© Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
LOS ANGELES — Once it became apparent that Madison Bumgarner wouldn’t start Opening Day, many believed Johnny Cueto, the San Francisco Giants’ No. 2 starter, would take his place at Dodger Stadium on March 29. Surprisingly, Bruce Bochy’s stuck to his pitching schedule and gave Ty Blach the season opening start.
“We were very confident he’d give us a chance to win today, and that’s what he did,” Bochy said. “That’s why I picked him to go Opening Day.”
Bochy had the final three spring training games lined up in a way that each of his starters would begin the season on regular rest. After Johnny Cueto pitched on March 25, Derek Holland and Chris Stratton followed up with starts on March 26 and 27 respectively.
However, with Jeff Samardzija and Bumgarner both sidelined with injuries for at least the first few weeks of the season, pitching Blach was the only way Bochy could keep his pitching schedule on track, despite being penciled in to start the year in the bullpen.
“When Bum’s injury happened, remember, we were going to put Ty in the bullpen just to give him some light work,” Bochy said.
Bochy added, “it’s Opening Day and they had an off day yesterday, so it couldn’t have worked out better for his first start because again, he was not the guy going out there every fifth day there at the end.”
Fortunately for the Giants, Bochy’s decision paid off in a 1-0 season-opening victory over the Dodgers on Thursday. Blach pitched five scoreless innings; allowing three hits and three walks with three strikeouts.
“The outing before my last one I threw 85 pitches, so I knew I was built up,” Blach said. “I was confident to go out there and get deep into the game and just shoot off pitches.”
Keaton Moore is a KNBR.com contributor, follow Keaton on Twitter at @KeatonAMoore