San Francisco Giants Beat Reds 9-5, Move to 3-0 This Spring

The San Francisco Giants defeated the Cincinnati Reds in their third game of Spring Training, blasting three home-runs in the process. They move to 3-0 in Cactus League play.

In three meaningless games, the San Francisco Giants Giants have scored 23 runs. Today, they defeated the Reds for the second time in three days by a score of 9-5. Right now, things look quite nice. We’ll see how long it keeps going. In meaningless games like very early spring training games, we must take overall outcomes with a grain of salt. Pre-season in MLB, like it is in all sports, is purely used to get players ready. So we look at individual performances

Even this early it’s almost pointless to look at individual performances. However, for the purposes of keeping you updated on the way things are going, we’re going to take a couple of positives, and a few negatives. Today, there will be a lot more positive things, just because things simply look good at the moment.

Positives

Competition is Good

The big thing going into Spring Training has been “Wow there are a lot of guys capable of making the team in camp.” The Giants in the past have been pretty set on who gets in, with maybe one or two spots up for grabs. This year, the backup competition is wide open, and a few feature spots, including the fifth starter and left field are wide open. Over the last few days, we’ve seen a lot of the competition jumping into the heat of it straight away. Aaron Hill and Jae-Gyun Hwang had good days yesterday, and then Connor Gillaspie hits a two-run homer today. Then Hwang followed that with another RBI single. The competition between those three to be on the roster is definitely heating up and might just stay hot for a while.

Another couple competitions to look at was for the fifth starter and left field. Today, Parker impressed hitting an opposite field solo-shot. But then Mac Willamson’s came up clutch with two fantastic defensive plays in the outfield corner. Williamson’s defense was good last year, and will continue to be part of the package he tries to sell to Bochy and Evans. For the fifth starter spot, Tyler Beede had the best first day of any of those in competition. Both Ty Blach and Matt Cain gave up runs in their first appearance; while Beede put together two strong, scoreless innings. We’ll see what happens in the long run, but a really strong spring from Beede might be too hard to ignore, especially if Cain and Blach struggle.

DON’T PANIK, JOE IS BACK

One of the biggest detractors from the offense last year (in my opinion) was Joe Panik. Panik had a rough start and was still fighting off some injuries. Right as he was about to find his stride, Matt Moore drilled him in the head, giving him a concussion, throwing him off until the postseason. In the post-season we saw the return of Panik’s impeccable vision and timing. Today, he blasted a two-run bomb in the early parts of the game. Hopefully 2016 was just a minor blip for Panik, and he can go back to being the rightful number two hitter in the squad. After all, he’s better suited there than most on the roster.

Negatives

Matt Reynolds Struggling

The Giants were really hoping that Reynolds would be a good addition to the pen in 2016. He really wasn’t, and so far he hasn’t helped himself. After Moore got into trouble in the second inning, Reynolds came in and gave up four hits and three runs. Not good. Not many gave Reynolds a chance to make the roster out of spring. Maybe he gets it together and challenges for a fringe spot. But it just doesn’t look like he’ll end up on the roster.

Next: Top 10 Right Fielders of Giants History

The Giants next Cactus League Game is 2/27 against the Oakland Athletics. First Pitch is 12:05, and you can listen on KNBR 680.