SAN FRANCISCO — Given a surprise Friday night off in April, Bruce Bochy went a little wild.
He watched Orioles-Yankees AND A’s-Angels. The baseball never stops this time of year, and perhaps as he watched Pedro Alvarez and Shohei Ohtani hit moonshots, Bochy spent some time thinking about what’s ahead of the Giants. The immediate moves were made earlier Friday, when the Giants — rained out — decided to move Derek Holland back to Monday and keep Chris Stratton and Ty Blach on schedule. Bochy said he didn’t want to disrupt too many guys.
That means Johnny Cueto — whose ankle is fine, by the way — starts Tuesday and a call-up starts Wednesday. The Giants aren’t ready to reveal whether it’ll be Tyler Beede or Andrew Suarez. Both have made one minor league start.
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I’ve thought all along that Beede would get that start because he’s on the 40-man roster and Suarez is not, and it seemed more likely when the Giants sent Beede to A-ball to make sure he stayed on turn. But Bochy said the roster issue won’t come into play.
“We’re looking to put our best guy out there,” Bochy said.
Stay tuned.
--- Jeff Samardzija threw a long bullpen session on Friday and will throw in a camp game in Arizona on Monday, along with Will Smith. After that, Samardzija will probably throw one more minor league rehab game and then rejoin the rotation. If he’s in San Jose, he’ll likely be with Smith again. The lefty is expected to start his minor league rehab next week.
San Francisco Giants
--- An interesting pre-game note from Bochy: He said he purposely loaded Wednesday’s lineup with Venezuelans against countryman Felix Hernandez. Pablo Sandoval and Gregor Blanco were already scheduled to play, but Bochy had a decision to make when Hunter Pence was a late scratch.
“The one guy was Gorkys. I know Gorkys really looks up to (Felix),” Bochy said. “I wanted to get Gorkys in there. When Pence couldn’t go, I could have played (Austin) Jackson.”
The hunch worked. Hernandez and Sandoval both homered in a blowout of King Felix and the Mariners.
