For the second night in a row the San Francisco Giants gave a game to the Los Angeles Dodgers with some poor fielding, losing by a score of 4-3 at Dodger Stadium. Despite the loss, Giants fans saw their future emerge before their eyes as rookie sensation Brandon Belt hit his first major league home run off of the Dodgers’ Chad Billingsley.
Jonathan Sanchez (0-1) had a decent outing, but probably was in the game a few batters too long as he fumbled a dribbler back to the mound in the 6th that allowed the tying run to score. Jonathan lasted 5 2/3 innings allowing 7 hits, 4 runs (2 earned) 3 walks and 8 strikeouts with 92 pitches in his outing, way too many for only 5 2/3 of work. His replacement Guillermo Mota didn’t fare much better, allowing the go ahead run on a Rafael Furcal single while Dan Runzler was in for the 7th and 8th, looking good in his first outing of the season with a perfect two innings of work.
Brandon Belt was the big story of the night for the Giants as he belted (terrible pun) his first major league home run in the top of the fourth to dead center field. His home run was the only extra base hit of the night for the Giants, Pablo Sandoval went 2-4 and Andres Torres 2-5, with all hits being singles. Miguel Tejada, Buster Posey, and Freddy Sanchez each had a single apiece.
As for the Dodgers, Chad Billingsley (1-0) left the game after the sixth slated for the loss, but with Jonathan Sanchez’s struggles in that inning, he eventually got the win. He finished the night with 5 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. Matt Kemp continued to impress, going 2-4 with an RBI double as well as running the bases well and showing the glove, almost day and night from how he looked in 2010.
Tomorrow will be the first day game of the Giants season as Matt Cain takes the mound to face the Dodgers Ted Lilly. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. and can be seen on the FOX network and heard on KNBR 680 AM.
For more discussion and analysis, head over to our Giants blog, McCovey Chronicles, to get your fix.