San Francisco Giants to Receive World Series Rings
On Saturday, the San Francisco Giants will receive the prize for their fantastic World Series run in 2014. They will proudly receive Championship rings, completing a trio for a select few Giants’ players. They will don beautiful gold-emblazoned jerseys and hats, proudly signifying all their hard work to reach the Promised Land for the third time in five years.
Travis Ishikawa will skip rehab games in Triple-A Sacramento to attend the ceremony, which is well-deserved after his heroic performance in the 2014 postseason. After his long road through five organizations, and playing a position he had never played before in October, his attendance will be welcomed.
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Nori Aoki and Justin Maxwell will stand by awkwardly, as the team that prevented them from earning World Series rings in 2014 receives rings of their own. They’ve been welcomed with open arms in San Francisco, but they won’t receive rings of their own. That won’t damper the mood, as being a part of a ceremony like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a lot of players.
The Giants will look like champions on Saturday. Whether or not they play like champions is a different story.
San Francisco will receive those coveted World Series rings riding an eight-game losing streak, and holding a 3-9 record. They have yet to win in five games at AT&T Park. The offense has been downright anemic, save for a six-run performance against the Arizona Diamondbacks to open the current series.
Take away that outburst for half-a-dozen runs, and the Giants have scored nine times in the other seven games of this losing streak. They’ve been shut out on three occasions.
Angel Pagan is hitting .370, and Aoki is batting .320, which is a big step down after a blazing start. He’s cooled off considerably, and is just 1-13 in his past three games. Matt Duffy is hitting .290, and leads the team with six RBI.
Behind those three, the numbers are not pretty. Cleanup hitter and Silver Slugger catcher Buster Posey is batting just .225. Brandon Crawford is hitting .154, and Brandon Belt is scuffling along at .077. The Giants are single-handedly re-writing the Mendoza Line standard this year.
As a team, the Giants are hitting just .224. Pagan, Aoki, and Duffy, the only ones who seem to be producing offensively, are hitting a collective .330. The rest of the team, however, owns an abysmal .176 average.
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Friday seems to have been rock bottom for the Giants. Diamondbacks’ pitcher Josh Collmenter completely stifled the Giants’ offense, and provided more than enough offense for himself at the plate.
Collmenter allowed four hits through the night, along with just one walk. Of those five baserunners, the Giants had one in each of the first four innings, but nothing came of them, as they were all glued to first base. After walking Casey McGehee in the fourth, Collmenter retired the next 14 batters he faced, until Joe Panik doubled with one out in the ninth inning. That was the first, and only, baserunner the Giants had in scoring position on that night.
As if that’s not bad enough, the pitcher Collmenter thrashed the Giants at the plate as well. He finished the night with three hits, and had it not been for Panik’s very late double, he would have single-handedly matched the Giants’ hit total. On top of that, he drove in a pair of runs. Collmenter – 2, Giants – 0, literally.
Maybe the Giants needed that type of performance to light a fire under their rear. Maybe the rings will help them realize that they are better than how they’re playing right now. One thing is for sure, the Giants have their backs against the ropes, and are taking a ton of body blows in the first round of this fight. They need to start punching back, and get to their corner on a positive note.