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The start of Mitch Walding’s big league career was not ideal

0-for-6, 6 SO.

Those are lay-awake-at-night numbers. Punch-the-pillow numbers. Honey-what’s-wrong?-Nothing-I’m-just-going-to-wake-the-cat-up-so-I-can-kick-it numbers.

And Mitch Walding certainly knows that. The rookie’s family came into San Francisco to see him play in his first big league game, make his first big league start, and wind up striking out all the way through a series his teammate called “horse s**t.”

With all the breaking of J.P. Crawford news around here, it could be lost that on the other end of Crawford’s return roster move is Walding being optioned back to Lehigh Valley, ending his foreseeably brief stint in the majors.