Another season has begun for the San Francisco Giants, this year with the hope of turning around a dismal performance last year as the defending World Series Champions. Madison Bumgarner received the nod to start the first game of the season after being one of the only bright spots in the 2013 Giants season, he was 13-9 with a 2.77 ERA (5th best in the league among qualifying pitchers) and was able to be the horse of the staff with 200+ innings. The young lefty made his first opening day start of his career and hopefully not his last. After a superb spring training for Bumgarner, Bochy seemed poised to watch his ace take the season the same way he left Scottsdale where he was untouchable.
Bumgarner struggled in his first start of the season, having to constantly pitch from the stretch and in his 4 innings of work did not record a 1-2-3 inning. He was able to get in and out of jams through the first 3 innings unscathed. The Giants we able to score first when Angel Pagan hit a two out RBI single in the 3rd inning scoring Brandon Crawford. He was plagued by unfortunate defense behind him but was unable to work around those miscues by Brandon Belt and Pablo Sandoval which cost them in an endless 4th inning. This was when the D-backs really broke the game open and put a 4 spot on the board and capitalized on all the miscues by the Giants, capped with a 2 RBI double by Aaron Hill. The biggest problem I saw with Bumgarner tonight was his inability to control the hitters in the 4th inning like he did in the first 3. The D-backs were able to drive his pitches. His strikeout numbers were down because he did not do a good job of keeping the hitters off balance consistently. The Giants scratched across a run in the 5th on a ground out by pinch hitter Gregor Blanco. I was disappointed with the at bat of Joaquin Arias when he came up with runners on second and third, nobody out and was unable to make a productive out. Yusimero Petit came in to relieve Bumgarner and struggled to settle into any kind of a groove as he gave up 4 straight hits to start the inning which put him in a hole. More bad defense by the Giants allowed another run to score, but Petit composed himself and was able to limit the damage. In the 6th Belt got a hold of a fastball that leaked over the middle of the plate and parked it over the right center field wall. The Giants really came alive in the 7th inning thanks to hits from Morse, pinch hitter Ehire Adrianza, Pagan, Belt, Sandoval and Posey. This was the inning of offense that I have been waiting to see from the Giants bats, they have never been a flashy team that will hit home runs everywhere, it is all about base hits. After the game was tied at 7-7, Jean Machi took over out of the Giants pen with his ridiculous moving fork ball that he developed over the off season that made the D-backs hitters look foolish. Its sharp downward bite allows him to strike out both righty's and lefty's. Buster Posey took to the skies in the 9th with a two-run bomb that put the Giants ahead 9-7. Very fat pitch by Addison Reed, tried to go inside on Posey, which he has not learned, is a big mistake. Romo shut it down in the bottom of the ninth with the help of his nasty slider and a filthy changeup to Eric Chavez for a clutch strikeout.
San Francisco 9, Arizona 8
W- Machi (1-0)
L- Reed (0-1)
S- Romo (1)
Monday March 31, 2014
