In one of the more disappointing days of the San Francisco Giants Spring Training so far both of the split squad teams fell today as the Oakland A’s topped the G-Men 6-4 at Scottsdale Stadium, while the Chicago Cubs took the Giants to extra innings for a 3-2 loss at Hohokam Stadium in Mesa, AZ.
It was a perfect day for some Giants baseball in Scottsdale with some Bay Area cloud cover but with Arizona heat. The game started out poorly with Madison Bumgarner throwing about 40 pitches in the 2nd inning while allowing 4 runs, two of which scored on his throwing error to third with no outs. Bummy only made it threw the 2nd as skipper Bruce Bochy decided that was enough for him, bringing in Dan Runzler. Runzler was followed by Guillermo Mota who combined with Runzler, pitched 5 scoreless innings with only 2 hits and 5 strikeouts. Javy Lopez pitched the 7th, alowing two more runs to score, while Sergio Romo and Jeremy Affeldt split a scoreless 9th inning.
As for the Giants offense it was dormant until the 8th inning when Freddy Sanchez hit a sacrifice groundout, then a 3 run Aubrey Huff homer made it 6-4. The Giants had a total of 6 hits for the game, a very low number for the Giants this Spring Training.
As for the Giants v. Cubs, it took an extra inning for the Cubs to get the win, with the only RBI coming from a first inning single from Mike Fontenot, the other Giants run was unearned. San Francisco used a barrage of pitchers against the Cubs, with Shane Loux getting the start. Loux lasted 3 2/3 innings allowing 2 hits and one run, with no walks or strikeouts.
PANDA WATCH: Pablo went 1-4 with a single today, while also grounding into a double play. Panda’s batting average this spring has dropped to .288, but he is doing better than he was last year and is still looking good doing so.
The Giants will take on the Colorado Rockies tomorrow with a 1:05 first pitch. I heard that Tim Lincecum will be getting the start tomorrow, but with a possibility of rain it remains uncertain if there will even be a game. There better be, I didn’t come out to Arizona to watch it rain!