Opening Day is always a celebration, but when players took the field across the league on Thursday, I felt a different and more meaningful kind of hope.
2020’s 60-game season is behind us and while the coronavirus pandemic is still taking a crushing toll on the lives of people around the world, I’m eager to see what “normal” will look like when the postseason begins.
The Giants played in front of more than 8,000 fans at T-Mobile Park and plan to host around 9,000 when they return home to Oracle Park next week, but the step forward we’ve taken from last year to this still feels incremental.
Fans are required to wear face coverings, sit in socially distanced pods and order food at concessions stands from a mobile app. In San Francisco, spectators will need to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to watch the Giants play in person. It’s a small price to pay and a minor inconvenience for a taste of live baseball, but I can’t help but look ahead to what attending a game will look like in September.
Giants catcher Buster Posey said Wednesday that he thinks when he’s fully vaccinated, he’ll see a “light at the end of the tunnel.” He believes baseball can play a role in a return to normalcy for American society and I think it’s one of the most profound ways of looking at where we might be at the end of this 162-game marathon.
We began this race on Thursday understanding the journey will not be easy –just ask the Nationals, who are dealing with positive COVID tests and postponed games– but we hope to end it in a completely different place.
The odds are stacked against them –and blowing five-run eighth inning leads certainly won’t help– but the Giants plan to be vying for a postseason berth come September. Given the expected availability and well-documented effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, it seems increasingly possible that if the Giants are charging toward the playoffs, fans will be shoulder-to-shoulder, 40,000 strong inside Oracle Park.
For so many Opening Days, I’ve tried to stay in the moment, soak up the excitement that comes with new beginnings and appreciate how fortunate I am to cover a sport that I love.
This year, I couldn’t help but look ahead.
Opening Day gave me a chance to think about the end, because at some point during this 162-game journey, I think we’ll get there. The pandemic has taken a dramatic toll that can’t and shouldn’t be understated, but as Posey said Wednesday, I see light at the end of the tunnel.
Baseball will accompany us the rest of the way. Stay healthy, stay safe, and enjoy the season.
The manager’s moves
Throughout the spring, I used this space to document the highs and lows of Giants prospects and highlight the efforts of players such as Heliot Ramos, Joey Bart and Marco Luciano who are deserving of your attention in the present, even if they won’t fully have it until the future.
With the minor league season set to start in May, we’re temporarily shifting gears and focusing on a move or series of decisions Giants manager Gabe Kapler made.
There’s plenty to pick apart from Thursday’s collapse in Seattle, but I’ll start with his decision to pull Kevin Gausman, who had thrown 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball and was working with a four-run lead when Kapler replaced him with Caleb Baragar.
Why go to the bullpen with Gausman cruising?
“His last simulated game, he had six ups, so he pitched into the sixth and he had 75 pitches,” Kapler said. “We always feel like we can build on that just slightly, we feel comfortable going to a 15-pitch bump there knowing that the season is going to be more adrenaline, a little bit more stress and we feel like 90 pitches was going to be a good target for him.”
After Gausman retired Mariners second baseman Dylan Moore with a sacrifice fly in the seventh, Gausman had thrown exactly 90 pitches. In other words, he was at the end of the line.
“Right there toward the end, we just noticed a little bit of a velocity drop and the swings started to get a little bit better towards the end,” Kapler said. “But I thought he did a tremendous job.”
If only Giants relievers were half as effective as Gausman.
Five of the six Giants pitchers who followed Gausman either walked a batter or hit a batter. Lefty José Álvarez, who took the loss, walked all three hitters he faced in a brutal 10th inning.
Should Kapler have approached the late innings differently?
With the Giants ahead by five in the eighth inning, the second-year manager called on reliever Matt Wisler, who had a 1.07 ERA with the Twins last year. Wisler didn’t retire any of the three hitters he faced, so Kapler brought in Jarlín García, who had a 0.49 ERA in 2020.
It’s hard to pick two relievers in baseball who were more effective than the duo the Giants turned to on Thursday, but neither could find the strike zone.
The one move the Giants could have made was turning to lefty Jake McGee as soon as Wisler encountered trouble, but Kapler wanted to save one bullet for a high-leverage spot in the ninth inning. Unfortunately for the Giants, by the time McGee entered, the game was tied and an Opening Night blowout win eventually became a disastrous loss.
Statcast Study
Brandon Belt noticed it right away.
“I mean two years ago, he wouldn’t have been able to do that,” Belt said.
He was Buster Posey. That was a 106.5 mile per hour solo home run Posey launched in his first plate appearance since the 2019 season.
“It looks like his hip is a lot healthier now and he’s able to turn on those pitches,” Belt said. “We’re probably going to see a lot more of that from Buster this year.”
Posey’s home run on a 2-0 fastball from Marco Gonzales was the hardest hit ball of Thursday’s season opener in Seattle as it pierced through the air and sailed over the left field fence. It had been 551 days since Posey last played a regular season game, but he looked stronger, more muscular and more locked in at the plate than he did in each of his previous two seasons.
In 2018, Posey battled a hip injury all year that ultimately required season-ending surgery in late August. In 2019, Posey returned to the Giants lineup by Opening Day, but was clearly hampered by having a limited offseason and a late start to spring training.
From 2018-2019, Posey took 803 at-bats. He only hit 12 balls harder than the 106.5 mile per hour home run he launched on Thursday.
The Giants’ catcher might not hit 15 or 20 home runs like he did during his prime, but the organization believes he’s much more capable of providing a lift at the plate than he was in each of his last two seasons. With one swing against Seattle, he gave fans reason to believe there’s more left in the tank.
