SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Cal Quantrill was about as masterful Thursday night as he could remember ever being in eight years of professional pitching.

The right-hander retired the first 17 Giants he faced before walking his last batter in the sixth inning in a nearly perfect start against the Giants.

“I just trusted the last few months of work,” Quantrill said of what should be his penultimate start before the season opens. “It's time to pitch. Either I've learned how to use the new toys or I haven't. It’s too late in spring now to be toying around.”

• Bullpen battle down to 3 pitchers for 2 outs

Neither the pitcher nor manager Terry Francona has worried about Quantrill’s spring, despite his 9.95 ERA before Cleveland’s 10-0 romp Thursday. Quantrill is a pitcher who uses the spring to work on various aspects of his game without worrying about results.

“I was working on a lot of stuff, and I maybe lost track a little bit of making sure that I was still establishing my strengths and doing the things I need to do for myself to get weak contact,” said Quantrill, who went 2 2 /3 innings further than his previous long start of the spring. "Today was much better.”

For a manager who had emphasized his confidence in Quantrill’s process, Francona seemed to share a sense of relief at seeing him put everything together on the mound a week before Opening Day.

“I thought he was terrific,” Francona said. “He threw some really good splits. He threw everything good. He probably needed that. Even though it’s Spring Training, I think he took a deep breath. That was good for him.”

Quantrill faced 18 batters, gave up no hits and walked just one while striking out five and keeping eight of his other 12 outs in the infield.

The only thing wrong with Quantrill’s outing was that his dominance made it difficult for Francona to use the bullpen the way he wanted to. Quantrill’s walk of Joey Bart finally gave Francona justification to get his relievers in the game.

Trevor Stephan and Enyel De Los Santos kept the combined no-hit bid going until Mike Yastrzemski’s one-out single in the eighth inning.

Quantrill laughed at the idea that he might have tried to argue against leaving the game with a no-hitter on the line.

“Not this early,” he said. “Honestly, it was nice to get a good one in there and get the work we wanted to get in. Season time, yeah, I'm begging to stay in. But not right now.”