SAN FRANCISCO — Jerar Encarnacion was stone-faced as he walked down the dugout steps and deposited his bat in the rack.
He’d just batted against Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Jake Bauers, a position player stuck on the mound to record the obligatory end of the Giants’ 13-2 victory. He’d just struck out. And the Brewers dugout tittered with laughter as Bauers called for the baseball to be taken out of play.
Encarnacion’s expression was inscrutable. Was he embarrassed? Ticked off? Had he forgotten all about the two-run home run he hit in the second inning, an ultra-rare shot from a right-handed hitter that cleared the 25-foot brick wall and landed in the right-field arcade?
Heliot Ramos wasn’t sure. He hadn’t played with Encarnacion long enough to guess at his thoughts.
“Nobody wants to strike out against a position player, you know?” Ramos said. “It was quiet, serious. But then he started laughing, cracking up. Then the whole dugout started laughing. It was just funny. He started laughing and after that, I was just dying.”
Jerar Encarnacion watches his first-inning home run fly. (John Hefti / Imagn Images)
It’s been a while since the Giants faced a position player on the mound. It’s been a while since they could laugh about much of anything in the late innings. Entering Wednesday night’s rare blowout, the Giants had played 48 games since the All-Star break and 18 had been decided by one run. They are 8-10 in those games, including back-to-back 10-inning losses at home to the Atlanta Braves in mid-August that put the first grill marks on their hopes of clinching an NL wild card.
Even when the Giants eked out victories, they came at a cost. Are you having trouble remembering the last time the Giants won a game without using right-handed pack mules Tyler Rogers and Ryan Walker, who are tied for first (71) and fourth (70), respectively, among major-league relievers in appearances?
That’s because until Wednesday, it hadn’t happened since Blake Snell’s no-hitter at Cincinnati on Aug. 2. The Giants have won 17 games since then. Rogers has pitched in 15 of them. Walker has pitched in 14, including the past eight consecutive wins.
“That’s just exhausting in general,” said right fielder Mike Yastrzemski, whose three-run home run in the second inning continued his second-half hot streak at home and gave the Giants an 8-0 lead. “Walker, all these leverage guys, they’re pitching all the time. And you start to think about every time you hit a ground ball, you’re fighting for it. … Not that you ever give up, but (in a blowout game) you know you don’t have to run 110 percent and can conserve some energy for the next day. These games are emotional, too. High stress you start to feel physically. Like, you start to wonder, ‘Why am I so tired?’”
Whether it’s finding a way to be more productive the first time through the order or improving with runners in scoring position or smacking more home runs, the Giants would have a healthier chance next season if they could score a few more easy victories. That would mean that fewer late-inning games would require comebacks or turn into coin flips. Play enough of those games and you’ll need an unsustainable amount of luck to be better than a .500 team.
Until then, Yastrzemski hopes that the Giants and young players like Ramos will be better for having experienced so much stress this season.
“It can be a hard thing to grasp,” Yastrzemski said. “Obviously we want to win more of them, but it helps for those guys to understand the situational hitting, the situational baserunning, having the feeling of, ‘I have to make this play.’ All the things that get your heart rate up and learning to calm it down. It’s disappointing to be on the losing end of so many of those, but there’s always a positive. We can say these guys are getting to grow from it.”
Perhaps you learn something about how young guys play in a blowout, too. Ramos certainly wasn’t conserving any energy with one out in the ninth when he sprinted to the left-field line and dived into the grass to take away an extra-base hit. It was the second diving catch that Ramos made behind right-hander Sean Hjelle. And he raced into the corner earlier in the game to make a difficult snag, too.
For a player who didn’t record a hit in a 13-run game, Ramos was a pretty good offensive catalyst, too. He drew a walk in the first inning and his attempted steal of second base led to a mistake when Brewers catcher William Contreras tried to catch a pitch and transfer in one motion. Tyler Fitzgerald scored the Giants’ first run on the passed ball.
Last weekend in San Diego, Giants manager Bob Melvin pulled Ramos aside when the right-handed hitter didn’t run hard out of the box on a ball that Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. lost in the sun. Ramos ended up with a double when it could’ve been a triple. It was one of those instances: Melvin had to say something, even if he knew that Ramos instantly felt the mistake and wouldn’t let it happen again.
“The one time he doesn’t run on a ball,” Melvin said. “It’s hard to even say anything to him (about that). Since he’s been here, that’s just the way he plays; doesn’t matter what the score is. He’s also all about the pitcher on the mound. He doesn’t want to give up a double there and potentially a run after that. He plays one way.”
Hjelle appreciated Ramos’ hustle in a late-inning blowout more than anyone.
“I’ve played with him every year of my professional career and for me, it was if, not when (he would) blossom into the player he’s become,” Hjelle said. “Now that he’s having success, he’s handling it great and he’s still going about his work every day. But that’s him. He’s always been an awesome teammate.”
Sean Hjelle only had nice things to say about Heliot Ramos. (John Hefti / Imagn Images)
The Giants needed a center fielder following Jung Hoo Lee’s season-ending shoulder injury in early May and gave Ramos a trial run a few weeks later. The early returns were positive but then the base hits started to fall in. So after a 56-game run in center, the team moved Ramos to left field in mid-August and there’s little doubt that he will be viewed as a corner outfielder next season. And he said he’s determined to be a defensive asset there.
He said he took it as a challenge when bench coach Ryan Christenson mentioned that his jumps and reaction times were flagging a bit.
“I was like, ‘OK, let’s work on it,’” Ramos said. “That’s all I’ve been doing, working on it in (batting practice). I take a group, half a group, and hustle and make as many catches as I can. Honestly, lately, the ball has been flying here. You know how unpredictable it can be in San Francisco. So I just go out there early and see how the ball is traveling.”
Ramos is looking like the incumbent left fielder next season. Lee is expected to make a full recovery and hold down the position for which the Giants signed him to a six-year, $133 million contract this past December. And although the Giants will need to make some roster changes this offseason, Yastrzemski keeps giving them reasons to offer a third-year arbitration contract to a 34-year-old who was hitting .209 with a .275 on-base percentage as late as early June.
When the Giants extended third baseman Matt Chapman last week, both Melvin and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi mentioned that it’s valuable to commit to players who are comfortable in your organization and competing in your home ballpark. Yastrzemski certainly qualifies as one of those players. He added an RBI double Wednesday to continue what’s been an impressive season at Third and King. He entered Wednesday with an .829 OPS at home compared to a .657 OPS on the road. His right-field defense has been worth plus-7 Defensive Runs Saved while playing half his games in one of the most challenging swaths of outfield grass in the major leagues.
And he’s finishing strong. Among his 15 homers, six have come in his last 15 games.
“He’s doing his best work right now,” Melvin said. “This is the place you don’t love to hit nor play the outfield. Not only does he swing the bat well here but he plays right field as well as anybody. This is probably the best he’s played all year. And you know, you look at veteran guys late in the year and the way they’re playing. His pace and urgency, with where we are in the standings, it’s impressive to watch.”
Every team has arbitration decisions to make after the season and the Giants tipped their hand with second baseman Thairo Estrada when they outrighted him to Triple-A Sacramento. Perhaps they’re also tipping their hand by continuing to play Yastrzemski every day and bat him first or second in the lineup. Tendering him a contract would result in a raise from his $7.9 million salary, but at this point, there’s little doubt that he’d be worth the roughly $10 million he’d be in line to receive.
And that would represent quite the resurrection from a dismal start to the season.
“After April, I was pretty frustrated,” Yastrzemski said. “I just really wanted to battle back and prove my value because I love this place. I don’t want to go anywhere for as long as I play. I love the staff. The front office has treated me like family. The fans are incredible and made it feel like home. The goal here is to stay as long as I can and I understand that’s usually based on performance. So I just continue to try to bring value whether it’s leading in here, whether it’s playing the right way, whether it’s running hard, making some plays on defense, I just want to show value in every place I can to try to stick around as long as I can.”
But some early exits are OK. If the Giants can score a blowout victory every now and then, there’s nothing wrong with taking a few innings off.
“I feel like a lot of the talk now for us has been about next season,” Hjelle said. “But we’re still playing this season. We’re still alive. Why wouldn’t we give everything we have when we’re out there? It’s a privilege to get to do this every day. Why not play your ass off and take advantage?”
And, every once in a while, be able to laugh about it, too.
(Top photo of Brett Wisely, left, and Tyler Fitzgerald congratulating Mike Yastrzemski on his three-run second-inning home run: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)
