Glory day for Cueto, Sandoval
GIANTS 10, MARINERS 1
They are the Giants’ odd couple, Johnny Cueto and Pablo Sandoval.
They both play with a unique style and flair, they’re both in full comeback mode, they’re both with the Giants basically because they weren’t wanted elsewhere, and if the Giants
are going anywhere this season, these two men are going to have to be big contributors.
Cueto will have to lead an otherwise anonymous pitching staff, at least until two injured starters get back to action. And Sandoval is going to have to be a force off the bench.
That’s how it shook out Wednesday afternoon in the Giants’ cleansing 10-1 win over the visiting Mariners.
Cueto pitched six strong innings to pick up his first win, and Sandoval, getting his first start of the season, smacked a three-run Splash Hit, highlighting a four-homer day for the power-challenged Giants.
Sandoval is playing this season basically for free. He could have made the exact same salary, $18 million, had he sat out the season and gone to the beach, because he’s still collecting money from the Red Sox, who cut him last year. The Giants are paying Sandoval the veteran minimum $545,000 and the Sox are (not) cheerfully chipping in the $17,455,000 balance.
Sandoval made the Giants’ roster with a strong spring training, where manager Bruce Bochy actually saw visions of the Original Panda.
“Pablo’s pretty close to what we saw when we brought him up (from the minors in 2008), when he was going well,” Bochy said. “He had a great spring, really swung the bat well, worked hard on his defense, both at third and first base.”
Cueto isn’t playing for free, he just looks like he is. Nobody has that much fun working ata real job. And his attitude is infectious. When the Giants’ infielders went around the horn before the first pitch Wednesday, shortstop Brandon Crawford took the ball, went into a perfect Johnny Cueto windup, gave a patented Cueto Shimmy, and fired the ball to the starting pitcher.
Last season, Cueto dealt with blister and arm problems, then exercised his option to return to the Giants, his value on the free-agent market having plummeted below his Giants-guaranteed salary for this season. So in a way, he is back by default.
Suddenly, Cueto is the ace, leading the way for the other starters, anonymous pitchers who really need a leader, with Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija out with injuries.
“He’s got to be the guy that we look to right now,” catcher Buster Posey said of Cueto after the game.
Posey said Cueto “probably didn’t have his best stuff today,” but sometimes that’s when Cueto’s at his artful best. His fastball hit 90 on the gun only a couple of times, and his only strikeout was looking, and Cueto didn’t have a runner-free inning. But he competed, leader-like, and won, stopping a three-game skid.
In two starts, Cueto has gone 13 innings and given up one run.
“He’s the veteran, he’s the guy leading the staff,” Bochy said before the game. “Even though Ty (Blach) went Opening Day, I think it’s fair to say Johnny’s the one that we look at to be leading the staff.”
The Giants look to Sandoval to be a leader, too, in a different way. He’s a late-game pinch-hitter now and a temp fill-in at third, first, and, if needed, catcher. On a fairly quiet ballclub, Bochy looks to Sandoval to add a little spark and sparkle to the clubhouse and the bench.
They’re unlikely leaders, Cueto and Sandoval. Both struggled last season, and though they’re not old — Cueto is 32 and Sandoval 31 — they’ve got a lot of miles, and looked suspiciously over the hill last year. This is Cueto’s 14th pro season.
But on Wednesday, they were two fresh and peppy youngsters, showing the way. Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @scottostler