Game Wrap 4/12/2022: Giants 13 Padres 2

 Giants hitters broke out of their collective slump with a 9-run explosion against Yu Darvish RHP  in the first two innings and never looked back.  

Mike Yastrzemski RF- 2 for 5, 2B.  BA= .200.  YtY looked lost in yesterday's game.  Hopefully a multi-hit game here will get him going.

Brandon Belt 1B- 2 for 4, HR(2), BB.  BA= .438.  Belt was one hitter who was not in a slump.  All I can say is please stay healthy, Captain!

Joc Pederson LF- 2 for 5, HR(1).  BA= .308.  The HR was off Wil Myers who came in for mop-up time to save the Padres bullpen so it almost doesn't count.

Wilmer Flores 3B/1B- 3 for 5, HR(1).  BA= .267.  Flores longball also came against Myers but he had two prior hits.

Thairo Estrada 2B- 2 for 5, 2B, SB(1).  BA= .278.  Estrada might be winning himself a longterm starting job.

Joey Bart C- 2 for 4.  BA= .364.  This Joey Bart is not the same cat we saw in 2020.  Stay hot!

Alex Cobb RHP- 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 10 K's.  ERA= 3.60.  Another double-digit strikeout game from a new pitcher.  22 K's in 10 IP between Cobb and Rodon.  And Cobb is officially the #5 starter.

Tyler Beede RHP- 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 2 K's.  ERA= 0.00.  It was a struggle but Beede got through 2 innings without allowing a run.  His pitches are consistently sailing armside.  DrB's diagnosis is either his right shoulder is sagging and he's pushing the ball or his left shoulder is opening up too soon.  Encouraging that he seemed to be able to correct it in the middle of both innings.  When he commands the FB, it's a good one and he threw a beautiful changeup to strike out Trent Grisham.  

Yunior Marte RHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K.  ERA= 0.00.  My new favorite baseball first name is Yunior.  That's all.

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Logan Webb RHP tries for a series win tomorrow afternoon with Sean Manaea LHP taking the mound for the Padres which means Heliot Ramos OF will be in the lineup.

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PS1:  

Alyssa Nakken Coach- Meant to put this in the main text above but it was getting past my bedtime and I forgot.  1B coach Antoan Richardson was ejected from the game in the top of the third inning(more on that in a minute).   He was replaced by Alyssa Nakken which made her the first woman to base coach in the history of MLB, a milestone to be sure.  To his credit, Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer recognized the importance of the moment.  He stepped over, shook her hand and congratulated her.  Giants TV announcers Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow also made note of the achievement.  She was also congratulated by Giants players and coaches when she came to the dugout at the end of the inning.  

PS2: 

Alyssa Nakken's achievement took an ugly turn after the game and there are multiple layers to this story.  The triggering incident was Steven Duggar stealing 2B after his single in the bottom of the second inning drove in the Giants 10'th run of the game.  This understandably did not go over well with the Padres.  Mauricio Dubon later bunted for a base hit in the 6'th inning but that obviously had nothing to do with Richardson's ejection in the third inning.  Manager Gabe Kapler took responsibility for those two decisions explaining the goal was to force the Padres to burn more pitchers in the game which might help the Giants win game 3 of the series.  AJ Cassavell writing for sfgiants.com noted the Padres used this same argument defending Fernando Tatis hitting a grand slam HR in a blowout game last year.

The reason for the ejection was not clear to anyone.  Kruk and Kuip, as well as multiple Twitter posts speculated it may have been about Richardson breaking a new MLB rule prohibiting coaches from providing players with written information after the game starts.  A verbal altercation with Padres 3B coach Mike Schildt was also mentioned as a possible reason but that seemed like a relatively minor incident which would generally not draw an ejection.  The following description of subsequent events is taken mostly from Alex Pavlovic's article on NBC Sports Bay Area.

After the game and after the clubhouse closed to reporters, Richardson decided he needed to address the situation and called the reporters back.  What he said will have repurcussions not likely to be resolved quickly no matter the final determination.  He stated the incident started when Schildt started staring into the Giants dugout.  Richardson asked Schildt, "can I help you?  Are you looking for someone?"  Schildt responded that he was looking for Alex Wood LHP.  Manager Gabe Kapler came over to see what what was going on.  Schildt screamed "you need to control that M*****F*****".  Richardson then stated he felt Schildt's words were directed at Gabe Kapler and were in reference to him, Richardson.  Richardson went up to the top step and said "excuse me?"  At that point, 3B umpire and crew chief, Greg Gibson, immediately ejected him.

Richardson stated that he felt Schilt was referring to him with the expletive which felt to him like it had undertones of racism, especially the part about Kapler needing to "control" him.  Richardson also stated that his ejection by umpire Greg Gibson reinforced an idea that it was OK for Schilt to make that kind of comment and blaming Richardson for the incident also had an undertone of racism.

Wow!  There are a lot of people who have a whole lot of explaining to do come dawn with newspapers being read and sports talk shows in high gear.  It is important to realize we have only heard Antoan Richardson's side of the story at this point with Gabe Kapler backing up his version.  Schildt and Gibson are likely to be forced to make statements explaining themselves.  MLB is likely to be forced into a formal investigation.  It appears there may be alternative explanations available to Mike Schildt.  Perhaps his expletive was referring to Alex Wood, the player he initially stated he was looking for?  What seems more troubling is Gibson's decision to eject Richardson and not Schildt, although Gibson may say he did not hear what was said and interpreted Richardson moving to the top step of the dugout to be an aggressive act, but that would still make it an extremely quick ejection.  An interesting backstory is the fact that Mike Schildt was abruptly fired from his job as Manager of the St Louis Cardinals midseason last year in a perplexing move that has never been fully explained.  MLB may want to ask some questions about that too.

Stay tuned.  It is a near certainty we have not heard the last of this story!