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© Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Another day, another modified version of batting practice and semi-live game action. On Thursday, six Giants pitchers took the mound, along with a baker’s dozen of hitters awaiting them. Here’s how it went, of course, with a bit of guesswork involved on occasion, given that there every position wasn’t always manned, and players weren’t always running full speed.
Hitters
Wilmer Flores: 0-for-3, two strikeouts, one looking, and a fly out to right field. Did make a nice stop at first before fumbling the ball but finishing the play in time. Less-than stellar fielding was a common thread.
Alex Dickerson: 0-for-3, grounded out to first and popped up twice to short. His second time he reached on on error after hitting a sky-high pop up that Mauricio Dubon completely whiffed on. The jeers were in short order from his teammates.
Luis Toribio: 1-for-2, slapped a single to the right side and struck out swinging. Got some advice from Pablo Sandoval in drills prior to live action after making a mistake on a transfer.
Marco Luciano: 0-for-2, struck out once to Andy Suarez and flew out to center against Dereck Rodriguez. Made a really rangy stop on a hit up the middle but failed to convert the play, dropping it on the transfer.
Mike Yastrzemski: 1-for-4, BB. Got the most at-bats on the day. Opened by hitting a sharp bouncer back to Suarez, where he was thrown out, and did nearly the same with a hard-hit ball to Flores at first for another ground out. In between those at-bats, he drew a walk from Suarez, and slapped an opposite-field single against Dany Jimenez, later stealing third and scoring on a poor throw by Rob Brantley. Popped out to left to end his day.
Pablo Sandoval: 1-for-3, reached on error. Hit a deep ball to right-center field which Mauricio Dubon did well to catch. He slapped an infield single up the middle that was almost turned into an out by Luciano if not for the poor transfer, and reached again with poor fiedling from quality assurance coach Nick Ortiz, who was celebrating his birthday by playing all around the diamond.
Tyler Heineman: 1-for-2, BB, reached on error. Heineman opened with a walk from Suarez, then hit a soft grounder to short, where Will Wilson made a lazy overthrow towards first. He finished the day with a bloop single to shallow center to theoretically score Sandoval.
Zach Green: 1-for-3. Flew out to center on a line, struck out and hit a nice single to left field to advance a baserunner.
Darin Ruf: 2-for-3. The star of the show. Two doubles on the day, one to right field off the bottom of the wall and an absolute scorcher down the left field line. Looks like one of the most consistent hitters on the team at this juncture.
Will Wilson: 0-for-1, sac fly. Hit a grounder to third and a deep fly ball to center to advance the runners.
Rob Brantley: 0-for-2, BB. Flew out to center and left field and drew a walk, and tagged up as a runner. After making a throwing error to allow a run to score, caught Heineman stealing with a pinpoint throw to second.
Heliot Ramos: 1-for-1. Only at-bat featured a missile of a single to left field. Had a nice charging catch in right field, too.
Mauricio Dubon: 0-for-3. Had a pair of strikeouts, one looking, and a chopper hit to short for an out. Also made an error at short, but his at-bats were mostly competitive.
Pitchers
Dereck Rodriguez: 2 IP, 1K, 2 H, 3 groundouts, 2 fly outs
Rodriguez was his usual self, not dominating anyone, but also not getting torched. His pitches have good placement and movement. His greatest blemish was a double from Ruf, but he recovered well.
Andy Suarez: 2 IP, 2 BB, 2K, 4 fly outs, 1 groundout, 1 reached on error
Had a two-walk first inning but recovered well. As always, kept things moving at a rapid pace, and was attacking the outside part of the plate. Sometimes the ball stays too far outside and he runs into those walk issues, but he was reliably solid after the second one.
Carlos Navas: 2 IP, 2 K, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 groundout, 1 popup error
Navas looked just about as good as any of the pitchers today. The hit he allowed wasn’t a hard hit one (one of his outs, however, was) and his walk came on a 3-2 count. Kapler enjoyed what he saw
“Navas has a professionalism and the ability to come in and throw strikes,” Kapler said. “Alll of them stood well but I think Navas is one that was of particular interest today.”
Sam Selman: 1 IP, 1 K, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 sac fly allowed
Selman was hit hard two batters apart, first by Heliot Ramos, and after striking out Dubon, by Ruf, for a double. Allowed a run to score on a sac fly from Wison.
Dany Jimenez: 1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 R, 1 fly out, 1 error
The worst outing of any of the pitchers, both Mike Yastrzemski and Pablo Sandoval scored, though Sandoval reached on an error in what should have been a double play. Was hit fairly hard and didn’t look overpowering.
Camilo Doval: 1 IP, 1 K looking, 1 groundout, 1 pop out
Aside from the lack of top-flight velocity, he showed the ability to mix it up and attack the outside of the strike zone with his slider.
“Openly, [his velocity is] a little light right now,” Kapler said. “He’s just building up and getting his arms and his legs back into shape. The cool thing is is there’s still a lot of life in the arm and there’s some some good shape on the slider, and he’s around the zone. So those are all those are all positives, independent of that we just really want him to get himself built back up, create some volume and and be able to to build some arm speed which we know is going to come