There was only one coach at Gabe Kapler’s introductory press conference in November. The Giants had already decided to clean the house and let Kapler hire a whole new staff, but when Kapler met Ron Wotus, he knew he needed to be the Giants’ fourth consecutive manager to have Wotus on their staff.
Kapler kept Wotus as his third base coach, and when the new manager went through a controversial press conference, Wotus sat in the third row and watched the scene. Nine months later, Wotus was back there for Kapler.
The Giants had to hold their nails in the ninth inning on Saturday, but when Cody Bellinger popped out to the left, Kapler had his first victory as a Giant. The score at Dodger Stadium was 5-4, but Kapler did not wait to look at it. He went straight to the clubhouse and saw a video of some defensive plays before entering the coaching room. That’s where Wotus was waiting with the rest of the 13-person staff.
“Ron Wotus opened a good bottle of wine and made a nice toast for the coaching staff,” said Kapler.
Wotus gave a short speech. Perhaps at one point he mentioned “torture,” one of the defining characteristics of the three-title race in San Francisco. When Kapler met reporters a few minutes later, he was asked if he knew about the more than 300 biting victories during the Bruce Bochy era, and if his heart could handle the same thing. He smiled.
“Ask me after 300,” he said. “We’ll see.”
The Giants were happy on this day only to escape with a first.
[BALKTALK:[BALKTALK:[BALKTALK:[BALKTALK: Listen to the last episode]
Kapler had to sweat, despite pressing all the right buttons to lead the Giants to eighth place with a 5-1 lead. Donovan Solano made a crucial mistake in third place and Corey Seager’s two-run single made it 5-3. Kapler had all three of his late inning relievers lined up for the last six outs, but neither Tony Watson nor Tyler Rogers were particularly sharp.
That left Trevor Gott the ninth, the right-hander who was closer in college and younger, but only had a previous save in the big leagues. He walked in and immediately left a Will Smith blast that nearly decapitated a cardboard cutout on the left field seats. However, Gotts bounced back, prompting Max Muncy, Mookie Betts, and Cody Bellinger to guarantee Kapler’s first line of hand / elbow beating.
“I thought our bullpen did a good job of holding it together under some difficult conditions,” said Kapler. “In particular, Gotter did a good job.”
Before those last two innings, it was relatively straightforward, and Kapler received great contributions from two inexperienced relievers. Caleb Baragar made his MLB debut and faced off against Muncy, Betts, Bellinger, Justin Turner and Corey Seager. He had six total outs and recorded his first career win.
“The timing wasn’t too big for him, and that’s something our player development staff had hit us with,” said Kapler.
Kapler admitted that it was easier to throw Baragar in that spot because the Dodgers had never seen him before. They’ve seen Shaun Anderson, but he struck out three in the seventh, showing a nasty slider and a 97 mph fastball.
[RELATED:[RELATED:[RELACIONADO:[RELATED:What you will have missed in the Giants’ first win of the season]
It got messy after that, but that’s usually the case with a Giants-Dodgers game. Kapler has seen it from the other side. On this day, he had to retire to the visiting clubhouse for a surprise toast. However, the celebration did not last long.
“I’m already thinking about going back to the hotel, putting together some lineups, wondering if some of our boys can come back, what will be our situation in the bullpen?” Kapler said. “One of my personal challenges is learning how to soak up the victories a little better and enjoy this.”
The hope, for the Giants, is that he has a lot of practice.
