SAN DIEGO – The Giants hold a hitter’s meeting before every series. They create a mini amphitheater in the batting cage and screen opposing pitchers. They tailor hitter-specific game plans for that day’s opponent. When applicable, they adopt team strategies or point out opposing tendencies that can be exploited.
And one other topic usually comes up.
“Trust me, we talk about it in every hitter’s meeting,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said.
Scoring early. Or more to the point, why don’t they do it.
The Giants are among the least productive teams when it comes to applying early pressure and generating early offense. They scored 179 runs in the first three innings, which ranks 26th in the major leagues – better than only the Marlins, Pirates, Angels and White Sox. Their run differential in the first three innings is minus-38.
Here’s the crazy part: Their hitters were absolutely terrible in the seventh inning or later. They field quality at-bats and coordinate rallies against what would appear to be the toothiest parts of opposing bullpens. Their 3-2 victory in Thursday’s homestand finale against the Arizona Diamondbacks, which they clinched on Patrick Bailey’s RBI single in the ninth inning, was their 11th walk-off victory this season. That is the most among major league clubs. (Disclaimer: If the Giants really were a superior team, some of those wins in their final at-bat would have been blowout wins instead.)
It’s not just the spill-out-of-the-dug wins at home that show the Giants’ late innings at the plate. The numbers prove it too. Entering Friday’s series opener against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park, the Giants ranked seventh out of 30 major league teams with 228 runs scored in the seventh inning or later. Their run differential after the seventh inning is plus-44. How good is that? Well, just for fun, consider that if the Giants were overwhelming opponents at that same rate in the first six innings, then their overall run differential would be plus-132. The Milwaukee Brewers led the majors with a differential of plus-134 entering Friday.
Heliot Ramos after flying out during the fifth inning Friday. (David Frerker / Imag Images)
So, yes. The Giants were really, really good in the late innings.
So how could they not unlock that hit from the first pitch of the game?
It’s a difficult paradox to square up for the players, for Melvin and for a hitting group led by Justin Viele, Pat Burrell and Pedro Guerrero. As counterintuitive as it might be, most of their success comes against the pitchers who should possess the liveliest and least hitable arms in the opposing bullpen. They know the action is there.
The Giants have been at their best when they are in comeback mode. But playoff teams don’t have comeback mode as a default setting. The Giants just didn’t create enough early leads to get to the right side of games. It was more of the same in Friday night’s 5-1 loss. The Padres grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first inning when San Diego’s Manny Machado followed Tyler Fitzgerald’s two-run throwing error with a home run by rookie right-hander Mason Black. Meanwhile, it was a familiar story for the Giants lineup. Their hitters couldn’t scratch off an early run against Padres right-hander Michael King.
“The first inning set the tone for the game,” Melvin said.
Why has it been so difficult for the Giants to be tone-makers this season? Melvin wishes he had a good answer. But the manager is quick to dispel one potentially convenient explanation. He says his hitters are as ready as they could be for opposing hitters. And that’s because his batting coaches make sure of it.
“Our hitters’ meetings are as good as I’ve ever seen them,” Melvin said before Friday’s game. “I couldn’t say enough about our game planning. I think the group of stroke instructors that we have, the three of them, do a great job. Everyone does different things. You have the experience of Pat Burrell, with what he’s done in the big leagues and the mindset of what it takes to be successful. You have Justin Viele who knows every number, every dynamic, every swing plane. He is so experienced. Petey Guerrero rounds them out, and as a Spanish speaker, he was awesome with our Latin guys.
“I know our numbers don’t look great, but it’s not for lack of preparation and work from our hitters.”
The Giants are four games under .500 with a payroll that has crossed into the luxury tax for the first time since 2017. There are usually consequences when ownership doesn’t get enough return on such an outstanding investment. Sometimes those changes are wholesale. Sometimes they are limited to a small sacrifice or two, such as a change on the coaching staff. Viele and Guerrero, whom Melvin inherited from former manager Gabe Kapler’s staff, would seem to be the most conventional choices at scapegoat.
But Melvin explained: Even if he hadn’t hired Viele or Guerrero, he couldn’t have been more impressed with their processes, effort and attention to detail.
“It’s nice to hear because Bob has been so supportive of us this year,” Viele said, “which was great because it’s frustrating for everybody.”
Viele offered some ideas about the lack of early scoring. Maybe some of the younger hitters like Bailey feel compelled to attack the first pitch because they are worried about the prospect of making a first-pitch strike and being behind in the count. Perhaps some of the veteran hitters have such ingrained notions of their strengths inside the strike zone—a great skill to possess, generally—that they take called third strikes when pitchers attack their cold zones. Either way, the innings tend to follow a similar script: three quick outs on 10 pitches or less, and an opponent who can settle into a groove.
Viele breaks down video and sends texts hours after night games. When you spend every waking hour looking for small clues and marginal benefits that you can use the next day, it’s not easy to pull back the lens and take a holistic view. But the lack of early scoring probably cost him more sleep than any other problem with what was otherwise a league-average offense.
“I think we have to revisit this philosophically in the offseason and see if there are adjustments that can be made,” Viele said. “Maybe we’ll have to wait for starters a little longer and grind them out. We have to do better with two strikes against starters. We have to stay in the strike zone. When you have a group of veteran guys who do that, they do that. It’s pretty easy to say to our group, ‘Hey, let’s wait for this guy outside.’ Whereas with a young guy, there’s a little more panic. Like, ‘If I get that first-pitch hit, man, I’m going to work up.’ That’s a mindset shift we need to create.
“But we also have to teach two-strike hitting better. The young guys have to get to a point where they can feel good about hitting 0-1. I will put that on myself. I think we need to teach to work at bats and understand how to grind pitchers. Again, I’ll put that on myself.
“I definitely have to make adjustments to make this team and this offense a little bit more dynamic from the first inning on. Trust me, I live and die with every at-bat and I want the Giants to be the best. I’m going to do whatever it takes to do that , what I teach philosophically, to make those adjustments so we can get to where we need to be.”
The Giants tried to force some of that dynamic early in the season when Melvin put runners in motion. The efforts blew up in their faces. The Giants just finished running into a bunch of outs. Even with regular playing time for speedy guys like Fitzgerald and Grant McCray, the Giants are tied with the Atlanta Braves for the fewest stolen bases (60). And, of course, Giants pitchers have allowed the most steals in the majors (139).
The Giants’ other persistent offensive issue is their hitting with runners in scoring position. Their .230 average and .357 slugging percentage both rank 27th out of 30 teams. Compare that to the Diamondbacks (.285) and Padres (.276), who rank second and third, and you begin to understand how those two NL West rivals have created such a wide separation between themselves and the Giants this season.
The Diamondbacks offer an especially interesting contrast. They lead the major leagues with 270 runs in the first three innings. Their lineup is not covered by stars like Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr., or the Los Angeles Dodgers triumvirate of Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman. In fact, Arizona’s best player, Corbin Carroll, had a miserable first half, and the Diamondbacks were without their top two run producers, Christian Walker and Ketel Marte, when their series in San Francisco began on Tuesday. It doesn’t look like they should lead the NL in runs scored. But the Diamondbacks combine two deadly attributes that are hard to put together: They are relentless in making pitchers throw strikes and yet they also aggressively eat fastballs.
If the Giants are looking to embrace philosophical changes, they could do worse than trying to copy what the Diamondbacks do so well.
Can those changes happen with continuity on the coaching staff? Melvin’s endorsement would indicate that he thinks it can. So does outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, who gave the hitting group high marks.
“They care more than anyone,” Yastrzemski said. “They give you all the information you could possibly need, and they do a very good job of keeping it away from certain guys who don’t like getting so much of it. In terms of preparation, there is nothing they could have done better.”
Said Matt Chapman, who is one of Viele’s biggest defenders: “It’s not the hitting coaches. The hitting coaches are great.”
Viele also deserves some credit for Heliot Ramos’ All-Star season. The two worked every day in Arizona in each of the last two offseasons to break down his swing and build it back up.
“I know his swing better than anybody, and now he’s starting to understand his swing better than I know it,” Viele said. “I just see him constantly getting better. When I look at him now, it’s like, that’s just a big leaguer in the box. I don’t see him as a young kid trying to find his way anymore.”
Unless it’s the first three innings. Then Ramos is just like everyone else in the Giants lineup: looking for a way to apply pressure instead of internalizing it.
“The more we talk about certain things and the more we try to do them, sometimes they get harder,” Yastrzemski said. “Maybe the first time through the order, we just need to just pretend it’s the seventh inning and we’re already down three runs.”
(Top photo: David Frerker / Imagn Images)
