Brandon Belt provides bright spot in San Francisco Giants' loss in opener

Andrew Baggarly
MercuryNews

LOS ANGELES -- The Giants were right about Brandon Belt. In the quadruple-deck din of Dodger Stadium, the rookie first baseman maintained the steady heartbeat of a master yogi.

While Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw overwhelmed the rest of the Giants lineup with searing subterfuge in Thursday's season opener, Belt calmly and impressively worked one deep plate appearance after another while making his major league debut.

The unexpected part? Belt's battle-tested teammates were unable to play with the same grace.

New shortstop Miguel Tejada turned a double-play grounder into a morass, and catcher Buster Posey made an aggressively errant pickoff throw in the sixth inning, resulting in an unearned run against Tim Lincecum, as the Giants began their first title defense in 56 years by tripping over their crowns in a 2-1 loss at Dodger Stadium.

Belt took home the baseball from his first major league hit, a chopper inside the first-base line for an infield single in his debut at-bat.

It was the Giants' only keepsake against Kershaw, who used the harsh afternoon light to his advantage while striking out nine in seven shutout innings.

"That's a bad draw on opening day, to face that guy in the shadows," Posey said. "His fastball was jumping, his slider was sharp, and he had a good curveball. He was electric."

Lest anyone forget, it was Posey's first opening-day start, too.

"And I got to experience it as a defending World Series champ," he said.

That's looking at the bright side, kid. It wasn't all gloomy for the visitors on an unseasonably hot afternoon in Chavez Ravine.

Lincecum's fastball sat at a promising 94 mph -- much firmer than at this point last season -- and he was a hard-luck loser after holding the Dodgers to just an unearned run in seven innings.

Belt saw an average of 6.3 pitches in his three trips against Kershaw, working a walk in addition to his single. The rest of his teammates averaged just 3.3 pitches against the Dodgers' left-handed ace, who allowed only one runner to venture into scoring position.

But there were ill omens, too. Tejada validated spring concerns about his defense, losing the handle on a quick, sidearm throw to second base after fielding James Loney's grounder in the sixth. The ball scurried into right field and put runners at the corners with one out.

"That's an error," Tejada said. "I've been in the game for a long time. Anything I would do today -- it's done. A three-home-run game is no different."

Lincecum followed by hitting former teammate Juan Uribe on the elbow, and the aftermath was prickly. Uribe took his time and stared back at the mound as he walked to first base.

"He looked in my direction a couple times," Lincecum said. "I kind of turned away. I hope he doesn't think I did it on purpose."

With the bases loaded, Posey saved a run when he blocked Lincecum's dirt-skipping pitch to Rod Barajas. Then the reigning NL Rookie of the Year cost the Giants a run when he tried to catch Matt Kemp napping off third base.

Third baseman Pablo Sandoval bumped into Kemp while trying to catch the offline throw. The ball rattled into foul territory, and Kemp ran home to score.

"I just thought with the ball in the dirt, I had a chance of catching him with his head down," Posey said. "I made a bad throw. It's that simple."

Kemp, who is known to play the game with a certain panache, indicated that Posey made a bad decision to throw.

"My foot was on the bag when he threw it," Kemp said. "I was already there."

But Giants manager Bruce Bochy didn't fault his young catcher, whose intelligence and poise was so critical to their World Series run a year ago.

"I want these guys being aggressive," Bochy said. "I don't want them to be afraid to make a mistake. You play to win."

It took a diving play by Sandoval on Barajas' lineout -- a likely two-run single for last year's plumper Panda -- to help Lincecum escape the inning with no further damage.

Pat Burrell hit a solo home run off Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton in the ninth, but the Dodgers had added to their lead in the eighth when Loney hit a run-scoring double off Santiago Casilla.

Belt made the game's final out, hitting a liner to third against Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton. But there was no pinning this loss on the most inexperienced of Giants.

They have 161 more games to play, and while it wasn't exactly Will Clark taking Nolan Ryan deep, at least Belt got that first safety out of the way.

"Oh yeah," Belt said. "You've gotta love a questionable hit in your first major league at-bat."