Bridge Series clinched; now it's travel time

Previews are coming to a close and the curtain will soon be raised on the baseball season. AT&T Park was well dressed for its final rehearsal Saturday evening as San Francisco struck early and showed off some leather in a 3-0 win over Oakland, clinching victory in the annual Bay Bridge Series.

Yeah, Buster Posey is still good. (ESPN.com photo)

The Giants go for the trifecta as the showdown concludes Saturday afternoon at that ugly concrete donut across The Bay. The Monday, it’s the (not Mike) 2016 Broadway debut in Milwaukee. Same idea as New York’s Broadway, just fewer delis.

Buster Posey opened the scoring with a two-run double in the first, plating Denard Span and Joe Panik, who opened up with a single and walk respectively. Three batters, two runs. Table setters setting tables. Who’d have thunk it?

That was the good news. The bad? An old problem from last year again reared its ugly head. With Posey at third with one out, Belt nubbed a weak grounder and Duffy fanned to thwart any further scoring. The Giants would not score again until Gregor Blanco’s RBI single off Sean Doolittle plated Matt Duffy in the seventh. The were just 2 of 10 with runners in scoring position.

Just as important as runs was the offense’s ability to grind. Oakland starter Kendall Graveman had to throw nearly 30 pitches to get out of the first inning as the bulk of the order showed great plate discipline.

The bottom third let Graveman off the hook in the second as the 7-8-9 (with Peavy hitting eighth) went down on single digits, but there was at least a glimpse of what could be. Graveman also benefitted from a pair of early double plays that seemed to indicate the umpires are tired of practice games, too.

We’ve seen the importance of making pitchers work, specifically when guys like Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke inflate their counts and become immensely more vulnerable. And let’s face it, we’ve seen just how much Giants hurlers just adore those long innings.

God, Microsoft desperately needs a font dedicated to sarcasm.

A good night for our favorite whipping boy, who didn't spike himself. (Vermoncroy.com photo)

Peavy was actually decent. He gave up a safety in the first and a two-out walk in the second, a frame in which he was spared further embarrassment thanks to a diving backhander by Duffy behind third base to end the stanza. Duffy and Angel Pagan flashed the gloves again in the fourth. JP went five scoreless on a pair of hits and, if there’s any justice in the world, ordered a couple of rounds up from the Public House for the defense.

Pagan, by the way, has been a revelation in left field. No, he’s not a basher. In fact, he’s hitting ninth for reasons we totally mangled in our last post. But he’s shown the advantages of having a second center fielder to cover a big outfield. He backed Peavey with a pair of diving grabs, and not for the first time this spring. If he stays healthy he... Nope, not gonna jinx it.

Okay, Peavy really wasn’t that bad. He wasn’t great but he did appear to settle in. At times he started to look more like second-half Jake Peavy than first-half Jake Peavy. Second-half Jake Peavy was usually good for two trips through the order. First-half Jake Peavy drove up Blue Cross premiums.

Chris Heston (one hit), George Kontos (no hits, 2Ks), Hunter Strickland (one hit) and Santiago Casilla chipped away at the remainder with an inning of work each. Casilla pitched a quiet ninth (one strikeout) for the save. As a staff, the Giants allowed just four hits.

Posey was the only Giants to record multiple hits, adding an infield single (no, that’s not an April Fool’s joke) to his two-run double. Span, Blanco, Duffy, Brandon Belt and Kelby Tomlinson singled to account for the rest.

So The Big Phone got a proper christening. The next time the Giants will see the old girl will be for the home opener against The Hated Dodgers.Until then they get to break out the Willie Nelson and Roger Miller tunes and do some road work.

By the way, Tim Lincecum is still available ... and so is Sidd Finch.