Cueto, Melancon have big day in minor league camp

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. >> There were only three rows of seats, forcing the average spectator who wanted a taste of baseball on Wednesday afternoon to stand and watch from a distance.

It was the type of scene you’d expect to see at a local sports complex designed for travel ball or high school tournaments, especially if highly- regarded players were there.

Unlike those tournaments, though, scouts didn’t have to locate a roster to find the jersey number of the player they came to watch.

Johnny Cueto and Mark Melancon wore different uniforms, altogether.

With the Giants playing a night game in Peoria against the Mariners on Wednesday, two of the Giants’ prized arms elected to skip the trip and pitch at the club’s minor league complex in Scottsdale.

Cueto faced the Mariners last week and is scheduled to do so in the second series of the regular season, while Melancon saved a 60-minute trip to throw closer to home.

A pair of Giants’ minor league teams hosted two Cleveland Indians’ clubs loaded with players who spent last summer in rookie leagues or A-ball. While the Indians wore navy blue tops and gray pants, the Giants’ minor leaguers wore gray jerseys with black lettering.

As for Cueto and Melancon, they arrived in the Giants’ black spring training jerseys. OnWednesday, black was business attire.

Against a lineup of players who were still in middle school when Cueto made his major league debut in 2008, theGiants’No. 2 starter turned in four innings of work while allowing just two hits. In a 70-pitch outing, Cueto confused, confounded and churned through youngsters who were eager to get their hacks in.

“They were just telling me how, ‘ We’re going to get you, we’re going to hit you,’” Cueto said. That never happened. When Cueto went to the dugout in between innings Wednesday, Giants’ general manager Bobby Evans turned toward the other field with game action.

The minor leaguers on that field gave Evans hope for the future.

The Giants’ 2017 first round draft choice, Heliot Ramos, struck out swinging twice, but demonstrated bat speed and a physicality at home plate that makes it easy to see why he projects so well. In center field, Ramos gloved a single up the middle and fired a dart to third baseman Jacob Gonzalez, who swiped a tag on a runner trying to go first to third.

After playing together last summer in the Arizona Rookie League, Ramos and Gonzalez became fast friends. They could be big league teammates one day too, as Gonzalez has the chance to follow in the footsteps of his famous father, Luis, a former Diamondbacks’ great.

When Cueto returned to themound, he encountered his first sign of trouble. A single and a walk gave the Indians life in the fourth inning, but reality set in.

An error on a would-be double play ball threatened to extend the frame and force Cueto to pitch his way out of trouble, but the 10-year veteran was already at his pitch limit for the inning. Instead of having to work under pressure, the Giants pulled Cueto off the field.

Different uniform, different rules.

Cueto topped out at 88 miles per hour with his fastball, but devoted most of the day to breaking pitches and a changeup.

“I wasn’t focusing on my speed, I was more just working on my different deliveries and my different pitches,” Cueto said.

When Cueto reached his pitch count for the afternoon, he left the mound andMelancon enteredwith two outs on the board. The Giants’ closer rolled a ground ball for the third out of an inning, but as he began to walk off the field, voices fromthe dugout told him to stay on the mound.

Instead of playing for three outs, Melancon was told to get five. He accomplished the task, throwing 20 pitches and locating 13 of them for strikes.

Before Cueto andMelancon retreated to the minor league clubhouse, a Giants’ prospect was spotted in the soon-to-be-retired No. 25.

The name on the back of the jersey? Bond. Aaron Bond.

A 12th round pick of the Giants’ last summer, Bond doesn’t resemble a certain No. 25, but his name and position, left field, created a coincidence worth celebrating in the form of a jersey assignment.

The jersey belonging to Bond was gray, and though he could have a big future ahead of him, Wednesday belonged to two players wearing black who are living in the future all the players who surrounded them are seeking.

• The Giants’ new third baseman Evan Longoria played for the first time in a week after he was sidelined by left ankle soreness.

Longoria slammed an opposite-field double in his first at-bat.