And so it begins…
Okay, not actually the regular season yet, but the pre-season Bay Bridge Exhibition series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics got me out to the ballpark for the first time this year. I wasn’t sure if I was rooting for the A’s or the Giants, but I wore an A’s jersey that was a free giveaway from last season, and I’m kind of an American League gal, so if forced, I guess I was leaning A’s. On other hand, I actually live in San Francisco so…
Keeping score at a spring training game in a National League (i.e. no DH) park is quite a challenge. I utilized my new-ish smart phone more than once to keep track of all the crazy substitutions. I also used it to tweet in the middle of the game… yeah, I’m kind of ashamed of myself.
The game itself was pretty exciting. Madison Bumgarner was much more solid than the last time I saw him pitch for the Giants when he gave up 8 straight hits to the Twins to start the game. However, in the third he gave up a single to Jemile Weeks, followed immediately by a homerun to Eric Sogard to put the A’s up 2-0. Sogard was an early substitute for Cliff “ought to play cricket” Pennington. Quick show, Pennington! (That’s for you, you-know-who-you-are.)
It looked for awhile like the underdog A’s might pull it off against the much more beloved Giants, but then Jordan Norberto gave up a solo homerun to Melky Cabrera in the 6th to bring the Giants within one. A disastrous outing by Fautino DeLosSantos in the seventh led to three Giants runs on one hit: a walk to Ryan Theriot, a hit-by-pitch to Nate Schierholtz, an error by Josh Donaldson at third that allowed Theriot to score, a fielders choice by Angel Pagan that scored Schierholtz, and finally a solid single by Melky Cabrera to score Emmanuel Burriss.
Brian “Fear the Beard” Wilson came out in the 9th with three quick strikeouts to get the save and end the game. Within about five minutes, seagulls descended out of nowhere onto the stands, eating all the leftover food and beer. I have no idea where they came from or why they didn’t show up earlier. I took a bunch of pictures, including one of the seagulls… they’re all below. Baseball — it’s back!
Colossus of Rhode 