31 Mar 14
The 2014 Giants distinguished themselves from their predecessors last night by fighting back after defensive lapses to win their season opener on Buster Posey’s home run, 9-8, in the Sonora Desert against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The game appeared to be lost as Madison Bumgarner and the hapless defense allowed four unearned runs in the fourth.
The errors occurred in that fourth inning by Belt and Sandoval. Later in the fifth, the Giants’ defense managed to blow a run-down at second base, and it looked like last year. Except the Giants came back.
Belt made up for the miscue with a sixth-inning homer, a seventh-inning single, and a hit in the ninth that preceded Posey’s deciding two-out home run off loser Addison Reed. Five hits in the seventh, and a strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out play by Buster Posey changed the momentum in the game. And that momentum changer endears these Giants to their fans. They didn’t give up, and they won.
Sergio Romo garnered the save in the ninth despite Miguel Montero’s homer in the ninth. Jean Machi displayed a very nasty and almost unhittable forkball in his 1.2 innings, allowing no earned runs and striking out 3 as he won the game.
The Giants’ starting lineup was: Pagan cf, Belt 1b, Sandoval 3b, Posey c, Pence, rf, Morse lf, Crawford ss, Arias 2b, and Bumgarner p.
Matt Cain toes the slab against the D-backs’ left-hander Wade Miley in the Giants’ second game of the season. Having lost two in Sydney, the Snakes have yet to win.
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