Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Giants @ Padres - March 7th, 2006

Well, for yesterday’s game you can pretty much take the first paragraph of the Angels game review, change a few names and use it for the first paragraph here. The Padres started essentially their regular starting lineup, the Giants played only 1 starter and 1 player who is certain to make the team and still walked away with a 12-3 victory. What’s more, the regulars really didn’t contribute much with Lance Niekro going 1 for 4 with a run scored and Steve Finley going 0 for 2.

Yesterday was the attack of the offensive lineman. In just about every Giants’ rally, the guys with numbers in the 70’s figured prominently. Kevin Frandsen (#79) got the party started with a solo HR in the 1st inning. Todd Greene (#78) went 1 for 3 with a run scored. Tomas De La Rosa (#72) went 2 for 5 with 2 runs scored and an RBI. And the best performance from an offensive lineman came from Abraham Nunez (#73), who went 4 for 4 with 2 runs & 1 RBI. Add in Angel Chavez’ 3 for 3 with a run and 3 RBI and Derin McMains’ 1 for 1 with a 3 run HR (his second of the spring) and you pretty much have all the Giants scoring. Yet another game where the Giants kids pounded out 16 hits against pitchers like Chris Young, Andy Ashby and Trevor Hoffman.

Meanwhile, the Padres regulars tallied only 7 hits against youngsters like Matt Cain, Erick Threats, Matt Anderson, Jonathan Sanchez, Jeff Miller, Brian Wilson and Michael Tejera. In what has become a trend for Giants pitchers this spring, Cain pitched 2 scoreless innings before giving up a run in the third. He looked good and only gave up 2 hits and 1 walk in his 3 innings. He also tallied 3 strikeouts. Erick Threets pitched the 3rd inning and did his best imitation of Rick Vaughn from Major League. He was wild when he started the inning and hit the first batter he faced. He gave up a hit to go along with the HBP and then got out of the inning by striking out 2. In a nice touch, an obviously knowledgeable person in the control booth played “Wild Thing” on the stadium sound system as Threets came to the mound and warmed up.

Sanchez gave up 2 runs on 2 walks and a hit. Then Miller, Wilson and Tejera shut down the Padres for the last 3 innings on a total of 2 hits and 1 walk. Brian Wilson was a little wild, giving the walk and 1 of the hits.

Once again the depleted Giants, easily handled a team that you would think would have a big advantage given the numbers of Major League vs Minor League players for each team. The kids continue to play hard and show that they want management to look their way when vacancies occur on the 25 man roster.

Today, it is back to Peoria for the Giants vs the Mariners. Then this evening it is Mexico vs South Africa at Scottsdale Stadium.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What happened to Sanchez..he had an ugly line for only an inning