SAN FRANCISCO -- As he prepared to face the Rays for a second time Saturday, Evan Longoria was asked about the differences between playing for the Giants and his former club.

“I think philosophically, they're a little bit different,” said Longoria, who spent the first decade of his career with Tampa Bay, before being traded to San Francisco last offseason. “When I came over here last year, I think it was a little more traditional in terms of the shifts and the information we had. But the Rays have always been on the cutting edge of that. They've always been trendsetters in terms of what they're trying to do from an analytics standpoint.”

The Giants are seeing some of the Rays’ innovation this weekend at Oracle Park. Tampa Bay already used an extreme shift in its 5-2 win in Friday’s series opener, deploying four outfielders against first baseman Brandon Belt.

"I didn't really know it was going on until somebody mentioned it to me," Belt said afterward. "I'm not surprised by it. I hit line drives, and I hit the ball in the air a lot. I tried to hit the ball on the ground. The guy was playing right there on one of them, and I got a hit on another, so it worked out.”

The Giants used a four-man outfield against Rangers slugger Joey Gallo in Spring Training, but Belt said Friday marked the first time that a team has used that shift against him.

Tampa Bay used an opener Saturday, and Longoria said he was interested to see how the strategy -- which calls for a reliever to pitch one or two innings before giving way to a more traditional starting pitcher -- looks in a National League park.

“I'm curious to see how the opener thing is going to go, because you can burn two or four players before you know it,” Longoria said. “If you got a guy that doesn't even get through the first inning, you go get another pitcher and then two innings later, you've got to burn a position player. I just don't know how that's going to work.”

Longoria said the openers can affect hitters’ preparation for games, as they typically receive late notice on who is pitching. The Rays waited until after Friday’s game to announce that reliever Ryne Stanek would start against the Giants on Saturday. On Sunday, they will start Yonny Chirinos, who was a candidate to work behind Stanek during the Giants' 6-4 win on Saturday. Stanek tossed two scoreless innings, and Rays manager Kevin Cash opted not to use Chirinos.

“I couldn't do any preparation last night because it's TBA, TBA on the announced starters,” Longoria said.

Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi brought up the possibility of using openers during the Winter Meetings, but manager Bruce Bochy said that there has been no serious talk of embracing the unconventional pitching strategy this year.

Still, the Giants are working to close whatever gap may exist between them and teams with more data-driven reputations, like the Rays. Longoria said he’s already felt a difference in how Zaidi’s front office uses analytics compared to the previous regime.

“Bringing in Farhan this year, I think he leans a little bit more toward the analytical side,” Longoria said.

Worth noting

The Giants announced that outfielder Michael Reed cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Sacramento. Because he had been outrighted once before, Reed had the option to seek another opportunity elsewhere via free agency, but he chose to re-sign with the Giants on a Minor League deal.