Matt Chapman and Mike Yastrzemski both homered in 7-3 win over the Kansas City Royals
The San Francisco Giants improved to an 8-3 Cactus League record on Saturday with a 7-3 win over the Kansas City Royals.
Giants’ lineup vs. Royals:
March 8 vs. KC
31 LaMonte Wade Jr. (L) – DH
2 Willy Adames – SS
51 Jung Hoo Lee (L) – CF
26 Matt Chapman – 3B
17 Heliot Ramos – LF
5 Mike Yastrzemski (L) – RF
41 Wilmer Flores – 1B
49 Tyler Fitzgerald – 2B
34 Max Stassi – C67 Keaton Winn – RHP
— Maria I. Guardado (@miguardado.bsky.social) 2025-03-08T15:21:52.230Z
Matt Chapman and Mike Yastrzemski provided the majority of the afternoon’s offense with crooked-number homers off starter Michael Wacha, while Keaton Winn, Ryan Walker and Erik Miller along three others linked up 8 scoreless innings (before NRI Justin Garza spoiled the aesthetic by allowing three runs in the 9th).
Yaz and Chap combine for 2️⃣ homers and 5️⃣ RBI
Notable performances:
Keaton Winn, (2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K)
After a brief Cactus League audition (2 G, 5.2 IP) and some intrigue teased by big league appearances in 2023, Winn broke camp in March 2024 with a spot in the Giants rotation. Riding the momentum of the promotion, he turned in a solid April — only to have it all come apart in May and June. By July, Winn’s season ended with surgery to repair the ulnar nerve in his throwing arm.
Last spring might feel like a fever dream at this point to Winn. His early success so fleeting it might not have been real to us fans, a mirage induced by the desert heat.
But now Winn is healthy, back on the mound, and back to where he started a year ago. Scratch that — he’s lost some ground, not through fault of his own, but due to the very different circumstances of the Giants pitching depth. Knock-on-wood, the starting-5 looks healthy and set, with some burgeoning drama at the rotation’s back-end after promising appearances from Landon Roupp, and a shaky outing by lefty Kyle Harrison.
It’s still a long-shot, but Keaton Winn just tossed his hat in the ring as well after Saturday’s appearance. The righty filled-up the strike zone, maintained count leverage, offered up some nice elevated fastballs, and most notably, swing-and-miss stuff with his split-finger.
Winn K’ed KC big leaguers Michael Massey and MJ Melendez in the 1st. In the 2nd, just his third inning of spring, Winn found himself in a two-on, no-out situation after giving up a single and double to start the frame. Back against the wall, the young righty fell back on the shape of his diving splitter, eliciting whiff-after-fruitless-whiff from Cavan Biggio and Drew Waters. The inning ended after John Rave’s liner up the middle kicked off Winn’s heel for a perfect assist to Willy Adames at short.
Promising stuff, but that being said, the desert isn’t fertile ground for any real upsets or surprises — Winn leapfrogging Birdsong, Roupp, Harrison would be just that. The most probable avenue to the Major League roster for Winn is reliant on a lot of things out of his control. His power pitching profile might fit better as a reliever anyway. A hard, unfettered sinker coupled with that destabilizing split — could work.
Matt Chapman (2 – 2, 2 R, 3 RBI)
Chapman seems ready.
Matt Chapman put on a defensive clinic this afternoon
Erik Miller (1 IP, 1 H, 1 HBP, 0 R, 3 K)
The only southpaw reliever on the 40-man, Miller made his first appearance of spring after dealing with numbness in his throwing hand and a brief illness. Despite the delay, he looked like he hadn’t missed a beat from last season. A little wild. A lot of in your face stuff. He pitched around a leadoff single and a hit a batter, by bagging three K’s — two with his fastball and one with his breaking ball.
Welcome back, Mr. Miller.