SAN FRANCISCO The Giants shook up their lineup Sunday hoping to spark the slumping offense and to take some pressure off young third baseman Pablo Sandoval.
The offense provided Randy Johnson with just enough support in the 2-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks, although Sandoval looked like a new man. Sandoval, who had been mired in the worst slump of his brief major league career, batted sixth instead of fifth and went 3-for-5, including a triple. That's as many hits as he had in his previous 27 at-bats. The breakthrough began with a broken-bat single to left in the second inning.
"That was the real start; you break a bat and you get a base hit,'' Sandoval said. "I'll take it.''
So will the Giants , who have scored the second-fewest runs in the majors and have scored just 12 runs in the past seven games and are looking for answers.
The biggest moves were at the top of the order, which now looks a lot like it did for most of last season.
Fred Lewis, who was leading the majors in on-base percentage (.545) as the Giants' No. 3 hitter, returned to the leadoff spot, swapping with Randy Winn. Aaron Rowand moved back to the fifth spot behind Bengie Molina.
"We're just trying to get this offense clicking,'' said manager Bruce Bochy, who earlier this week swapped Emmanual Burriss (now the No. 2 hitter) with Edgar Renteria (now batting eighth).
"We're doing some tweaking now to see if we can get this thing going,'' Bochy said. "It's not like we feel like we have a set lineup, where we have a No. 3 hitter, five hitter, six-hole hitter. This is what we are going to look at for a few games.''
The top five hitters in the new-look lineup went a combined 3-for-16 and struck out five times.
Short hops
One of the reasons the Giants moved Lewis to the No. 3 spot was to capitalize on his aggressiveness. He's back in the leadoff spot, but that doesn't mean he has to be more selective. "We don't want him to change anything,'' Bochy said. "He's swinging the bat, getting on base. That's what you want from your leadoff hitter.'' ... Bochy said right-handed reliever Sergio Romo, who's been sidelined since spring training with a sprained elbow ligament, will soon pitch in extended spring training and could rejoin the Giants by early May. The news isn't nearly as encouraging for left-hander Noah Lowry, who had to miss a day of throwing last week because of tightness in his forearm. Bochy said Lowry has thrown off flat ground since the setback. "He still has a long road to go,'' said Bochy, who added, "we're still hopeful he'll be back sometime this year.'' ... Laurence Miedema, MediaNews staff
