© Darren Yamashita | 2021 Aug 21
OAKLAND — As the ball soared through the Oakland Coliseum sky, LaMonte Wade Jr. calmly dropped his bat.
It wasn’t a flip. It wasn’t a toss. He just tapped it to the dirt. Then he threw up the Wakanda “X” from “Black Panther” as he trotted down the first baseline.
Wade Jr.’s cool composure has been on display all season, but it didn’t register as loudly as it did Saturday night when his go-ahead home run into the right field bleachers saved the Giants from their third-straight loss. His 16th homer came as a pinch hitter, for the best pinch-hitting team and second-best HR-hitting team in baseball.
“Honestly I probably showed more emotion when he hit that home run than I have all year,” Belt, who also homered Saturday, said. “It was just, after a rough couple games, it was nice to see us come through when we needed it. That was just a huge hit for us. It was a lot of fun. I didn’t have anything to say to him. I think he knows he’s a badass. So that’s just the way it is.”
The Giants traded for Wade, a former ninth round pick out of Maryland selected by the Minnesota Twins, in a February trade for pitcher Shaun Anderson. Anderson, now with the Orioles, has recorded a 9.16 total ERA in 2021.
Wade, meanwhile, is experiencing what manager Gabe Kapler called “a magical year.” With a secured role as a leadoff man against right-handed starters, he’s thrived. Wade has recorded a .924 OPS in games he’s batted first in the order.
The leadoff mentality of discipline and waiting for your pitch without seeing a pitcher beforehand also makes him a solid option as a pinch-hitter, Kapler said. Wade entered Saturday 4-for-25 with just one RBI as a pinch hitter, though. But now he’s contributed a home run to the Giants MLB-leading 12 pinch-hit bombs.
“It’s not easy to come off the bench after you’ve been sitting there for three and a half hours and put a good swing on the ball like that,” Belt said. “But I think it’s something that we as a team have been able to do really well this year. But it’s especially hard for a young player like LaMonte. But he’s shown up, at-bat after at-bat, late in the game, and he’s been huge for us.”
Before the 27-year-old stepped into the batter’s box against A’s closer Lou Trivino Saturday, hitting coaches Donnie Ecker and Justin Viele pulled Wade aside. They told him to look out for something up in the zone. Trivino hadn’t blown a save since May 31, and the last home run he surrendered came on June 30.
“(Trivino)’s got a lot of good stuff that’s moving away from you and really coming in to you, just really try to push him out over the middle and get your best swing off,” Wade said of the coaches’ instruction.
Wade watched an inside first-pitch changeup. Ball. He fouled off a 93 mph cutter up in the zone. Then, he got it: a fastball high and on the inner-third of the plate.
Bat drop.
As the Wade’s home run made its way inside the right field foul pole, the Giants bench jumped out of the dugout to watch its path. Once they saw it land, they exploded.
“Probably the easiest guy on the planet to be happy and excited for,” Kapler said of Wade. “He works so hard, cares so deeply. Such a good teammate, such a good person. And having just kind of a magical year. For that reason, that’s why you saw all that emotion.”