The San Francisco Giants played two Spring Training split squad games on Saturday against two of their biggest rivals. The good news is, they didn't lose either game!
In the late game, half of the Giants squad (which could be considered, for the most part, "the young team") took on the Los Angeles Dodgers, in a game which ended in a 3-3 tie. The Giants jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning oh a wind-assisted Brandon Belt home run. The Dodgers tied things up with some well-timed hits in the first and fifth innings. The Dodgers took the lead in the sixth on a solo home run by Luis Cruz, which came off of Andrew Kown, who went 2.2 innings, giving up three hits, two walks and a strikeout. The Giants evened things up in the eighth inning with a double by Gregor Blanco (his second hit of the night) and a sacrifice fly by Belt. All three Giants runs were driven in by Belt, which certainly does not hurt his stock any. He also helped record a key out, as he threw out Trent Oeltjen in the eighth inning, who tried to stretch a double into a triple.
Giants hitters drew no walks and struck out seven times, including two Ks by Brandon Crawford.
Earlier in the day, the Oakland Athletics split squad did not fare so well against the other half of the Giants roster at Scottsdale Stadium, where the Giants won, 7-2. Tim Lincecum picked up his second win of the spring, pitching six innings and giving up six hits and only one run, while striking out four. The good news for the A's was that five of those six hits off of Lincecum were for extra bases. Coco Crisp and Collin Cowgill each managed a triple against the Giants ace, while Daric Barton, Derek Norris and Kila Ka`aihue all picked up a double against the right-hander. The Giants roughed up Oakland pitching with home runs from Pablo Sandoval, Ryan Theriot and Angel Pagan, while Melky Cabrera and Nate Schierholtz had doubles.
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