Photo credit: @Starting9

By Jeremy Harness

SAN FRANCISCO – The Giants spent a great deal of time–and money–upgrading their lineup in the field. Meanwhile, the once-vaunted rotation has begun to fall apart.

The most glaring absence is that of Madison Bumgarner, who suffered a fracture in his left hand after getting hit by a line drive Friday and is expected to miss 6-8 weeks as a result.

Enter Derek Holland, who started Monday’s game for the Giants and had his longest and overall best outing of the spring but was marred by a pair of solo home runs in a 9-2 loss to the A’s at AT&T Park.

Holland gave up only two runs on four hits over five innings and cruised through the first two innings without much issue. However, he made a huge location mistake in the third, and Matt Chapman made him pay for it immediately. He left a fastball over the plate waist-high, and Chapman drove it into the left-field seats to tie the game at 1-1.

Two innings later, he made the same mistake to Mark Canha, and the result was just as damaging. Holland could only watch as the ball disappeared into the seats in center field as the Giants fell behind, 2-1.

All in all, it has been a productive spring for Holland, who was a non-roster invitee to spring training who has been penciled in as part of the Giants’ starting rotation when the season starts. The former Ranger, who spent last season with the White Sox, had a 4.20 ERA entering Monday but showed very good command of the strike zone, which is what the Giants are looking for.

To make room for Holland on the roster, the Giants released outfielder Jarrett Parker.

He will take the mound for the Giants for Saturday’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, assuming the spot originally saved for Jeff Samardjiza, who has a strained pectoral muscle and will be out for the next 10 days, thus missing his first scheduled start of the year.

As the Giants head into Opening Day, the rotation is expected to look like this: right-hander Johnny Cueto, lefty Ty Blach, Holland and righty Chris Stratton.

After trailing by a run after seven innings, the Giants rallied in their half of the eighth and tied the game when Gorkys Hernandez sprinted home on a wild pitch.

The game eventually went into extra innings, but Oakland dropped a seven-spot in the 10^th to even up this annual Bay Bridge series.