My friend's mom (she's like my second mom) Michelle and I headed to the San Jose Giants game this evening to see the Giants take on the Visalia Rawhide. Justin Upton's final line was 0 for 3, with a walk, two strikeouts, and reaching on a fielder's choice. He also stole a base (without getting hurt this time!). The plan is for Justin to play in this 3-game series with Visalia and then rejoin the team on Thursday in San Francisco. I don't know if 'rejoin' means 'activate' or not, but A.J. is very anxious to have him back!

A few notes and photos inside.

After we came in the gate, I double checked the big lineup - and sure enough, there was Justin, dry-erase-markered into the number 3 spot in the order!! I honestly didn't recognize any of the names but Skelton's (and San Jose has a Conor Gillaspie which confuses the heck out of me) but maybe a few of them are recent draft picks? See for yourself.

We got there too late for batting practice, but Justin, A.J. and two other organizational folks (see above) were chatting in the dugout. Before Justin went to get ready, I called him over to take a picture of him. I didn't bring anything for him to sign but some other folks did and he signed for a little while. I let A.J. continue to talk but when he had a break, I called out to him too, talked to him for a little bit, and told him I'd see him tomorrow. He came over as well to sign some cards for others. I wanted to talk to him more, because, well, I'm me, and I love talking to ballplayers, but I couldn't think of much. But he was very nice (and very good looking, just as I expected ;)) and I can't wait to see him again tomorrow.

Justin walked in the first inning - he hardly swung at anything, and though some pitches were close, the San Jose starter was clearly being very picky and may have been a little nervous. He attempted to steal but it didn't count, the guy behind him struck out or something. He got on base on a fielder's choice the next time, and successfully stole second (there wasn't even a throw), but didn't score. He struck out his next two times, first swinging, then looking (with a man on first) to end the 7th inning. In the 8th inning, he was replaced defensively. He didn't get many - if any! - opportunities in the outfield (he looked rather bored in fact), he ran towards center for a fly ball a few times, but rightfully gave way.

In the middle of the game, the Visalia center fielder made a SPECTACULAR running catch against the wall, but he was hurt and had to come out of the game. He's fine, but after he threw the ball in, he laid back down on the ground for a little and walked off with the trainer. (The left fielder moved to center, and in came a new left fielder.) We asked Justin about it after the game, and he said he hit his head on the wall. Trust me, that's all wall out there, no padding... he'll have quite a headache and bruised shoulder for a few days.

Something cool happened in the home half of the 6th that I missed because I was trying to get a churro. (I ended up talking with somebody who worked for the Sharks, and missed the churro maker.) There was a pop up somewhere and everybody started to walk back to the dugout and all of a sudden there's a fan noise and the players start walking back to their positions. So I guess it was dropped?? There also seemed to be some controversy in the 7th or 8th but I was hanging out in the tunnel trying not to seem stalkerish watching the Giants/Rockies game. I'm not sure how the runs were scored - Giants got 2 in the first, Rawhide came back with 1 in the 3rd I think, and the final score ended up 4-2 in favor of the Giants.

I don't think A.J. is worried about Upton's 0-fer night, but I don't think he looked very comfortable at the plate yet. They will give him at least tomorrow's game as well (because that's what Justin said). A.J. actually left after two at-bats and before Upton's strikeouts - he had two of Visalia's 8 Ks on the night. (At least I think he was gone by then, because I went by the door for a while after the third at-bat and didn't see him leave. ;)) The Rawhide starting pitcher though, man, he was annoying. Quite a few baserunners, his pitch count seemed to get high pretty quickly because the first few innings went on forever! He was frustrating to watch because you could tell he was missing his pitches because he got frustrated with himself. There were quite a few errors (or at least miscues) during the game, but that's typical for this level.

So... yeah. That's Justin Upton in Class A. He'd never been to the stadium, because he only spent about a month in A ball when he first joined the team. He's actually staying with the team in San Francisco and has a nice town car and driver for the 50 mile journey to the city. That's what you get when you're an All-Star! ;)