Spartan night led by the return of a great Giant

Photo by Kavin Mistry

High drive, right field and deep, this baby is way back … OUTTA HERE! Barry Bonds has done it again and the Giants take the lead!

As San Francisco Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper said it best with his signature home run call, Barry Bonds was a legendary part of the team’s past and will forever be a part of the Giants family.

On Friday night at AT&T Park, the Giants saluted one of the best to ever take the field in a Barry Bonds. This time in an unfamiliar fashion, as the new hitting coach for the Miami Marlins.

Photo by Kavin Mistry

“I would like to say thank you for such a warm welcome back home,” Bonds said in a postgame interview on Friday. “Thank you to the Giants organization, the players and most of all the fans who I consider family and friends. I also want to say thank you to the media for making my coming back in baseball and this SF trip such a great experience.”

Bonds is the current MLB record holder in home runs with 762. He played 22 years in the league, won seven MVP awards, 13 All-Star appearances and broke the record for most home runs hit in a single season with 73 in 2001, according to Pro Baseball Reference.  It was also San Jose State night at AT&T Park, those who purchased a special event tickets received a unique blue Giants hat with the Spartan logo patch on the side.

Spartans were on hand to watch the Giants take on the Marlins in the first game of a three-game weekend series.

“I went with five other San Jose students, but the stadium was full of them,” said Lori Hormigoso, junior child development major. “It kinda felt like an extension of San Jose State, there was a lot of alumni there. It was cool to feel like you had a connection with everyone, having something in common, having the pride for something.”

SJSU night capped off a busy first week of college nights at AT&T Park, which began with Stanford night on Monday, UC Berkeley night on Tuesday and San Francisco State night on Wednesday.

“I mostly wanted to go to the game for the free SJSU Giants hat so I had to get one,” Hormigoso said. “It's a nice hat. It has our colors with a small Spartan head on the side. I just wish the back wasn't Velcro, but I mean you can't really expect much from a free hat.”

Photo by Kavin Mistry Game Notes:

The Giants were coming off a three-game sweep by the Arizona Diamondbacks during the week and have been struggling to score runs for the past eight games.

On Friday, the offense finally woke up, courtesy of starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija. He finished the game going two for four with three runs batted in. Paired with seven and two-thirds of dominant pitching on the mound, the Giants snapped their five-game losing streak, winning 8-1.

This should come as no surprise to the Giants coaching staff as Samardzija is a proven athlete, who played football as a wide receiver at Notre Dame (along with baseball).

The rest of the Giants offense followed suit, scoring three runs in both the first and fifth innings and tacked on two more in the sixth.

Samardzija now leads the starting staff in earned run average (3.00) and owns the two longest starts so far this season by any Giants pitcher. This is an unlikely script for a team that came into the season with bonafide ace Madison Bumgarner, a strong number two starter Johnny Cueto and a number three starter that was filled with question marks. He has begun to answer them all.

He walked off the mound standing tall after giving up just one run on eight hits while striking out five against zero walks. He gave way to reliever Javier Lopez and reliever Mike Broadway who slammed the door on the Marlins night.

The Giants finished the weekend winning two out of three against the Marlins, improving their record to 9-11 on the season. The Giants are snapping out of their recent offensive funk and are working back toward the .500 mark.

Sharks with a first round date with their So Cal rivals

Infographic by Kavin Mistry

As the final buzzer went off, the San Jose Sharks players left the 2014 postseason with their heads down and the idea of letting a 3-0 round one series lead slip away.

Two years later, a revamped roster and a new face at the helm later, the Sharks are in the position they have been waiting to taste ever since the historic meltdown to the Los Angeles Kings in round one of the 2014 playoffs.

The Sharks have added a pair of seasoned veterans in defender Paul Martin and winger Joel Ward, but the most significant addition has been goaltending phenom Martin Jones, who was traded from the Kings during the offseason. ESPN’s Pierre LaBrun even named the trade for Jones the best NHL transaction of the season. The young goaltender is third in the league with 37 wins and seventh with 2.27 goals per game against.

Jones’ win total is largely due to the Sharks’ goal scoring and shot preventing. San Jose ranks fourth in goals scored and concedes the least shots per game in the league.

The Sharks clinched a playoff berth on March 29 and have been step-for-step with the Kings and the Anaheim Ducks all season in the tightest Pacific division race that has been seen in years.

However, this season, the Sharks will enter the playoffs with a different resume than two years ago. The Sharks have the best record in the entire league away from San Jose at 28-10-3, something that fans have only seen one other time in team history.

“We are going to have to do a job on the road,” captain Joe Pavelski said in an interview following last Thursday’s game. “It’s not going to be easy, but we got the guys we need in order to compete.”

While fans may believe that starting on the road would be the best way for the Sharks to finally reach the pinnacle of the Stanley Cup Finals, the playoffs are a whole different dynamic.

“You want home ice obviously,” head coach Peter DeBoer said in an interview following last Thursday’s game.

DeBoer isn’t the only one who thinks relying solely on road performance is a bad idea.

“We really have to learn to win at home,” forward Tommy Wingels said in an interview following last Thursday’s game. “You can’t get into the rush game in playoffs, you can’t turn the pucks over in the neutral zone.”

While dominating on the road is praiseworthy during the regular season, once the puck drops in Los Angeles on Thursday night, all those stats will go by the wayside. The heat of the moment, the sound of the opposing crowd and the pressure each affect a player differently in the playoffs.

The Sharks and Kings are no stranger to one another when it comes to facing each other during the season or in the playoffs. This will be the third time in the past four years these teams will meet up in the playoffs. The Kings have won the past two.

Pavelski said the team is feeling confident heading into the postseason. When asked about whether or not having to start on the road would be a factor, he said the numbers speak for themselves.

“Well, if we keep winning, then obviously not,” Pavelski said. “It doesn’t really matter where you start once the playoffs hit, you are just trying to find ways to win.”

The Sharks won the season series against the Kings, going 3-1-1, but the Sharks and the Kings have similar special team success.

The Sharks dominated the final meeting of the season on March 29 which clinched the playoff berth for the Sharks.

“We’ve got a lot of things we need to work on and sure up before the playoff begin,” Wingels said. “We will do that.”

The Sharks are notorious for postseason disappointment. In their 25 years, the Sharks have made the playoffs 19 times–but have yet to reach the final round (let alone take home the Stanley Cup).

“You are going to have to gut-out a few wins on the road and you are going to have to be solid at home,” Pavelski said. “This group believes that we are going to be solid at home, and we are excited for the fans to be back in the playoffs and that energy.”

Game 1 is tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Los Angeles at the Staples Center.