By Morris Phillips
SAN FRANCISCO–Joey Bart’s anticipated major league debut came with a pointed piece of advice from teammate Brandon Belt.
“Don’t mess it up.”
And Bart didn’t, contributing his first, major league hit–a double into the left field corner–after the Giants built a comfy 9-4 lead in the sixth.
The message to the No. 2 overall pick in the 2018 Draft could have been worded a little less blunt, without changing the content: “Kid, we’ve got a good thing going. Just follow our lead.”
Even for someone talented enough to do damage immediately, taking the pressure off was a good deal. Bart got a first hand look at a hot lineup bashing and circling the bases–then jumped in after the major damage was done in the Giants’ 10-5 win over the Angels. Bart’s double was the Giants last of 12 hits on the evening, the third night in row of Giants on Angels violence that saw the home team score 31 runs in taking three of four.
Bart had been touted as the missing bat, but the Giants aren’t actually missing one right now. They scored five runs or better for the 15th time in 27 games, and their run scoring average at Oracle Park is nearing seven runs per game.
Directing the pitching staff as an everyday presence in the lineup was the expectation for Bart as soon as franchise legend Buster Posey opted out of 2020, but until now GM Farhan Zaidi maintained the Georgia Tech product wasn’t ready. Before Thursday’s game, Zaidi and manager Gabe Kapler summarized Bart’s role.
“It’s serendipitous timing that the offense has been scoring some runs. We’ve won a couple of games,” Zaidi said. “It’s certainly nice to call them up when there’s some positive momentum. I do think with any young player, you don’t want a guy to feel like he’s coming up and has to like carry the offensive load.”
The pitching staff, which has allowed the third most home runs in baseball, and just ended a franchise-record 21-game streak of allowing at least one home run, needs help. Kapler would be satisfied if Bart provides that help.
“We may have to just monitor his workload early on based on how much work he got in Sacramento,” Kapler said. “Catching nine innings is a stressor, catching nine innings in a major league season is more of a stressor than it is in a secondary camp. We need to be cognizant of all those things. However, the goal is to build him to be our everyday starting catcher.”
Tyler Heineman was optioned to the Sacramento camp to clear space, and Chadwick Tromp is expected to continue in his role of catching Johnny Cueto when the veteran pitcher’s turn in the rotation comes up.
Bart had no complaints about the timing of his callup, saying “my time is going to come, and when it is here, I’m going to make the most of it.”
Bart did that in the sixth, keeping his hands back and exploding through the baseball, on a slower than slow 78 mph slider from Julio Teheran. The exit speed for the liner was nearly 110 mph, the hardest hit baseball by any Giant this year that didn’t result in a home run.
Wilmer Flores had three hits for the Giants, homering for the second consecutive game. Austin Slater scored twice and had two hits to raise his average to .347. And Brandon Crawford homered in the fourth to make it 9-1 Giants. The home run was the 100th of the shortstop’s career.
The Giants have won three straight for the first time in 2020. They welcome the Diamondbacks to Oracle Park on Friday for the first of a three-game series. Robbie Ray will face the Giants’ Logan Webb in a 6:45pm start.
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