And the spring beatings go on
If Friday’s game against the Royals were three innings long, Friday would have been a good day for the Giants.
The Giants were knocking out hit after hit in building a 3-0 lead against Royals starter Vin Mazzaro. Madison Bumgarner was sailing, retiring nine of the first 10 batters he faced.
And then things went bad. Very bad.
The Royals tagged Bumgarner for four runs in the fourth and four more in the fifth. In the end, MadBum gave up eight earned runs on 10 hits in 4 1/3 innings on the way to the Royals winning 15-3. Yikes.
“I think the biggest thing was that I was missing over the middle a lot more,” Bumgarner said. “Early on, I was hitting spots pretty well. I don’t know if it was fatigue, but obviously I’d rather have better results.”
So would we. But Bumgarner did get himself stretch out. He’s slated to pitch again on Wednesday against the A’s in the preseason finale, then make his 2011 regular season debut on April 5 at San Diego. If there was a positive note, it’s that Bumgarner didn’t walk anyone. So it was clear that he wasn’t trying to be too fine.
On the flip side, Santiago Casilla, a candidate to close in the event Brian Wilson is not ready to open the season, had a terrible outing. He gave up five runs in the sixth to the Royals, walking four in the process.
But the Giants play twice on Saturday, doubling their chances of snapping this skid of five losses and seven losses out of eight.
The Giants will roll out an A lineup against the Reds Saturday afternoon of: CF Torres, 2B Sanchez, RF Huff, C Posey, LF Burrell, 3B Sandoval, SS Tejada, 1B DeRosa, SP Lincecum.
It could be the opening day lineup. We could also see DeRosa in RF and Huff at 1B in the opener. The other option is Rowand in CF, Torres in RF and Huff at 1B. Remember, the Giants are facing lefty Clayton Kershaw in the opener.
The Giants will send the B lineup against the Indians Saturday night: 2B Fontenot, RF Schierholtz, 1B Belt, CF Rowand, LF Ishikawa, 3B Rohlinger, SS Crawford, C Whiteside, DH TBA, P Vogelsong.
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