The Giants had plenty of chances to win this game yesterday. 12 hits, plus 5 walks and only 2 runs? That's pretty horrible. And it wasn't just the 11 men LOB that killed them. They pretty much ran themselves out of this game.

A long standing rule in baseball (if not THE cardinal rule on offense) is NEVER make the first out of the inning at home or 3B. Well the Giants did just that twice yesterday. The first was when the human windmill, Tim Flannery, sent Aaron Rowand home with 0 out in the 2nd inning. It appeared to me that Rowand would be out by 20 feet as he rounded 3B. A good slide by Rowand made it a little closer than that....but still first out of the inning at home plate.......rally killed.......no runs in the 2nd. A little later on, Benjie Molina tried to go from 1st to 3rd on a long single. A mediocre runner could have made it easily, because it was a play that required not 1 but 2 relay throws. Molina was out by plenty. 1st out of the inning at 3B......another rally snuffed. Add that to the fact that the fastest man I have ever seen that just can't steal a bag, Fred Lewis, got caught stealing........again. That makes 4 CS in 6 tries this spring for Fred. How can I guy that fast not be better at base stealing? Add a couple of DPs into the equation, and you can see how every Giants starter could get on base by a walk or a hit..........7 starters reached base at least twice.........and the team still scored only 2 runs. You would think they would have lucked into more than 2 runs with that many players reaching base.

Erick Threets pitched the 7th and gave up 2 runs. Threets threw too many fastballs up in the zone. Brad Hennessey gave up a 2 out, solo HR in the 8th to mar his day. Once again, the Giants pitchers had problems IN the strike zone not by missing the zone. Between the 3 pitchers, they only issued 1 walk. I am not happy with the 5 runs allowed.......but the lack of walks is encouraging to me. Good things come from throwing strikes. The real problem with this game was not pitching, it was the Giants' frustrating ability to get TONS of men on base.......and not score.

As you can probably surmise from this late post.......I am not taking the 4 hour roundtrip ride to Tucson today. Frankly, I am just too damn lazy........especially since learning that Kevin Correia was scratched from the start. More injury problems.......like the Giants can afford that. Tomorrow will be my last game in Arizona. Wednesday, I fly back to San Francisco and Thursday I will be at the game in ATT Park. With my "busy" schedule..........I think I can afford to miss a game.

Yesterday marked the debut of Jose Castillo, the Giants' latest attempt to bolster an injury depleted infield. First I want to admit that I don't know very much about Castillo. I must say he is a lot heavier than I expected for a middle infielder. Can anyone enlighten me? Was he always this big? Could this be part of the reason that he was released by 2 teams since last season? Like I said.....I just don't know.

In admittedly a very limited sample size, I was not too impressed with Castillo's defense as the starting SS in yesterday's game. There was one groundball to his left that I was pretty sure he should have gotten to and a second one, also to his left, that I thought was a done deal. He missed both. On the harder of the 2 chances, he over-jumped on a dive and the ball went under his glove. On the easy chance, he just didn't reach down far enough and again, the ball went under his glove. Jose's reaction time seems to be a little slow and his movements sluggish, resulting in poor range. He did start a couple of DPs (on balls hit right to him) and seems to have an adequate arm. As I said.......first appearance.........small sample size........but so far I am not impressed with his defense.

At the plate, Jose was 1 for 4 with a double, but he had some really UGLY swings. He doesn't seem to have much plate discipline and swung at some pitches that weren't even close. As a result, he struck out twice. Look at the last photo in this series. Remind you of anyone? I have a bunch of photos of Pedro Feliz in exactly this same position. Brain dead hacker anyone? Again, first time out.........and I will reserve final judgment...........but the initial returns are not promising.

Giants 2, Rangers 5, March 23rd

Lincecum pitched a pretty good game yesterday. One really dumb pitch, resulting in a 2 run HR accounted for the only runs he gave up in 6 full innings of work. Timmy was consistently in the 94-96 range with his fastballs and hit a high of 97 maybe 4 or 5 times. His curveball was working well and he trotted out the new slider a few times. I am not as impressed with the slider as I am with his other off-speed pitches. It seems a little flat and I don't think the difference in speed from the fastball is enough.

Timmy gave up 7 hits (a couple a little tainted - see Castillo photo) and he went deep in the counts to a few too many batters to really call this outing "dominating" as was Cain's effort on Saturday. But the 7 strikeouts as compared to only 1 walk show that he wasn't off by much. I think he (or the catcher) tend to fall in love with his fastball and overuse it. On the HR, Timmy threw a 3-2 fastball, that resulted in a LONG foul ball. On the next pitch, he threw the same pitch, in the same location. The result was that the batter was able to get the timing down and belted a LONG HR over the 400 ft sign in CF (I would estimate about 430 feet). The pitch was one of those 97 MPH jobs, but with as good as his off speed stuff was in the game, it was a huge mistake to give the batter another fastball, when he demolished the same pitch just foul just one pitch earlier. Hopefully, Timmy learns that Major League hitters can hit the 97 MPH fastball, if it isn't located properly or if it is expected. Of course the real problem was the 3 ball count, the batters at this level are so much better when they expect you to throw a "get it in" pitch.

The 4 photos here are a progression of Lincecum's delivery, along with the result.......a 97 MPH reading on the radar. I don't want to seem too negative about Timmy's day......he pitched a VERY good game and for my money is the most exciting Giants' pitcher to watch. My point with the criticism is that as good as he is/has been since he joined the team........he could be even better. I believe his ceiling to be extremely high. I just love this kid.

From March 22nd

Dave Roberts didn't get any hits in the game, but I like these 2 photos, so I am posting them anyway. Dave went 0 for 2 with a HBP, a walk and a run scored. The first photo was taken in the exact moment when he got hit in the shin in the first inning. In the second photo, Claudio Vargas prepares to glove a ball off the bat of Eugenio Velez to start a 1-6-3 DP. As you can see, Roberts is just breaking towards 2B and didn't have a chance on the play.

Fred Lewis replaced Randy Winn in RF and went 1 for 2 with a 2 out, 2 RBI standup triple. He may not play good defense, and he may not have the intricacies of base stealing down....but it is fun to watch him run the bases.

The only other player with 2 hits on the day was Brian Horwitz, who came over from the Minor League camp for the day. He pinch hit for Matt Cain and stayed in the game to take over for Dave Roberts in LF. Horwitz had 2 singles and scored a run in his 2 plate appearances. I included 2 photos of Brian because we haven't seen him too often.

Benjie Molina had another 2 hit day raising his average to .417. I don't know how long the quadriceps problem is going to last, but Benjie turned another sure double to the RCF gap into a single today. The good news is that he LOVES that gap and has been hitting it with regularity this spring.

Aaron Rowand also had a good day at the plate, reaching base in all 3 plate appearances on a double, a single and a walk. I can't point to a single play, but in watching Rowand play CF this spring, I just don't see Gold Glove caliber defense. 150% hustle all the time yes, but his jumps and routes to the ball are just OK and he has to be the slowest Gold Glove outfielder ever. I know it is a small sample size, but so far, I'm not seeing the defensive prowess.

The offensive star of the game was Eugenio Velez, who started at 2B thanks to yet another last minute scratch of Ray "the Hammy" Durham. Velez was 3 for 5 on the day, including a 2 out bases loaded triple in the 4th and a 2 out RBI ground rule double that I thought for a second was going to be a HR to one of the deepest RCF gaps you will ever see outside of ATT Park (Scottsdale Stadium is 430 feet to dead CF. . His day was slightly marred by a GIDP, but he also stole his 13th base of the spring. When was the last time a Giants' player stole 13 bases in spring training? Heck when was the last time a Giants' player stole 13 bases over ANY one month period?

The three relievers that followed Cain were nearly as good, if not quite as dominating. Steve Kline, Brad Hennessey and Jack Taschner threw 3 innings of 1 hit 1 walk ball and gave up only a single unearned run. Kline threw 3 straight groundball outs. One of them was on a grounder to the hole at SS, where Brian Bocock ranged far out (about 15 feet) onto the outfield grass to backhand the ball. Bocock then showed off his cannon of an arm by throwing a perfect strike to get the runner at 1B. Hennessey gave up a 1 out double, followed by a walk. The unearned run scored when Justin Leone fielded a sure DP ball at 3B and then thew the ball into RF instead of to 2B. Hennessey got out of the inning on a 6-3 DP by the next batter. Taschner had yet another 1-2-3 inning to close out the game. It is interesting to me that Jack has closed the game in his last 2 or 3 appearances. A lefthanded closer being groomed?

Giants 8, Brewers 1, March 22nd

The Giants not only won their second game in a row yesterday, they also received a second straight excellent pitching performance. This time it was from Matt Cain, who threw even better than Barry Zito did the day before. Sure Matt gave up 3 more hits than Zito did, but his 8 strikeouts more than made up for that as he overpowered Brewer batters with his fastball, and froze them with his curveball. The fact that 5 of his strikeouts were of the swinging variety and 3 were where the batters were caught looking illustrates this.

I read where Bruce Bochy had this to say to MLB.com about Cain's outing. ""He had some long innings," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said of Cain. "I thought he did a good job keeping his concentration."" I don't know what game Bochy was watching, because I thought Cain was about as economical with his pitches as I have ever seen him be. The notoriously slow starter needed only 15 pitches to get out of the first, after allowing a 1 out single, but having the runner gunned down on a caught stealing by a beautiful throw from Benjie Molina. In the 3rd and 4th innings, Cain was even more economical as he took only 9 pitches to complete each inning. The only inning where he had a high pitch count was in his last inning (the 6th) when he threw 25 pitches and had the only inning where he allowed 2 men to reach base (including the only walk he gave up all day). Even with the long 6th inning, Matt threw a total of only 88 pitches (60 for strikes) and finished the inning with back-to-back strikeouts. Those of us who have seen Matt regularly reach the 100 pitch count through 5 innings or so are perfectly happy with Matt throwing this many "long innings" all year long. He also only allowed 2 batters to reach as far as 2B (1 to third) and faced more than 4 batters in an inning only once (the 6th)......so I am not sure where the test was that required him "keeping his concentration". Sometimes the things the Giants coaching and management staff have to say just leaves me scratching my head and saying "HUH?".

Add all of the above to the fact that Cain gave up ZERO extra base hits on the day. Of the 5 hits he allowed, one was on a bad hop that got by Rich Aurilia at 3B, another was on a ground ball that ticked off the glove of SS Brian Bocock, and a third was on a little flair over the secondbaseman's head. The only criticism I have for Cain's effort was that I think the bad hop in the 5th might have broken his concentration a little. Cain threw back-to-back wild pitches to allow the runner to reach 3B......although Benjie Molina should have been able to stop one of the 2 WPs. I have no problem in saying that Matt Cain clearly dominated the Brewers in the best performance by a Giants' pitcher thus far.

From March 21st

Eugenio Velez had a good day (offensively anyway), going 1 for 3 with a run scored and an RBI. Here he lays down a sacrifice bunt, that he almost beat out for a basehit. He also stole his 12th base of the spring. The bad news is that defense is still a problem as he committed an error on a popup that prevented Barry Zito from going 6 full innings.

Fred Lewis had the early lead in the Dirty Uniform Competition after a triple to lead off the game.

Manny Burriss was back with the big boys a couple of days after being sent to the Minor League camp. He started and played the entire game at SS. He wasn't much with the bat going 0 for 4, but he fielded 4 or 5 chances cleanly including a backhand stop in the hole with a very strong throw to nip the runner.

Daniel Ortmeier has had 5 hits in the last 3 games, raising his average to .232. There seems to be a team-wide competition to see who can get the dirtiest uniform on any given day. Here Ortmeier takes the lead after stealing his 2nd base in 2 days. If he gets a chance to play........Ortmeier will surprise you with his speed.

Tyler Walker does his impression of the Joker. I wouldn't want to meet that face in a dark alley.

Carlos Sosa came over from the Minor League camp and made an appearance. He was hitless in his only AB. Carlos will be 25 in May and hit .271 while playing in the outfield at AA Connecticut last year.

Giants 4, White Sox 3

Before I get into the game, I want to relate a little story. During my usual interaction with fans at the game I met a man who was a Marine Officer from Camp Pendleton. During the course of our conversation he said that Barry Zito had paid for 28 Marines (most of them recovering from injuries in Iraq) to come out to Arizona for a couple of days. About half of them were seated in the section next to mine and the rest were in the next section over. They went to Don & Charlies for dinner last night, the game today and were going to Frasher's for dinner tonight. Zito paid for the dinners and also paid for their transportation and hotel costs. The dinner tonight was supposed to be attended by Zito and several other baseball players and MLB officials. The young men were all very appreciative of Zito and MLB and cheered Zito enthusiastically for his 5 2/3 innings. Several of them had quite visible scars, but that did not temper their enthusiasm for the game. As it turned out Zito had his best game of the spring (by far). After seeing some of these guys and hearing of their appreciation, I will have a hard time getting on Zito for poor performance in the future. I don't want to get political here, but I couldn't help being choked up by the sacrifices made by these men and being grateful to Barry Zito and MLB for caring.

Now as for the game, Zito was exceptional. His worst inning as far as pitches thrown was the 1st, though it was through no fault of his own. The first batter popped out to Fred Lewis in LF, although it was an adventure, as Fred lost the ball in the sun before recovering and making a last second catch. The second batter got a double on a ball to the wall that Fred should have caught, but again he appeared to lose the ball in the sun and the ball hit about 2 feet up the wall as Fred ducked out of the way to keep the ball from hitting him in the head. Zito got the last 2 batters of the inning on groundballs, after a 21 pitch inning. After the 1st, Zito cut down the pitch count and lasted 5 2/3 innings. I was surprised that the Giants let him throw 92 pitches on the day (52 strikes). I was even more surprised that he tallied 4 K's on the day after having none all spring. He ended up allowing only 2 hits and 3 walks with one of the walks being erased by a 5-4-3 DP. The key today was that Zito's curveball was really on. He had that good 12 to 6 job and he was throwing it for strikes as 2 of his strikeouts were swinging and 2 of them on called strike 3. Although he had a very good day, Zito had 8 batters take him to 3 ball counts. He really does not have much margin for error. A couple of strike calls one way or the other has a big effect on his game.

Keiichi Yabu replaced Zito with 2 out in the 6th and got out of the inning rather quickly. In fact, Yabu pitched the 7th inning and had another extremely fast inning. It took him all of 9 pitches (7 strikes) to dispatch all 4 batters he faced. I really don't want a 39 year old reliever on the team........but Yabu is pitching really well. Tyler Walker pitched the 8th and after 2 quick outs gave up a single and a wild pitch, which allowed the runner to advance to 2B. Tyler ended the inning with a 7 pitch strikeout.

Brian Wilson had a disappointing inning in the 9th as he started the inning with a single, triple and double allowing the White Sox to tie the game. Wilson then got the next 3 batters in a row but allowed a SAC fly to one of them to allow the Sox to take the lead 3-2. Once again Wilson showed that it is possible to be wild WITHIN the strike zone as he threw 18 pitches with all but 4 of them being strikes. You get the ball up in the zone......you get hit. I was a little surprised both Walker and Wilson were used in back-to-back games the last 2 days.......but it appears the Giants are working their pitchers a little harder in the spring than we are used to seeing.

As far as offense goes, the Giants had a bunch of hits (10 to be exact), but were only able to score 2 runs in the 1st inning and 2 runs in the last inning. Dan Ortmeier and Fred Lewis were the only Giants to have 2 hits. Lewis and Stephen Holm had the only extra base hits (a triple and a double). Ortmeier stole another base and Eugenio Velez stole his 12th of the spring. Velez also committed another error when he appeared to call Aaron Rowand off and then dropped a popup on the last batter that Zito faced. The winning run of the game was knocked in on a two out pinch hit single by Eliezer Alfonzo, of all people. Alfonzo got his 4th hit of the spring and raised his average to .098.

I was disappointed in Wilson's performance, but it was a very good performance by Zito and a nice comeback in the bottom of the 9th when honestly, I thought the game was over. I don't expect the Giants to have a good season, but if by some stretch of luck they do decently, it will be because they have a bunch of games like this. Good starting pitching and timely hitting does a lot to help win games........not to mention to improve the fans' attitude (at least THIS fan's attitude).

Giants 1, Angels 8

Well, today was yet another bad game for the Giants. This one really had no socially redeemable qualities if you are a Giants' fan. Although Jonathan Sanchez only gave up 2 earned runs, unlike Kevin Correia last night, he probably deserved to give up more than even the 4 total runs he gave up. 10 hits (including 3 doubles) in 5 innings is WAY too many. The only thing that saved him was that, like Correia last night, he gave up ZERO walks. The 5 strikeouts were nice, but it is amazing to me that if not for a Eugenio Velez error on an easy bounding ball at 3B, he would only have given up 2 runs. He had good control as far as hitting the strike zone, but his control WITHIN the zone was lacking. You get the ball up…..and Major League hitters will hit it.

After Sanchez left the game, Tyler Walker came in and gave up another couple of runs on 2 hits; the big blow was a HR by Erick Aybar. Another too good pitch that allowed a HR by a skinny little SS who has all of 1 HR in 234 Major League ABs. After giving up 2 runs with no outs, Walker then got the next 3 batters to end the inning. Brian Wilson followed and gave up another run on 2 singles, while collecting 1 strikeout. Wilson was somewhat victimized by circumstances in his inning. The first hit he gave up was a groundball that was just out of the reach of Ryan Rohlinger at 3B. The second hit was a little looper that landed between the secondbaseman and the rightfielder. Personally, I think both Velez at 2B and I believe it was Tyler Graham in RF got pretty bad jumps on the ball….but in any case, neither ball was hit very hard. Bartolome Fortunato also gave up a run in his 1 inning of work. His run was richly deserved as he gave up 3 hits and a walk. Luckily, all 3 outs in his inning were by strikeouts or he would have given up more than just the one run. Bottom line is that every Giants pitcher gave up at least one run. That is never a good thing, no matter what the circumstances. The only good news is that the walk by Fortunato was the only walk allowed by Giants' pitchers on the day.

The news offensively was….……….well there was no offense to discuss. The Giants only had 4 hits, all singles by Aaron Rowand, Daniel Ortmeier, Rich Aurilia and Brian Bocock. Bocock had the only RBI on the day. Ortmeier also stole a base. Eugenio Velez did walk twice and stole a base. But that was negated by the fact that he was on 3B with 1 out, when he got caught too far off 3B on a ball hit right to the thirdbaseman. Velez made the second out and snuffed out one of the few scoring opportunities the Giants had all day. Just a bone-head play. It looks like the Giants are giving Justin Leone a look as a super utility guy. Leone played 3B, 1B, 2B and RF all in this one game. Unfortunately, he also took an 0 for 4 collar with a strikeout.

All in all an ugly game. An 8-1 snoozer where you heard a lot more Giants fans groaning and moaning than you heard balls hitting Giants bats. For those interested, I will post some photos after we get back from dinner or tomorrow morning at the latest..

Giants 2, Cubs 4, March 19th

In the only night game of the spring, the Cubs played small ball a lot better than the Giants in winning this game. The Cubs got an infield "hit" in the first inning and scored the first run of the game without hitting the ball out of the infield. The "hit" was another case of bad defense as Daniel Ortmeier ranged to his right to field a ground ball and Kevin Correia got off the mound too slowly and was unable to beat the runner to the bag. This is about the 5th or 6th time this spring that I have seen a Giants pitcher fail to cover or be slow to cover 1B, resulting in a base hit. By the end of the second, the Cubs had 2 runs on 3 hits, only 2 of which left the infield.

By contrast, by the time there was one out in the 3rd, the Giants had 5 hits, one of them a triple, and had scored zippo. A no out DP by Aaron Rowand in the first ended that threat and a DP by Ryan Rohlinger in the second pretty much ruined that inning. The Giants out hit the Cubs and had 10 hits on the day, but managed to only score 2 runs (Rowand hit into a 2nd DP later in the game). Even with the DPs the Giants still led the Cubs with 8 men left on base as opposed to only 4 for the Cubs. Ortmeier finally had a good offensive game, going 2 for 4 with a triple and an RBI. Dave Roberts, Ray Durham and Rajai Davis also had 2 hit games.

Speaking of Ryan Rohlinger, players who come over from the Minor League camp wear jersey's in the 80's and 90's with no name on the jersey. I noticed when Rohlinger took the field he was no longer wearing his customary #90 with no name on the back. He was wearing #48 with his name on it. I made the assumption, which was proven correct when I read the paper this morning, that Ryan had been added to the Major League camp. So naturally, since he was promoted to the big time and given a chance to start at 3B, Rohlinger went 0 for 3, with a DP, a strikeout and 3 men left on base, while dropping his average from .400 to .308. Not a good start.

Speaking of player movements, Nate Schierholtz was optioned to AAA by the Giants yesterday. As predicted, the only outfield candidate with an option left was the odd man out. What I didn't predict was that the Giants would give him no real chance to win a job. I can't remember the last time he had more than 1 AB in a non-split squad game and he was given only 35 ABs, 12th most on the team. I would have expected the Giants to give him as many ABs as Davis and Lewis (48 & 44 respectively), but they didn't. He got a few starts in the first few games and after that......nothing. Nice reward for batting .333 in Fresno and .304 in San Francisco last year. As you can tell, I am not real happy with the Giants' handling (or mishandling) of Nate.

The good news is that the pitching was really good last night. Correia deserved a better fate as he really only threw 2 bad pitches (a 2B to Soto and a HR to Cedeno). More importantly, he didn't walk anyone. Correia gave up 7 hits in 6 full innings and allowed 4 runs. By contrast, the Cubs starter gave up 7 hits, plus a walk, in 5 innings and only gave up 1 run. Despite the talk.......the Giants are still playing station-to-station baseball.

The relievers had yet another good game as Erick Threets, Brad Hennessey and Jack Tashner combined to throw 3 innings of no run, 1 hit, 1 walk baseball. Taschner struck out 2 in his inning of work and lowered his ERA to .096. Jack has been probably the best reliever of the spring. He surely has wrapped up one lefty spot in the pen, with Threets and Steve Kline fighting over the other. Threets should have a big lead, but you know how the Giants love their vets.

We went for an early dinner with some friends before the game, so I didn't bring my camera to the game. I will bring the camera to today's game and post some photos tonight or tomorrow morning for those of you who enjoy the visual accounts of the game.

Giants 2, Angels 5, March 16th

There really isn't much to say about yesterday's game........except this: Is there any way on earth we can find a pitching coach who can design a warm up routine so that the Giants' starting pitchers can come out of the pen throwing well immediately, instead of righting the ship in the 2nd inning after giving up runs in the 1st? That problem and wildness have been Giants trademarks for YEARS now. It hasn't been just this spring.

I didn't take either a scorebook or my camera to yesterday's game. The weatherman predicted showers all day, and a wet camera and scorebook are not my list of favorite things. Of course the weatherman was 99% wrong since we saw only a couple of drops of rain all day long. At any rate it was an easy game to review, even without my usual aides.

Matt Cain threw a beautiful game, except for the 1st inning where he spotted the Angels 5 runs. Only 4 of the runs were earned, thanks to a groundball that Ray Durham booted. Cain had a couple of chances to get out of the first with much less damage. First there was Ray-Ray's boot, which was a probable DP ball. Then Matt himself picked a runner off of 1B and correctly ran right at the runner. But, apparently Matt didn't trust his teammates to tell him about what was happening with the runner on 3B (as he should have) and he kept looking over his shoulder, instead of concentrating on the runner trying to get back to 1B. By the time he decided the runner wasn't going from 3B, Matt's toss to Rich Aurilia was too late and everyone was safe.

Lack of defensive fundamentals are killing this team and it isn't just the normal defensive players. The pitchers have had more than their share of problems in failing to cover 1B, failure to get off the mound to field bunts and doinks and failed pick off plays. Usually, the pitchers gaffes go unnoticed, because many times they aren't called errors. But, they hurt the ERA even more than a fielder's scored error. Since low ERA's earn you greater salaries, you would think that fact alone would be enough to motivate them to work on their defense.

After the first, Cain was excellent, becoming the first Giants pitcher to go 6 full innings and allowing no more runs on only 4 more hits. And actually, it should have been only 3 more hits. On one of the "hits" Durham struck again as he booted a groundball that was somehow ruled a hit by the official scorekeeper. This one was probably an easier play than the one that was ruled an error. It was hit harder, but Ray barely had to move. The official scorekeeper at Scottsdale Stadium apparently believes that if a 12 year old Little Leaguer would have a hard time making the play.....then it is not an error. At any rate, this one didn't affect the scoring. Matt didn't bring his strikeout stuff to the park as he only had 2 K's through 6 innings.....but then again, he only walked 1 and I will take that tradeoff any day. I HATE free passes.

The relief staff continued the string of scoreless innings as Bartolome Fortunato walked 1 and struck out 1, Tyler Walker walked 1 and struck out 2 and Brian Wilson gave up the only hit by a reliever (a single) but walked no one and also had a strikeout. When I first saw Fortunato in practice, I had no idea who he was. But as the spring has played on, he has inserted himself into the bullpen picture and is sporting a 1.35 spring ERA. Fortunato is trying to make those last couple of bullpen decisions a little harder on the Giants' coaching staff.

There wasn't much to comment on in the offensive department.......because the Giants had no offense to speak of. The Giants only had 5 hits on the day.....all of them singles. In fact, Matt Cain had the first Giants hit of the day (bringing his average up to .400). Luckily the Giants bunched 3 of their singles together in the 7th and Rich Aurilia had an RBI on a groundout and Nate Schierholtz had an RBI single.

The first inning and poor defense continue to kill the Giants. This would have been a good game if the Giants pitching and defense had played as well in the 1st as they did in the next 8 innings. You just aren't going to win too many games when you give up 5 runs in the first.

Well, the Giants have Tuesday off and I am going to skip the 4 hour round trip drive to Tucson today, so I have a 2 day break from baseball. It has been 20 straight days at the ballpark for practices or games and I let a number of things slip that I need to take care off over the next 2 days. I will be back at it on Wednesday for a night game against the Cubs at Scottsdale Stadium.

Giants 14, Mariners 8, March 15th

I am going to keep this one short, many of you probably saw the game on TV anyway. Besides, my readership is dropping daily, so I think many of you are getting tired of Spring Training.

Once again, the Giants' offense bailed out the pitching. Now THAT'S a phrase I didn't think I would be typing that many times this year. Today was the "Tale of Two Zitos" at Scottsdale Stadium. "Bad Zito" pitched the 1st, 5th and 1/3rd of the 6th innings. In those innings he gave up 7 runs on 4 hits (2 HRs), 3 walks and threw 48 pitches, only half of them strikes. "Good Zito" pitched the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings. In those innings he gave up zero runs on 3 hits (2 of which were erased on a DP and a pickoff) and walked none. In the "good" innings Zito threw only 31 pitches all but 8 of them strikes.

When you only throw the ball 84 MPH, you need to have pinpoint accuracy. You can not afford to only throw 50% strikes as he did in the "bad" innings. The Grand Slam in the first inning came on an 2-0 count and the HR in the 6th inning came on a 2-1 count. Fall behind in the count, throw an 84 MPH meatball down the middle........it gets hit VERY hard. Sounds reasonable to me.

The Giants brought their hitting shoes to the park today as 5 players had multiple hits (Durham, Winn, Molina, Rowand and Aurilia). When your 2, 3, 4, 5 hitters all have 2 hit days........you are going to score some runs. In the good news/bad news department, offensive category; The good news is that Durham, Winn and Rowand all hit opposite field HRs. The bad news was that the wind was again blowing pretty hard out to RF. None of the hits would have been HRs at ATT Park.......and probably 1 or 2 of them wouldn't even have been a HR at Scottsdale on a calmer day. Still, 14 runs is 14 runs........and 8 of them came off of Erik Bedard who was #5 in the AL Cy Young voting last year.

As an aside, Ryan Rohlinger came in to play 3B late in the game. He went 1 for 2 with a 3 run double. Ryan is from the Minor League camp and has only played in split squad games this spring. In his 7 ABs, he has 4 hits, including 2 doubles, a HR, 3 runs scored and 7 RBI. Lest you get too excited about the Giants having found the answer at 3B, Ryan hit only .235 at Augusta (low A) in 506 ABs in 2007......but he is having a heck of a spring!!

That's it for today. A ton of hitting and runs......not much pitching. Just the opposite of what most of us thought we would be seeing.