Giants make Opening Day official, Cueto will start
SURPRISE, ARIZ. >> A day after manager Gabe Kapler said starter Johnny Cueto was “definitely in line” to take the ball on Opening Day, Kapler confirmed Wednesday that Cueto will face the Dodgers on March 26 at Dodger Stadium.
Cueto has made four career Opening Day starts — all with the Cincinnati Reds — so his matchup with Clayton Kershaw will mark his first in a Giants uniform.
“Johnny has done it for a really long time as a topof-the-rotation starter and has been a really successful pitcher in this game,” Kapler said. “He’s showing that he’s fully healthy, that he can repeat his delivery, that he’s bouncing back well after his starts.”
Kapler said veteran Jeff Samardzija will pitch the second game of the season in Los Angeles but gave no indication as to whether the Giants are leaning toward having Kevin Gausman or left-hander Drew Smyly face the Dodgers in the March 28 series finale.
With Gausman starting in Surprise on Wednesday, Smyly was scheduled to pitch in a minor league game before wet weather forced the Giants to change their plans. Smyly wound up throwing 60 pitches in the batting cage back in Scottsdale and Kapler said he received encouraging
words about Smyly’s work.
Cueto will become the 31st Giants pitcher in San Francisco-era history to make an Opening Day start.
Juan Marichal’s 10 are a franchise record, while Madison Bumgarner made five and Tim Lincecum made four.
• Gausman threw 3 1/3 innings and gave up four runs, but Kapler was pleased with his outing and noted that several of the Rangers’ seven hits off the Giants’ starter were on
softly-hit balls.
Gausman said he was disappointed to leave a split-fingered changeup over the plate on a two-run home run hit by Sam Travis, but he wasn’t discouraged by the overall results from Wednesday’s 6-4 fiveinning victory that was called due to poor weather and field conditions.
Giants reliever Jarlín García struck out both of the hitters he faced Wednesday and minor league reliever Wendolyn Bautista also added two strikeouts while picking up a save.
Giants left fielder Alex Dickerson had two strong at-bats as he tripled in the first inning before hitting a hard line drive directly at the Rangers’ left fielder in his second plate appearance.
After appearing mostly at first base and in left field this spring, Darin Ruf started in right field and handled the position well. The Giants’ top spring slugger belted a double off the right field wall in his first plate appearance.
• Giants minor league free-agent Tyler Heineman continued his quest to secure the backup catcher job behind starter Buster Posey on Wednesday, and he did it against his brother, Scott.
Scott Heineman is an outfielder in the Rangers organization who also made his major league debut last season and is also in a big league camp competing for a regular job.
After Scott reached third base in the early innings on Wednesday, Tyler made the rare decision to attempt to pick off his brother following a pitch from Gausman. The attempt was unsuccessful, but the brothers had a nice laugh and appeared to discuss the throw in Scott’s next plate appearance.
Tyler went 0-for-1 with a walk Wednesday but reached base twice and scored two of the Giants’ six runs. He also made the Giants’ most impressive defensive play of the afternoon when he scooped up a pitch in the dirt from Gausman and fired to second base to catch Tim Federowicz stealing.