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| Photo by Kavin Mistry |
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.
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| 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.”
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| 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.
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