August 19, 2024 – Giants 5, White Sox 3 – Oracle Park, San Francisco

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN202408190.shtml

 

Time: 2:22 (start time 6:45 PDT)

Attendance: 29,209

Start Time Weather: 68° F, Wind 18mph out to Centerfield, Sunny, No Precipitation.

 

The woebegone White Sox put up somewhat of a fight this evening, but it wasn’t nearly enough to keep them from recording their 96th loss of the season, as the Giants’ 4-run 5th inning wound up being enough to secure their victory.

 

The visitors generated a couple of early threats, loading the bases with none out in the 3rd and getting their first two batters on an inning later, but San Francisco starter Kyle Harrison pitched out of both jams without allowing a run. They did take a brief lead in the top of the 5th when Brooks Baldwin walked, stole second, and scored on Luis Robert Jr.’s single. The Giants finally broke through in the bottom of the inning against Chicago starter Jonathan Cannon with 5 one-out hits and a sacrifice fly. Matt Chapman slugged a leadoff homer in the 6th to extend the lead. They loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the 7th, but the White Sox turned a double play to keep the game within reach.

 

The Sox continued to battle, cutting the deficit in half in the 8th against the San Francisco bullpen and getting singles by Baldwin and Robert Jr. an inning later, but Jordan Hicks finally closed things out for his first save of the season.

 

I took a tour of Oracle Park on a previous trip but had never seen a game there before. It’s in a great urban setting on the San Francisco Bay, with Willie Mays Plaza in front of the main entrance and plenty of other nods to the team’s heritage. (It’s also less than a block from the Hyatt Place where we were staying.) Our reasonably-priced club level seats were great, but I was less impressed with their overall “club level” experience, as the food offerings were more limited and less unique than I expected and it was uncomfortably crowded prior to the game. The Nationals actually do much better on both counts.

August 18, 2024 – Giants 4, A’s 2 (10 innings) – Oakland Coliseum

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/OAK/OAK202408180.shtml

 

Time: 2:42 (start time 1:07 PDT)

Attendance: 32,727

Start Time Weather: 73° F, Wind 8mph out to Rightfield, Cloudy, No Precipitation.

 

The game was a pitcher’s duel throughout regulation, with twice as many runs scored in the 10th inning than in the previous 9 combined. Both starters were dominant: Blake Snell fanned 10 in his 7 innings of work for the Giants, while JP Sears lasted into the 8th while recording 9 Ks for Oakland. The home team plated the game’s first run in the bottom of the 6th on singles by Daz Cameron, Brent Rooker, and Miguel Andujar, but Heliot Ramos led off the top of the 7th with a round-tripper to tie things up.

 

San Francisco struck quickly in the top of the 10th, as Jerar Encarnacion hit the first pitch from Dany Jiménez out of the park, and pinch-hitter Michael Conforto followed almost immediately with another blast. The A’s did make it interesting, however, as automatic runner Lawrence Butler scored on an error, and a walk and single then loaded the bases with no outs. With the tying and winning runs on base, however, Ryan Walker fanned Oakland’s 3-4-5 hitters to seal the win.

 

This Sunday contest was the final one in the Bay Bridge Series, with the pending departure of the Athletics to Sacramento. That, plus the Vida Blue bobblehead giveaway, produced a crowd more than three times the size of their season’s average. Unfortunately, that meant that it was barely possible to move, or even stand for a moment, on the narrow main concourse. The “Colossal Dogs” were reasonably good, but nothing special. In the park’s defense, our seats (between home plate and first base) were just fine, and the ballpark is well-served by public transportation; a rail stop was less than a block from our hotel, and the Muni-BART combination took us there in less time than we spend riding from Rockville to Nats Park.