Cleveland Guardians at San Francisco Giants 3/23/23
The Cleveland Guardians will be in Arizona Thursday night for a spring training matchup against the San Francisco Giants. Cleveland comes into Thursday six games below .500 thus far this spring following a 4-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers that ended a 2 game win streak. Tristan McKenzie got the start and took the loss for Cleveland giving up four runs on six hits across 4.1 innings of work. The Cleveland bullpen however was fantastic allowing no runs on only one hit over the final 4.2 innings of the game.
Gabriel Arias has led the way thus far this spring for Cleveland carrying a .341 batting average in 41 at bats through 16 games played. Josh Naylor leads Cleveland with nine RBI's and 14 hits, while Steven Kwan posts a team high .409 OBP. Roman Quinn has supplied the Cleveland power this spring leading the way with three home runs overall.
The San Francisco Giants come into Thursday one game below .500 thus far this spring but are riding a 3 game win streak after a blowout 12-1 win against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Alex Wood got the victory for San Francisco against Los Angeles giving up no runs on one hit across 5 innings of work. The San Francisco bullpen was fantastic as well allowing just one run on three hits over the final four innings to secure the win.
Offensively San Francisco had one of their best games of the spring with sixteen hits and 44 at bats including eight hits with runners in scoring position to plate 12 runs. Thairo Estrada led the offense for San Francisco with three hits and four at bats to drive in three runs in the game. Will Wilson and Bryce Johnson chipped in to drive in two runs, while two other giants drove in one run each.
Neither team has been great thus far this spring but the Giants are the better team in this game. Look for San Francisco to use their strengths on both sides of the ball to overwhelm a struggling Cleveland team. Take the Giants Thursday night in Arizona to get the win and improve back to .500 this spring. Final Score Prediction, San Francisco Giants win 6-2.
