After losing their fourth consecutive game on Monday night, the San Francisco Giants once again have the worst record in Major League Baseball, and are on pace to lose over 100 games for the first time since 1985. It would be a comical understatement to say that future Hall-of-Fame manager Bruce Bochy, 62, didn’t foresee this during spring training, and many are wondering how he is holding up during easily his most turbulent season in the Bay Area.
John Lund asked Giants broadcaster Duane Kuiper if the typically mild manager is close to snapping after blowing another lead on Monday, but Kuiper said that ship sailed long ago.
“I think he’s beyond snapping,” Kuiper said. “I do. I think if you snap now, the players are going to go ‘what? You are gonna snap now? Maybe you should’ve snapped about two months ago?’
“It’s always really weird and difficult when you’re this many games under .500 and this many games behind the Dodgers. The players are going to react different and the manager is going to react different. He can be upset, but I think they’re past him throwing a tantrum. That doesn’t mean he’s not going to do it, but just to do it to get some stuff off your chest, probably it’s beyond that right now and a team meeting, it’s probably beyond that.”
That doesn’t mean the Giants have completely given up, however, even if at this point it would be tempting to do.
“They do what they have to do,” Kuiper said. “I walked into the clubhouse last night, and there’s Buster (Posey) and (Nick) Hundley and all the starters and relievers in a big meeting to see how they’re gonna go about going after the A’s. So you still have to do what you have to do, but yelling and screaming, it may be beyond that.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Kuiper’s comments on Bochy, skip to the 13:00 minute mark.