Gillaspie latest unlikely hero?
3rd baseman hit .500 over final five games, made stunning catch
SAN FRANCISCO — Journeyman third baseman Conor Gillaspie has seen his share of ups and downs during his major-league career. But the 2016 season couldn’t have ended much more wonderfully.
Stepping in for the injured Eduardo Nuñez, Gillaspie went 7 for 14 with six RBIs over the Giants’ final five games. Over a longer stretch, he hit .367 over his final 18 games.
Think Cody Ross. Think Marco Scutaro. Think Travis Ishikawa. Could Gillaspie be next in line for an unlikely October to remember? He’s already off to a roaring start.
Gillaspie drove in the sixth run in the Giants’ 7-1 victory over the Dodgers on Sunday, but he saved his best heroics for the field with a play that might have been the most daring and dramatic of the season when he catapulted over a railing and a bank of TV cameras to somehow snare Chase Utley’s foul popup in the third inning.
“It was just one of those things, probably a once-ina-lifetime play,” Gillaspie said. “I knew I was getting close to the wall, but, honestly, I never even looked. If the ball was close enough for me to catch, I was going to try to catch it.”
Incredibly, miraculously, spectacularly, he did.
“It probably looked worse than it was,” he said. “The camera kind of broke my fall a little bit, and then I fell down to the ground. It was just one of those magical moments in a player’s career where everything unfolded perfectly.”
Pitcher Matt Moore, who threw eight fabulous innings, was the beneficiary of Gillaspie’s catch and couldn’t thank him enough after the inning.
“Initially, I was wondering why my teammates weren’t over the there to help prop him up,” Moore said. “I asked him if he was all right, and he didn’t look like he wanted to talk too much. You know how Conor is; he’s pretty under the radar. I didn’t want to make a bigger deal out of it for his sake.”
Gillaspie, 29, is one of the quietest, most introspective players in the Giants’ clubhouse. As Buster Posey noted, “Yeah, it’s pretty much a tie between Conor and (Kelby) Tomlinson.” Even as his teammates partied hearty in their clubhouse off to the side, Gillaspie watched from a distance, almost expressionless.
But inside, he admitted, he was exploding with joy. Asked if he’d ever been part of such a celebratory scene, he answered quickly.
“Never,” he said. “Not like this, not in the major leagues anyway. It feels great; it’s something I’ll never forget.”
Once upon a time, as a 2008 first-round pick coming through the Giants’ system, Gillaspie didn’t have nearly that much perspective. But the second time around, he maintained he’s grown up. It’s one of the reasons he wanted to come back to San Francisco.
“The Giants were so good to me my first time here, and I wasn’t exactly the best teammate or the best player,” he said. “But after going to another organization (the Chicago White Sox), I realized how fortunate I was to ever put on a uniform here.”
Signed to a nonroster player minor-league contract in the offseason, he didn’t make the Opening Day roster, but his contract was selected on April 22, and he remained with the major league club the rest of the year.
So what kicked in for Gillaspie at the most important time of the year?
“I was just trying to do my best,” he said. “I think the most important thing was putting the game in perspective. With the death of Jose Fernandez this week, I did a lot of thinking about just how to enjoy this game and never take anything for granted. I think that helped me a little bit. It was a horrible tragedy, but it made me realize that this game could be taken from you at any second and made me thankful that I’m alive and just able to still be playing.”
Just like the Giants as a whole.