By GARY SCHATZ By GARY SCHATZ ADVERTISING Associated Press GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Barry Zito and Bronson Arroyo each left their starts thinking they have more work to do before the start of the season. Some Giants youngsters had a good
By GARY SCHATZ
Associated Press
GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Barry Zito and Bronson Arroyo each left their starts thinking they have more work to do before the start of the season.
Some Giants youngsters had a good time all around.
Zito allowed a run while pitching 3 1-3 innings and Arroyo gave up one earned run in four, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Cincinnati Reds 9-5 Wednesday.
Zito gave up five hits and struck out three for the Giants in an outing against the team the World Series champions rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat in a best-of-five NL playoff series.
“My first and last inning my timing felt pretty good but the middle innings it was hit and miss. I’ve got work to do,” Zito said. “The extra week is good. It is better to get the fatigue up.”
Bruce Bochy would like Zito to be a little more consistent.
“Zito was not quite as consistent with his command,” Bochy said. “He threw some great pitches but he missed pretty good on some pitches, too, but overall it was a pretty good outing for him.”
Reds left-hander Arroyo’s throwing error on a bunt by former teammate Wilson Valdez allowed a run to score. Arroyo yielded four hits.
“It is hard play to duplicate that in practice,” Arroyo said. “It’s a play that you’ll have maybe three times in a season. It is good to get it in now.”
Arroyo won a Gold Glove in 2010.
“I’ve never seen Bronson throw the ball away like that,” Dusty Baker said. “He’s one of the best.”
Arroyo needed extra work in the bullpen after he left the game because of a low pitch count. The 36-year old has pitched more than 200 innings in seven of the last eight seasons.
“My innings went too quickly,” Arroyo said. “I only had 45 pitches through four innings. I had to go to the bullpen and throw 15 more. This spring is a week longer and that’s good for pitchers. We should get up to 100 pitches before we leave. There’s nothing worse than losing a game you should have won early in the season because you only got to 80 pitches once in spring training.”
Chris Heisey, the Reds fourth outfielder and top pinch hitter, homered off Javier Lopez to tie the game at 3. It was his first of the spring.
The young Giants hitters broke the game open with six runs in the top of the eighth against Reds’ prospect Pedro Villarreal.
Ricky Oropesa, the Giants third pick in the 2011 draft homered off Villarreal. Jaun Perez followed with his first home run of the spring. Johnny Monnel, a left-handed hitting catcher, hit two doubles.
“Overall our kids swung the bats good,” Bochy said. “Johnny has been hitting the ball since he got here. You want these guys to draw some attention to themselves.”
Jeter has easy day
TAMPA, Fla. — New York Yankees captain Derek Jeter is having an easy day in his return to shortstop.
Jeter didn’t get any chances in the field through the first three innings Wednesday night in an exhibition game against Philadelphia.
The 38-year-old Jeter hadn’t played the field since breaking his left ankle in the first game of the AL championship series last October.
Jeter was the designated hitter in two spring training games before taking on the Phillies.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi joked before the game that he didn’t want to see Jeter doing any cartwheels or back flips on the field.
Girardi said he hopes Jeter’s ankle is healed enough that he’ll be able to play more regularly in the field over the next few weeks.
Trout has double, triple
PEORIA, Ariz. — Peter Bourjos likes the makeup of the Los Angeles Angels lineup.
Bourjos homered, Mike Trout had a double and a triple and the star-studded Angels roughed up Clayton Richard early but the San Diego Padres rallied for an 8-6 win Wednesday.
“We have a lot of weapons,” Bourjos said. “We have speed at the top and bottom of the order and a ton of guys who can hit the ball long. Sometimes, too, the speed and power overlap. If we get rolling in the regular season, we have a chance to be pretty good.”
Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton both went 1 for 3 with an RBI for the formidable order that was similar to the one that will be used in the regular season. The only starter missing was Erick Aybar, who’s with the Dominican Republic in the World Baseball Classic.
Pujols, serving as the designated hitter, ran the bases for the first time in a game. Recovering from offseason knee surgery, the Angels had received permission to use a runner for Pujols when he reached base before Wednesday.
Bourjos hit a two-run homer off Richard in the fourth. He knows that he won’t be counted on to provide the pop in this order: Hamilton hit 43 home runs last year for Texas. Trout and Pujols hit 30 each. Mark Trumbo went deep 32 times.
“I don’t think the exact order matters right now, as long as the individuals are making progress and getting their work in,” Bourjos said. “But when you see all those names on the lineup card, it is pretty impressive.”
Richard was making his second start of the spring. His previous start, on Friday, was wiped out by inclement weather.
Santana shines for Royals
SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP)— Ervin Santana had his fastball of old.
The 30-year-old right-hander struck out seven in four innings, including six of eight in one stretch, helped the
Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners 4-2 Wednesday to improve their spring training record to 14-2.
“You remember what happened in 2008?” Santana said, a reference to a season in which he fanned 214.
Santana allowed two hits and walked none, throwing 35 of 53 pitches for strikeouts. He allowed his only run on Carlos Truinfel’s third-inning homer.
“The good thing I was keeping the ball down and working on my offspeed, which was pretty good today,” Santana said. “I threw a lot of sliders. The strikeouts were mixed, a couple of sliders, a couple of changeups, a few fastballs.”
After going 9-13 with a 5.16 ERA in 30 starts last year, Santana was acquired by the Royals from the Los Angeles Angels in October for left-hander Brandon Sisk.
“I’m very pleased with his outing, again on the attack, good fastball, got it up to 94, a really good slider, got a changeup to the second baseman and he ended up putting a nice swing on it,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “A nice job. It was encouraging.”
Hisashi Iwakuma retired the first nine Royals, eight on groundouts, before allowing four singles in the fourth — including the run-scoring hits by Billy Butler and Salvador Perez.
“He struck me out on three fastballs in the first at-bat,” the Royals’ Mike Moustakas said. “It looked like he got a little sneaky. He was throwing a slider, cutter and mixing his pitches well.”
Elliot Johnson tripled leading off the sixth and scored on Xavier Nady’s single for a 3-2 lead.
Seattle has lost four straight and six of seven following a 10-game winning streak.
Jimenez pitches well
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Ubaldo Jimenez pitched five solid innings, settling into a good groove after allowing two runs in the second, and Cord Phelps hit his second homer of spring training to lift the Cleveland Indians to a 5-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Wednesday.
After stringing together four hits in the second, including an RBI ground-rule double to center by Gordon Beckham and a run-scoring single by Dewayne Wise, the White Sox were held to two hits in the final six innings against Jimenez and four Indians relievers.
Lonnie Chisenhall and Asdrubal Cabrera each doubled for the Indians, giving Cleveland a major league-leading 46 doubles this spring.
Alexei Ramirez (.409) singled twice and stole a base, and Wise had two singles for the White Sox.
