Giants Top Astros on Opening Day

It was not easy in the end, but the Giants could breathe a sigh of relief as they did not let their 5-0 lead in the ninth inning slip away completely.

Tim Lincecum cruised for the first seven innings, allowing only four hits and striking out seven. He did not walk one batter in the entire start, and even contributed offensively with two perfect sacrifice bunts.

The Giants offense got on top in the third inning, with a three run outburst to give them the lead that they would not relinquish for the rest of the evening. Bengie Molina and John Bowker would each hit RBI singles and Juan Uribe hit a sacrifice fly.

They would strike again in the seventh inning, when Edgar Renteria doubled to deep center field driving in a run. That would be his second of two hits in the game, and the Giants will need him to come through in the clutch this season like he did tonight.

In the eighth inning, Mark DeRosa would welcome himself to the Giants with a solo homerun to right field, to put the Giants up 5-0.

After Lincecum left after the seventh, Sergio Romo would come in, and after a little bit of trouble, retire the side. But in the ninth inning, things started to go awry with Brandon Medders on the mound.

He would only retire one batter, and allowed three hits and two runs. He was replaced by closer Brian Wilson, who retired the final two batters to get the save and seal the opening day victory for the Giants.

Molina, Uribe, and Renteria each had two hits for the Giants, while Sandoval, Huff, and Bowker each added singles.

The Giants gave a good, collective effort tonight, but a noticeable problem in this game was something that plagued them all of last season; patience at the plate. It’s only one game, but the Giants must practice patience, because they swung at a lot of bad pitches, and very early in counts. The only player who should be excluded from this rule is Pablo Sandoval, who, as Joe Morgan noted during the broadcast, needs to be left alone because it works for him.

The Giants will battle the Astros at 8PM EST tomorrow night, as Barry Zito will face Wandy Rodriguez.

Giants Take One in Split Squad Games

This afternoon the Giants split their squad to face the Oakland Athletics in one game and the Seattle Mariners in the other. In both, the offense came through as the Giants scored a total of 15 runs today. The pitching was shaky, but it is all part of the learning process.

In the first game, the Giants fell to the A’s 8-7. Matt Cain was handed the loss when he gave up 8 hits that led to 5 runs (4 earned) in 2.2 innings. Relief pitcher Steve Johnson would account for the other three runs, but a barrage of six other relievers did not allow a run. This included spring training invites Guillermo Mota, Santiago Casilla and Denny Bautista. Brian Wilson was the only other regular to pitch today and he threw a scoreless 7th inning.

For the offense, the team’s leadoff hopeful Aaron Rowand went 2-3 and upped his average to .476. DeRosa also went 2-3 and Huff went 1-3, bloating their averages to  .714 and .353 respectively. Top prospect Buster Posey also went 2-4 this afternoon.

In the Giants win, they defeated the Mariners 8-4 to improve their spring record to 9-3. Kevin Pucetas tossed three perfect innings in the start to get his first win of the spring. Steve Edelfsen was roughed up in the final inning and his ERA bloated to 11.57. Giants also saw appearances from former Pirate Eric Hacker, last season surprise Brandon Medders, Osiris Matos, and Sergio Romo.

Andrew Torres made a case for a regular job when he homered, tripled and scored 3 runs while improving his batting average t0 .318. Giants would also get hits from Renteria, two from Lewis, Bowker, Whiteside, Rohlinger, Pill, and Velez.

The Giants are slated to face the Milwaukee Brewers tomorrow as Jonathon Sanchez makes his third start of the spring.