Giants rally to beat A’s on Aaron Rowand’s eighth-inning single

Giants rally to beat Athletics

SAN FRANCISCO — Matt Cain pitched six innings, giving up one run and striking out four, and Aaron Rowand singled in the winning run in the eighth inning in the San Francisco Giants’ 2-1 exhibition victory over the Oakland Athletics on Friday night.

The Giants tied it at 1 in the seventh when pinch-runner Eugenio Velez stole second and scored on Juan Uribe’s double.

Oakland starter Brett Anderson threw five shutout innings. Chad Gaudin gave up the tying run and Brad Kilby gave up the winning run.

The Athletics opened the scoring in the fourth when Kevin Kouzmanoff drilled a double to the deepest part of right-center and Eric Chavez easily scored from first.

Anderson, who will be the fourth starter, allowed just three singles and struck out four in his final appearance of the spring. He will make his first start of the season against the Seattle Mariners on April 8.

It was the Giants’ 22nd win of the spring.

“I felt like I was throwing most of my stuff for strikes,” Cain said. “I got a little goofy in a couple spots. I started not throwing the ball through the plate, but I felt good.”

Cain wanted to throw strikes this spring and did so, finishing spring training with just three walks.

“The biggest thing for me is always for me is to start throwing strikes,” said Cain. “I need to throw lots of strikes and keep the walks down.”

Cain praised Anderson for his outing.

“Anderson looked really really good,” Cain said. “The guys coming back to the dugout and saying, ‘He’s throwing the ball very lively.’ And his breaking ball was very good.”

Guillermo Mota earned the win, and Brad Kilby was the loser.

“In my last outing of the spring I wanted to incorporate all my pitches,” Anderson said. “I wanted to throw them in counts that I would throw them in the year. I wanted to throw 3-2 breaking balls. I feel pretty confident going into the season and my first start of the season.”

NOTES: LHP Gio Gonzalez will start Saturday’s game for the A’s while LHP Jonathan Sanchez will start for the Giants in the final game of the Bay Bridge Series. … Before the game, the Giants optioned their top prospect C Buster Posey to Triple-A Fresno and optioned or reassigned eight others to Fresno and their minor league camp. … A’s 1B Daric Barton leads the majors with 21 walks this spring.