San Francisco Giants Blast 4 Homers, But Cleveland Tees Off On Ryan Vogelsong For 12-11 Win
By Phil Watson
Ryan Vogelsong’s night went from shaky to horrific during a seven-run third inning and the San Francisco Giants were held scoreless after launching four homers in the first four innings of a 12-11 loss to the Cleveland Indians at Goodyear Ballpark Tuesday night.
Vogelsong gave up single runs in the first and second innings before the Indiana (15-4) teed off in the third, scoring seven times. Vogelsong was charged with nine runs, eight earned, on 11 hits in 2.2 innings, striking out three and surrendering a pair of homers to raise his spring ERA to 9.00.
The Giants (11-9) still had a chance to win, however, but Cleveland pushed across the tying and go-ahead runs off reliever Santiago Casilla (1-1) in the sixth inning.
San Francisco got off to a hot start, scoring four times in the first off Indians starter Zach McAllister. Gregor Blanco singled and Tyler Colvin followed with his first Cactus League homer to make it 2-0. After Brandon Belt walked, Hunter Pence grounded a double to left to drive in a run and after a groundout moved Pence over to third, Hector Sanchez singled to right to give the Giants a 4-0 lead.
The Indians got a run back in the bottom of the inning on back-to-back singles and an RBI groundout by Jason Kipnis.
Yan Gomes led off the bottom of the second for Cleveland with the first of his two home runs on the night to cut the San Francisco lead to 4-2.
Pablo Sandoval and Sanchez hit back-to-back homers to lead off the top of the third for the Giants to increase their lead to 6-2. It was the second spring homer for Sandoval while Sanchez went deep for the first time in Arizona.
But the wheels came off after Vogelsong got two outs in the third. Michael Brantley doubled in a run and after Gomes singles, Bryan LaHair hit an RBI single. Jeff Francoeur followed with a three-run homer to left, his first of the spring, to give the Indians their first lead at 7-6.
They weren’t done. Asdrubal Cabrera hit a run-scoring double and after Daryl Maday replaced Vogelsong, Kipnis lined an RBI single to right.
The Giants bounced right back against reliever Colt Hynes in the fourth. Belt singled and Pence doubled to start the inning and after Sandoval popped out, Sanchez produced a sacrifice fly to center. Juan Perez was hit by a pitch and Brandon Crawford grounded an RBI single up the middle. Brandon Hicks followed with a three-run blast to left-center, his second homer of the spring, to put the Giants back up 11-9.
The Indians got a run back on an RBI groundout by Francoeur in the bottom of the fourth off Dan Runzler.
In the sixth, Casilla gave up a one-out double to Michael Brantley and Gomes followed with his second homer of the day.
Maday gave up a hit before getting the final out of the third, Runzler gave up a run on two hits in two innings, Casilla was roughed up for two runs on four hits in 1.2 innings, Jeremy Affeldt gave up two hits and got two outs and Sergio Romo got the final two outs of the eighth.
San Francisco banged out 17 hits, three apiece for Belt and Sanchez, while Blanco, Pence and Crawford had two each.
The Giants have a scheduled off day Wednesday before going to Peoria Sports Complex Thursday night for a 7:05 p.m. Pacific matchup with the San Diego Padres.