This was a very interesting game. In fact, I’ve never experienced a Spring Training game quite like this one.

Everyone knew there was rain in the forecast, but I don’t think knew how much. About an hour before game time, it started pouring rain along with high gusts of wind. I thought the game was going to get cancelled, as it didn’t look like the skies were going to clear and it was mother cold. The guy next to me said, “We could have played this game in Chicago and it would have been warmer.”

I had the opportunity to go to Opening Day last year and this game was almost an exact copy of it. Pouring rain, tarp on, start time comes and goes, still raining… but in the end the game was played and the Giants won.

Let’s just say the Giants Dugout made a hefty amount of money on sweatshirts today. that’s right, sweatshirts. Ridiculous.

Diamond Notes:

- Matt Cain pitched well today even though there was a delay and crazy winds. He gave up 1ER over 3IP but that run was a gift. Juan Pierre lead off the game with a double, that should have been an out. He was moved over to third by De Aza, and then a sac fly by Quentin got him in. That lead off double was actually a pop up that got caught in the wind and kind of duck snorted it’s way to no man’s land in shallow right center. Taking that in to consideration, the run Matt gave up was more of fluke in regards to his pitching, that him getting laced by a double to the gap. The Giants would also benefit from a little wind later in the game.

- I don’t think I can go any further without mentioning the umpire crew. They made some horrendous calls.

The first mistake was a “Foul Ball” call on Aaron Rowand’s first AB. Basically, the pitch was high and inside and got passed the White Sox catcher. They said Rowand foul tipped it back, making the count 0-2, instead of 1-1, I recall. Either way, Aaron now had 2 strikes instead of 1. Everybody in the crowd was giving the ump grief. Apparently he was the only person that saw it foul tip off of Rowand’s bat, which happened to be resting on his shoulder… Rowand proceeded to strikeout on a ball low and away. Where have I seen that before?

The strike zone continued to be a guessing game as the home plate ump, “88” as the crowd called him, would call strikes on pitches that were a a good 6 inches below the knees. Everything from then on was a “Foul Ball” as yelled out by the crowd.

The other big blunder is another blown call by the ump watching second base. A steal attempt was made by Mark Kotsay on Buster. The throw was on the money and Uribe applied the tag. Kotsay may have gotten to the base before the tag, but he didn’t have contact with the bag. I also have a picture of this as well. He was out, but called safe.

- Since we are talking about stolen bases…You don’t run on Buster. He should have been 2/3 on CS today but only ended up getting one; CJ Retherford by a mile. Ozzie was getting aggressive on the basepaths, possibly testing Posey since he’s a “rookie.” The best part of the day, had to be a fan screaming, “Hey Ozzie, that’s why you don’t run on Buster!” after Retherford was gunned down. Maybe we should trademark the phrase and put it on some t-shirts.

- A couple faces I haven’t seen in awhile showed up today. We’ll start with the injured ones.

Travis Ishikawa was suited up for BP and took grounders at 1b, along with some hacks in the cage. He was looking good to me, then again I didn’t talk to him to see how he was feeling.

Freddy Sanchez was also suited as he was taking some grounders on the practice infield back by the alley. Hopefully these are good signs of progress.

As you probably know, Muhammad Ali was in the house today along with Willie Mays. I didn’t see either one during the game, but I did see another living legend. Stretch himself, Willie McCovey, was watching BP from the dugout today. Always great to see him at the yard.

- Just another come from behind victory for the Giants. This time lead by Brett Pill. I told you earlier how Cain got screwed on a bloop double. Brett Pill pretty much duplicated that play on the White Sox in the 8th. Just to illustrate you how much the wind was blowing in from left, the ball Pill hit was a high pop up looking to come down in foul territory by 3B. It ended up falling for for a hit in shallow left center. Pill was eventually scored as the tying run.

- With the wind blowing to RF, it definitely helps players that have pop in that direction. Namely, Fred Lewis and Buster Posey. Freddy lifted one down the right field line that, under normal conditions, probably would have been caught on the track. Thanks to mother nature, it’s a homerun.

Buster on the other hand knows this park all too well. I watched him here many times last fall, and I kid you not, he has probably been robbed of a homerun at least 10 times since then. You see Buster has massive power to dead center or slight right center, unfortunately for him, Scottsdale Stadium is 430ft to centerfield. Another one of his smashes was caught at about 420 ft from home today. He made up for it though going “Oppo” to RF barely getting the ball over the fence and a fan botched the catch as it bounced back into play. Looks like the wind wanted to make sure Buster got his due homerun after all.

- Lastly, some quick notes:

Steve Johnson closes his eyes, or is insanely accurate when blinking, when he delivers the baseball. Every single picture his eyes are closed. It was really interesting.

Brian Wilson was legit today, as was Runzler, Affeldt, and Romo. Also, Runzler holds his glove hand like he’s going to backhand slap you at the beginning of his delivery. It makes me laugh every time.

Omar Vizquel was back and man do I miss him on this team. I love watching him field the baseball, it’s almost an art form. He also does really weird but funny gestures before getting in to the box. We need him back as a coach, bar none. Make it happen Neuks.

Pablo Sandoval is your new on location reporter. During the rain delay he stole the mic from some camera crew (MLB?) and started doing fake interviews with players in the dugout. Look for it to pop up somewhere. He interviewed Hector Sanchez, Ehire Adrianza, and Steve Johnson.

Will Clark is the freaking man. I’ve told you all about how cool he is with the fans during ST, but check this out. During the hour long rain delay, he was the only person, let alone player, on the field while it was pouring rain signing autographs for people on the 3rd base line. He probably was out there for 20 minutes. Every time he would start going to the dugout, another fan would run down and stop him and he would take time to sign, acknowledge, of snap a photo with them. Gotta love that guy.

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