San Francisco Giants: Takeaways from today’s win against the padres

The San Francisco Giants defeated the San Diego Padres 8-7 in one of the final spring games of 2017.

Saturday afternoon, coming off Samardjiza’s prime performance in the game prior, Chris Stratton along with the San Francisco Giants faced the Padres at Scottsdale Stadiums for one of the last games of Spring Training 2017.

Stratton pitched high, giving up 6 runs up until Jose Flores subbed in for him at the end of the 3rd. Flores let one get by by the end of the 4th inning. Melancon came in for Flores at the end of the 4th and was then replaced by Kontos.

The Padres started strong with with a double to center field bringing home Yangervis Solarte and Cory Spangenberg, putting them up 2-0 in the top of the first. The Padres kept the momentum going with Manuel Margot singling to bring home Collin Cowgill and Spangenberg’s home run putting them up 2 more runs by the bottom of the second.

However the Giants answered back with an oppo homer by WBC champ Buster Posey, putting the Giants on the board. The Padres fought back and answered Stratton’s high pitches with 2 runs by Erik Aybar and Jamie Romak. By the top of the 3rd the Padres were up 7-1.

In true Giants fashion, we made a comeback and even ended up winning the game. Hill and Hernandez grounded out adding 2 more runs to the board and Crawford followed with a bomb bringing himself and WBC teammate, Posey, in. Hernandez tied the game up with a fly ball to center field and Jae-Gyun Hwang‘s single brought Justin Ruggiano in to win the game.

Takeaways from today’s win:  

• Chris Stratton with a 3.87 ERA and going 12-6 in Sacramento last year, didn’t play his best game. His pitches flew high continuously and proved detrimental early on in the game. With only 9 days until opening day, Stratton has little time to prove himself worthy of the top of the lineup but his performance today could’ve also just been an off day because his norm performance is up to par.
• Giants offense and fielding seems to be to standard to come back from a 7-1 lead early on in the game. With 9 days until opening day, this is the performance fans are looking for.
• Nick Hundley catching in the place of Posey (who played first base today), was quick with his release to get a second out with the help of Crawford in the top of the second. With Hundley as a newcomer to the Giants he proved himself worthy to be Posey’s understudy.
• The Giants bullpen is looking good under the pressure of the absence of Will Smith. Stratton lacked control today but the rest of the pen picked up the slack.

Next: Analyzing Parker as a Starter

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