The DH was moved from the B-Diamond to the "Homer Dome" Satellite field. Boy, did the Giants ever love that move, except for Tony. The Giants took advantage of the left field fence 4 times in an exciting come-from-behind victory. Joe Burns hit a two run homer in the 4th inning, immediately followed by a solo HR by Jan Friedman. With two outs and two strikes, in the top of the seventh, Carlos Llera hit a game tying two run homer, to push the game to extra frames, and Jan Friedman hit his second homer of the game in the 9th to highlight a 4-run rally. The Golden Marlins pushed two runs across in the bottom of the 9th, and had the tying runs on 2nd and 3rd, but Mike Kane got Jim Ansel to pop out to end the game. The Golden Marlins were able to out hit the Giants 18-17 (led by Tom Maney, Tom Smith, and Mike Girard who had 3 hits each), but Jim Konstantakis and Mike Kane were able to keep the ball in the yard, and that was the difference in this one. With that game starting late, and taking as long as it did, we really should have postponed game 2 (in my humble opinion). But we decided to start it at approximately 6:45 pm. We were able to squeeze 5-1/2 innings in, but the game disintegrated to a 10-2 game in which the Marlins surrendered mainly due to having no pitching left after the 9 inning game 1. The first two games played between the Giants and Marlins were two of the best games I have played in in this division. It was just a little disappointing that we couldn't wait for another time where we could put together another one. Oh well! Congrats Giants! The depth of their pitching, and strength of their batting order, still has them atop my list of teams to beat, come playoff time!
-- Edited by mgirard11 on Tuesday 1st of July 2014 08:54:32 AM
I couldn't agree more Mike....There is absolutely no doubt the quality of play deteriorates in the second games of these double-headers..I know Ernie Banks was famous for his "lets play two" quote, but he wasn't in his fifties when he coined it...
The obvious solution is to make-up games either in the evening during the week, or, my personal favorite, play on a Saturday...I think Bones said Schenectady Babe Ruth is a possibility if Swift Road is unavailable. Perhaps all the Managers agreed to only play on Sunday's this year? It seems like a clear disadvantage for a team especially, to have to play their second game of the day against an opponent who is playing their first game. That will be the case a week from Sunday when the Braves play their second against a fresh Royals team...who in turn play their second against a fresh Yankee team.
Pretty sure I can speak for the Reds and Marlins...we are willing to play Saturdays..anyone else?
I also agree with you guys. We are not youg kids anymore, and lets face it,some teams have very limited resorcses to play two games back to back games.We need to really look at this much closer for next season. Just saying.
I definitely agree that we need to play more games on Saturdays but I also feel we need to expand the 45 division schedule to encompass more games (16 is not enough) and to do that we'll need to play a few games per year during the week. I understand the conflicts with the other divisions and field challenges but I would like to play as many games as possible during the short window that we have in this area.
