- Lincecum was amped up and didn't have good control. He has done this before: his first spring start, his first major league start, now his first opening day start. He should settle down and be OK.
- Randy Johnson is an old pro and gave up a homer - for the first time in his 22 year career - to the opposing pitcher; otherwise he was pretty good. He shouldn't be giving up another homer to the opposing pitcher again.
- Cain was Cain, usually good, often excellent: this time he was pure Cain sugar, putting together a nice 5 PQS start and getting run support for once (something that the #3 starter for the Giants have been getting the past two seasons).
- Zito was Zito, unfortunately: disappointing, which is what we've been regularly getting. However, there is a silver lining in his outing: he's like Lincecum, he's lousy when he's amped up, because, belying his zen image, he is like most of us who get a bit skittish when in the limelight. The good news is that he reportedly looked good, and had great stuff. But like he has for us the past two seasons, when the pressure is on, he doesn't do very well. Hopefully he will settle into being the #4 starter, and the good thing was after his bad first inning, he settled down enough for 3 IP, 1 run, had 3 strikeouts.
- Sanchez was Sanchez, for good and bad: he was absolutely filthy early on, 5 strikeouts in 2 innings, 7 strikeouts in 4, but then lost his focus on the #7 batter, the backup catcher, giving up 2 homers and letting that affect his pitching afterward. But he's young, he'll learn something from this and I think that's a good (though not perfect) start to what I think will be his breakout season.
Ideally the pitching could have been better, but overall I am happy with the results. All the pitchers looked pretty good except for a few problems, problems I would not expect to continue for the whole season, though obviously Zito will have to be watched.
Go Giants!
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