After the first half of the split squad San Francisco Giants put away the Cincinnati Reds earlier today, the second group wanted to make to follow suit. And behind homers from Brandon Belt and minor leaguer Roger Kieshnick the Giants defeated the Cleveland Indians 8-5 at Goodyear Ballpark in Goodyear, Arizona this evening.
Ryan Vogelsong had a pretty good outing today as he went 4 2/3 innings allowing 3 runs on 5 hits, two of which were home runs, as well as 3 walks and 5 strikeouts. Despite his strong showing this spring, Vogelsong is unlikely to make the regular season squad as Guillermo Mota told Giants beat writer Andrew Baggerly that he has been told he’ll be in the bullpen opening day (Baggs’ piece on predicting the opening day roster is really good, definitely worth a read). Vogelsong will probably be joined by veterans Jeff Suppan and Marc Kroon as the other relief pitchers who’ve made the best case to make the team but will just fall short.
After the last few days of stagnent offense for the Giants, they came through twice today scoring a collective 17 runs. Besides his home run Belt added a RBI single and is looking ready to make the squad, but it’s still up in the air if he will, (my bet is he won’t). Roger Kieshnick was a late addition for the DH position, and certainly made good with his time going 2-3 for the day with 3 RBI.
The Giants will have their last Cactus League game tomorrow as they head out to Sunrise, Arizona for the second time in three days to play the Kansas City Royals. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m with coverage on MLB.com .