San Francisco Giants Three Standouts: Game Four, 2-26

The San Francisco Giants were back at it again on Monday, and here are three players that grabbed attention, good or bad, from that game.

The San Francisco Giants dropped a contest to the Kansas City Royals on Monday, falling by a final of 10-6. The offense was dormant until the final inning, when non-roster invitees and minor league camp call-ups made it interesting by piecing together a five-run inning. The pitching staff had some good innings and bad innings, but the bad innings were really bad and ultimately led to 10 runs.

Here are three players who grabbed some attention on Monday:

1 – Josh Osich

Osich made his Cactus League debut on Monday, and he looked extremely strong. He threw in the seventh inning, and didn’t give the infielders behind him a chance to work. Osich retired the side by getting a soft groundball up the first-base line that he handled himself, and followed that with a pair of strikeouts, both of the swing-and-miss variety.

Osich’s delivery looked a bit smoother than it has in the past couple seasons, and he used his changeup pretty frequently on Monday, including getting his second strikeout with the pitch.

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His best big league season was as a rookie in 2015, when he pitched to a 2.20 ERA while throwing his changeup 16.3 percent of the time. That usage total has decreased in each of the past two seasons (down to 8.8 percent in 2017), and Osich hasn’t been good in either year. It’s not hard to imagine that new pitching coach Curt Young wants Osich to get back to using his changeup more, and maybe it can be his key to success.

2 – Jarrett Parker

Jarrett Parker is still looking for his timing at the plate. He started in left field on Monday, and worked a walk in his first plate appearance before striking out swinging through a high fastball later in the game. Parker has recorded just one hit in eight at-bats through four games.

Out in left field, though, Parker made the play of the day, and probably the play of Spring Training for the Giants so far. In the fifth inning, Parker had to range far to his right on a sinking line drive that was heading toward the corner. He had to fully extend into a dive, and was just able to put a glove on the ball before it dropped. He showed last season that he is fearless on defense, and this was a spectacular play.

3 – Derek Holland

The line score offers mixed results for Derek Holland in his Giants’ debut. He worked two innings and struck out four batters, but also allowed a walk, a double, and a two-run home run.

First, the good. Holland did an excellent job of spotting his fastball on the corners, leading to three strikeouts where the batter didn’t swing at the pitch. He also mixed speeds well, leading to plenty of off-balance swings.

Then, the bad. He started by issuing a walk, though he wasn’t missing his spots by much and soon cleaned up the location. He ended with a double and a home run with two outs in the fourth inning, though the home run could be construed as a “Cactus League special”, sneaking over the wall in extreme hitter-friendly conditions.

Next: Three Standouts from Game Three

Overall, this was an overwhelmingly positive first outing for Derek Holland, especially with the way Tyler Beede struggled on Monday. He has work to do to grab a spot on the Opening Day pitching staff, but this was an excellent start.

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