine games finished in the playoffs, closing out the World Series with three perfect innings (total) ...

After keeping the core of their championship team together by re-signing free agents Jeremy Affeldt, Angel Pagan and Marco Scutaro, the latest rumors pertaining to the San Francisco Giants mostly surround the periphery of the roster.For example, the Giants were rumored to be interested in backup outfielder Endy Chavez before he agreed to a minor league deal elsewhere on Monday.Before missing out on Chavez, the Giants were busy building the depth of their roster by signing free agent outfielder Andres Torres to a major league deal, claiming reliever Sandy Rosario off of waivers and agreeing to minor league contracts with catcher Guillermo Quiroz, infielder Wilson Valdez and reliever Chad Gaudin.With the big transactions of the winter already taken care of, the Giants will spend the rest of the offseason continuing to build up the bench and bullpen.The biggest questions that remain are whether the club will re-sign Brian Wilson, trade ...

When Brian Wilson got hurt in April, Bruce Bochy had a big decision to make.Would he choose Sergio Romo, the star reliever whom righties can't hit? Would he choose Javier Lopez, the left-handed submariner whom lefties can't hit? Or would he choose Santiago Casilla, the hard-throwing righty who can be very erratic.Surprisingly, Bochy chose Casilla. It seemed to be the right move, as Casilla converted 20 of his first 21 save opportunities.Then, the wheels came off.In just eight short appearances, Casilla blew five saves, as his ERA went from 1.32 to 3.34. In four of those eight outings, Casilla allowed two or more runs, and he cost the Giants a win in two of those games. Bochy even said recently that the Giants will rethink the closer situation (h/t Will Brinson of NBCBayArea.com).However, San Francisco doesn't have that many other options. Romo has balky knees and elbow problems, and he ...

Ah, midsummer. All-Star season is officially in full bloom, and with rosters having been announced, and new substitutions seemingly every day, a baseball fan can scarcely avoid the ubiquitous discussions of which players are deserving and which ones have no business being anywhere near Kansas City next week. Especially since this time, it counts. In 2003, in order to the provide additional incentive for victory, it was agreed that the winner of the All-Star Game would be awarded home-field advantage in the subsequent World Series. The idea was that this would stop managers from simply parading players out on the field; with nothing on the line, the only duty of a manager was to ensure that fans from every city would get to see their representative get some playing time. Since then, managers have been making a more concerted effort to bring the title home for their respective league. Or ...

Look at what fantasy baseball has done to us.  We pore over pre-season rankings, stalk the Internet for live game box scores, pray for injuries just major enough to open up opportunities for sleepers.  All in the hope of compiling enough saves to win the category.Of course, roto leagues aren't the only reason for the baseball-loving public's collective love affair with closers, but they sure do bring out the fanatic in all of us.Prior to 1969, saves weren't even and official statistic.  Prior to 1960, they didn't exist at all.  For roughly 70 years, the sport got along just fine without having a specific way of quantifying close-game, ninth-inning success, but in the decades since its inception, the save has come to dominate the way managers deploy pitching staffs.As relievers became more popular in the latter half of the last century, the best arms were used more and more in ...

The Giants have been torturing the San Francisco faithful all year and this game was no different. This game had two blown saves, two lead changes, and a crucial error all within one inning.Bottom line is, they won 3-2 and have a 2-1 series lead going into Monday's Game 4.Pablo didn't play. Jonathan Sanchez's stellar performance. How does Brooks Conrad fit in?Starting pitching, bullpen, offense, and managerial decisions. All to be analyzed.Let's see how the Giants fared after Game 3 of their series with the Atlanta Braves.Begin Slideshow

It seemed all but over. The Giants were leading 4-1 with two innings to go.San Francisco has one of the best bullpens in baseball, but there came the Atlanta Braves, and in the blink of an eye, the game was tied.It marked the second time that night a team came back from a 4-0 deficit to win the game, as the Braves eventually won 5-4 in 11 innings thanks to a home run by Rick Ankiel.Now the series moves back to Georgia tied at one.The Braves are one of the best teams at home in baseball, and the Giants will need at least one win there in order to bring the DivisionSseries right back to San Fran for a Game 5 showdown.Here are the grades for the San Francisco Giants. Begin Slideshow

The San Francisco Giants sure aren't making it easy on a guy thus far in 2010. With Ultimate Fighting Championship 113 erupting this weekend in Montreal, I've been meaning to take a look at what is sure to be an epic rematch between Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua for the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship. In addition, there's a crackerjack bout between Paul "Semtex" Daley and Josh "Kos" Koscheck with the winner rumored to get a shot at UFC Welterweight Champion Georges "Rush" St. Pierre. GSP is arguably the best pound-for-pound mixed martial artist in the world. Suffice it to say there's sure to be quite a bit of seismic MMA coming out of the Bell Centre. That means there's a ton to discuss and I really want to oblige. The problem is that my beloved Giants keep winning. Not only that, they keep doing so in impressive fashion that demands comment. We ...