Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports
Gabe Kapler tries to stay even. Which is why he does not bring pom-poms when he speaks after wins and does not bring knives when he speaks after losses.
The cliches come easy because this is baseball, which has had a century-plus to craft these cliches. But cliches are often truths.
“I understand that there are going to be ups, I understand that there are going to be downs,” Kapler said after the latest Giants up, a 6-5 victory over the Mariners at Oracle Park on Tuesday that elevates them to above .500. Kapler absorbed the blows from the downs and is now feeling the ups. “Just like our hitters — they’ve got to be focused on the process, not on the result and on the outcome. In order for me to be a good leader, I have to do the same.”
His job is often to find a player’s bottom and bring a ladder that allows that player to rise back up. He searches for holes that can be climbed out of.
Logan Webb was nearly buried after surrendering a three-run double to J.P. Crawford in the second inning, which he finished having walked a pair and hit a pair in his short amount of work. His command had abandoned him and was feeling around for how he was going to retire a team that had won six straight. The Giants were down 4-1 already when he returned to the dugout and a conversation with his manager, who sensed the nadir.
“‘You’re going to go five, maybe six [innings],’” Webb relayed that Kapler told him. “‘You’re going to keep us in this game, you’re going to get a win.’
“That kind of gave me the confidence to keep going out there and keep competing.”
He did, for three more innings, in which he only allowed a cheap run in the third after Mike Yastrzemski lost a triple in the lights. He pitched a perfect fourth before allowing two to reach in the fifth. Calab Baragar was warmed up and ready for the next hitter, but Webb didn’t allow the inning to go past Ty France, who grounded into a double play and let Webb slap his glove in celebration.
He had gone five, and though he wouldn’t get the win, his team did because Kapler handled the bullpen well and left field well. The relievers who followed Webb didn’t allow a run in four innings. Alex Dickerson started and homered in the third. In the seventh inning of a tie game, Kapler pinch-hit Darin Ruf for Dickerson, Ruf untying the score by depositing the third pitch he saw over the left-field fence. Ruf was then immediately lifted for just-called-up Luis Basabe, who made a running grab in the eighth.
Kapler, as is his wont, praised Dickerson, who was questionable to even play because of a right knee contusion, for being ready and Ruf for seeing “that spot coming from a mile away,” so he was prepared.
Ruf is now 6-for-9 with two homers in four games, his bat increasingly valuable. Dickerson’s slashline is up to .266/.341/.550 after he was batting .195 on Aug. 28. It is less a trampoline and more of a cannon that has seen his game rise.
Just like with Webb, Kapler approached Dickerson at his lowest moment — after his 0-for-4 on Aug. 28 that had him wondering if the team had noticed his awful luck or whether his outs would be weighed heaviest. Before batting practice on Aug. 29, Kapler told Dickerson the team believed in him and was going to keep batting him second against righties, explained how much he valued his bat.
“He picks the right time when you need to hear it most,” said Dickerson, who is 14-for-32 (.438) with five homers and four doubles since that chat. “Think guys really respond to it.
“…Him mentioning that really helps you turn the corner, especially in a year like this year. Through 70 or 80 at-bats, you’re putting a little more stress on than normal, just because it’s only 60 games total.”
Through 43, the Giants (22-21) are a winning ballclub. Their schedule will toughen after Wednesday’s game against Seattle, but they have begun to separate themselves in the chase for a wild-card spot.
They have done so with a manager who did not panic at their low points or pump himself up at this high. He showed faith but not pressure. He told Dickerson the hits were about to come, and then they arrived.
“He had great foresight,” Dickerson said of a manager who also predicted Webb’s future, as the Giants’ present looks better each day.