The last time the NL won the All-Star Game . . .

. . . the Giants had a pretty good year.

So I’m taking the 3-2 win by the “senior circuit” to be a good omen for the rest of the season. The NL used nine pitchers for one inning apiece. Alex Cobb threw a scoreless 4th and Camilo Doval a scoreless 7th. Doval was awarded the win as the go-ahead homer was hit in the top of the 8th. Way to go, Giants!

MLB decided that the June draft should be moved to July and should happen during the All-Star Break. The Giants had the 16th pick and took another two-way player, this time a high-schooler named Bryce Eldrige. The second pick (#49) was another high schooler, lefty-hitting shortstop Walker Martin. After that it was Kent State southpaw Joe Whitman (#69) followed by two more college shortstops. Cole Foster (#85) is a switch-hitter from Auburn and Maui Ahuna (#117) is a lefty-hitter from Tennessee. Ahuna is from Hilo on the Big Island of Hawai’i. You might remember that I spent some time watching baseball in Hilo and I have a real fondness for the place. There are a lot of Giants fans in the Aloha State. In Hilo you can follow the orange-and-black on KPUA 670 AM. 

Here’s a list of all the Giants picks (21 total). We are seeing players (Patrick Bailey and Casey Schmitt) from the 2020 draft class in the majors right now so we could to see some of these new Giants by 2026.

The games resume Friday–the Giants will be in Pittsburgh (4:05 PT).

–M.C.

p.s. Hilo High School’s most famous graduate has to be Jennifer Doudna who shared the 2020 Nobel Prize (with Emmanuelle Charpentier) in Chemistry for their work in genetics (CRISPR).