SCOTTSDALE — The flu cost Santiago Casilla a week of camp and quite a bit of energy, but it didn’t take anything away from his love of pitching. Casilla was all smiles after throwing a sharp inning Saturday at Scottsdale Stadium, laughing as he talked about dealing a curveball as his first pitch of the 2016 season.
“The first time,” Casilla said later, “You feel hungry for pitching.”
The closer looked like he doesn’t need to throw many more pitches, if any, to get ready for Opening Day. Casilla struck out two and gave up a single while pitching the fourth.
“He’s ready with the stuff he showed today,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “That was the best part of today.”
[RELATED: Casilla scoreless in debut, but Giants beaten by D'backs]
The Giants fell to the Diamondbacks at home and lost to the Angels in Tempe, which came as no surprise since this is investors’ weekend. The team always seems to play poorly when ownership comes down for a weekend, but Casilla’s outing was a bright light. He said he gets sick every year when he first comes down to Arizona, and this year’s edition sapped him.
“I lost my power,” Casilla said. “But (today) I believed in my breaking ball and my cutter.”
Bochy said Casilla has expressed a desire to mix it up more this season, especially with his changeup. There was never any doubt that he’d open the season as the closer, and now the Giants are close to getting a valuable set-up man back. Sergio Romo faced hitters on Saturday morning and is two or three days away from his Cactus League debut, Bochy said.
As for the starting staff, it’s still not whole. Matt Cain gave an update to reporters after throwing a bullpen session, and it sure sounds like the Giants aren’t counting on Cain to be ready by April 8. Bochy said he met with Cain and told him not to “get into rush mode.” They want to make sure he doesn’t have any setbacks.
As for the rest of a split-squad day …
NOTEWORTHY: Mac Williamson and Jarrett Parker both hit long homers. Williamson has a team-high three as he makes a push for a spot … Ty Blach gave up five runs at Scottsdale Stadium, but at least he got Paul Goldschmidt out twice. Blach faced Goldschmidt last spring and gave up a pair of hits … Joe Panik picked up two more hits, raising his average to .421. Andrew Susac also had two hits at Scottsdale Stadium … Over in Tempe, Trevor Brown and Grant Green had multi-hit games … Brandon Crawford was hit by a pitch but stayed in and later said he’s fine … Jake Peavy gave up three runs but said he felt good. Albert Pujols got him for a two-run shot.
FAMILIAR FACES: Joaquin Arias and Cody Hall came on for the Diamondbacks in the late innings. Arias got a nice ovation from the crowd when he hit in the eighth, and he tipped his cap to his former teammates. I don’t know if Cain was still around but hopefully he sent a six-pack or something over to the visiting clubhouse.
THE OPPONENT: Goldschmidt being here had me looking up his numbers against individual pitchers. You know the Lincecum numbers, but I found this mildly interesting … Only three pitchers who have faced him at least 18 times have held him under a .700 OPS: Zack Greinke, Mike Leake and Dan Haren. Greinke is now his teammate, Leake could have been in the division but went to St. Louis, and Haren is retired. Goldschmidt basically crushes every good pitcher left in the division. He continues to be underrated.
QUOTABLE: “Fancy, by Iggy Azalea. Loved that song. I don’t know what it was.” — Brandon Crawford on my podcast, explaining how Ryan Vogelsong had a surprising request for DJ Crawford before starts. If you missed it last week, I have a podcast now. You can find it online here or on iTunes here. Subscribe! More podcasts with players are on the way …
