A Great Start!

The Giants started the season, indoors in Milwaukee today (30 degrees F, snow, wind) and made it look easy, at least on offense.  The offense did exactly what they were supposed to, score up and down the line-up, early, and often.

Matt Duffy started things off in the 2nd inning after Hunter Pence reached on a fielding error and Brandon Belt doubled.  A single from Matt put 2 runs on the board and put the Giants up 2 - 1.  More on that in a minute.  In the 3rd, Denard Span picked up the first of his 5 rbi for the day when he singled home Angel Pagan from second.  Denard scored on a Brandon Belt single.  Giants up 4 - 2.

The Giants scored in the 4th, then again in the 5th.  Madison Bumgarner walked in front of an Angel Pagan double (looks like that 'bat the pitcher eighth' thing has some merit) and scored when Denard picked up his second rbi of the day on a sac fly.  That made it 5 - 3.  Then, in the 5th, Brandon Belt, on base for the third time, scored on a Matt Duffy home run.  That made it 7 - 3.

Like the idea of the Giants homering on Opening Day?  So do the Giants.  In the 8th, Denard Span endeared himself to Giants fans with his 3rd, 4th and 5th rbi of the game on a 3 run shot to deep right.  Did you know that he has the same birthday as our own JC Parsons?  Not to be left out of the fun, Joe Panik promptly homered and then Buster Posey homered after him (on the first pitch).  3 in a row!  It has been 19 years since that happened in the major leagues.  Giants 12, Brewers 3.  That held up for the final score.  Dig these hits: 3 hits for Brandon Belt.  2 for D. Span, Buster Posey and Matt Duffy.  1 for Joe Panik, Hunter Pence, Brandon Crawford, Angel Pagan, Ehire Adrianza and Gregor Blanco.  That's 15 - spread nicely around.  The Giants scored 12 and left 7 men on base.

Pitching, uh, .....well....  Our ace, Madison Bumgarner was on the mound and it was not pretty.  Domingo Santana singled to start the game, then Maddy walked 3 Brewers for Milwaukee's first run.  It could have been worse, but for a double play ground ball that got him out of his BB bases-loaded jam.  In the 2nd, Scooter Gennett homered for Milwaukee.  People named Scooter are not expected to homer, nor should they.  In the 3rd, Jonathan Villar homered.  Fortunately, that was all they got.  It was not the last close call, though as in the 4th, Angel threw out a guy (that Scooter, again) at the plate from left.  Maddy somehow hung in there for 5 innings, the announcers said he was recovering from a flu bug, but he was also rough during the spring, so maybe just not quite there yet.  He struck out the side in the 5th, though, all swinging strikes.  Madison's line: 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 HR, 5 BB, 6 K on 102 pitches.

George Kontos got himself into trouble in the 6th, but got himself out of it, and Cory Gearrin (man, he looked good), Hunter Strickland and Josh Osich finished the game with 1 inning each.  So, YEAH!  Way to go Giants!  Nothing wrong with sitting atop the division at the beginning of the season.  Keep it up!