Practice Game

As you can see from the photo to the left.....Duane Kuiper was on hand to witness the Giants' intra-squad game today. After a quick round of BP the practice game started at around 11:00. It went 4 innings as advertised and was over (as was practice) by a few minutes after noon. Most, if not all, of the Giants veterans did not play and only 2 of the 8 pitchers who threw were part of the Giants' Major League camp.

The lineups for the 2 teams were as follows; TEAM 1: Emmanuel Burriss led off and played 2B, Ben Copeland OF, John Bowker OF, Daniel Ortmeier 1B, Scott McClain DH, Clay Timpner OF, Justin Leone 3B, Pablo Sandoval C and Ivan Ochoa SS. After the first couple of innings Eliezer Alfonzo replaced Ortmeier at 1B. TEAM 2: Eugenio Velez at 2B, Fred Lewis OF, Nate Schierholtz OF, Brett Harper DH, Travis Ishikawa 1B, Travis Denker 3B, Stephen Holm C, Brian Bocock SS and Michael McBryde OF. First time I can ever remember seeing back-to-back Travis' in a lineup. No Durham, Frandsen, Aurilia, Molina, Rodriguez, Roberts, Rowand or Winn. Remove Molina who is still injured and add Ortmeier....and I am betting that is your starting lineup for tomorrow's Cactus League opener.

The pitchers for TEAM 1: The 1st inning was thrown by a player with the last name of Gryboski. The only Gryboski I can find who ever played is Kevin Gryboski who is 34 and was in the Pirates' organization last year. This guy looks old enough to be him. The 2nd inning was thrown by Ryan Sadowski who was in AA Connecticut last year. Then Eugene Espineli also from the Defenders. And finally the only pitcher in the Major League camp Kelvin Pichardo. TEAM 2: Adam Cowart who was in low A Augusta in 2007. Next up was Alex Hinshaw, also from Connecticut. The 3rd inning belonged to a pitcher by the last name of Mateo. I have no idea who this guy is. And finally, team 2's lone pitcher from the big league camp, Jose Capellan.

Team 2 won the game 3-2. Manny Burris led the game off with a walk off of Cowart, followed by a first pitch stolen base. He advanced to 3B on a no out fly ball to RF. Unfortunately, he was left stranded by Bowker and Ortmeier. Gryboski pitched a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom half.

The second inning featured perfect innings thrown by Hinshaw and Sadowski.

The top of the 3rd inning also featured a perfect 1-2-3 tossed by Mateo. In the bottom half of the inning Espineli had a little trouble after Holm led off and got on base due to a throwing error by Leone. Holm did a nice job of getting his big body down under an attempted sweep tag by Alfonzo. A couple of singles and a missed cutoff man later, team 2 had a 2-0 lead.

That lead didn't last long as Capellan had a poor inning giving up a walk, a couple of singles and a double by Clay Timpner. By the time the top of the 4th was over, Team 1 had tied it up 2-2. Pichardo got the loss when he gave up a run on a couple of singles. All in all not an encouraging performance by the 2 pitchers who are in the Major League camp as they gave up 3 of the 5 runs in a 3-2 Team 2 win.

Sorry I did not get more specific as to the player's performances. I did not keep score for this "game" so all of the above is strictly from memory with a little reminder from the photos. Rather than posting individual captions for each photo.....I am just going to post a selection of photos without comment. If you have any questions I will try to answer them in the comments sections later. I am running a bit behind today as I just got back from picking up my wife at the airport and I better spend a little time with her since it has been 2 weeks since I saw her.

Tomorrow is the first game of the Cactus League schedule. Giants vs Cubs at Scottsdale. I enjoyed the intra-squad game very much......but I am ready for a real 9 inning game.