SAN FRANCISCO — At the very bottom of baseball in stolen bases and plenty of other offensive categories, the Giants haven’t done much hitting or running, let alone in conjunction.
Manager Tony Vitello put Jesus Rodriguez in motion Friday night, and Jung Hoo Lee slapped a splitter below the strike zone into the outfield grass. Rodriguez advanced first to third with ease.
It was the kind of aggression the first-year manager has sought to snap his club out of its season-long struggle to get on the scoreboard. And, in appropriate fashion for the group so far, the effort produced exactly zero runs inthe Giants’ 5-2 win over the Pirates.
“Everyone’s kind of working their butt off to try to find any kind of edge,” Vitello said. “But ultimately you have to have a guy get on base.”
Therein lies the truth: For the Giants to run, they have to walk.
And one particular tried and true method — laying off four pitches outside the strike zone, removing your protective gear and moseying up the first-base line — has largely eluded them.
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Win or loss, day or night, it’s been the same result for the Giants their past three games: An egg in the walks column. Friday’s win was their third consecutive game without drawing a walk, a specific type of drought that’s occurred only 13 times in franchise history — twice now since 1976.
“I think that’s one of the biggest points of this year,” shortstop Willy Adames said. “Me personally, I haven’t been walking a lot. I think that kind of goes to trying to make stuff happen, and then kind of get in a black hole and it’s hard to get out of that.”
In Adames’ case, not a lot equates to six bases on balls in 155 plate appearances, tied with Casey Schmitt (4.0%) for the lowest walk rate on a team on pace to draw historically few.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
