Baseball came back in a big way, an extra inning marathon in Peoria.

Diamond Notes:

- Our Franchise, Tim Lincecum, took the hill in the Cactus League opener today. He only went 1IP as you will see in the box score. The command wasn’t there today for Tim, as he was leaving balls up and not hitting the strike zone. You could tell something may have been a little off even from his warm up throws in the outfield before the game. He threw two baseballs in the driveway that players come out of because they soared over Bengie’s head when playing catch. No worries though, He said he felt good, and the delivery was just a little off today. 2 consecutive CY Young’s tells you he knows what he needs to adjust to get things right.

- Lincecum also faced Griffey, who ended up with a loud Sac Fly to RF. I could have sworn that ball was out of the yard but it ended up being caught right in front of the visitor’s bullpen by Nate Schierholtz.

- The beginning to the game couldn’t have gone any better, highlighted by Aubrey Huff’s first homerun as a Giant. A great way to get himself acquainted with the fans. and it wasn’t a cheapy either. Drove to Right Center it woke up the people sunbathing on the berm.

- Pitching: As I said, Lincecum had his struggles, but so did a couple other pitchers that came in. Osiris Matos pitched the second and escaped unscathed despite 3 BB’s. Denny Bautista and Waldis Jaoquin both gave up 2 runs, and were all over the place location wise. They would get behind in the count and have to come in and get burned. Bumgarner, Hinshaw, Wilson, Edlefsen, and Romero had great outings as short as they were. Edlefsen would probably be the highlight as his stuff is pretty electric. He’s got a sidearm delivery that looks like he’s slinging the ball at you but the velocity is pretty awesome. As a statement to that, one Mariner swung so hard at a breaking pitch that his bat went flying in to the stands, the next pitch he proceeded to strike out swinging.

- Alot of the prospects got to play the second half of this game, which is always welcome. I can’t watch these kids play enough. So much heart, so much talent.

Darren Ford continued being a speed demon as he beat out an almost routine ground ball to short by about a step. I’m telling you he’s one of the fastest players I have ever seen. Phoenix needs to set up one of those speed limit cameras on the first base line.

Thomas Neal also got in to the game in LF, but only had one AB due to getting drilled in the side of the head by Ricky Orta. He didn’t collapse at the plate but was definitely shaken up. He was able to walk off the field and seemed to be laughing a bit, so I hope he is doing well and wasn’t injured. Nothing is as scary as seeing someone get drilled in the dome. There is a photo of the ball ricocheting off of Neal’s helmet, I wasn’t focused when it happened but it can give you a glimpse of the hit.

- I also sat next to Bill Neukom the whole game, which was pretty cool. I didn’t want to bother him, so I just minded my own business. However, I got to tell you, he really is a fan of the game. He was sitting right behind the net and next to the Giants Dugout, conversing with Will Clark every now and again. The best part though, is he was cheering for the Giants, and specifically our players by name. I don’t know why that spoke to me, but it just shows that sometimes, executives can take off the bow tie, and be fans of the game just like us. It’s good to know we have person that actually enjoys baseball and isn’t ashamed to sit down in the seats, wear orange and black, and cheer on the guys.

- There’s plenty of game notes elsewhere so I’m going to try to keep these recaps short and only provide some info  that you probably won’t read about in official articles.

Also, since the coverage is primarily games now, most of the photos will be from the same vantage point. I don’t have a lot of freedom to move around the stadium since they fill up. This is the main reason today’s game has a lot of shots of players backs, because I  was sitting behind the backstop. Tomorrow will have photos from a different POV.

Because of time constraints, I will throw up selected shots here and then possibly add more later in Flickr. I took over 750 shots today, definitely not enough time to go through them all ;) Always remember to check both the site and Flickr daily!

CLICK HERE for full gallery