San Francisco

Giants

Mahle scattered one hit and threw 54 pitches (37 strikes), extending his scoreless innings streak to 10 this spring. The 31-year-old’s durability issues are well documented at this stage of his career, but he remains an effective fantasy contributor when he takes the ball. San Francisco is an ideal landing spot, and he projects as a viable back-end rotation stabilizer in shallow mixed leagues.

Encarnacion bolstered his chances of making San Francisco’s season-opening roster in a lefty-mashing bench role by clobbering a gargantuan 463-foot moonshot off Brewers southpaw Shane Drohan in the second inning. It was his second big fly of the spring. He still has some work to do to lock up a spot on the Giants’ roster over the final few days of camp, but he’s made a strong impression so far. His fantasy appeal is limited to NL-only formats as a cheap power source.

Ray retired all 15 batters he faced as San Francisco’s pitching staff carried a perfect game into the ninth inning before it was finally broken up. The 34-year-old southpaw has gone off the board as a top 45-50 range starter in fantasy drafts this spring. There’s going to be some volatility from a run-prevention standpoint based on his career track record but he’s also going to pile up the strikeouts, which provides some insulation for fantasy managers.

That’s certainly not ideal. The 24-year-old hurler is currently weighing his treatment options, but it sounds like he’s going to be shelved for a while. Expect him to open the season on the 60-day injured list.

Houser had a 36% CSW today, getting 10 whiffs and 16 called strikes in the 73-pitch outing. The velocity bump he enjoyed last year has held up this spring, and there could be some fringy mixed-league potential here. The Giants just might want to use Casey Schmitt at second base and Luis Arraez at DH when Houser and Logan Webb are on the mound.

Devers, who missed 10 days with hamstring tightness before returning earlier this week, had been 0-for-18 this spring coming into the day. He struck out against Zac Gallen in his first at-bat, but he connected on a 104-mph liner for his first hit in the third and then followed with a 406-foot blast in the fourth.

Susac is hitting .345/.406/.517 in 32 plate appearances this spring, so if he doesn’t make the Giants as a Rule 5 pick, it won’t be because of his offense. The determining factor, though, always figured to be his defense. Eric Haase is his main competition for a job as Patrick Bailey’s backup.

Whisenhunt’s velocity bump might not last; he was down to 94.2 mph with his average fastball tonight after coming in at 95.2 mph and 94.8 mph in his previous two years. Still, he was able to fan six Reds anyway. He remains likely to open up in the Triple-A rotation.

Brubaker averaged 92.6 mph with his sinker in his first three outings this spring, which was down 0.9 mph from last year in his return from Tommy John surgery. Tonight, though, he was up to 94.2 mph, even after he faded some in his third inning of work. The Giants apparently intend to look at Brubaker as a middle man, so he wouldn’t seem to offer much fantasy potential. However, if he can impress in shorter stints, the possibility of saves can’t be ruled out. He never had much success as a starter in Pittsburgh, but he’s always been able to miss bats at a solid clip, and he might yet get a little better there in short outings.

The 28-year-old outfielder smacked a two-out single in the fifth inning but wound up getting stranded there. He then plated the Giants’ lone run with an RBI double in the seventh inning. Encarnacion has had a solid spring at the dish, hitting .308 (12-for-39) with a homer and six RBI.