My choice for my final Grapefruit League action of this spring was to scope out two National League West Division powers as the Los Angeles Dodgers visited the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium on Sunday. The sell-out crowd was reported at 12,127.
As the photo indicates, Tommy Lasorda was in the house. When I decided to sit behind home plate for several innings, there was a problem since the ballpark was completely sold out and more. A local writer correctly suggested there would be extra folding chairs in the various handicap-accessible sections. As I settled in, the Hall of Famer was sitting one box over.
Former Cub and new Giant Jeff Samardzija started. Though he fanned the side in the first and faced the minimum through two, “Shark” allowed four hits and a run in the third, his final frame. Outfielder Carl Crawford collected the RBI on a single.
The Dodgers’ number three hitter, Yasiel Puig, drew loud boos at every at-bat. The right fielder struck out and singled on the afternoon.
LA starter Zach Lee tossed two scoreless frames before reliever Adam Liberatore yielded a run in the third on a wild pitch.
Giants pitcher Clayton Blackburn yielded an RBI triple to Crawford in the fifth to put the Dodgers back in the lead, 2-1. Puig’s sac fly brought Crawford home.
Dodgers centerfielder Joc Pederson fanned his three at-bats, fooled badly on several off-speed offerings.
Brandon Crawford greeted Dodgers reliever Matt West with a first-pitch blast out to right field in the home sixth. That brought San Francisco back to within one run, but that was as close as they could get. Los Angeles added two late runs to pick up the road win, 5-2.
Follow me on Twitter.