First, there was concern. Then, there was joy. A little bit of anxiety followed. And in the end, there was joy. A lot, of joy. Welcome to 2016. It wasn’t pretty early on, but after a couple rocky innings, the Giants found the fountain of offense and demolished Milwaukee 12-3 to earn their first win of the season.
San Francisco’s bats absolutely exploded, with every starter having a hit. The offensive eruption previewed what to expect out of the offense in the new season when the entire lineup is healthy. Span’s led the charge in his San Francisco debut. In his first at-bat, he took Wily Peralta to the warning track in right field. In the 4th, he drove in Madison Bumgarner on a sacrifice fly. In the eighth inning, Span knocked out of the park. He ended up with five RBIs on the day, an absolute explosion of offense.
Along with Span, Buster Posey, Brandon Belt, and Matt Duffy had multi-hit games. Duffy drove in four runs, including a mammoth two-run homer in the fifth inning that drove in Belt. Duffy and Span’s four and five RBIs made them the first Giants to do so on Opening Day since Barry Bonds. Belt also had his own RBI in the 3rd, bringing in Span.
The Giants flexed their muscles in the top of the eighth inning, as Denard Span, Joe Panik, and Buster Posey hit back-to-back-to-back homers. Span’s homer was a three-run bomb that brought in Brandon Crawford and Gregor Blanco. The last time the Giants hit three home runs in a row was on July 20th, 2006 when Ray Durham, Barry Bonds, and Pedro Feliz all went deep consecutively against the Pirates. The recipient of the home runs was Ariel Pena, who became the first pitcher to allow three home runs on Opening Day in Major League history.
Bochy’s decision to put Bumgarner in the 8th spot, which allowed the Giants to have essentially two lead-off hitters in Span and Pagan hit back-to-back, paid off. Pagan ended up leading off the third inning after Bumgarner registered the final out in the second. Pagan drew a walk, stole second, then scored on a Denard Span single. Pagan also had a double to left-center field in the top of the fourth, which set the table for the Span sacrifice fly.
Bumgarner, who was battling the flu, immensely struggled to find the strike zone early. In the first inning, walking three batters, including a bases-loaded walk to Chris Carter that brought in the first Milwaukee run of the season. Before that, Bumgarner had only walked a batter with the bases loaded once in his career. By the end of the first frame, Bumgarner had thrown 26 pitches, with only 11 of them being strikes.
Mad Bum also gave up a couple of long balls on 1-2 counts to Scooter Gennett, who hadn’t homered off of a lefty all season, and Jonathan Villar. Despite the early struggles, Bumgarner grinded out five innings of adequate ball, finishing his day with five strikeouts while allowing three earned runs. Pagan helped out Bumgarner on defense, throwing out Gennett at home to end the fourth inning on a Domingo Santana single. George Kontos, Cody Gearrin, Hunter Strickland, and Josh Osich pitched an inning each, and shutout the Brewers for the remainder of the game.
Box Score:
BattersSpan: 2-4, 2 R, 5 RBI, 0 BB, 0 SO, 0 LOB
Brown: 0-1, 0 R, 0 RBI, 0 BB, 0 SO, 1 LOB
Panik: 1-5, 1 R, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 0 SO, 2 LOB
Posey: 2-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 0 SO, 0 LOB
Pence: 1-5, 1 R, 0 RBI, 0 BB, 1 SO, 3 LOB
Belt: 3-4, 2 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 0 SO, 0 LOB
Duffy: 2-5, 1 R, 4 RBI, 0 BB, 1 SO, 4 LOB
Crawford: 1-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 0 SO, 0 LOB
Adrianza: 1-1, 0 R, 0 RBI, 0 BB, 0 SO, 0 LOB
Bumgarner: 0-2, 1 R, 0 RBI, 0 BB, 0 SO, 0 LOB
Blanco: 1-2, 1 R, 0 RBI, 0 BB, 0 SO, 0 LOB
Pagan: 1-4, 1 R, 0 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SO, 3 LOB
Pitchers
Bumgarner: 5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 5 BB, 6 SO, 2 HR
Kontos: 1 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR
Gearrin: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 SO, 0 HR
Strickland: 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0 HR
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