At 9:38 p.m., eight minutes after Luis González’s final pitch, the Giants’ clubhouse burst with a joyous howl.
The fog machine hummed. The hip-hop music blared. The inflatable orange tube man danced. And the Giants celebrated around their player of the game: Yermín Mercedes.
Mercedes, hitting third in the order, put together his best game as a Giant, driving in four of San Francisco’s 13 runs in a blowout. He torched the hardest-hit homer of SF’s season and touched home three times.
And he did it all by being himself.
“It’s great,” Mercedes told reporters postgame. “I’m here, I’m working hard. That happened today, got my first homer as a Giant. Keep doing that.”
After Mercedes ripped a first-inning double off Dallas Keuchel for his first hit of the game, he motioned to Joc Pederson in the dugout by slapping his hip and raising an open-palmed hand.
When manager Gabe Kapler questioned his team’s energy in early July, he probably wasn’t thinking exactly that. But Mercedes certainly brings some type of energy, and that’s more than welcomed.
Mercedes’ next at-bat, he crunched a high-and-tight Keuchel fastball, topping it just fair and over the left-field corner wall. It was his first MLB home run since May 27, 2021.
Between his two most recent homers, Mercedes got sent down to Triple-A, briefly stepped away from baseball and and eventually was designated for assignment.
Then when the Giants claimed him off waivers on June 18, he posted a video of dousing himself with champagne.
The Giants’ clubhouse empowers all sorts of personalities. Mercedes said the support he’s gotten from Pederson and the rest of his teammates since joining the team in late June has made him feel appreciated. It’s clear the Giants have rallied around him already.
That acceptance is necessary for such a boisterous person. The tattooed Dominican native dons a gold chain with his initials — YM — and seems to have a smile on his face at all times.
Like Pederson, Mercedes has impressed Giants coaches with his professionalism in preparation. He’s worked with catching coach Craig Albernaz and taken reps at corner infield and outfield spots during pregame workouts.
“He’s light and he’s energetic, obviously,” Kapler said. “Enthusiastic. Very expressive on the baseball field, which we love. But he’s also pretty serious about his craft. He takes his work pregame seriously.”
It’s not all fun and games. Except when you go 3-for-4 in a blowout win.
“When the game starts, I’m a different person,” Mercedes said. “Because I always go do my job. Always be happy. Always support my teammates. Always do the best I can do in the field. It doesn’t matter what’s going to happen, I just come to play and do the best I can do. I can’t change anything, because if I change anything, it’s not me. It’s not Yermín. So I just keep doing that, keep working on that every day.”