Giants beat Angels in Cactus League Opener

The Giants won their first Cactus League Opener, as they beat the Los Angeles Angels 4-1, the exact same score the beat the Angels by in their Cactus League Opener in 2013.

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The Giants sent one of their new acquisitions, Jeff Samardzija to the mound, and Buster Posey caught just two innings to get some experience with Samardzija, who surrendered a run in the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Rafael Ortega, which scored Angels’ catcher Carlos Perez.

Conor Gillaspie, who is back for his second stint in the Giants’ organization, committed an error at third base in the top of the third inning, but he quickly made up for it as he homered to right field lead off the bottom of the same inning.

Clayton Blackburn came in to pitch in the fourth, and he took a line drive off his shin, which deflected to Gillaspie at third, who threw to first to get Craig Gentry out anyway. It was a painful assist for Blackburn, who took another come-backer in the fifth, which resulted in a hit for Cliff Pennington. Manager Bruce Bochy removed Blackburn from the game, but Blackburn appeared to be fine, as he walked off the field without a problem. That hit turned out to be the final base-runner the Angels got for the game, as Giants’ pitchers set down the final 13 Angels’ hitters.

The Giants struck for three runs in the bottom of the sixth off Cam Bedrosian, the son of former Giant Steve Bedrosian. This was after the Giants had replaced all of their starting defensive players, and one of the big hits was a ground-rule double off the bat of Christian Arroyo, who is one of the big stories in camp this year.

Javier Lopez and Derek Law pitched 1-2-3 innings in the seventh and eighth innings, and George Kontos, who had a breakout season last year, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the game.