Sedona Red Recap: Diamondbacks drop season opener to Giants

New front office faces, a new manager, several new players plus a new competitive spirit did not add up –at least on this night — to a new result for the Arizona Diamondbacks, who began 2015 with a result quite familiar to the year prior: a loss.

However, this defeat, 5-4 to the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants, did feel different.

Trailing 5-1 in the 8th, the D-backs rallied for three runs, all off the bat of pinch-hitter Jake Lamb, who knocked an 0-1 offering from Sergio Romo off the center field wall to clear the bases.

The comeback bid, however, failed.

Giants starter Madison Bumgarner (1-0), the 2014 World Series MVP, kept the D-backs hitters in check and a sellout crowd of 49,043 quiet for much of the game. He allowed but one run on six hits over seven innings to improve to 3-0 in his last six starts at Chase Field.

Making his first Opening Day start, Josh Collmenter failed to complete five innings. With his pitch count at 89, he was removed from the game after a two-out walk to Casey McGehee, who would later score what would prove to be the deciding run.

All five San Francisco runs were charged to Collmenter (0-1). He was tagged with 10 hits — the Giants totaled 13 — while walking one batter and striking out four before turning the game over to the bullpen, which tossed 4.1 innings of scoreless relief, keeping the D-backs within striking distance.

THE GOOD

Prior to his exit in the fifth inning, Collmenter had escaped trouble in both the first and fourth, stranding a pair of runners on base in each frame. In the first, he struck out Buster Posey and retired Brandon Belt on a fly ball to center, leaving runners on second and third. In the fourth, after consecutive one-out base hits, Collmenter retired the side with strikeouts of Gregor Blanco and Bumgarner.

Great read by Nick Ahmed: Fielding a long relay throw from center, the young shortstop turned and threw to third base, trapping Nori Aoki in a rundown between third and home. Aoki was retired 8-6-5-2, keeping the game scoreless two outs into the third inning. Ahmed, by the way, was the D-backs’ fourth consecutive different starting shortstop on Opening Day.

Let the record show Mark Trumbo drove in the first D-backs run of 2015, tripling off the overhang in center field to score Ender Inciarte, making it a 1-1 game in the third inning. Trumbo had but one triple in 88 games last season, and here in his second at-bat of the year recorded the eighth of his career. He also now has 18 RBI in 20 career games against the Giants.

Coming on in relief of Collmenter in the fifth, Andrew Chafin retired seven of the eight batters he faced in his two-plus innings of work. He struck out two, including Angel Pagan, who had been 3-for-3 with a pair of doubles in his first three at-bats.

THE BAD

Two of the first three D-backs batters to reach base safely against Bumgarner came via hit-by-pitches. Inciarte was hit on his right side by a 74 mph curveball thrown on a 2-2 pitch in the first, while Ahmed got tagged in the next inning on his right elbow by a 91 mph fastball. Neither looked intentional.

Through their first three at-bats of the game, the Giants’ 1-2-3 hitters were a combined 8-for-9 with three doubles and four runs scored. Joe Panik and Pagan each had three hits. Panik scored twice, while Pagan added two RBI, the second of which gave the Giants a 2-1 lead in the fifth. Pagan, by the way, is hitting .510 (25-for-49) in his last 12 games against the D-backs.

After throwing no more than 13 pitches in each of his first three innings of work, Collmenter was forced to throw 52 in the fourth and fifth combined.

The game’s one and only error was committed by Trumbo in the fifth. Playing right field for the first time with the D-backs, he misplayed Brandon Crawford’s two-run double, letting the ball go underneath his glove and towards the wall, which allowed Crawford to take third — but was where he remained.

STAT OF THE GAME

4: The number of Giants extra-base hits, which helped drive in three of the team’s five runs

HE SAID IT

“I told the guys after the game,” first-year manager Chip Hale said, “one thing we know we’re not going to be undefeated, and the other thing is we still have a chance to win the series (with the Giants). You win series, you win championships, so we have to battle these next two games. They showed a lot of fight. It was great to come back.”

NOTED

– Lamb recorded the fifth pinch-hit, three-run double in club history and the first since July 4, 2009, in Colorado.

– Paul Goldschmidt established a club record with his fourth Opening Day start at first base, breaking a tie with Conor Jackson.

– The game was played in front of the eighth-largest regular-season crowd in stadium history and the fourth-largest on Opening Day.

– Pregame festivities included an on-field recognition with MLB Commissioner Emeritus Bud Selig, ceremonial first pitch by former D-back and 2015 National Hall of Fame inductee Randy Johnson, national anthem sung by “American Idol” winner Taylor Hicks and flyover by two F-16s from the 309th Fighter Squadron at Luke Air Force Base.

UP NEXT

Acquired from Boston as part of the Wade Miley trade in the offseason, Rubby De La Rosa will take the mound in game two of the season-opening three-game series against the Giants on Tuesday, April 7.

First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. with pregame coverage beginning 30 minutes earlier on Arizona Sports 98.7 FM.

De La Rosa was 1-1 with a 3.15 ERA (seven ER in 20.0 IP) in six Cactus League games, including four starts.

Opposite the 26-year-old is fellow right-hander Ryan Vogelsong, who is getting the nod after the Giants announced scheduled starter Jake Peavy is dealing with back stiffness.

Vogelsong went 8-13 with a 4.00 ERA in 32 starts last season. He is 3-6 all-time against the D-backs.

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