Oakland A’s (ss) at San Francisco Giants (ss): Giants Lose, Pence Homers

If you were looking for a great matchup between the two teams from the Bay, this was not the game for you. It got ugly early and the split-squad Giants never really put together a rally to challenge the split-squad A’s. Oakland won by a final of 8-1 at Scottsdale Stadium.

There’s not much meat from this game when it comes to a blow by blow recap. So let’s look at some of the important notes from the afternoon game down in Scottsdale.

Matt Cain finally gave up some runs this Spring. The A’s touched him up for 7 total runs in his 2 2/3 innings of work. After only allowing one base runner in his previous 7 innings, Cain allowed 6 hits, walked 3 batters and hit Yoenis Cespedes. To be fair, Yoenis wasn’t hit by the pitch, it glanced off his bat instead. There was no replay for this game.

The main damage was done by Luke Montz and Stephen Vogt who both homered to center off Cain. Not many balls were really hit hard and it didn’t hurt the A’s that Gary Brown lost one in the sun in the 1st inning. He made a good read on the ball, just lost it at the last second.

It got better for Gary Brown. He threw out Montz trying to score on a single to end the top of the 3rd inning. It was a strong, impressive throw by the youngster that gave Buster plenty of time to apply the tag.

Hunter Pence continued to look ready for the season by launching a solo shot deep to score the only run for the Giants.

Sergio Romo pitched for the first time since last Saturday against Seattle when he didn’t record an out. He got all 3 today as he induced 2 ground balls sandwiched around a walk. He lowered his Spring ERA to 24.75.

Erik Cordier worked the 8th inning He routinely hit 98 on the gun and it was good to see him get 3 straight outs after a leadoff walk.

Derek Law pitched a roller coaster of a 9th inning. His line went walk, K, single, K, BB, groundout. For good measure he threw a wild pitch with the bases loaded to let in a run. It wasn’t his best day for control but he was able to vary speeds on his pitches.

At least the Giants split squad was able to beat Seattle in Peoria earlier in the day.