Splash Considerations Ep. 17: No More Parties in L.A.

In Episode 17 of Splash Considerations, Justice breaks down the Giants' four-game series split against the Dodgers in Los Angeles. He breaks down Bryce Eldridge's current playing time situation, the value of having Eric Haase along with Daniel Susac and Jesús Rodríguez and the lack of fallout from Willy Adames forgetting how many outs there were. 

Transcript

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Welcome to another episode of Splash Considerations. My name is Justice Double Santo, San Francisco Giants B reporter for the Bay Area News Group, San Jose Mercury News, ESPE Times, whatever you want to call us, as long as you read, as long as you subscribe. And speaking of subscribe, subscribe to the YouTube channel. Follow us on Apple, follow us on Spotify. Rate us five stars if you do feel so inclined. A lot of things in this world cost a lot of money, but subscribing and following those things remain free 99 and just a moment of your time. And it's going to be another solo episode for me here. It's going to be uh trying to cover a lot of ground, trying to get my bearings. It felt weird even just saying that intro just now because even though it's been only a week since the last episode, uh, haven't had uh it feels like a lot has happened. And I feel like I can safely say that the last two weeks maybe have been like the most hectic, action-filled, jam-packed uh two weeks that I've ever had on a beat and I've got my notes right here just to remember everything that's kind of happened. And it kind of started with the road trip, that Philly Tampa road trip. They obviously get swept on both of those series. I was part of that doubleheader. I mentioned that in the episode uh with Shayna. Um, Eldridge and Jesus Rodriguez are subsequently called up. There's everything that comes with that. Patrick Bailey is traded to the Guardians. I did a quick video on YouTube about that, and then everything that kind of comes with that. And then the same day that Bailey gets traded, Logan Webb hits the IL for the first time since 2021. Bryce Eldridge, of course, hits his first Major League homer that same day as well. We had the 12-inning marathon on Mother's Day, had to fly to LA the next day. Monday was, I guess if you want to call it the Bryce Day when we talked about Bryce's playing time, and that's something uh I'll get into in this episode. Uh Tuesday was the Eric Haas game. Wednesday was Otani Day. Thursday, I guess it was the most normal of the four games out in LA that was, but it did still have uh an inside the park home run. And what I originally wanted to do is uh because I wasn't covering the game in Sacramento on Friday, what I originally wanted to do is record in my hotel in LA uh on Friday. That was gonna be a solo episode. This is gonna be a solo episode, but you know, I wanted to sleep on it, kind of gather my bearings, and when I woke up, I was just completely and totally at capacity because I think I've mentioned this before too. But uh, the thing with this podcast, uh, and the reason why I always try to cycle through guests is that it's pretty much a one-man operation. I'm not only the one recording these, I'm the one that has to edit these, that has to do the video portion, that has to write the captions, get them on YouTube, uh, get them on Apple, get them on Spotify. So it is truly a one-man operation. And you know, it's one thing if I have to hop on, you know, K NBR or 95.7 and it's just 15 minutes, knock it out right there. I don't have to worry about handling uh the airwaves or anything, but this is truly a one-man operation. So I'm always trying to divvy up my time, especially uh it's a little more difficult when it's solo, too. It's more fun when I just get to bounce things off of other people, but you know, when it's solo and I have to handle all that stuff, it is uh definitely a little more daunting. So, with all that being said, it does mean a lot. Again, kind of going back to what I said in the intro, it does mean a lot if you rate five stars, if you do follow us, because it is a lot of hard work in addition to all of the actual writing that I have to do. So uh any support for the podcast is always uh appreciated. As far as this episode, I want to isolate to the Giants four-game series in LA. I know I didn't have a true podcast episode uh dissecting the Patrick Bailey trade. I did post a video on YouTube about the subject, and I think a lot of the questions that I was left with are still applicable even after talking uh with president of baseball operations, Buster Posey, about that move uh on Wednesday. So if you'd like my thoughts on that, go check it out on the YouTube channel. I didn't upload it as a podcast just because uh it was only about 10 minutes long, and I didn't think that was lengthy enough to warrant posting uh on the podcast. Maybe I should have. Maybe I should have just kind of labeled it as the uh the emergency podcast, so to say, and just have the the 10 minutes of me rambling. But uh, I'm gonna breeze through the first four games of this series, and then we'll get into some of you know the bigger picture subjects from the Dodger series. And I think one of the benefits of you know this past series and the big picture subjects uh is that they're still, you know, applicable as I speak right now, or these are still things that are going to remain a what's the word I'm looking for? They're going to remain relevant uh even after I'm done recording today, even if the news itself happened a couple days ago. So starting with game one, the Giants win nine to three. They kick off uh their four-game series against the Dodgers with a win. That's two wins in a row for them at that point. Um, Rafael Debris has one of his most impactful games of the season. He goes two for three, hits his fifth home of the year, draws two walks, scores three runs. Willie Adamas uh had a great game as well, and obviously we'll get to what happened with Adamus later in this episode. He goes two for five, has three RBIs. The Giants did record a season high six walks, but let's be real, four of them were against Wyatt Mills uh in the top of the ninth inning, and he had it was rough. It was rough. He just did not know uh where the ball was going, and I think Junk Hu Lee even got hit uh in that inning as well. So I think if you want to put an asterisk on that, I wouldn't blame you just because they only had two walks uh going into the ninth inning. But another note is that it was also their first multi-steal game of the year. Jesus Rodriguez had a steal, uh, Casey Schmidt has a steal as well. And then the way that that game uh ended, or I guess not ended, uh rather the way that the Giants celebrated uh that win, it was some mid-section to mid-section action. Uh I think you've all seen the video at this point. I don't think you need me uh to really describe it, but it was, you know, it was one of those clips that went viral. It's definitely one of the most uh unique celebrations that the Giants have, or pretty much any team rather has ever um employed after a win. It's funny to kind of skip forward a little bit. Uh the Mets did employ it after they won on Tuesday, but that celebration, uh, to no surprise, uh, is gonna be a one and done. It's not exactly the most PG-13, uh, it's not even rated R, honestly. It's a little it might get the X rating, uh, honestly. So no more of that mid-section to midsection action that we'll see uh going forward. But the Giants did make it three straight wins on Tuesday with a six to two wins, and this was uh the Eric Haas game, and he became the first Giant-to-ever homer in two games, or rather, hit two homers in a single game at Dodger Stadium. Um there have been Giants catchers who have hit two homers in a single game against the Dodgers, but Haas was the first to do that at Dodgers Stadium. Funny enough, the last Giant to have Giant catcher rather to have a multi-homer game against the Dodgers was former manager Bob Melvin, who did it, I think it was 19 uh 87. He also became the first giant to ever hit, or not giant, he also became the first player rather to hit two homers in the same game against uh Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Uh, he had some interesting post-game comments uh as well. Uh, the first question that was asked to him was a pretty standard, you know, how'd that feel to hit two homers uh in the same game? And his response was uh to that question. Uh I just think the chemistry in the room now is what we're searching for for a lot of the season. You can argue which pieces are to blame for that, but all we know is as nights to finally feel that shift of momentum and energy. To do it in LA is obviously uh this is big for the boys, and that's obviously what we're going to try to keep building. Now, I don't think it's exactly fair to assume that that was directed at Patrick Bailey. Um, but if you take stock as to who's in the clubhouse, uh who is no longer in the clubhouse, who was on that opening day roster versus who's not who's not there anymore, uh there's not a lot of names that you could uh conjure up that that might be about. And I I don't think he was talking about uh Gerar uh Incarnacion either. Uh game three, that's a four-nothing loss, that snaps the Giants' three-game winning streak. It denies them uh an opportunity to win four games for the first time this season. Their longest winning streak of the season up to this point still remains three. And Shohei Otani kept doing Shohei Otani things. He pitched seven scoreless innings, he lowered his ERA on the season to a major league best 0.82, and he's already got four MVPs uh on his resume. He's going for the Cy Young uh this season, apparently. It's gonna be very fun, you know, just as a fan of the game, to really track and monitor how that goes with him, especially considering uh that this month has been, you know, very rough for him at the plate, you know, not just by Otani standards, but just by anyone's standards uh period. He did have his one of his better games uh in recent memory on Tuesday. I think he homered, singled, had a walk against the Giants uh as well. Uh but of course for the Giants, the most noteworthy part of that game was the William Adamas base running blunder and uh this subsequent uh lack of fallout, if you want to say. And again, we'll get to that in a second. And then game four was kind of a ho-hum, six to four loss or six to two loss. Rather, Jung Hu Lee did exhilarate, he did hit uh an inside the park home run. It was the first inside the park home run that he's ever had at any stage of his career, even going all the way back to Little League. But that was it as far as the offense. I think his inside the park home run, which was his third home of the season, uh, had an exit velocity of like 73.8 miles an hour. And then Rafael Devers had the only other hit of the day, which was like a 71 mile an hour bloop. So not a lot as far as offense in that one. And uh Bryce Eldridge did not play in this game. He didn't play in Monday's game either, uh, but he did play on Tuesday and Wednesday against Yamamoto and Otani. And that is a pretty good segue into kind of the big picture, the probably the biggest picture item uh to hit on here from the Dodgers series is kind of the revelation that, you know, Bryce Eldridge is not gonna be an everyday player. And this was a story that really, you know, all of the momentum and this was a story that, you know, really picked up on Monday because he sat on Monday against Roki Sasaki, he sat on Sunday on Mother's Day, uh, despite the fact that he hit the first homer of his career on Saturday, and then he sat on the game on Friday uh as well. And you know, Tony Vitello said he didn't think that this was going to impact Eldridge's development. He did think that Eldridge was going to still be able to properly develop as a Major League player, even if he wasn't starting every day. And he did make a point to say that, you know, the goal was on days where he's not starting to get him in the game, have a pinch hit appearance so that, you know, he can still uh accumulate those played appearances. Uh, but it does lead to a very you know fair big picture question of you know, why would the Giants call him up if he's not going to play every single day? Because it's no secret, you know, Bryce Eldridge is the top prospect in the Giants organization. And if you are going to bring him up to the major league level at this point in the season, it'd be one thing if it was like last September, where like, yeah, like they're you know, trying to cling to a playoff spot, you're gonna maximize the matchups as much as possible. He was 20 years old uh at that juncture. It would make sense as to why he wouldn't necessarily be uh playing every day at the tail end of September. But, you know, given that the Giants called him up at the point in the season that they did, which of course was after they were swept by the Phillies and by the Rays, and they were looking for offense. And you know, side note, the offense has looked a lot better since Bryce and Jesus have been called up, but it does beg in a very fair question of why call him up if he's not gonna play every single day. And sure, Vitello can say that you know his development isn't gonna be hindered by him getting, you know, a start one day and then a pinch hit appearance the next because yes, hypothetically you are playing, you know, kind of akin to every single day. But, you know, it's one thing to, you know, have you know, have at bats every single day in some capacity. It's another to have three, four, if not five at bats and face the opposing starter, you know, three, if not four times, and get into the rhythm of a game, be able to understand what the opposing pitcher uh is trying to do, be able to make those mistakes, you know, maybe early in the game or late in the game and be able to course correct. You know, those are parts of the development that, you know, are going to be important for Bryce is, you know, getting these, you know, consistent bundle of plate appearances, not just one one day and then to start the next day. You know, I don't think that's how, you know, any you know, top prospect or any rookie rather, I don't think those are the ideal circumstances in which you want to develop them. And uh Alex Pavlovich mentioned this a couple podcasts ago when talking about Bryce, and this was when you know the Giants had yet to promote him, but uh it's not exactly you know a secret that the Giants cannot afford to mess up Bryce's development. This is the development that they need to get right, especially considering they're locked into the core that they're locked into. They need to get Eldridge's development right. Buster Posey and Zach Manassian have constantly talked about how they envision him being an impact bat in this lineup for the next 10 to 15 years. And in order for that to happen, the Giants need to ensure that Eldridge is put in the very best position possible to develop as best as possible. I know that wasn't the most eloquent sentence in the world, but they need to put him in the best position possible. And uh, as of right now, you know, Eldridge did start on Friday in Sacramento, he didn't start on Thursday. Uh, it is fair to wonder if this current strategy actually is the best position possible for him to play. And honestly, I, you know, Daniel Susack was, you know, reinstated from the injury list on Friday. We'll get to that in a second in the three-catcher mix. But I personally wouldn't have been shocked if Eldridge was optioning triple A just to get him, you know, consistent every day at bats, because right now that's just something he's not getting with the Giants. And it's very much a product of the roster construction that's around him right now. It's a very tricky roster. You know, it's definitely not perfect as far as Eldridge's specific skill set because there are only two positions that he can play right now, and that's first base and designated hitter. And you've got Matt Chapman at third, you've got Willia Damas at short, you've got Luisa Rise at second, Rafael Devers at first in DH. Schmidt's been playing a lot of DH, but he can move uh around the diamond as well. And so you go into every single day and you kind of wonder like, you know, if Eldridge is gonna start, who's gonna have to move around, who's gonna have to not start? There's been a couple days where it's been Matt Chapman, and maybe Matt Chapman's a subject for you know later in this pod or another pod. He's really struggling right now. You know, we've seen a couple games where Casey Schmidt has started at third. That's opened up the DH spot uh for Eldridge. Uh we haven't seen that yet with Adamas. We haven't seen that yet with Arise. Maybe I think I think we've seen it one game. No, we haven't seen it with a ries because a Ryze uh was uh banged up. That's the reason that Schmidt started at second, not because they wanted to get Eldridge's bat in the lineup. But we haven't seen it yet for Devers. And, you know, with Devers in particular, you know, you can't really bench him right now because he's starting to swing a hot bat, like maybe during that Philly or Tampa Bay series, that might have been more viable. But obviously, Eldridge wasn't with the team uh at that junction. So it's very much a product of the current roster uh that's around Eldridge right now. And it kind of puts Tony Vitello in a tough spot because, you know, if you want to get Eldridge in the lineup and you want to bench one of your veterans, you know, it's inherently an uncomfortable conversation to be had to say hey, you know, to a Willie Adamus or a Matt Chapman or a Luisa Rise or even Rafael Devers, like, hey, we're gonna sit you today because we want to get the 21-year-old rookie that has no track record at the Major League level, because we want to get him at bats. And I'm sure Chapman, Adamus, Arise, Devers, I'm sure that they would be understanding of that. But uh it is still tricky because again, with Chapman, Adamus, and Devers, these are the guys that are currently playing on these long-term nine-figure contracts, these are the guys that you're locked into your future with as of right now, uh, for better or for worse. And there is a very interesting possibility in all this. If Buster Posey wanted to continue to be aggressive and not necessarily abide by traditional timelines, because we saw that with the trade of Patrick Bailey. That was not a traditional timeline trade. You know, me personally, or rather in my opinion, I think if the Giants were to trade Patrick Bailey, I think it would have made more sense to do so uh either at the deadline traditionally or maybe wait until the offseason and then you kind of give Daniel Susak and Jesus Rodriguez a full season to maybe learn from Patrick Bailey. But you know, Buster Posey did it before we we were even uh in mid-May. So kind of continuing on that theme, uh, if the Giants and Posey specifically wanted to maybe do his version of the Benji Molina trade to kind of open up playing time. Obviously, Molina was traded to the Rangers. That opened up playing time for Posey. Uh, the easiest, quote unquote, easiest way to do so would be to trade Luis Arise. And that's obviously a lot easier said than done because Arise has been one of the Giants' best players to this point. You know, the defense has been outstanding. We've talked about that in the pod a lot. He's just coming off of his best game of the season, went four, uh, I don't know if he went four for four, but he totaled four hits, hit his first home with a season. Uh, the bat hasn't been quite what it's been, you know, compared to his time with Miami or Minnesota, but it's still been an above-average bat. So you combine the above-average bat with a defensive excellence, and depending on what metric you look at, he has been arguably the Giants' best player so far. So, and maybe that's a trade that gets entertained later down the line. The Giants, as we speak, are nine games under 500. And even if the Giants were five games under 500 at the deadline, you know, there will probably be a good amount of teams if Ariz continues producing in the way that he does, uh, that will be, you know, calling the Giants about his services. And, you know, there's a couple other guys that, you know, might draw some interest as well. But Arise, uh, in particular, given, you know, but Arise in particular, given, you know, the defense, the offense, and then maybe that's something that clears up playing time for Eldridge going forward. But as of right now, this is kind of just the world that Bryce Eldridge has to live in. And I had an opportunity to talk with him on Monday. He took everything in stride. He's very very incredibly mature for a 21-year-old. Uh, he says he's gonna say, just try to stay in the best position possible, try to get used to you know having to pinch hit and you know, something that he really hasn't had to do a lot of probably ever, honestly. Like he hasn't had to do a lot of it since he turned pro. I can't imagine he had to do a lot of it uh in high school, but it's definitely going to be a change of pace with Bryce Eldridge. And, you know, if this is the path that the Giants are gonna go on, where it's not gonna be even playing time, and he does stack up, you know, a couple bad games, he hasn't exactly been lighting it up since he got called up. Um, you do have to wonder and start wondering if A, this is the best move for him, if this is actually going to impact his development, and B, you know, what the Giants might have to do from here in order to get him, you know, maybe on the right track developmentally speaking. And speaking of development, the other big picture subject that I wanted to hit on, I kind of touched upon it after Eric Cas's two-horrow game, but now uh it's come to fruition with Daniel Susak being reinstated yesterday, is the three-catcher mix that the Giants uh are currently going to be employing for the time being. That of course being uh the 33-year-old veteran catcher Ericas and the pair of 24-year-olds rookies Daniel Susak and uh Jesus Rodriguez. And I personally thought that if the Giants were going to roll with this, you know, Susak Rodriguez combination, you know, for the remainder of this year or even going forward, I I personally thought that it would have made a lot of sense uh to keep Eric Haas in the mix just because, you know, I don't know what the exact numbers are as of right now, but you know, Daniel Susak and Jesus Rodriguez, I don't think they even have a hundred games caught, you know, at the major league level under their belt or If they do, if they have kind of cleared that threshold, it's not by a lot. Uh, they don't have a lot of at-bats under their belt. They don't have a lot of games at the major league level under their belt. And president of baseball operations, Buster Posey, said that a big reason that they did this trade was because of the faith that they had in Susac in Rodriguez. And I don't think it's been a secret that, you know, Posey has been really enamored by Jesus Rodriguez. It was a big reason that they acquired him in the Camilla Duvall trade and then Daniel Susac as well. They traded for him uh after he was taken by the Minnesota Twins in the Rule 5 draft. So, and you're typically not getting, you know, a former first rounder uh in the rule five draft at this point in his career. So the talent is definitely there with those two, but it is just an inexperience question, you know, for all of the flaws in Patrick Bailey's game, especially uh on the offensive end, he knew how to run a pitching staff, he had developed a reputation of being not one of the best defensive catcher in baseball. He was still an elite framer even in the ABS era. He was still elite as far as the pop time to second base, he had improved as a blocker from the time that he came up as a rookie in 2023 uh to now. And again, this isn't to say that there weren't flaws in, you know, Bailey as a defender, uh maybe from a pitch calling perspective. I know it got a little weird, you know, kind of by the end of it. We mentioned uh the game in Philly. But, you know, he even with the offensive, you know, struggles, and there were a lot of them, he was still, depending on what you looked at, you know, by fan graphs, he was a 10-war player, and 10-war players don't grow on trees. So if you're going to put all of this faith in Daniel Susak and Jesus Rodriguez, who again are a pair of rookies with not a lot of experience, it made a lot of sense to also keep Eric Haas in the mix uh as well. Someone that's played uh almost 400 games in the majors at this point, someone who's caught a ton. And the thing with this three-catcher mix is that it's kind of a three-catcher mix with an asterisk in the sense that these are not three traditional catchers. It's not like there's three Buster Posies behind the plate or three Patrick Baileys behind the plate. Uh, Daniel Susak for the time being is pretty much primarily just gonna be a catcher. I think he's played uh a little bit of first base. But Jesus Rodriguez, we've mentioned this a lot, is his ability to bounce all around the diamond. He got to start in right field. He's played second base this year, he's played left field this year. He's even spent some time in the minors at third base and first base. Just I think I've mentioned this before. There is some, I think one of the best compliments that a player can get is being referred to as a baseball player. And it kind of sounds like one of those things that's like, no duh. But typically when managers say that, it means someone that's adept at, you know, all of the aspects of playing a baseball game, not necessarily hitting, not necessarily fielding. They can kind of do a little bit of everything. And Jesus Rodriguez, uh, by that sense of logic, is most definitely a baseball player. There's not a lot he can't do if you ask him to do it on a baseball field. And the same thing applies uh to Eric Haas. He hasn't played outfield since 2023, but he did spend a little bit of time uh in the outfield, I think both corner spots during his time with the Detroit Tigers. And despite the fact that he hasn't done it since 2023, uh, when we talked to him after Tuesday's game, he said that he still tries to kind of keep that aspect of his game uh ready. He does a lot of sprint work. Uh once a series, he'll try to go out to the outfield and shag just to remain familiar uh with, you know, seeing fly balls off the bat, you know, the routes that you have to run. And I think it was before Wednesday's game, I saw him uh walking around the dugout and he had an outfield glove on. I just kind of just said that. I said, is that the outfield glove? And he just pointed up with any kind of a sense of pride uh with him. So despite the fact that we haven't seen him in the outfield so far, that is something that if the Giants needed to get creative with the lineup, there maybe that there's a crazy game, late game situation where we end up seeing Jesus and Susac and Haas all in the game. Maybe there, if we get in a crazy situation, it wouldn't be outlandish to throw Susac or not Susak, Haas rather in left field or in right field. And again, kind of getting back to the main point of why I think this makes a lot of sense is it just makes a lot of sense to have someone that's been there. And you know, backup catchers, they remain in the league a long time for a reason, even if the numbers really don't jump off a page. It doesn't, it's never a surprise, or it's never a shock as to why a backup catcher remains in the league for as long as he does, because it comes from, you know, forming those relationships with the pitching staff, having a good reputation. And in this case, it's also going to be have to be Haas, you know, maybe guiding the youth a little bit, helping through these games, helping through them through the pitch calling, you know, maybe assessing after a game when a good time to make a mound visit would be a lot of the soft skills uh that go into catching, in addition to the throwing, the receiving, the blocking, everything that's kind of you know, calculable uh at this point. And before moving on to the next and final subject, that of course being the uh the Willie Adamas base running mistake, I did want to just quickly mention that uh with Jesus Rodriguez in particular, uh it's not exactly a shock that he's you know a little behind on his catching development. When he came out, when he was playing with the Yankees, he didn't have the everyday reps that you would necessarily expect out of an everyday catcher just because there was a lot of catchers in front of him. The reason he had to play a lot of different positions uh is because he was just kind of blocked behind the plate. So he is a little bit behind on his catcher development uh compared to someone like Susak. And we saw that on Wednesday. I think he allowed Freddie Freeman to steal a base. He's now 0 for 7 uh in trying to throw out runners. Uh, he did have one pass ball, and he honestly could have been assessed a second pass ball. It was assessed a wild pitch, but he could have easily had two pass balls in the day. So it was a reminder with Rodriguez uh that it is going to be a work in progress with him behind the plate. And again, that's another reason why it makes a lot of sense to have Haas behind the plate because now you're kind of alleviating Rodriguez of some of this pressure of having to be the true backup catcher. And and the Giants, as of right now, don't have a true starting catcher. I think at a point it will get to where Daniel Susak is something similar to that. But now they get in a situation where you know Daniel Susak is, you know, the closest thing to a backup or starting catcher. You have Herrick Haas as kind of the traditional backup catcher. I think Eric Haas is going to be the backup catcher, uh, regardless of how many games he played. And then you can have Jesus Rodriguez in this kind of every role where whichever means of getting in the lineup that you want uh that is accessible to Tony Vitello. And the last subject that I want to get to and probably don't need to spend a ton of time on this one is uh the Willi Adamas base running mistake, and as I mentioned, kind of the subsequent uh lack of fallout from that. Uh top of the seventh inning on Wednesday, runners on first and second. Shohe Otani had been brilliant through the first six innings. The Giants hadn't really been able to do anything against him, but in the top of the seventh inning, this was their first real time kind of getting getting a couple jabs in against Otani, kind of getting him on the ropes a little bit. And Otani was definitely near the end of his line. He was nearing 100 pitches, runners on first and second, one out. And if the Giants were going to have an opportunity to score against Otani, this was by far the best one uh of the day. Again, one out. Drew Gilbert hits a deep fly ball to left center field. And I think you could kind of tell off the bat that it did have decent legs, but night game at Dodger Stadium, it wasn't going to have enough legs to clear the fences. And center fielder Andy Paez settles under it. And as he catches the ball, Dodger Stadium starts going crazy. And that's because as he caught the ball, Willie Adamus was rounding third. And in the moment, it was fair to assume that Adamas just did not know how many outs there were. Pajes fires a strong throwback to shortstop Muokie Betts. And you know, by this time, there's really nothing Adamis can do. Betts just kind of flips it to second baseman, Hyson Kim. Inning any and inning-ending double play, Otani gets through seven innings, and then that's kind of it, as far as the Giants' best opportunities uh to score. Uh, when we talked to manager Tony Waitello after the game, he said that he hadn't had an opportunity to talk with Adamas uh about what had happened, but he assumed that there had been he didn't straight up say that Adamus forgot how many outs there were. He said it was a uh misread of the outs. I think he also said there may have been a misread of the ball itself. Uh and when we had an opportunity to talk with Adamus, he just owned it. He said he forgot how many outs there were. He said uh something akin to it's the most a shame that he's ever felt playing the game. Uh so we totally owned it. And, you know, when Vitello was asked, you know, if there would be any potential repercussion about, you know, him not playing the next day, he didn't provide anything definitive uh in the moment. When Adamus was asked, you know, about the possibility of you know Casey Schmidt getting a start at shortstop the next day, he said uh the kind of standard fair, which was I don't make the lineup. If the manager does that, that's his decision, I'll respect it. But you know, he doesn't make the lineup. So then the next day, it was a legitimate question of would Willie Adamas be in the starting lineup? Would, to kind of extrapolate this question, would the player that received the highest free agent contract in franchise history after making what he described as an inexcusable mistake, would he be in the starting lineup the next day? And I think it's one of those things where if Vitello, you know, did remove his name from the starting lineup, I don't think that Adamus would have had a lot of pushback. I don't think anyone in that clubhouse would have really had a lot of pushback. It would have made a lot of sense, especially given, you know, you're facing Shohei Otani. And yeah, uh, if Drew Gilbert flies out, it's still two outs, runners on first and second. It's not like it's a basis loaded no out rally, but you know, maybe Adamus tags up from second to third, or maybe it still remains runners at first and second. There was still an opportunity there, and maybe Dave Roberts would have removed Otani for Jesus Rodriguez, or the net or maybe Jesus Rodriguez draws a walk, you flip it over the top of the lineup, it's bases loaded. There was still a lot of ways that that inning could have uh unfolded. So that was the question. It's would would Vitello exercise his power as manager uh to bench Adamas? And he didn't bench him the next day. Uh Adamas was in there. I think he ended up going 0 for 3 or 0 for 0 for 4 with a strikeout, so it's not like he made uh an offensive impact while he was in the game. The Giants still had a pretty whatever game at the plate offensively. And when Vitello was asked why Adamas was in the game, he said that, you know, I want to win a game. I want to win a series. And, you know, he did say that Adamus was the first one at the park. He did say that they had a conversation about what happened. He said that there was probably also a conversation about the fact that he was seen talking with Mookie Betts a lot uh right before the base running mistake. And in fairness to Adamus, Adam when Adamus was asked about you know talking with Mookie right beforehand, his response was, I do that with everybody. And if that was the reason I made the mistake, I would be doing it every two days, which you know, I think that is a very fair rationale. I think it just in this case, he did forget how many outs there were. So uh Vitello did, you know, effectively say, like, when the just when the ball's pitched, just got to be ready to win the game. And by that, you just meant you got to know how many outs there were. But, you know, Vitello didn't take that opportunity to bench Adamus for the day. I think, again, I think it would have been really understandable for him to do so, especially considering that the Giants would have had a late travel day. You know, it's a night game in LA right before night game in Sacramento. He could have just said, you know, this was an opportunity to get Adamus uh off of his feet, even if he didn't want to outright say that he was gonna get uh benched for the day. Uh, but you know, Adamus was in the lineup the next day, he was in the lineup yesterday, and you know, this was again, this was an opportunity for you know, Vitello as a first-year manager to really potentially establish some credibility uh among the players, among the veterans in that clubhouse, that, you know, if I make a mistake, there will be repercussions uh for it. And, you know, this maybe depends on your perspective, but I think it is fair to say that you know, that might have been a missed opportunity for Vitello to really establish himself uh as a major league manager. And what are the potential repercussions of that? You know, we don't know. Like this is gonna have to be an ongoing thing with Vitello. And again, kind of going back to something big picture uh that we've talked about a lot this season, is you know, I think it's worth reiterating that this is something that's never been done. This is a transition that he's going to have to make. And this was again, this was just a very big opportunity for him to really establish himself as a manager and establish, you know, the idea that if you make a mistake of that caliber, there's no expectation that you're gonna play uh the next day. But again, we'll kind of go and wait and see where this one goes. Uh, as I mentioned, it's currently Saturday morning. The Giants have a night game in the Sacramento tonight. I am going to be there. And as I mentioned really early in this episode, I still got to cut and edit this one up. So uh that'll do it for the remainder. Uh, or that'll do it for this episode. I do want to maybe touch upon Casey Schmidt playing outfield. Uh, in the next one, I'll save that for the Sacramento or even the Phoenix uh recap. But thank you for listening to another episode. Hopefully, the next episode, I'll have Shayna or Shay or somebody else uh that will help help make sure that it's not me just rambling uh for 40 minutes. But appreciate it as always. Subscribe to the YouTube channel, uh, follow on Apple or Spotify if you do feel so inclined, rate five stars if you do feel so inclined. Uh, it does help out a lot, just again, considering this is a one-man operation. And I will catch y'all in the next one.