The San Francisco Giants finished off their home opening series with the St Louis Cardinals with their third pregame ceremony in 3 days, honoring Buster Posey’s Rookie of the Year honors of 2010. But the joviality ended quickly after the game started as the Red Birds took out the defending champs by a score of 6-1.
Barry Zito (0-1) got pretty roughed up out there today, lasting 5 1/3 innings while allowing six hits, 4 earned runs, five walks and only one strikeout. His replacement, Guillermo Mota, had two strikeouts in his 2 1/3 innings of relief while allowing another two runs, including a homer to David Freese (3-4 3 RBI) to begin the 8th. Jeremy Affeldt was in after that for 1/3 inning of work, while Sergio Romo came in for the 9th.
The lone RBI for the Giants came from a broken bat single by Pablo Sandoval in the first inning, finishing the day 1-4. Freddy Sanchez went 2-4 while Eli Whiteside went 1-3 with a single. The only Giant to have an extra base hit today was Aaron Rowand in the 9th.
The Cardinals Kyle Lohse (1-1) had himself a great day on the mound, going for 8 full innings allowing 5 hits, an earned run, no walks, and five strikeouts. Albert Pujols went 0-5 for the day, Skip Schumaker went 2-4 with 2 RBI, while Matt Holiday went 1-2 with an RBI and a run scored in his first day back after an appendectomy.
Full box score can be found here.
The Giants start a three game homestand against the rival Los Angeles Dodgers Monday, with first pitch at 7:15 p.m. with a battle of lefties as Madison Bumgarner takes the mound for the Giants to face Clayton Kershaw for the Dodgers.
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