Cain, Vogelsong making progress
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Pitching on two different diamonds, Matt Cain and Ryan Vogelsong took big steps toward being ready for the regular season Thursday. Tim Lincecum’s status, however, remains open to speculation.
Cain, pitching to Colorado Rockies minor leaguers at the Giants’ Indian School minor league facility in Scottsdale, threw 4⁄1 innings and 51 pitches 3 in his latest spring outing. Thirty-eight pitches were strikes, and he allowed just two scratch singles and a run while striking out six.
“I felt pretty good,” said Cain. “It was good to be able to get up and down today, and that was our goal today, try to get the elbow used to that little recovery in between.”
Cain, coming off elbow surgery last August, said he threw mostly fastballs and tried to work both sides of the plate.
“We did what we wanted to do today,” said Cain, who hopes to throw 60-70 pitches in his next outing. “The biggest thing is just to keep it going. I feel like I’m arm-wise getting tired at the end. It’s just letting the elbow get used to doing it.”
Cain said he might alter his routine of throwing bullpens off a mound between some starts because he doesn’t want to overtax his arm at this stage. Before this outing, he simply threw off flat ground.
“I have to listen to what my body’s doing and play it by ear,” he said. “It might not be a normal schedule. The biggest thing is to be able to keep the arm speed up, and once we get to the season, feel 100 percent.”
Vogelsong had his strongest outing of the spring so far. Pitching against the Milwaukee Brewers in Maryvale, he allowed two hits, two walks and no runs in 4 2 ⁄ innings
3 and struck out four.
“He did a great job,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “It was a good day, a good day’s work for the pitching.”
Lincecum threw a bullpen session and is scheduled to start Saturday, but the pitcher admitted he still has some residue of neck stiffness that has sidelined him for a week. He said he simply isn’t sure at this point if he has enough time to be ready to start once the season opens.
“It would be nice if this didn’t happen, but I’m going to work with what I’ve got and try to make the best of it,” Lincecum said. “Hopefully all the work I put in during the offseason is going to make up the difference.”
Bochy watched Lincecum’s bullpen and said, “He looked good. He still felt (the neck) a little bit, but he got a good side in and he’s set to go. Hopefully, we can get some work out of him (Saturday). More than anything, he has to start getting stretched out. But we have coverage if one of these guys isn’t quite ready.”
Nori Aoki’s move to left field is done. He started there Thursday and will play there for the rest of the spring, Bochy said.
“The more I thought about it, hopefully Hunter (Pence) is not going to be out that long,” said Bochy. “So we’re going with the other guys in right — (Gregor) Blanco, (Justin) Maxwell and (Juan) Perez are all in the mix.”
Sergio Romo received a good test in his second outing. He preserved a 32 lead in the ninth and got out of a second-and-third jam. Romo fielded a hot comeback shot to trap a runner off third base, then got a strikeout and a popup to end the game.
Joe Panik and Brandon Belt hit solo home runs in the Giants’ win, and Bochy was much happier about the state of play.
“I think Vogey set a great tone,” the manager said. “It was just a crisper game.”