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.