New pitchers impress in win over White Sox

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The Giants put many of their new pitchers on display Thursday at Scottsdale Stadium, and the initial impressions were all good.

Alex Wood, who is likely to be the team’s fourth or fifth starter, started San Francisco’s 31 victory over the White Sox — the Giants’ first win in four Cactus League outings — and zipped through a 123 first inning that included a strikeout (Jose Abreu looking). Then Jake McGee, who has a strong shot at closing games, also went three up, three down. And nonroster starter Shun Yamaguchi worked a scoreless fifth, giving up two hits including an infield single.

Wood said he’s changed his posture on the mound a bit to get better depth on his slider and he’s been pleased with the pitch all spring. He’s also trying out a new changeup grip and while he didn’t throw any changeups Thursday, he said he’ll unveil it his next time out. “It’s still a little bit of a work in progress,” Wood said.

“Nice job,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “Professional, efficient.”

Kapler liked the fact that McGee’s velocity was in the mid90s, calling it encouraging for this early in camp. McGee, who tends to use his fastball heavily, was happy he was able to throw his slider for strikes and said he will use it more often if he’s commanding it well, particularly to try to steal a few early strikes. “As long as my fastball is moving the right way after I use my slider, I’m going to mix up my slider a little more against righties and lefties overall,” he said.

Yamaguchi noted that with the Blue Jays last year, his first season in the U.S., he had trouble throwing his secondary pitches for strikes, so that’s his emphasis. He was happy with backtoback curveballs he threw against the White Sox and with the fact he didn’t walk any batters. “Nice fastball, curveball, split combination,” Kapler said.

Kapler also singled out righthanded reliever Yunior Marte, a minorleague freeagent addition, saying his scoreless fourth inning was one of the team’s best outings to date. “Buster Posey commented in the dugout that he has a little funkiness in his delivery,” Kapler said. “It was really impressive to see him attack with that, that 9495 mph and a crisp slider.”

⏩ Joe McCarthy hit the team’s first homer, a solo shot in the fifth. Kapler said he liked that, with a 3ball count, McCarthy took a “really good swing” that allowed him to calibrate to gear up for the homer he launched to right center. Darin Ruf smacked a tworun homer the same inning.

⏩ Brandon Belt did a little baseball activity for the first time this spring on Wednesday’s offday and some light throwing Thursday. Kapler said the first baseman is feeling better after being out for more than a week and a half with a non-COVID-related virus. “When you’re sick for a while, it takes awhile to build back up,” Kapler said

⏩ Aaron Sanchez, a freeagent addition coming off shoulder surgery and competing for one of the final spots in the rotation, threw live batting practice.

⏩ Kapler said outfielder Jaylin Davis hasn’t played yet because of knee soreness but he expects him in the lineup in the next few days.

⏩ Shortstop Brandon Crawford made his spring debut and had an infield hit, and his four kids were on hand “for the first time in one year and one day,” Crawford said. Asked about the benefit of having his family there, Crawford grinned and said, “I think everyone here heard my kids today . ... I don’t know if I’d call it a benefit.”

⏩ Steven Duggar made a sensational racinginandrolling catch in the seventh that Kapler described as “a huge play for us, obviously a lowprobability play.”

⏩ Righthander Johnny Cueto will make his spring debut Sunday against the Royals in Scottsdale.