Giants Rattle D-Backs, 5-3

Giants Rattle D-Backs, 5-3

Tim Hudson made a sparkling spring debut, and Buster Posey, Angel Pagan, Joaquin Arias and Juan Perez had two hits apiece, as the San Francisco Giants defeated the Arizona DiamondBacks today 5-3, at Scottsdale Stadium under warm, sunny skies.  Hudson faced the minimum of six batters, and the Giants scored four runs in the fifth to hand the win to Kameron Loe, who pitched the fourth and fifth innings.  The DiamondBacks scored twice in the fifth and once more in the ninth, off Jean Machi, who got the save.

Javier Lopez allowed a single in the third, but the Giants’s second double play of the game kept Lopez facing the minimum three batters.  Loe, replacing Lopez to pitch the fourth, found out how rewarding it is to have major league defense. First Perez made a fine play to cut off Prado’s hit and keep it to a single, and then Pagan made a Mays-like basket catch of Paul Goldschmidt’s deep fly ball, whirling to throw the ball back in, thus keeping again Prado at first.  Chavez ended the inning by grounding out to second.

With Loe still pitching, Mark Trumbo doubled to lead off the top of the fifth and scored on Miguel Montero single’s single to center field, before Didi Gregorius flied out for the first out.  Loe then plunked A.J. Pollock with a pitch and walked Cliff Pennington to load the bases.  After Gerardo Parra flied out to Perez in left, with Montero scoring, the D-Backs called for a double steal. Pollock got a great jump to third, so Buster never hesitated, gunning out Pennington instead at second.

The Giants came right back in the bottom of the fifth, scoring four runs by combining a double by Juan Perez and singles by Pagan, Posey, and pinch-hitter Sanchez, who knocked in two.  After Adam Russell replaced Brad Ziegler, Arias singled to keep the rally going, but Sanchez was thrown out by Parra’s throw to Chavez at third.

Hudson’s only blemish during his two innings, was a ball hit to the right side, which Brandon Belt fielded, but led the hustling Hudson too much to make the play.  The throw was not that far off the mark, and had it been the regular season, there is a good chance that Hudson would have made the play, but this is only spring training and Hudson has to go easy.

Later in the broadcast, in hashing it over, Dave Fleming mentioned that when asked about it in the dugout, Hudson responded that he “...would have felt like Wes Welker with a linebacker coming right at me...” and so elected to let it go.  It was a veteran move from a guy who does not have to prove that he knows how to field his position.

The Giants played good defense, with only the miscue by Belt in the second, and they had a dozen base hits to to go along with their five runs.  Considering the DiamondBacks are going to be rattling around near the top of the division all season, today’s victory was a fine start.