Monday, March 20, 2006

Giants vs Brewers - March 19th, 2006

When I looked out of my window at about 8:00 am, I never thought the game today would happen. As long as I have been coming to Scottsdale, I have never seen it hail here before. It was cold and windy, but the rain stopped and they got the game in, with nary a drop of rain falling once the game began. The Giants, in a split squad game, lost to the Brewers 4-2.

Matt Morris started the game and got a good workout in. He didn’t look particularly sharp. His breaking ball in particular seemed to do a lot of hanging about waist high, making it very hittable. Morris did become the first Giants pitcher to go 6 full innings on the spring. He gave up 8 hits, including 2 doubles, a triple and a HR; a walk, 4 earned runs and recorded 5 strikeouts. I was a little surprised the Giants let Morris throw 93 pitches this early, but he seemed to handle it well, even looking a little stronger in his last 2 innings than he did in the first 4.

Steve Kline and Matt Kinney finished up the game with 3 scoreless innings. Kline looked a little rough, giving up 2 hits before getting out of his only inning with a strikeout. Kinney gave up only 1 hit in his 2 innings of work, but walked 2 to go along with his 2 strikeouts.

Offensively, the Giants continued their usual inability to get the timely hit. They had as many hits as the Brewers, 11. In addition they had 3 walks and a Brewer error and still managed only 2 runs while stranding 11 men on base, hitting into 1 double play and having one runner (Tyler Von Shell) thrown out on the bases trying to stretch a double into a triple.

Today marked the return of Randy Winn and Omar Vizquel from WBC play. Winn looked very rusty going 0 for 4 with a strikeout. Omar looked like he was in midseason form going 1 for 3 at the plate with a walk and 1 run scored. Omar was in the middle of a 4-6-3 DP and fielded several groundballs with his usual ease.

The remainder of the Giants hit well……but not when it mattered. The Giants only runs were knocked in by a RBI single by pitcher Matt Morris and a SAC fly from Todd Linden.

Because of the threatened rain, I did not bring my camera to the game…..so no photos again today. Today is the Giants only off-day of the spring. Next game will be the Giants vs the A’s at Scottsdale on Tuesday.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes, Sunday's game was cold. It was a good warm up for April night games in San Jose (except that I will have more than a t-shirt, jeans and windbreaker in April). I posted a few shots from the game on Flickr

Anonymous said...

GF9
Really hope you revive the blog again this year.
Despite the weirdos out there, there are plenty of red blooded Giants Fans that LOVED your work last year.

Here is to a great 2007

Merkin