San Francisco Giants Three Standouts: Game 19, 3-12

The San Francisco Giants continued their recent hot streak on Monday, beating the Oakland Athletics for their sixth straight win.

The San Francisco Giants won their sixth straight Cactus League game on Monday, beating the Oakland Athletics in the Bay Area rivals’ first meeting of the season. Both teams had one big inning each, but the Giants came away with one late run to make the score 6-5, which would be the final.

Here are three players (or areas) who stood out from Monday:

1 – Chris Stratton

Back on the mound for the fourth time this spring was Chris Stratton, who continued to solidify his grip on a spot in the opening day rotation. He threw four innings, allowing two hits and one run while striking out three and issuing a walk. He worked into the fifth inning, but was pulled after allowing a leadoff bloop single.

Stratton didn’t have the best feel for his curveball, missing his target with the pitch on more than one occasion. He hung one to Stephen Piscotty, and the righty crushed it for a solo home run, the only run that Stratton allowed. He worked with his fastball a lot, and did mix in some good curveballs as well.

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Stratton continues to impress, and this was just another great outing in a strong spring. Even without the best command of his best pitch, he was still able to string together four innings of one-run ball. It’s going to take something unforeseen to keep him out of the rotation at this point.

2 – Steven Duggar

Steven Duggar continues to impress with every opportunity he gets. He was back in center field on Monday, and he hit his third home run of the spring.

The Giants were shut down in the first four innings by A’s starter Jharel Cotton. His nasty changeup had the Giants off-balance his entire outing, but the bats came alive when he left. IN the fifth inning, Duggar collected the Giants’ first hit of the day, launching a Ryan Buchter offering over the fence for his fourth home run of the spring.

This was an impressive hit for Duggar, as it came off a tough left-handed reliever. Duggar’s minor-league platoon splits have always been fairly even, but he will face plenty of difficult southpaws in the NL West. If this is considered a test for him, he passed with flying colors.

3 – Aggressive Baserunning

One of the most notable differences in the Giants’ overall game so far this spring is their aggressiveness on the basepaths. That was quite apparent in the fifth inning against the Athletics.

Gorkys Hernandez hit a one-out single, and Joe Panik followed with another single, this one through the hole in the right side of the infield. Rather than just going station-to-station, Hernandez took third base against a right fielder with a strong arm, Stephen Piscotty. When the throw went past third base, Panik was able to take second and erase the possibility of a groundball double play.

The Giants have been doing this all spring, challenging for extra bases at every turn. It’s something that has gotten non-roster infielder Chase d’Arnaud some attention, as he’s been probably the most aggressive player on the basepaths this spring. The team has also been more willing to try to steal bases, ranking tied for third in both the Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues in stolen bases this spring.

Next: Three Standouts from Game 18

This is certainly one area that can carry over into the regular season. Home runs won’t fly out of AT&T Park the way they are in the Cactus League, but the Giants can press the issue on the basepaths and try to force the defense into making mistakes.

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