It was a beautiful evening at Chase Field in Phoenix as the defending NL West champion Arizona Diamondbacks played host to the San Francisco Giants for their 2012 Opening Night. It was a battle of the aces as Tim Lincecum and Ian Kennedy took to the mound, but a big first inning would prove too much for the Black and Orange, eventually falling 5-4 in their season opener.
The majority of the Diamondbacks damage came in the first inning off of Lincecum, coming in the form of a Chris Young two-run jack followed by a Paul Goldschmidt solo home run a few batters later.
The Giants would strike back in the fifth with a two-run homer from newcomer Melky Cabrera, and an RBI groundout from Brandon Crawford in the sixth, scoring Angel Pagan after his first hit as a Giant.
Arizona would load the bases in their half of the sixth, plating two with a Ryan Roberts double to left field, prompting skipper Bruce Bochy to take out the Freak. Timmy would finish with five earned runs in 5.1 innings pitched, along with six hits, one walk and seven strikeouts.
Kennedy would depart after 6.2 innings of work, allowing three earned runs nine Giants hits, along with two walks and three strikeouts. Joe Patterson and David Hernandez held the G-Men in check the rest of the way, turning it over to J.J. Putz for the save in the ninth.
Gregor Blanco hit a pinch hit liner off Willie Bloomquist's glove, giving the Giants some life in the top of the ninth. Angel Pagan would strikeout, Melky Cabrera would strikeout, leaving it up to Pablo Sandoval. Pablo would hit a clutch RBI double to left center field, cutting the lead to one. But Buster Posey would ground out in his first career at bat against Putz, ending the game.
Cabrera and Sandoval finished the game 2-5, while Buster Posey was 2-4 with a walk
Full box score can be found here.
Lefty Madison Bumgarner will take on RHP Daniel Hudson in each of their respective 2012 debuts Saturday, with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 p.m. PT.
For more on the Giants, please check out McCovey Chronicles. For the D-backs side of the street, make sure you head over to AZ Snake Pit.