Saturday, February 28, 2009

Giants (4) at Mariners (6)

The Giants lost again today running their record to 1-3. This was a back-and-forth game with the lead changing hands 3 times. Barry Zito pitched about as well as I have seen him pitch during Spring Training. The only qualifier is that I thought he got a couple of pretty generous calls from the home plate umpire. The only real disappointment of the day was Alex Hinshaw. This is another pitcher I had hoped would be a big help this year. He couldn't get out of his inning and was hit hard pretty much anytime he came in over the plate. Ronnie Ray and Joey Martinez also gave up runs, but they are not expected to contribute this year, so I am not so bothered by their performance.

The offense was pretty good, but you should probably score more than 4 runs when you get 10 hits with a HR and 4 doubles. Fred Lewis got his first HR of the spring. If you look at the photo below, you can see the HR ball leaving his bat. Kevin Frandsen manufactured a run when he got yet another basehit, induced the pitcher to balk him to 2B, took 3B on a flyball out and scored on a 2 out basehit by Pablo Sandoval. Kevin is now hitting .800 for the spring.

Also below I included a photo of Tyler Walker. Is it just me or did Tyler finally lose some weight? Watch him have a great year this year for Seattle.

Not a bad game to watch...but at 1-3, the Giants are starting down the same road they traveled last spring when it became hard to even watch the games. Hopefully they can do better tomorrow at home against the Brewers.


3 comments:

DrBGiantsfan said...

I don't generally put a lot of stock in spring trainging performances, espectially this early, but I think it was extremely important for Barry Zito to get off on the right foot. He's going to have to maintain it, but that should be a lot easier than digging himself out of the holes he's dug the last two years.

Anonymous said...

I was very happy to see Zito starting in a good way.
I always liked him, and i was by his side also last year when he was performing badly.
I think the very concerning thing is our bullpen...come on...who's going to bring the game from the starter to Howry and Wilson?
We have a 2 inning-hole and no good relievers to put in...at least jundging from what we saw till now.
I hope things will change or it will be a long long season...

Zott said...

I'm happy Franny is doing well. I've been holding out for him for years...
Thanks for the posts.