Giants don’t play well, don’t look good, don’t beat LA
· Yahoo Sports
The San Francisco Giants played the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday, in the hot, hot Arizona heat, and it didn’t go particularly well. It was a game with minimal moments of note for the Giants, who played the evil villains of the baseball universe for the final time before their first regular season matchup in late April.
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All the Spring Training caveats apply. It was just one game. It was just one meaningless preseason game. It was just one meaningless preseason game where the stats have been proven time and time again to not really mean anything. It was just one meaningless preseason game where the stats have been proven time and time again to not really mean anything that didn’t even go nine innings anyway, as the teams decided together to limit exposure to the triple-digit heat, and cut off the game after eight innings, after which the Dodgers led 5-1.
So while I’d stop well short of calling it a concerning game with concerning performances, it was certainly a game devoid of reasons for optimism in the places where we’re looking for some optimism.
Let’s start with the pitching. Landen Roupp made his final Cactus League start, though I would assume that he’ll pitch one of the team’s exhibitions at Oracle Park on Monday and Tuesday. Facing a potent Dodgers offense playing a handful of regulars, Roupp was not at his sharpest.
He got into trouble immediately, ceding singles to the first three batters of the game, Miguel Rojas, Freddie Freeman, and Mookie Betts. After performing his civic duty by striking out Max Muncy, Roupp then gave up a fourth single to Teoscar Hernández. A double play ball followed, mercifully ending the inning before it became ugly, but still, LA had scored two runs, a total that the Giants wouldn’t match all day.
In Roupp’s defense, two of those singles were fairly soft contact: Rojas’ inning-opener was a mild-mannered 63.7-mph ground ball, while Hernández’s RBI was a looping 73.1-mph line drive. So it’s not like he was getting battered out there.
The second inning went much better, a featured a pair of strikeouts. The third inning did not go better, as the second pitch he threw blistered into the bleachers grass by Freeman. In all, Roupp went four innings and gave up five hits, three walks, and three runs. He did strike out five batters, but just 46 of his 81 pitches were strikes. He wasn’t sharp, but he wasn’t awful, either.
View LinkLater in the game, someone attempting to follow Roupp’s career path entered the game: Trevor McDonald. It’s been a great spring for McDonald, who looks to have pole position on earning a spot in what is suddenly a fairly crowded bullpen and, whether or not he accomplishes that particular goal, does seem to be first in line for a starting assignment when someone in the rotation invariably gets injured.
The Giants do seem to be prepping him for a bullpen role though, as he entered in the seventh inning of this game. Facing the replacement hitters, McDonald was done in by a pair of non-roster invitees: Ryan Fitzgerald, who drilled a one-out double (which put him on second base, where he got to mingle with Tyler Fitzgerald [no relation]), and Nick Senzel, who smoked a 108.4-mph dinger.
Despite that, McDonald needed just 16 pitches to get through the inning. Sometimes you just get got, and on this day, he — and Roupp — got got.
Offensively, it was mostly a mediocre day all around, but it was particularly mediocre for the players who are on the periphery of the roster, trying to earn Opening Day assignments. Jerar Encarnación started at first base, and hit 0-2; Bryce Eldridge replaced him, and went 0-1. Will Brennan started in center field and had an 0-2 game with a strikeout; Grant McCray replaced him and drew a walk, then promptly got caught in a rundown. Luis Matos went 0-1 as the designated hitter, though he was hit by a pitch and his out was a 105-mph liner. Tyler Fitzgerald meekly flew out in his lone at-bat as the backup second baseman.
Not really a good day for anyone in need of a good day to have a good day.
There were two hitters who shined, though. Heliot Ramos made his return following a run with Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, and in his first at-bat, facing off against Shohei Ohtani, Ramos smoked a double into the corner, one-hopping the wall. Ramos would end the day 1-3, and he’s now 8-14 in Spring Training, with five extra-base hits … and all five home come against right-handed pitchers (and some extremely good right-handed pitchers, at that). He certainly doesn’t need a good spring to make the team — all he needs is to be halfway healthy on March 25 — but his performance is certainly inspiring optimism that another All-Star level performance could be around the corner. T
As for the other great day in the box? Well, it belonged to the breakout star of camp, Victor Bericoto.
Bericoto is, notably, still in camp as a non-roster invitee, even though the Giants have now made five rounds of cuts, including optioning a position player, Jesús Rodríguez. And his lone at-bat, subbing in for Jung Hoo Lee in right field, showed why.
Facing a former All-Star closer in Tanner Scott — who is putting his disastrous 2025 behind him with a sensational spring — Bericoto took on dead center and won easily.
Bericoto smashed a 1-1 pitch at 112.6 mph, and god knows how far. Statcast says the home run traveled 406 feet, but given that it easily cleared the tall batter’s eye in center field — and that center field is 410 feet at Camelback Ranch — I am deeply suspicious. The math, as the youths say, ain’t mathing.
View LinkEither way, it was majestic, and it gave Bericoto his team-leading third home run of the spring. He’s 16-37 with five extra-base hits, and while this is the part in the exercise where I normally remind you of all the great springs of the past — remember Ismael Munguia just two years ago? — I’m not going to do that. I’m just going to say that the Giants do not have a clear fourth outfielder, let alone fifth outfielder, and while Bericoto is still an exceedingly long shot to earn either of those roles this month, he won’t have to hit like this in Sacramento for long before the opportunity is given to him.
A few other highlights from a lowlight of a game:
- Righty Keaton Winn, and southpaws Joey Lucchesi and Erik Miller each pitched scoreless frames. For Miller, whose inning was perfect, it marked his second appearance after a delayed start to Spring Training. It’s looking like he might be healthy enough to make the Opening Day roster after all, and that’s great. The Giants very much wanted to get a look at Miller, so much so that after the teams agreed to end the game after eight innings, they played the bottom of the eighth so that Miller could get some time, despite the Giants losing 5-1.
- Patrick Bailey once again won an ABS challenge. He is very good at this, it seems.
- The five hardest-hit balls of the day for the Giants: Bericoto’s home run (112.6 mph); a Brennan groundout (106.8); Matos’ lineout (105.0); a Ramos flyout (101.2); and an Encarnación lineout (96.9).
- The Giants play two games tomorrow! Their prospects host the Cincinnati Reds’ prospects in the Spring Breakout game at 6:05 p.m. PT, on MLB Network. Five minutes later, their Cactus League squad hits the road to take on the Colorado Rockies. That game is radio only.