Starters in Midseason Form

Randy Johnson showed no butterflies facing his former team, the Arizona Diamondbacks, for the first time in today's exhibition game. Then again, Johnson doesn't seem to be the butterflies type. Against a lineup featuring most of Arizona's regulars, the Big Unit struck out seven of the twelve hitters he faced in three innings. 29 of his 42 pitches were strikes.

Johnson's performance was the latest in what has been a mostly positive spring so far for Giants' starters. The five pitchers expected to make up the team's opening day rotation have allowed just six runs in 17.1 innings, striking out 21 while allowing just four walks and one home run. Only Matt Cain (4 ER in 3.2 IP) has struggled, and he has been hurt by poor defense behind him. Tim Lincecum has retired 12 of the 13 hitters he has faced. Jonathan Sanchez struck out four in three innings in his only appearance before leaving to join Puerto Rico for the World Baseball Classic. Barry Zito struck out two and did not allow a hit over two innings in his first outing.

Yes, Spring Training numbers don't mean anything, and pitchers are usually ahead of the hitters this time of year. But at the very least, it's reassuring that we haven't seen any early meltdowns, such as we saw last year with Zito and Noah Lowry.

Notes
- The Giants beat the Diamondbacks 7-6. The offense rallied from a 5-0 deficit behind home runs from Eugenio Velez and Pablo Sandoval. After Johnson departed, almost all of the damage was done against non-roster invitee Ramon Ortiz, who had his second ugly outing, allowing five runs on seven hits in two innings. Justin Miller, Brandon Medders, and Osiris Matos each threw a scoreless inning before Luis Perdomo allowed a run in the ninth.
- Reliever Sergio Romo, who was roughed up in his only appearance this spring, was shut down for a week to 10 days with a sprained right elbow.