Chris Mezzavilla/KNBR
There are a lot of things the Giants like about Mauricio Dubon, who has significantly improved in distinct areas each season he has been with the club. He went from a middle infielder to a center fielder; he went from a swing-happy hacker to a better-trained hitter who awaits his pitch; he went from a skinny athlete to a filled-out masher who hopes it can translate to more power.
So the Giants like the makeup. Well, the other kind of makeup.
“I need some mascara because it’s thin,” Dubon said of the wisps above his upper lip, desperate to participate in Mustache May but the boyish-looking 26-year-old joining partly in spirit and now partly in results.
Mike Yastrzemski and Austin Slater brought the tradition to the team, Yastrzemski doubling Monday and Austin Slater launching a few homers last week to spark attention about their facial hair.
A mustache-aspiring Dubon came off the bench and fought through his best at-bat of the young season, his single to left off lefty John King scoring Slater for the go-ahead run in the seventh at Oracle Park.
“My wife hates it,” Dubon said after Giants 3, Rangers 1 on Monday, “but it’s getting the hits.”
Awesome angle of Dubon’s go-ahead single via @SFGiants pic.twitter.com/ZEYogwlhWh
— KNBR (@KNBR) May 11, 2021
For five straight pitches, it was getting the foul balls. Dubon emerged from the bench as the third and last righty threat to pinch-hit, following Slater’s walk and Darin Ruf’s single in a late line change by Gabe Kapler. His focus all offseason and this spring was working pitchers and awaiting his pitch, which is what he did in fouling off four straight sinkers and a cutter. He laid off a slider, then finally got a cutter that got far too much of the plate. He swatted it to left, took second base on Khris Davis’ poor throw from left field and punctuated the moment with a fist-pump that hints at a lot of the frustration that has overwhelmed his season.
Dubon, who has hit into a lot of bad luck and who owns a batting average about 50 points below his expected batting average, is no longer the center fielder. First Slater took some of his time, then Mike Tauchman did the same, and now Steven Duggar is getting a prolonged look. At the moment, Dubon’s best route to playing time is as a defensive replacement or as a shortstop against lefties, but Brandon Crawford’s bat has been difficult to take out of lineups.
When Dubon has been playing, he has made a few memorable mistakes. On Sunday, he got a very poor jump from second on a clean single and then was left stranded on third; he ran into Ron Wotus when the third-base coach was trying to put up a stop sign.
The fist-pumps were dashing through poor moments from the past few weeks.
“I’m a guy that shows his emotions. Yeah, I’ve made some mistakes there on the bases. That can happen again, just trying to learn from it,” Dubon said.
Kapler called out Dubon’s “grind a bit of a plate appearance,” happy that his bench bats have made such a habit of being ready, even when that can be a struggle.
Things are beginning to break right for Dubon, even in a different role. Maybe there’s a secret to his success…
“It’s lasting till it looks something like Slater’s or Yaz’s,” said Dubon of his mustache, which might mean he has these wisps for years.
A lot has stood out about Alex Wood‘s five excellent starts, none of which has involved an opponent scoring more than two runs off the lefty. But like Kevin Gausman has his splitter and Johnny Cueto and Logan Webb have their changeup, Wood’s slider can be unhittable.
It moves so much vertically that he compares it to a mini curveball, and the offering got 10 swings and misses Monday. It changes his game and gives him an any-count weapon.
It has come so far that, Wood said, “I’m able to still use that pitch, effectively, even against guys that other days or other seasons I might not necessarily throw my slider [against].”
He works fast, he works efficiently. His 99 pitches through seven four-hit, one-run innings was a season high.
“He’s just been excellent all year,” Kapler said over Zoom. “Seems like the bigger the moment is in the game, the more he bears down.”
Jake McGee gave up two ground singles but recorded his ninth save with a fastball that touched 97 mph. When he was struggling, it was in the 93-mph neighborhood.
“I think we’re all starting to see the life come back on the fastball,” Kapler said.