The San Francisco Giants made the controversial decision this offseason to only mildly shore up their starting pitching. They entered the winter with two holes in their starting five, and they did address those holes with two additions, in the form of Adrian Houser and Tyler Mahle.
That was a very modest shoring up. Those pitchers were 13th and 17th, respectively, in average annual value amongst free agent starting pitchers this winter; and they were 11th and 18th in total money.
While that decision
was controversial, the equation behind it was very clear. And part of the equation — which will leave the Giants with two more holes in the rotation next offseason — was a belief that some of their young arms on the periphery of the roster would blossom into bonafide starters this season.
We’re going to have to wait a long time before we can judge whether that belief was warranted or not. But on Tuesday, in a 5-4 win over the Cleveland Guardians that pushed them to 14-3 on the preseason, the returns were highly positive.
This time it was Carson Seymour’s time to shine, and shine he did. Against a Guardians team playing many of their starters — including star Steven Kwan and perennial MVP candidate José Ramírez — Seymour and his power arm looked the part of a player ready for a big role in the Majors. He cruised through the first inning, giving up just one baserunner on a walk issued to Brayan Rocchio. He set down the side in order in the second inning, and needed just nine pitches to do so. He finally gave up a run in the third on back-to-back doubles by Angel Martínez and Kwan, but it wasn’t exactly a damning rally, with Martínez’s two-bagger sporting an extremely modest 74.1-mph exit velocity. And he bounced back strongly, cruising through the fourth on eight pitches and one pitch clock violation … which, hilarious, was both the third strike and out.
In all, Seymour allowed just three baserunners in four innings, with three strikeouts and one run allowed. He was fairly efficient, needing 57 pitches to get through those four frames, and throwing 37 of them for strikes. He didn’t lose too much velocity, either: his fastest pitch of the first inning was 97.3 mph, and his fastest pitch of the fourth inning was 95.9.
Barring injury, Seymour seems likely to open the year in AAA Sacramento’s roster, but nothing’s set. It seems possible that they’ll carry one young starter in the bullpen as a swing man, and while Trevor McDonald is seemingly leading that race, Seymour is certainly in it.
He wasn’t the only young starter that impressed, though. In very happy news, Hayden Birdsong returned to Cactus League play, after some time playing sim games in Minor League camp following his brutal first two games of the spring. It was a massive step forward for Birdsong, who looked much more like the potential ace that we all know he’s capable of being, than the liability that he has too often devolved into lately.
Birdsong entered for the sixth inning, and took down the core of Cleveland’s lineup. He got Kwan to hit a soft grounder for an out. He ceded a double to Rocchio. He struck out Ramírez in outstanding fashion. And he got an inning-ending groundout from Chase DeLauter.
He only pitched one inning, which probably says less about the Giants viewing him as a one-inning guy, and more about Tony Vitello wanting to take it low and slow and not give Birdsong a chance to turn an encouraging outing into a discouraging one.
So encouraging it was. A smooth inning against the heart of a lineup. 21 pitches thrown, with 15 of them for strikes. And perhaps most notably, he hit 99.6 on a pitch to DeLauter, which I believe is the fastest pitch he’s thrown in a game.
Good signs abounding for Seymour and Birdsong both. And that could pay dividends this year and, just as importantly, in future years.
As for the rest of the pitching, the players in Major League camp certainly impressed: southpaw Matt Gage pitched a perfect fifth, while NRI Trent Harris allowed just a walk in a scoreless eighth. Righty Braxton Roxby came over from Minor League camp to pitch a scoreless seventh, with the damage occurring in the ninth, when A-Ball flamethrower Gerelmi Maldonado couldn’t find the strike zone, issuing three walks (plus two hits) in just 0.2 innings, while getting tagged for three runs. But his teammate — in this game, in Minor League camp, and with San Jose last year — came in to save the day, as Ricardo Estrada got the final out and earned a save.
The offense, meanwhile, was a combination of two things: Cleveland’s normally ironclad defense making a bumbling fool of itself, and a player having a much-needed excellent at-bat. Let’s work in reverse order, and get to that great at-bat, because we’d all much rather talk about the Giants being good than the Guardians being bad.
In the fourth inning, with the Giants leading 2-1, Tyler Fitzgerald came up to bat with a runner on second and two outs. He sat on a first-pitch slider that missed the zone, then exploded on a second-pitch fastball that caught a lot of the zone, smacking it over the left field fence for a two-run home run.
It was a desperately-needed hit for Fitzgerald, who has had a miserable camp in which he’s seen the distance between himself and the Casey Schmitt/Christian Koss duo turn from a gap to a canyon.
There were, certainly, some “this only happens in Spring Training” warning signs. It traveled just 371 feet, and was hit off of a player over from Minor League camp, who has never made it to AAA. But still. It was a home run for a player in need of a big hit and a big moment. And as we all know, Fitzgerald’s home runs can come one after another after another, so here’s hoping that the first pickle has been pulled out of the jar.
They got there due to some Cleveland buffoonery. The inning should have been over before Fitzgerald’s at-bat. With two outs and Bryce Eldridge on first following a leadoff single, Parks Harber hit what should have been an inning-ending grounder. Instead, shortstop Gabriel Arias managed to make two errors on a single play, not just keeping the inning going, and not just moving Harber into scoring position, but also allowing the go-ahead run to score.
That came after the Giants opened the scoring in the third inning in the type of hilarious fashion that made you really regret that the game wasn’t televised. Jared Oliva hit a two-out double, and then stole third base. Catcher David Fry, to the befuddlement of the broadcast crew, chose not to throw the ball to third base, but into the dugout instead, allowing Oliva to march home untouched.
Go figure. Would love a replay of that.
The Giants added what proved to be a critical insurance run in the ninth inning, and again it was largely of Cleveland’s doing, though this time it was on the pitching front. Diego Cartaya drew a two-out walk, which was followed by a Victor Bericoto single. Jake Holton was plunked to load the bases, and Eric Haase was gifted a five-pitch RBI walk.
And with that, the Giants have won yet again. A few more notes from the game:
- Drew Gilbert made his return to action after being sidelined with a shoulder impingement. He hit 1-3 with a single and a strikeout. Gilbert has not yet been cleared to throw, so he’s just a designated hitter for now.
- Haase played left field, which was … unexpected, certainly.
- Oliva now has seven stolen bases on the spring. What a thing!
- The five hardest-hit balls of the day for the Giants: Oliva’s double (109.4 mph), Bericoto’s single (109.3), a Jesús Rodríguez double (103.4), Fitzgerald’s home run (103.1), and a Harber single (98.9).
- The Giants next game is Wednesday at the Kansas City Royals. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. PT, but it’s an audio-only game.
