Giants need more from the Brandons to reach last year’s regular season heights
SAN FRANCISCO — Some day the Brandons will have their own statues outside Oracle Park along with Buster Posey.
That’s how much Crawford and Belt have meant to the Giants, authoring moments of high drama at the plate and spectacular defense afield. Posey called it a career after last season’s out-ofthe-blue 107 wins and NL West title. The Brandons are in the middle of things for a 2022 version of the Giants that is lagging a bit behind the pace of their predecessors.
The Giants are 35-27 heading into a seven-game road trip that begins in Pittsburgh Friday and then hits Atlanta. They’re coming off a 6-3 homestand which curiously included three losses to also-rans (two to Colorado, one to Kansas City) and a sweep of the Dodgers.
They’ve been alone in third place since May 9 behind the Dodgers and Padres and have yet to reach 10 games over .500. At the same point a year ago, the Giants were 39-23, in first place and other than being out a half-game on Sept. 1, stayed that way all season.
Not coincidentally, Posey had his best year in a decade and the Brandons were in the process of having career seasons at an advanced age, at least in a baseball sense.
Posey is gone, having won three World Series championships and Joey Bart in TripleA, not quite ready to be the heir apparent. Crawford and Belt could catch Posey with another ring. The Giants are going to need more from both men for that to happen.
It’s fair to wonder if it’s realistic for the Brandons to continue such a late-career upswing. It’s not trending in that direction.
Crawford, 35, played in his 1,500th game Wednesday. By the end of this week, he will have passed Jim Davenport (1,501) and the only San Francisco Giants who have played in more games than Crawford will be Willie McCovey (2,256), Willie Mays (2,095) and Barry Bonds (1,976).
“That’s a pretty short list and those are great players,” Crawford said. “It’s cool to be on that list.”
Not long after Crawford tied the record, he made an error on the right side of the infield off the bat of M.J. Melendez on a shift. It allowed two runs to score and the Giants eventually lost to the Royals 3-2. It was his eighth error in 55 games. Last season he had nine errors in 135 and won his fourth Gold Glove for defense.
Judging defense solely on the number of errors is dicey, and Crawford flatly said “no” when he was asked if things felt different defensively this season. Giants manager Gabe Kapler attributes the errors to bad breaks.
“I think he’s had some balls hop up on him and some tougher hops,” Kapler said. “Sometimes you put yourself in position to get a perfect hop and sometimes the hop finds you.”
It’s more clear at the plate that Crawford isn’t producing at the rate he did a year ago. Last year’s slash line of .298/.373./522 with .895 OPS, 24 home runs and 90 RBIs are numbers he never previously approached. Right now Crawford’s slash line is .222/.313./.354 for a .666 OPS with five home runs and 27 RBIs.
To Kapler, players such as Crawford and Belt have built a lot of equity through two championships as well as their 2021 performances.
“I really believe in the guys that got us to where we wanted to go last year and Craw falls squarely into that category,” Kapler said. “He’s going to put up big numbers for us. He’s going to play great defense for us. He’s going to stabilize our group just like he did last year. We’re just not there yet.”
Belt, 34, wowed his teammates by stepping into the batter’s box Wednesday and hitting a 403-foot home run after missing 30 games on the COVID list and with a persistent right knee issue. He’s played in 28 games with five home runs, 12 RBIs. His late-career power surge has been remarkable. After never hitting more than 17 home runs in a season, Belt has hit 43 home runs in 174 games since the start of the 2020 pandemic year.
With Belt, the problem isn’t the offense. It’s his own body. He’s always been unlucky in that regard, missing last year’s playoffs with a broken thumb after leading the Giants with 29 home runs in just 97 games. As a hitter, his mental game has never been better, and it’s probably why he’s shown the ability to roll off the injured list, into the lineup and produce immediately.
“I know what I want my approach to be when I go up there and stick with it,” Belt said. “Earlier in my career, after my first at-bat, I probably would have panicked a little bit and changed something. I don’t do that anymore. I try and stick with it. I know it’s going to come eventually. Sometimes it clicks right away.”
Belt joked the reason he comes back quickly is he has so much experience returning from IL stints. He said his knee feels good now and he’ll be monitored closely for the rest of the season.
“I’m going to have to do the maintenance stuff, the treatment,” Belt said. “I’m old. We’re going to do everything we can to take care of it.”
Part of the plan will have Belt serving as a DH more often, given the Giants have Darin Ruf, Wilmer Flores, Tommy La Stella and at some point LaMonte Wade Jr. at first.
“Just to see him in the dugout, that’s a big boost of confidence,” Kapler said. “We’re going to build him up and eventually he’s going to be our regular first baseman and that is going to be another level of enthusiasm and confidence toward the group.”
If Crawford and Belt can’t duplicate their performances of a year ago for whatever reason, the Giants still have the goods to be one of the six teams in the expanded playoffs. And that could be good enough. Atlanta had the fewest wins of any playoff team in the NL with 88 and wound up winning it all.
But to get back in the 100-win club and beyond, Crawford needs to be better and Belt needs to stay healthy.