Off to Arizona on a high note
Opening Day feels so long ago, not just in weeks and months.
On April 2 in Arizona, the Giants publicly and privately expressed confidence they would be solid. Outsiders saw some flaws, a few missing pieces, Orioles 8,A’s 7: Oakland loses on home run in 12th. B5 but nothing that screamed “last place.”
“I think everybody in the clubhouse thought we were going to have a big year and had a chance to do something special,” shortstop Brandon Crawford said. “We filled our biggest quote-unquote problem from the year before by filling the closer role. We thought we had the lineup and starting pitching to at least get to the playoffs and may-
be win a World Series.”
Closer Mark Melancon, who blew the save on Opening Day, made news Wednesday just by his promotion to the eighth inning in a 4-2 victory that secured a 4-3 homestand and a series win against the playoffcontending Brewers.
Melancon’s circuitous journey is but one story in a book that could be titled, “Giants Season Goes Haywire.”
The schedule has kept the Giants away from Arizona since that opening series. They finally return Friday night.
The Diamondbacks are having a dream season, or at least the best facsimile in a year of domination by the first-place Dodgers. Arizona has held a wild-card spot for much of the year. Its fans might struggle to recognize the Giants.
Only three position players from the Opening Day lineup — Crawford, Buster Posey and Jarrett Parker — started in Wednesday’s win, which was settled when Parker accidentally hit a two-run double down past third base on a checked swing to break a 1-1 tie in the seventh inning. Exit velocity: 61 mph. Where was the rest of Wednesday’s lineup on Opening Day?
Kelby Tomlinson, Carlos Moncrief and Ryder Jones were in the minors. Gorkys Hernandez was on the bench, and the thought of Pablo Sandoval being a Giant again would have been dismissed as ludicrous.
The Giants might get two more Opening Day players back for the Diamondbacks series: Joe Panik, returning from a concussion, and Hunter Pence, who has missed three starts with a hamstring injury. But manager Bruce Bochy was not ready to promise that.
Nor is Bochy ready to delve into 2018. He deferred when asked if the Giants’ recent improvement on the mound — they held the Brewers to six runs over three games — projects well for next year.
But he did allow that “we don’t believe we’re the team that had this tough year. We have the talent to get back to where we’ve been the last six, seven years. These guys are really good. They are. These pitchers are really good. It just so happens we have a lot of guys who just had off years.”
Nobody’s was more off than Matt Moore’s, but he has lowered his ERA by half a point (5.88 to 5.38) over his past three starts. He held Milwaukee to one run in six-plus inning and thought the entire staff showed something in the series.
“The kind of lineup they have, there’s a reason they have a good chance of getting to the postseason,” Moore said. “They have a lot of power and a tough middle. To kind of come here and ruin their day — three days — is something moving forward we can build on as a club.”
Moore did not get the win. Hunter Strickland did. Melancon pitched the eighth only because Bochy wanted him to have a clean inning. Strickland entered with a man on.
Parker’s checked-swing double in the seventh scored Denard Span and Hernandez, who reached on a pinch double and hit batsman, respectively. The Giants got a Moncrief sacrifice fly in the ninth before Sam Dyson saved it. Dyson allowed his first homer as a Giant, to Stephen Vogt.