Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports
Sometimes it’s the long-winded monologues that stirs, that succinctly argues a point, that puts perfect context around a situation.
And sometimes it’s a wry Logan Webb smile, followed by four words.
“He’s pretty good, huh?”
Yes, Joey Bart is pretty good. The type of pretty good that pounds an opposite-field shot off the right-field brick at Oracle Park, a double that was stroked 103.4-mph off the bat. And the type of pretty good that it was another plate appearance Friday the Giants kept harping on.
Bart stepped to the plate in the seventh inning with the bases loaded — because the Diamondbacks had intentionally walked Alex Dickerson to get to the second-game rookie — a golden opportunity the Giants already had wasted twice in a game they were winning 4-2. He quickly dug a 1-2 hole, already with two strikeouts on the night.
But he fought back. 1-2 became 3-2. Five pitches were fouled off. A 10-pitch at-bat ended with a fastball out of the zone. His first RBI could have been more dramatic, sure, but the Giants took notice.
“I looked over at Kai [Correa] during that at-bat and said, ‘No matter what happens here, this is a story,’” Gabe Kapler said after the Giants’ 6-2 win over Arizona, their fourth straight. “I felt that way because it was so professional, and he never got out of control. It wasn’t like, ‘Oh, there’s this intentional walk issued in front of me, so now I have to do more.’ It was actually just as calm as everything else. It was really promising.”
Evan Longoria said similarly, a wisened, 300-home run-hitting veteran who has seen too many young players expand their strike zones in those situations.
It was not the rocket everyone wanted to talk about, but the quiet composure.
Bart is “the same guy that I saw both in spring training and in the summer camp,” Longoria said over Zoom. “And I think he’s really proven that he’s ready to play here. I think he’s got a pretty high ceiling. He’s going to be pretty special.”
“Special” was a word Webb used, too. The two 23-year-olds, one throwing to the other for the first of what may be many times at this stage, making it look mostly easy. Webb, who had maxed out at five innings this year, was getting into some trouble, 73 pitches through four innings and looking like another too-early night.
He and his inexperienced catcher talked about mixing up the pitch selection. More fastballs were thrown because they felt as if he had been relying too much on the breaking stuff. The innings grew easier. It took 10 pitches to get through the fifth; nine to conquer the sixth; 10 to finish the seventh, a career-high 102 pitches, a career-high seven innings, just two runs allowed.
“He’s a pro, man. He gets it,” Webb said of Bart, a duo who worked together once at Double-A Richmond and in spring training. “He’s the ultimate competitor, and he was ready for this. I’m just excited to watch him grow.”
The opposite-field power was impressive, as was the well-earned walk. The reports from the pitchers have been especially eye-opening through two games of the Bart era. He has not yet showed off his arm, but he has a cannon.
“He’s been great so far in just about every element of the game,” Kapler said, correctly.