© Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
It’s hard to go through the at-bats on Wednesday and say a guy went 1-for-3 or 0-for-2 or whatever considering that the pitch-calling by the catchers was unclear, and there was never a full field of position players. Sometimes you’d have a bloop with no right fielder, and have to guess whether a play could have been made. Without a fielder, you have to take into percentages and guess what the average fielder would do. That said, here’s how each of the batters and pitchers performed on Wednesday:
Batters
Hunter Pence: Opened the day with a warning track fly out to left field (where no one was playing), went 1-for-5 with a chopped single up the middle and two strikeouts, one looking, and a groundout to third.
Chadwick Tromp: 1-for-2, with a groundout to short and a double deep over the head of Heliot Ramos in center, who may have made the difficult catch if positioned deeper in real game action. Was very good behind the plate and threw out a stealing Brandon Crawford brilliantly.
Here’s Chadwick Tromp throwing out Brandon Crawford: pic.twitter.com/uNch5XaNCU
— Maria I. Guardado (@mi_guardado) July 8, 2020
Steven Duggar: 0-for-4. Struck out twice looking to open the day, then grounded out to first, then popped out to second.
Joey Rickard: 1-for-4. Three-straight strikeouts looking (the first two looked questionable) followed by a nice shot single to right field to end the day against Andrew Triggs.
Donovan Solano: 3-for-4. The star of the day, Solano reached base on all four at-bats, though one of them was a fielding error by a coach filling in at first base. Opened by ripping a meaty pitch from Drew Smyly to left for a single, followed by the error, then spinning a double into the right-field corner, and ending with a bloop single to shallow right field.
Austin Slater: 1-for-4. Struck out twice swinging, as he tended to do quite a bit last season, then grounded out to the pitcher, but finished with a nice single to right field, advancing Solano to third.
Abiatal Avelino: 0-for-2. Popped out to right and struck out swinging.
Joe McCarthy: 1-for-3/0-for-3 (depending on your interpretation). Struck out twice, once looking and reached on what was a bouncing single against a coach playing first base. You could call it a hit or an error. It wasn’t clear whether an actual player would have made the play.
Evan Longoria: 1-for-3. Struck out once looking against Kevin Gausman and gave him a look of “nice pitch,” nodding his head, then followed it with a single against Tyler Anderson, who had the worst outing of anyone, and ended with a well-hit fly out to right field on a hit-and-run. Kapler praised his exit velocity, which was discernibly good.
Brandon Crawford: 1-for-2. Hit a ground out to first, then drew an 11-pitch walk against Tyler Anderson after falling down 0-2 and giving Joey Bart, the catcher and umpire, some, let’s say, constructive criticism, before fouling off five pitches, including four in a row. Had a nice single up the middle.
Joey Bart: 0-for-2. Struck out twice, once looking.
Heliot Ramos: 0-for-3. Two strikeouts swinging, in which he uttered, both times, something along the lines of “Aghhhhh!” in a frustration, chasing or just missing on pitches. He also popped out to left.
Patrick Bailey: Got one chance, struck out.
Pitchers
Kevin Gausman: 2 IP, allowed zero hits, had four strikeouts, three looking. One deep fly out allowed to Hunter Pence, and two groundouts. Looked like he had generally solid command of the strike zone and good velocity.
Drew Smyly: 2 IP, allowed one single to Donovan Solano but was otherwise tricky, striking out four, two looking. One fly out to right by Avelino and one easy groundout to third from Pence. Kapler was particularly pleased with his performance.
“Drew Smyly was awesome today,” Kapler said. “His cutter is really getting a lot of horizontal movement, he’s dropping his curveballs in for strikes. His velocity is right where it needs to be. I asked him after his outing how his body felt and specifically, his ankle. And he just he just feels great right now. That’s really encouraging.”
Logan Webb: 2 IP, 1 hit allowed (arguably an error), 1 runner reached on error, four strikeouts, three looking, one groundout. He was the most electric pitcher of the day, and his offspeed pitches had multiple players fooled. His second inning featured three strikeouts on pitches looking, with a groundout sprinkled in.
“Logan Webb continues to impress with the shape of his breaking ball and in the fastball and a lot of confidence,” Kapler said.
Tyler Anderson: 1 IP, 2 hits allowed, 1 walk allowed. Worst day of any pitcher, did not get an out. Kapler said his “velocity came back” after a previous outing when it was down. That’s the lone positive. Looked especially hittable.
Sam Coonrod: 1 IP, 1 hit allowed, 1 strikeout, 1 groundout. Was taken for that spinning double by Solano, got Ramos to chase and picked up a dribbler from Austin Slater.
“One of the things that we challenged Sam with after his last outing was to really attack the strike zone with all his pitches he did that, and showed all the great stuff that he normally does,” Kapler said.
Trevor Gott: 1 IP, 1 hit allowed, two fly outs, one strike out. Struggled to stay in the strike zone, missing outside frequently. Allowed good contact to three-straight batters before striking out the very young Patrick Bailey.
Andrew Triggs: 1 IP, 2 hits allowed, one pop up, one strike out. Looked the second-most hittable after Anderson, allowing a chopped single up the middle to Pence and a line drive from Rickard into right field. Got a strikeout on Pence the second time around.
Tyler Rogers: 1 IP, 2 hits allowed, 3 strikeouts. A very on-or-off outing from the submariner. Struck out Ramos before allowing back-to-back singles to Solano and Slater before striking out Avelino swinging and McCarthy looking to theoretically end the inning.