D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports
Gabe Kapler did not wait to be asked. The questioning had not yet begun, and yet the Giants manager wanted to both defend and express faith in Camilo Doval.
“I just wanted to start with what a great job Doval just did for us,” Kapler said after the young reliever entered a jam and allowed a walk-off home run to Charlie Blackmon. “I don’t want to miss the fact that, of course, he ended up getting beat on a slider to one of the better hitters in this division. But I was really proud of the work that he did.
“We asked him to come in and throw strikes, control the running game and stay composed, execute two pitches. That’s all he did.”
The 23-year-old had not pitched above High-A in the minors, but progressed through the pandemic and climbed his way all the way up to the majors — all the way up to a crucial spot Tuesday night in the back half of a doubleheader. Struggling closer Jake McGee opened floodgates that the Giants asked Doval to shut.
What had been a 6-2 Giants lead was a 6-5 game in the seventh (and final) inning at Coors Field. Ryan McMahon’s single chased McGee — we’ll get to him later — and in came Doval with the tying run on first.
He threw 14 pitches and nine strikes. A six-pitch battle with C.J. Cron finished with the Rockies slugger blooping a single into right, just out of the reach of a streaking Steven Duggar. An eight-pitch battle with Blackmon ended with the Colorado standout taking the seventh slider he saw and depositing it over the right-field wall for an 8-6 Giants loss.
Doval “threw slider after slider that were difficult pitches to lay off,” Kapler said over Zoom. “Obviously it was a very difficult loss to swallow. And in particular, you’re going to have a young man that is feeling like he’s responsible for it. And he’s not responsible for that loss. He did everything that we could possibly ask of him, and I’m proud of the work that he did.”
Kapler acknowledged there will be adjustments to make for the fireballer, who threw just two fastballs to 12 sliders.
“If you’re going to throw your slider over and over and rip it with conviction like he did, eventually a ball is going to sit in the middle of the plate,” Kapler said after Doval allowed runs for a third time in eight outings. “With a hitter as good as Charlie Blackmon, eventually he’s going to get on one.”
There will be growing pains, and another young reliever with a live arm in Gregory Santos already got touched up before heading back to Sacramento to work on his game. The more immediate Giants concern is the arm that ignited the fire that Doval could not extinguish.
McGee gave up one hit in his first 7 1/3 innings with the Giants, earning six saves and looking like a star the Giants scooped up for cheap.
Since April 17, though, he has been charged with 10 runs (eight earned) in 5 2/3 innings. On Tuesday, against his former team, he faced six Rockies batters and allowed four to reach. He (and Doval) could not get the final out.
His dependable fastball was about a mile per hour slower than it usually is.
“His fastball doesn’t have its best life right now,” Kapler said of McGee, whose four-seamer averaged 93.3 mph in the game. “… When he’s at his best, his fastball is really carrying, and he’s missing more bats than he is right now. And that’s something that we’re going to continue to work on with him and support him through.”