A tale of two pitchers

The San Francisco Giants entered the offseason with a lot of young starting pitchers who were equal parts exciting and unproven. Pitchers who could break camp with the team and prove to be a vital asset in the bullpen and critical rotational depth, like Hayden Birdsong was in the first half of last year. But also, pitchers who could show that they’re just not ready to contribute at the Major League level yet, like Hayden Birdsong in the second half of last year.

As the Giants poked around the trade market, it seemed that some of those pitchers could end up being on the way out. But ultimately, it was just the one at the back of the pecking order — Kai-Wei Teng — who didn’t make it to Scottsdale. The rest of the crew is there, fighting for bullpen jobs, backup starting jobs, and spots on the AAA Sacramento rotational totem pole.

Perhaps the biggest story of the Giants spring has been the divergent paths we’ve seen those pitchers take. Trevor McDonald, for instance, has been nothing short of brilliant: in three innings he’s yet to allow a hit or a walk, while striking out five. Birdsong, on the other hand, has been a disaster: in his two outings, he’s allowed 10 baserunners and eight earned runs, while recording just four outs. And Blade Tidwell? He’s thrown gas, and looked emphatically like one of the team’s 13 best pitchers.

Two other young pitchers had only made one appearance going into Monday’s game, a 6-5 win over the Chicago White Sox that pushed the Giants to 8-2 in Cactus League play. And, yet again, we saw them take very different paths.

Incumbent starter Landen Roupp took the bump to start the game. Roupp had been strong in his first outing of the year, and he was even stronger in this one. He struck out Chase Miedroth to open the first, then struck out Luisangel Acuña immediately afterwards, en route to a 1-2-3 first inning. His second inning was just as strong: while he didn’t have any strikeouts, he needed just 12 pitches to set down the side in order, inducing two ground balls and a soft liner.

That was it for Roupp, and it provided reason to think that his spot in the rotation is secure, as it should be. He needed just 25 pitches to cruise through two perfect innings, and was completely control.

Unfortunately, you can probably tell that this is a setup for something less happy — the proverbial other hand of the young pitching performances. Which brings us to the third inning, when Carson Whisenhunt took the mound. Whisenhunt had a hot-and-cold act in his first game of the spring, pitching one dominant inning and then falling apart in the next. In this game, unfortunately, he skipped past the first act.

Whisenhunt allowed a single to Jarred Kelenic on the first pitch he threw, and it was a moment that would, unfortunately, set the tone. He was able to get a fairly soft ground ball from Kelenic, hit right to the shortstop position. But with the Giants shifting, the ball found a hole for a tough-luck, seeing-eye single.

That was bad luck, but the rest of the outing was self-inflicted. After striking out the next batter, Whisenhunt allowed a 106.3-mph double to Korey Lee to score the first run. With two outs, Acuña scorched a 106.6-mph single for a second run.

Still, Whisenhunt got through the inning, and was awarded a second one. He started it by walking old friend LaMonte Wade Jr., then allowed a double to Lenyn Sosa. Immediate trouble. A sacrifice fly scored a third run, and then Kelenic again struck, this time not needing the shift to help him out: he smoked a 110.6-mph double — the hardest-hit ball of the day — to score the fourth and final run that Whisenhunt would allow. He would strike out the next batter, then get pulled from the game.

As in his first outing, Whisenhunt showed both greatly improved velocity, and velocity that couldn’t hold. Early in his outing, he threw five straight fastballs and averaged 96.7 mph with them. His final five fastballs, on the other hand, averaged just 94.9.

Ultimately, it was a case of nothing quite working for Whisenhunt, other than that early increase in velo. He only threw 28 of 46 pitches for strikes, and his signature changeup wasn’t able to be a weapon. He threw it just nine times, and it resulted in four balls, three swinging strikes, a foul ball, and a double.

It’s early. Not just for Whisenhunt and Birdsong, but also for the pitchers who are performing well. But we’re certainly seeing a divergence in the early goings.

On offense, the Giants — who sent a B-squad to Camelback Ranch — did the bulk of their damage with a White Sox-assisted rally in the third inning. It started when Buddy Kennedy and Jesús Rodríguez drew back-to-back one-out walks. That led to Parks Harber coming through with a big hit: an RBI double. Admittedly, it was a double that was hit right at the center fielder Acuña but, as we’ve seen so many times this spring, it simply wasn’t caught. On the other hand, Harber scorched it at 105 mph, so he deserved some good things out of it.

That only scored one run, but Christian Koss would follow with a two-run single to cap a three-run inning.

After falling behind 5-3, the Giants would get close in the sixth inning with a small ball rally, when Bo Davidson, Grant McCray, and Jake Holton hit back-to-back-to-back singles. Excitingly, Davidson and McCray absolutely smoked their hits, which registered 110 and 106.5 mph, respectively.

San Francisco would tie it in the eighth in the most unexpected way: a solo home run from Nate Furman. The second baseman brings a lot of skills to the Giants, but power certainly is not one of them. In 194 Minor League games, he’s hit just 12 home runs.

But he figured out the way to do it in the desert though, with metrics you won’t see on many home runs in Major League games: a 95.9-mph exit velocity, a distance of 365 feet, and an expected batting average of .210.

They would take the lead in the ninth inning on another solo home run, this time from a slightly more expected source: Kennedy, who had his first big hit since coming to camp as a Minor League free agent. And that was enough for a 6-5 win, helping the Giants avoid their first tie of spring.

A few more notes:

• Rodríguez had quite a utility player game. He started at second base, and later moved to left field for a few innings. The Giants only used him as a catcher following July’s trade with the Yankees, but have been using him all over the field this spring.
• Victor Bericoto continued his tremendous spring, hitting 1-2 with a loud double while starting in right field.
• Speaking of starting in the outfield, with Harrison Bader dinged up and Jung Hoo Lee in Korea, Luis Matos got the start in center field. It will be interesting to see if the Giants trust him there, which definitely opens up pathways to make the Opening Day roster, which is a necessity if the Giants want to keep him around, since he’s out of options. Matos has been swinging a hot bat this spring, though he went 0-2 in this game, though his first out required a very nice defensive play.
• Jerar Encarnación, who started in left field, and Tyler Fitzgerald, who came off the bench to play third base, continued their tough springs. Both batters hit 0-2, with Encarnación striking out in both at-bats, and Fitzgerald having a strikeout and a pop out. Encarnación is 3-19 with seven strikeouts, no walks, and no extra-base hits this preseason; Fitzgerald is 2-17 with five strikeouts, no walks, and two doubles, though one of his hits was a pop up that the defense neglected to catch.
• Spencer Bivens had a bit of a hiccup. He gave up three hits, two walks, and a solo home run in 1.2 innings, with one strikeout, and threw 20 of 35 pitches for strikes.
• Nick Margevicius, on the other hand, had a nice day. He tossed 2.1 scoreless innings, with three hits, no walks, and no strikeouts.
• Darien Smith came over from Minor League camp to record the save with a perfect ninth inning, with one strikeout. That’s always fun to see!
• The Giants didn’t use any hard throwers in this game: Whisenhunt had the nine hardest-thrown balls of the game for San Francisco. The hardest throw by a non-Whisenhunt Giants pitcher was a 95.7-mph sinker from Bivens.
• The five hardest-hit balls of the day for the Giants: Davidson’s single (110 mph), an Osleivis Basabe line out (107.9), McCray’s single (106.5), a Casey Schmitt single (105), and Harber’s double (105). Rodríguez’s single, Kennedy’s home run, Bericoto’s double, and a Harber ground out also cleared the 100-mph mark.
• The Giants now get a break from Cactus League play to host Team USA as they prep for the World Baseball Classic. That game is Tuesday at 12:05 p.m. PT, and you can watch it on ESPN. Tidwell is expected to start.