Kapler, Zaidi sweat every move as Giants cling to slim lead.
Giants, Kapler trying to make all right moves to hold off L.A.
All hands on deck, as they say. Give or take the hands of three absent injured players. That’s the Giants’ theme and aim heading into the final two weeks of this highly improbable and entertaining 2021 season.
Matchup mania will remain on full display for manager Gabe Kapler to seek every possible advantage, as it is for president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi, who makes roster moves virtually every day in a bid to put the team in the optimal position to prosper.
The Giants are down to their last 12 games, and their lead on the Dodgers is down to one game, so every transaction, every lineup decision and every move involving relievers and pinch-hitters will be amplified as a potentially critical moment in franchise history, because those are the perceived stakes.
Second baseman Donovan Solano is off the COVID-19 list, which gives Kapler an extra card in his deck — Solano’s ninthinning, game-tying, pinch-hit homer Friday made possible Kevin Gausman’s 11th-inning
theatrical walk-off sacrifice fly.
But outfielder Alex Dickerson still is rehabbing his injured hamstring, and two pitchers, closer Jake McGee (oblique) and starter Johnny Cueto (elbow), won’t be available until the final days of the regular season, if at all.
Otherwise, everyone will be available Tuesday night in San Diego when the Giants will face Joe Musgrove, who’s a righthander, meaning Kapler will use his left-handed-hitting lineup.
For Solano, that means he’ll open on the bench and defer to lefty swinger Tommy La Stella, his platoon partner at second base. It also will mean a different look in the outfield. On Saturday, the outfield included all lefty bats (LaMonte Wade Jr., Steven Duggar, Mike Yastrzemski), and Sunday, it was all righties (Darin Ruf, Austin Slater, Kris Bryant).
“It’s really about how we keep these guys at their best and still give them opportunities,” Kapler said. “It’s a challenge getting everybody the opportunities with a full position-player roster. It’s kind of similar to the roster we envisioned when we thought about our ‘A’ positionplayer group. Here we are. It’s time to try to put out the best team every day.”
That was the strategy Sunday when the Giants were one win from a series sweep. Kapler stacked the lineup with righthanded bats against Atlanta lefty Max Fried, but the game showed that when the offense doesn’t score its normal bundle of runs, the defense can be exposed.
That was the case when Bryant, acquired from the Cubs on July 30 and still relatively new to Oracle Park’s peculiar dimensions and wind patterns, failed to snag a couple of balls that probably should have been caught in the right-center gap, costly developments in a 3-0 loss. Slater also missed a ball at the wall in center. Clearly, the lefty-swinging outfield alignment is superior.
That doesn’t necessarily matter when the priority is drawing up lineups with the offense in mind to gain matchup advantages even if it compromises the defense.
“I don’t think any team has the luxury to have players that can move around all of the positions and be Gold Glove-caliber at all of them,” Kapler said. “We have a lot of guys who move around the diamond for us who we can say the same about. This is really not specific to Kris.
“We have other defenders who are somewhat limited at times depending on where they’re playing, and that’s just part of this. We’re going to take the fact that they are flexible and can move around and also get big hits for us and be dangerous in our lineup every day and understand that sometimes they’re not going to make plays that some of the best defenders around the game make.”
One of the intriguing story lines is how and where Kapler plays Bryant the rest of the way. Bryant’s in the lineup against both lefties and righties and has started at third base and all three outfield positions. Also, he has been taking grounders at second base.
Like Bryant, shortstop Brandon Crawford plays most every day, and the MVP candidate makes the Giants better on both offense and defense. The question is whether the Giants can afford to rest him any more. Beginning Tuesday, they have just one more off-day.
Similar questions can be asked about catcher Buster Posey and first baseman Brandon Belt, who have gotten their share of rest. It’s far easier to rest the many platoon players.
“We’re at a place in the season with a couple of weeks to go where these guys just want to win,” Kapler said. “We’re going to try to balance having everybody at their best physically by giving them a day off once in a while. It’s a bit of a challenge.”