SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The Baseball Gods have a sense of humor. Tim Hudson does, too.
In his first appearance as a Giant, Hudson twice had to race to first base on grounders to the right side, bringing back memories of the play that ended his 2013 season. Sunday's start against the Arizona Diamondbacks was Hudson's first since July 24, when Eric Young Jr. stepped on and fractured his ankle on a bang-bang play at first.
The results were mixed in Sunday's 5-3 win against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Hudson raced over to first with one out in the second to complete an inning-ending 3-6-1 double play, but Eric Chavez was only on base in the first place because Hudson had alligator-armed Brandon Belt's high throw to the bag two batters earlier.
"I put the first one on the fact that I'm just old and slow," Hudson said. "I'm like an old vintage car, you can't take me to a drag race. It was a little more challenging than I probably would have liked it to have been. I managed to find the bag one time.
"I was one out of two."
Hudson's pitching line contained mostly zeroes. In two scoreless innings, Hudson threw 17 of 27 pitches for strikes and didn't give up a hit or walk a batter. He dazzled from the start, striking out Gerardo Parra on three pitches as the sellout crowd showed its appreciation.
Hudson, however, wasn't impressed. Parra stared at strike three, but it was a pitch Hudson later admitted was a hanging splitter.
"It was bad enough that he didn't swing at it," Hudson said, smiling. "But it dropped in there for a strike."
Hudson said he was anxious as he took the mound and that led to command that was "hit-and-miss." Manager Bruce Bochy graded his new starter on a different curve.
"A great job by him," Bochy said. "It's been a long time, but he looked sharp."
The lone blip came on a play that Hudson hasn't yet practiced. It was only last week that he started doing fielding drills, and even then he often had to sneak into a large group of pitchers because the Giants want Hudson to take it slowly this spring. Hudson hasn't had any setbacks with the surgically repaired ankle and said he has put the injury out of his mind.
When the fourth batter of his season hit a grounder to first, Hudson didn't have a flashback to Young. Jr.
But another professional athlete crossed Hudson's mind as Chavez, his former A's teammate, raced down the line.
"I probably could have caught it," Hudson said. "But I would have felt like Wes Welker going over the middle with a linebacker looking at me. I'm not sure spring training is the right time to do that."
SCUTARO RETURNS
For the first time all spring, Marco Scutaro took part in the team workout on the main field at Scottsdale Stadium, but the Giants' starting second baseman remains limited.
Scutaro took grounders and ran sprints on the warning track and said his back feels much better, but he's not sure when he'll take his first full swings of the spring. "I'm just following the (trainer's) rules," Scutaro said, shrugging.
Bochy said Scutaro is on track to play in a game late next week.
RAIN KEYS CHANGES
The Giants have 67 players in camp but ended up sitting out two of the first four days of the Cactus League season thanks to a scheduled off day and a rainout. To get a few more guys on the field, the Giants scheduled a "B" game today with the Cubs. Top prospect Kyle Crick and left-hander Jeremy Affeldt are scheduled to make their spring debuts.
GAME NOTES
Belt was pulled after two at-bats Sunday because of a stiff neck.
Angel Pagan, Buster Posey, Joaquin Arias and Juan Perez all had two hits for the Giants.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: