The Arizona Diamondbacks had everything in their favor to win Thursday afternoon and salvage a series split. They were facing Tim Lincecum, Buster Posey wasn't in the starting lineup, and they had Bronson Arroyo on the mound. Things didn't go as planned.
D-backs pitcher Bronson Arroyo made his regular season debut and didn't fair as well as he would have hoped, only lasting 4 1/3 innings after struggling all afternoon to locate his pitches in the lower half of the strike zone. Arroyo surrendered a home run to Brandon Belt in the first inning, Belt's third of the season, all coming off Diamondbacks pitching. The other run came from a Hector Sanchez sacrifice fly, following hits by Pablo Sandoval and Hunter Pence.
The Arizona offense did not fail to show up against Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum, as both Paul Goldschmidt and Mark Trumbo blasted two run homers off Lincecum in the first and the sixth inning. Goldschmidt's homer came on the very first pitch he saw come out of Lincecum's hand, continuing his domination against him. Goldschmidt increased his lifetime stats off Lincecum to a .522 batting average, along with six home runs and 13 RBI's. Lincecum jokingly said after the game, "I'm going to start throwing underhand to him". Paul Goldschmidt continues to rip the cover off the ball, extending his hitting streak to 25 games.
Unfortunately for D-back fans, the San Francisco offense continued to manhandle Arizona pitching in Thursday's game, more precisely the bullpen. D-backs lefty specialist Oliver Perez redeemed himself by cleaning up the mess left behind by Bronson Arroyo in the fifth, and fellow relievers Ryan Rowland-Smith and Brad Ziegler did their jobs as well. Oddly enough, the two more consistent Diamondback relievers were the ones to surrender runs. Josh Collmenter gave up a home run to pinch hitter Brandon Hicks in the top of the sixth. While Will Harris had a game to forget as he imploded in the eighth inning giving up five earned runs, the deciding blow being a three run homer hit by Angel Pagan. Pagan hit .421 in the four games against Arizona.
The Arizona Diamondbacks head to Colorado to take on the 1-3 Rockies in their home opener Friday afternoon. The D-backs will send Randall Delgado to the bump to take on Juan Nicasio of the Rockies. As for San Francisco, they head to Los Angeles to play the 4-1 Dodgers in their home opener that should feature the season debut of Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp. The scheduled starting pitchers for the matinee game are Ryan Vogelsong for the Giants, and Hyun-Jin Ryu for the Dodgers.