Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports
The offense has jolted awake. The pitching has ranged from effective to brilliant.
Not as obvious for the Giants in going from a no-doubt trade-deadline seller to the thick of a playoff race has been a defense that looks far more cohesive.
As the Giants have found the ingredients for victories, they’ve also found an outfield rotation that works. Kevin Pillar is back to his natural center field, with Steven Duggar first going down due to injury, then staying down in Sacramento as the Giants took off.
Mike Yastrzemski has typically accompanied him in right, with Alex Dickerson most often in left. As the new-look unit first started playing together, there were miscues; Pillar dropped a fly-ball amid confusion on June 29 and laid blame at the group’s inexperience.
Not anymore.
“Over the last seven, eight games, since the All-Star break, collectively, as a group, we are starting to mesh defensively,” Pillar said Thursday, before the Giants beat the Mets for their sixth straight win. “We are starting to understand what we’re all capable of doing. We’re understanding how to communicate out there. And that’s a challenge — we didn’t get an opportunity to play with each other until we got here.”
Pillar was brilliant at Coors Field, his glove a vacuum that continually frustrated the Rockies. Yastrzemski’s arm is a weapon, as evidenced by a key July 3 throw-out of Hunter Renfroe at home. Dickerson is in the lineup for his bat, but he has not looked out of place at left.
“We’re having a lot more time and ability to get to know each other and know each other’s ranges,” Yastrzemski said. “And I know that, and playing with KP, I’m starting to understand where he likes to play. And his range, where balls I’m used to going after I know that he’s going to grab, so I can put my focus somewhere else and trust that he’s going to be there and make plays. So it takes a lot of pressure off myself to have him beside me.”
After the June 29 miscommunication, Pillar talked with Yastrzemski. According to the rookie, the two also talk during pitching changes about anything that might happen; they “bring up stuff from other games and run scenarios by each other, it’s definitely the most helpful thing,” Yastrzemski said.
This month, the trio hasn’t made an error.
“It’s been nice to finally play with this same kind of group of guys in the same position and get a chance to communicate with them,” Pillar said. “And I think you see the results of that.”