With about 3 weeks until the baseball season begins, the Giants are trying to fine tune their skills to get ready for the 2007 season. Exhibition games began earlier this week and the Giants faced the Chicago Cubs at Hohokam park in Arizona on Friday afternoon.
Barry Zito pitched for the first time this spring, throwing 2 innings with one hit and no walks. Alfonso Soriano lead off the game against Zito, which was a battle of the two highest paid free agents. Soriano was given $136 million from the Cubs, and Zito was paid $126 million from San Francisco.
After letting the count go full, Zito struck Soriano out with a high fastball. It was the only time the two faced, but it was clear that Zito was in great shape from his winter work outs.
Russ Ortiz pitched for the Giants for the first time as well this spring and had 3 perfect innings. Ortiz also got the Giants offense going with a 3 run double in the 6th inning to give the Giants a 4-0 lead. Ortiz is trying jump start his career with the Giants, and is battling for the 5th spot in the rotation against Jonathon Sanchez. Ortiz has been one of the worst pitchers in the game the last couple seasons, spending time in Arizona before they cut him and then headed to Baltimore last season where he went 0-8 with a 8.14 Era in 20 appearances.
Another intriguing battle this spring is the fight for the 4th outfielder position between Todd Linden and Jason Ellison. Linden has the edge because of his amazing power that he constantly displays in the minor leagues, but he hasn't been able to translate that in the big leagues, yet. Ellison brings an element of speed that the Giants haven't had in the past, but because of the addition of Dave Roberts, Ellison might be expendable.
In the first three games this spring, Linden is hitting well over .500 and had a 3 hit game last night against the Brewers, while driving in 3 runs. Ellison also drove in 3 runs against the Brewcrew on 2 hits, and is also hitting over .500. This battle will go on until the final game of the spring. In past seasons, Ellison has started on the main club, and Linden has been optioned down to Triple-A Fresno. In fact, Linden has never made the main squad to begin the season, so he is really fighting for this position. Linden remains optimistic that he will make the team and believes his time is coming.
"I feel like things are kind of falling into place," Linden said.
Splog's Notes
The Giants have been hit with a flu bug, which has been spreading around all the Cactus League ball clubs. Among those that have fallen victim to the bug are Ray Durham and Barry Bonds. Both have been home the past few days hoping to get healthy quickly so to get back on the field.
Info from the Associated Press was Used in this Article
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First of six exhibition games against the Oakland A's took off today at noon.
Oakland prevailed 5-3, on the back of Piazza's 2 for 3 performance and 2 RBI's. He is batting 6 for 12 (.500) so far in the spring.
Russ Ortiz got the start and threw three scoreless innings. The bullpen gave up all 5 runs in what proved to be a fairly unexciting game.
The lone exception happened early on in the 4th inning. Barry Bonds stepped up to the plate and launched his first home run of the organized 2007 baseball season trailing Hammerin' Hank by a mere 22 bombs.
On a lighter note, Lance Neikro also hit a two run homer in the 4th inning off Estaban Loiza who was then promptly removed from the game.
The most encouraging thing I heard all day was the five double plays the Giants tunred during the game. That is huge, and they were not your garden variety double plays. One was started by the pitcher, another one was a first to second tag the runner double play, so there were only two defensive players involved. check it out.
DP: 5 (Niekro-Vizquel-Sadler, Chulk-De La Rosa-Frandsen-Niekro, Niekro-Frandsen, Niekro-Vizquel-Niekro, Vizquel-Durham-Niekro).
Defense wins championships baby!
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