Giants notes: Beck makes roster case as team wins eighth straight originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
GOODYEAR, Ariz. — The 161st game of the 2024 MLB season was not one that anyone will remember. The Giants edged the St. Louis Cardinals in a matchup of disappointing teams that had long since been eliminated from the playoff race.
But for Tristan Beck, that game was huge. Beck threw four innings and allowed one run in his first start of the year, but it’s not the result that was meaningful. It was the fact that he got to empty the tank with 72 pitches at the end of a year that started with a scary diagnosis.
Beck missed most of the season after needing surgery last March to remove an aneurysm from his upper right arm. He waited patiently for three months for the small wound to get back to a point where he could safely throw and break a sweat, and he made it back to the big leagues in September.
“Being able to turn in a four-inning outing, it just really personally gave me the confidence to get into a normal offseason and kind of leave the injury behind me,” Beck said Wednesday.
Beck now is one year and one week removed from surgery, and all is normal. Like a half-dozen other young pitchers in camp, he only has to worry about one thing: Trying to win a job.
Beck finds himself as part of a large crowd, in part because of what happened while he was sidelined. Hayden Birdsong and Landen Roupp broke through as rotation options and Sean Hjelle locked up a role in the bullpen, with Randy Rodriguez emerging as another right-hander to give the Giants one inning or three. They all are joined this spring by the usual collection of non-roster invitees, which includes Lou Trivino and Joey Lucchesi, who combined Wednesday to throw three scoreless innings in relief of Beck.
Beck had thrown just four innings coming into Wednesday’s game, but the staff wanted to reward him with a start and he allowed one run and struck out three in 2 2/3 innings. Manager Bob Melvin said Beck currently is viewed as more of a long relief option than anything else, but that could be a role that’s open in the bullpen at the end of camp.
“He’s a guy that can pitch in a number of roles,” Melvin said of Beck, who has two minor league options remaining. “We just need to get a few more looks at him.”
Still Streaking
It was just about all young players who made the trip to Goodyear, Ariz., to face the Cleveland Guardians, but that didn’t slow the Giants at all. They won 11-2, improving to 13-3-3, the best record in the majors this spring. Wednesday’s win was the eighth straight, and it came with strong contributions from a lot of players fighting for jobs.
Luis Matos had a pair of hits to raise his spring average to .359 and Casey Schmitt raised his OPS to .973. Grant McCray had a triple, drove in two runs and scored twice. Sam Huff, the favorite to be the backup catcher, hit a 111 mph homer to raise his Cactus League OPS to 1.131.
David Villar is out of options and blocked at first base (LaMonte Wade Jr., Wilmer Flores) and third (Matt Chapman), but he had a good day. Villar was 2-for-3 with a 109.5 mph double.
“He got off to a little bit of a slow start and wasn’t getting a ton of playing time, but we all know there’s some thump in his bat,” Melvin said. “He’s getting more consistent at-bats and taking advantage of it.”
If You’re In Scottsdale …
The Giants moved Tuesday’s game up a couple of hours to avoid the rain and ended up nailing the forecast. It started to sprinkle in the eighth inning, and a few minutes after the game ended, the skies opened up.
They’re trying it again on Thursday. The game against the Texas Rangers has been moved from 1 p.m. to noon to try and avoid more weather on the way.
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