It’s an odd year, which means the San Francisco Giants won’t come close to playing in the World Series? Based on their opening day performance, a 5-4 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, they’re not planning on handing over the title easily.
Madison Bumgarner picked up his first win of the season, giving up six hits but just one run and one walk in seven innings of baseball, keeping Arizona at bay before San Francisco unleashed a decisive attack in the fifth inning, pulling away and deciding the game. Things got a little risky in the 8th after Bumgarner was relieved, but the Giants managed to pull through.
Angel Pagan (3-for-4, two RBIs) had a fantastic day and opened the scoring in the third inning with a single that drove Joe Panik home. Arizona responded with a Mark Trumbo triple, scoring Ender Inciarte.
But in the fifth it was once again Angel Pagan to kickstart a scoring rush, followed by others this time. Josh Collmenter was on the receiving end, not getting out of the fifth, giving up 10 hits and five runs in 4.2 innings.
A Pagan double scored Nori Aoki and advanced Panik, followed by a Buster Posey sacrifice fly to score Panik. The deed was done when Brandon Crawford hit a double to deep right which scored Pagan and Casey McGehee.
Jake Lamb came on to pinch hit for the Diamondbacks and put them back in the game with a two-RBI double but after that Jean Machi blunder, Sergio Romo settled things down, followed by Jeremy Affeldt and finally the save from Santiago Casilla. Turns out all the bad performances, as a team and individually, during spring training don’t mean much once the real season begins.
It just goes to show you, you can throw spring training stats out. The bell rung, these guys answered it. It’s about winning games, that’s it, and we were able to find a way to do it.