Giants Spoil Jimenez’s Return, Win 6-3 at LinesMaker

Giants Spoil Jimenez’s Return, Win 6–3

DENVER —Ubaldo Jimenez was rusty in his return.

Jimenez came off the 15-day dis­abled list Tues­day night and reported no issues with the thumb on his pitch­ing hand, which devel­oped a cracked cuti­cle two weeks ago, forc­ing to him miss­ing two starts.

What Colorado’s ace did have trou­ble with was San Francisco’s lineup, allow­ing four runs in the first inning of Colorado’s 6–3 loss to the Giants, the big blow a three-run homer by Pablo San­doval on a mis­placed slider.

“I put the team in a dif­fi­cult posi­tion right away,” Jimenez said. “The first inning, I was try­ing to let it go, that’s why every­thing was high.”

Except the read­ing on the radar gun.

Although he had more oomph on his fast­ball, his heaters weren’t blow­ing by bat­ters like usual.

“It’s not like I’m going to come back throw­ing 100 mph right away,” said Jimenez (0–1), whose fast­ball topped out at 94 mph, and he found bet­ter con­trol after he dialed it back a lit­tle bit.

Unlike in the opener against Ari­zona, when Jimenez couldn’t prop­erly grip the ball, rob­bing him of zip on his fast­ball and spin on his break­ing pitches, the right-hander said his thumb is fine and it’s just a mat­ter of build­ing up arm strength.

“I have to get my arm back,” Jimenez said. “My speed is going to get there prob­a­bly one step at a time, throw­ing bullpens and play­ing long toss every day.”

San Francisco’s offense, which spot­ted Lince­cum a five-run first-inning cush­ion in an 8–1 win, gave Jonathan Sanchez (2–1) a four-run lead to work with before the lefty even stepped foot on the mound.

Jimenez’s sec­ond pitch plunked Aaron Rowand, who came around to score on Buster Posey’s sin­gle before San­doval deposited an 84 mph slider into the Rock­ies’ bullpen in right-center for a three-run homer, his fifth.

“I was a lit­tle rusty. It was as tough inning, but after that, I was mak­ing my pitches,” said Jimenez, who allowed just two more hits through five innings. He walked two and struck out six.

Sanchez ended up allow­ing just two hits—to the first and last bat­ter he faced sand­wiched around 6 1–3 stel­lar innings.

Aubrey Huff also went deep for the Giants, who go for the sweep Wednes­day when Matt Cain faces Jorge De La Rosa.

Dex­ter Fowler led off the first with a dou­ble but the Rock­ies went hit­less after that until Ty Wig­gin­ton sin­gled with one out in the sev­enth, putting run­ners at first and second.

Ramon Ramirez replaced Sanchez and struck out Chris Ian­netta before walk­ing pinch-hitter Jonathan Her­rera to load the bases for Fowler, who dou­bled home two runs to make it 6–3. Ramirez then whiffed Ryan Spilborghs on three straight pitches to end the threat.

Javier Lopez pitched a per­fect eighth and Brian Wil­son got the final three outs for his fifth save in six chances.

Jimenez found his rhythm after the first inning and that pro­vides hope that his stut­ter­ing start to the sea­son is behind him.

“I’m get­ting closer and closer every day,” Jimenez said. “On open­ing day, I was throw­ing 89, 90. Today, I was throw­ing 94, 95, so I felt good.”

Jimenez started out 15–1 last year, threw the first no-hitter in fran­chise his­tory and started for the NL in the All-Star Game. This year, he owns an ugly 7.36 ERA three weeks into the season.

“I wish I could be like I was last year, but that’s part of the game,” Jimenez said. “I’m con­fi­dent, espe­cially because on Open­ing Day I didn’t have my veloc­ity. So, every day I think it’s get­ting bet­ter and better.”

He said the last four innings shows he’s shak­ing off the rust.

“Yeah, I was able to locate my fast­ball and throw my pitches and at the same time let it go against the last hit­ter that I faced,” Jimenez said.

Notes: To make room for Jimenez, the Rock­ies sent 3B Ian Stew­art, mired in a 2-for-26 start, down to Triple-A Col­orado Springs to get more at-bats. … The Rock­ies had won their first five series of the season.

Related Posts:

• Cough­lin: Giants TE Ballard’s Catch Should Have Counted
• Rod­ney Har­ri­son Talks Pack­ers, Giants, Bron­cos, Fal­cons, Bears
• Per­ron Impresses Hitch­cock in His Return
• Bron­cos’ Miller Inac­tive vs. Vikings in Wake of Thumb Surgery
• Lions RB Smith Prac­tices, Excited About Return From Ankle Injury

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•