W: Jeremy Affeldt (1-0)
L: John Axford (0-1)
S: Sergio Romo (1)
Jeff Suppan had an excellent first spring training start today, pitching two perfect innings with a strikeout. In fact, the first three Brewers to take the mound (Suppan, Todd Coffey and Scott Schoeneweis) escaped without allowing a hit.
John Axford, however, ran into trouble on the fifth, allowing four runs on five hits and an error on a pickoff throw in one inning of work, and the Brewers were unable to recover. After Axford's departure, the Brewers also got scoreless innings from Zach Braddock and Cody Scarpetta. Chris Smith allowed the Giants an insurance run in the eighth.
After a week of hype, what we'd been warned to expect happened in the first inning: Barry Zito hit Prince Fielder with the first pitch in his first plate appearance. Fielder, however, tossed the ball back to the mound and trotted to first without incident. The benches were not warned and the remainder of the game was played without incident.
Meanwhile, Rickie Weeks got his spring training off to a nice start, going 2-for-2 with a walk, driving in two runs and stealing his first base of the spring. Jody Gerut went 1-for-4 and had the Brewers' only extra base hit in the game, a double off Todd Wellemeyer.