San Francisco Giants Lose 9-3 to the Dodgers Using Most Regulars

Okay, it is only a Spring Training game, so it is not that critical. However, the San Francisco Giants lost against a Dodgers team that featured many of their regular players.

Aside from Steven Duggar, there were few standout performances. Duggar showed off a lot of his tools by tracking down some fly balls, working a walk, and hitting a long home run. Besides Duggar, here are some notes from today’sgame:

–Jeff Samardzija struggled with his command a bit as he walked three batters in only two innings. However, the reason may be that Samardzija was working on his offspeed pitches. Or, as Samardzija will tell you, the home plate umpire was squeezing him a bit. Samardzija is a power pitcher, but tried to keep the Dodgers hitters off-balance with his full repertoire. He has excellent command, and it will be interesting if he aims to increase the usage of some of his secondary pitches. The fastball is a nice weapon, but it does not have the movement that keeps hitters off-balance. Samardzija finished the day giving up the one run on three hits while recording two strikeouts.

–Gregor Blanco continues to make a case for his name being included on the Opening Day roster. He roped a double down the line, and worked a walk after being down 0-2 in the count. Blanco’s job is to get on-base, and demonstrate a competent glove in the outfield. He may not be the base stealer he was when he was younger, but it does not look like his skill set has eroded yet as a result of age regression. So far, he is batting .538 with a 1.665 OPS. Spring Training stats are not indicative of regular season performance, but if Blanco continues down this path, it would be hard not to keep him.

–Josh Osich had a clean inning. He completed one inning, and gave up one hit. Pretty boring, huh? 2017 was a forgettable season for many Giants players including Osich. The issue has never been talent for Osich. Rather, it is consistency. It is difficult to evaluate him after only a few appearances because the wheels can fall off pretty quickly. However, to combat his issues with consistency, it seems he is pitching exclusively out of the stretch. He might lose a tick on his fastball velocity by doing that, but it may simplifiy his delivery. Simplification is paramount for Osich.  He may still be able to return to the effective reliever he was in 2015, but he has a long way to go to rebuild his confidence and regain trust.

On a final note, Mac Williamson blasted a double off of the left field wall to drive in two more runs. He has twelve RBIs on the spring, and his new swing continues to pay dividends.