Understandably, there was plenty of speculation about how Buster Posey would feel when he stepped onto the diamond against Arizona Friday night.
It was, after all, his first live-game action in several months. But the good news is everything went well, and afterward, Posey said he felt "normal."
“I felt normal,” said Posey, via Andrew Baggarly of CSNBayArea.com.
Although he didn't look entirely sharp during his first outing of the season, starting pitcher Tim Lincecum said that it was comforting to see Posey behind the plate.
“It’s just going back to that old regular comfort that we have as pitchers out there,” Lincecum said. “When we have Buster out there, we know we’re in a good spot. Having him back wasn’t in my mind at all. It was just a regular game and we’re trying to win.”
Posey had a shot to tie the game up in the top of the ninth inning -- with Manny Burriss on second base, Posey grounded out to shortstop, jumping on an early cutter and mishitting it for the final out of the game.
That at-bat seemed to have "narrative" stamped all over it, but Posey couldn't close out .
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Posey also committed an error in the sixth, but that was probably more about shaking the rust off than anything else.
Despite those two minimal complaints, it was an impressive first outing for Posey. If he can continue to build on that, there's a good chance he'll be in line for an impressive season (again) in 2012.
