As today is the final day of the homestand, I’d thought I’d finally try sitting at the new outdoor press seating area. The fold-up chairs and tables area is located just in front of the press box; it’s new this year in order to allow media to follow social distancing protocols. Since it’s the first day game at Oracle Park this season (and potentially the last if you’ve following the latest MLB COVID developments), I figured it was worth the try.
It gets freezing cold at night so the day game choice today made perfect sense.
The chairs in the standard press box are much more comfortable, but the view is closer to the field which is nice. It’s also much more likely I could snag a foul ball!
I thought it would be breakfast themed since it is the first day game of the year (press can arrive as early as 9:05 am for the 1:05 pm first pitch), but they opted for the lunch option:
Today’s Press Dining:
Turkey BLT Wrap Fruit Salad Dasani Water Ice Cream Sandwich
*yes i finally decided to splurge with the ice cream sandwich, but between sitting outside for the first time and a sweep coming, i felt it only necessary pic.twitter.com/Tv6ijRvz13
Following today's game, #SFGiants will embark on their longest road trip of the season, a 10-game trek to #Rockies (four games), #Dodgers (three games) and #ForTheH (three games)
Shin-Soo Choo works a full count but strikes out. Andrus pops out. Calhoun lines a hard fly ball to right field but Slater snags it. 1-2-3 inning
SCORE: Rangers 0, Giants 0
Bottom 1st – Kolby Allard pitching
Slater and Flores ground out. Yaz strikes out
Top 2nd
Gallo with a broken-bat single to center field on a ball low and outside (it wasn’t close to a strike). Frazier pops out to Longo. Solak singles. Heineman (Scott, not Tyler) doubles in Gallo and Solak. Kiner-Falefa strikes out, but Mathis rips a single to center which scores Heineman.
SCORE: Rangers 3, Giants 0
Shark is getting hit hard
Bottom 2nd
Hunter Pence leads things off with his first triple of the 2020 season. Longo brings him in with a sac fly. Solano walks to bring up Darin Ruf, who flies out.
An error on Kiner-Faela at third allows Tromp to reach and Solano to third. Crawford strikes out to end the inning.
Andrus flies out on a 3-2 pitch. Calhoun and Gallo ground out.
Bottom 3rd
Slater rips a hard fly ball to center, but it is caught by Heineman and Flores pops out softly.
Top 4th
Frazier weakly pops up. Solak flies out. Heineman also records on out
#TogetherWe hitters have missed on two of 13 swings (15.4%) against Jeff Samardzija's slider so far.
He has averaged 23.4% since the 2018 season
Shark has thrown it 21 times so far (34%) at an average velo of 84.5 mph, which has resulted in an average exit velo fo 86.5 mph pic.twitter.com/0p9Yga2ONh
Pence walks, but is thrown out at 2nd on a fielder’s choice from Longo. Solano stays hot with another base knock. Ruf pops out into an infielder’s fly rule, Longo manages to move to third.
Top 5th – Gibaut pitching
Kiner-Falefa makes up from his error earlier in the game with a single. Mathis records an out but Shin-Soo Choo hits his second homer on the year off Shark. Andrus pops out and Calhoun flies out to Pence to end the inning, but the damage is done.
SCORE: Rangers 5, Giants 1
Shin-Soo Choo with his second homer of the series, this time off Shark#TogetherWe 5#SFGiants 1 Top 5th, 1 Out
Crawford singles and so does Flores! Now the always dangerous Yaz is up at the plate. Yaz grounds out and Pence lines out, one run scores.
SCORE: Rangers 5, Giants 2
Top 6th
Don’t look now but Shark is pitching into the 6th inning!
Gallo walks unceremoniously. The Todd Father flies out. Nick Solak flies out, Pence runs a long way to track it down in foul territory. Shark is pulled in favor of Triggs, who gets Kiner-Falefa to fly out.
In that Nick Solak at-bat, we got the foul ball! It’s surprisingly more dirty and sticky than you would think.
Longoria with a leadoff home run that was absolutely smoked (108.8 mph off the bat exit velo). Solano with another base hit. Panda pinch-hitting, he flies out but the Rangers pull Gibaut for Chavez. Tromp hits his first big league homer! Crawford flies out. Dickerson doubles! Flores flies out to end the inning but the damage is done, it’s a tie game.
SCORE: Rangers 5, Giants 5
LONGORIA JUST WENT DEEP YOU KNEW IT WAS GONE THE SECOND IT LEFT THE BAT IT WAS SMOKED💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣💣#ComeBackCity
TROMP STOMP 2 RUN HOME RUN IS THE FIRST IN HIS CAREER HE JUST TOOK JESSE CHAVEZ DEEP THE GIANTS HAVE TIED THIS GAME 🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘🐘
Jeff Mathis and Choo walk back-to-back. Then Andrus walks and Kapler pulls Triggs, he’s seen enough. Anderson gets Calhoun to fly out to centerfield, but it’s deep enough to score a run.
SCORE: Rangers 6, Giants 5
Gallo goes deep for his third homer of the year.
SCORE: Rangers 9, Giants 5
Solak and Heineman are retired but the damage is done.
Evan Longoria is now 2 home runs away from 300 in his career – do you think he reaches it on this upcoming road trip?
Yaz flies out. Pence strikes out. Longo flies out. Momentum feels a little deflated right now
Top 8th
Kiner-Falefa and Mathis strikeout. Choo grounds into the shift.
Bottom 8th
Solano walks (he’s reached base in every PA he’s had today). Pablo strikes out. Tromp strikes out on three pitches. Crawford strikes out. Momentum now definitely feels deflated.
tbh Donovan Solano needs to stop with this getting on base thing, he's gonna mess around and end up with an MVP
Andrus grounds out 4-3 and Refsnyder comes in to pinch-hit, only to fly out to left field. Joey Gallo doubles – he’s now 3 for 4 on the day. Frazier and Solak walk.
Bottom 9th
Dickerson and Flores both ground out to the shortstop Elvis Andrus. Yaz strikes out to end it.
RECAP: Giants aren't able to secure the sweep, but Pence snags his first base hit of 2020 (a triple!) and Longo & Tromp go deep. Solano of course stays hot (2-2, 2 BB, 1 R), but 'pen lets up 6 BB after SF rallies to tie the game at 5 in the 6th
Sam Pasco Media 