Marrero Homers Again as San Francisco Giants Beat Puerto Rico

The San Francisco Giants took down Puerto Rico 6-5 on Wednesday as they get ready for the World Baseball Classic.

We’ve already written about Chris Marrero this spring and his power potential off the bench, and he keeps proving why he’s so valuable.

Against Puerto Rico on Wednesday he blasted his fourth home run of spring training. The games against colleges and WBC teams don’t count towards a player’s spring training stats, but he now has 6 hits in 23 at-bats with four of them going over the fence.

That is something that Bruce Bochy and the San Francisco Giants staff has to take into consideration when deciding who will make the big league club out of camp.

Mike Morse, who Marrero is in competition with, also homered in this game.

Other highlights from this game include Jeff Samardzija going 3.2 innings and allowing just 1 earned run on 4 hits and a walk with 2 strikeouts.

He was facing a pretty stout lineup from Puerto Rico that includes former Giant Angel Pagan, who went 2-4, as well as Francisco Lindor, Carlos Correa, Carlos Beltran, Yadier Molina and Javier Baez.

Mark Melancon was impressive in his inning of work allowing just a hit and striking out the side.

David Hernandez, who had been solid in his first three outings this spring, struggled against Puerto Rico giving up 3 earned runs on 3 hits and 2 walks, while just recording one out in the eighth inning.

I’m hoping Hernandez becomes a solid piece to the Giants bullpen this year as he’s been very good in the past, but this was definitely a setback for the veteran.

After an 0-2 day for Jarrett Parker the race for left field is actually starting to get a little interesting. Mac Williamson is 6-21 with 2 home runs this spring, while Parker is now 4-20 with 2 home runs if you include the Puerto Rico game.

I still think Williamson would have to make it abundantly clear that he’s the better player out of spring to win the starting job, but this battle is closer than it was a week ago.

Next: San Francisco Giants: World Baseball Classic Preview

The San Francisco Giants have Thursday off before hosting the Cleveland Indians on Friday afternoon. The starting pitcher for that game has not be decided at this time.