You know by now that Pablo Sandoval became the first position player to pitch for the Giants since 1991 and the first to pitch a scoreless inning since 1965, but did you see it? Oh, you did? You watched the game live and you saw the highlights? Ah! But did you go pitch by pitch with commentary?
For context, in case you’re relying solely on this post for your baseball news: it’s game one of a doubleheader and the Giants are being humiliated in their home stadium by their arch rival to the score of 15-6. Rather than go to other pitchers in the bullpen, Bruce Bochy opted to use a position player for the first time as the Giants’ manager. Sure, there have been plenty of other opportunities for this to happen, but he had never before been in the situation of the first game of a doubleheader going so badly that it could ruin the rest of the weekend. Now that he was in that situation, it only made sense to finally pull the trigger because of his secret weapon: Pablo Sandoval.
He’s not the only position player who could’ve come in to pitch an inning, but he was the best one for the job. There isn’t a player on the roster who has his versatility. In the purest pitching sense, he’s a switch-pitcher. But in the grandest sense, he’s been preparing for a situation like this his entire professional career. He long tosses and pitches as warm ups before every gain. He exudes goofy charm. In a blowout, you don’t want your knight taking the mound to absorb the inning. You want the clown. Brandon Belt wasn’t going to get this reaction out of Kenley Jansen:
Pablo Sandoval’s inning lasted two minutes and twenty seconds. He was ready to throw his next pitch 2-5 seconds after receiving the throw back from the catcher. He was ready to go from the moment he left the dugout. Major League Baseball wasn’t quite ready for him, though:
See that wristband on Pablo’s left wrist in the first image? Too distracting. The umps needed him to cut it off. Rules. The bane of a clown’s existence. According to the rules, a wristband would be more distracting to a hitter than a clown on the mound. But Pablo took it all in stride and began his beautiful inning shutting down the Dodgers for the first time in the game. You might think a moment like this defies close analysis, but I say that the minutiae within every baseball season means I am duty bound to provide one.
Batter #1: Max Muncy
Sequence:
First pitch — 83 mph fastball, up and away
Just to get loose. All pitchers need to establish their fastballs early and it was good that Muncy was looking to measure on the first pitch. Given how quickly he worked, he probably felt really good about his fastball after just one throw. 83 mph might make you think that the inning wasn’t going to go very well once the batters adjusted their swings slightly to (easily) catch up to it, but
Second pitch — 84 mph fastball, outside corner of strike zone
Muncy gets a hittable pitch and can’t do anything with it but pull it weakly to the right side of the infield.
Why didn’t Muncy hit this for a 450-foot home run? My guess is that he was looking for a pitch in the middle of the strike zone and was still flummoxed by Pablo Sandoval being the one throwing the pitch.
Batter #2: Yasmani Grandal
It should be noted that I think Yasmani Grandal is one of the most underrated players in the game of baseball right now and that his ability to absolutely crush the baseball is something that isn’t taken into consideration every time he steps into a batter’s box. That said, he’d never faced Pablo Sandoval before, and it showed.
Sequence:
First pitch — 69 mph curveball, outside corner of strike zone
Watch this snap. It’s a thing of beauty.
So nice, we need to see it again in full motion:
Pablo not only establishes himself as a two-pitch pitcher but a pitcher you can’t just ignore. Yasmani Grandal has seen it all in his career, but he’s never seen anything like Pablo Sandoval. Grandal was looking fastball, but now he’s looking foolish.
Second pitch — 71 mph curveball down and away
Pablo shows it again to see if he can get Grandal to chase it. He guessed that Grandal’s pride would want to make amends for letting the first one go by. Pablo got the cheers and he baked on Grandal wanting to steal that spotlight right back. Thing is, Yasmani Grandal is a strike zone wizard, and he is really good at bending reality and perception to make him seem the hero. He would never give in to Pablo Sandoval. So now this is a battle of wills.
Third pitch — 69 mph curveball, up and away
Nick Hundley casually catches this ball like it has just been soft tossed to him and it’s one of those casual moves that actually makes the inning more enjoyable because of the position player being on the mound. It signals that he and Pablo really are just playing catch out there and the presence of an opposing hitter is almost incidental.
Notice the dust that comes off the ball as Hundley catches it. I thought Pablo had rosin’d up the ball before the inning began, but I went back and saw that in the previous pitch, Hundley had so casually caught the ball that his glove wound up half-scooping some of the dirt and white chalk in the batter’s box area. So, that’s actually coming off his glove rather than Pablo’s ball.
But here was another sign of Pablo being the right dude for the job. He took the assignment seriously despite exuding a fun insouciance. He wasn’t going to give in to Grandal and wanted to see if he could get him to chase again. Grandal wasn’t biting, so Pablo changed his game plan.
Third pitch — 87 mph fastball, outside corner of strike zone
BANG. Now he’s throwing the heat and hitting the corner with it. Sandoval decided that Grandal had assumed that he was only going to throw curveballs because this is all supposed to be fun and not real baseball, so Pablo’s plan to get out Grandal was to get him to take this at bat seriously. He shows him a tough fastball that he knows Grandal will assume he can hit if he sees it again and he knows Grandal will swing if it’s close enough because there’s no way a position player wants to strike out against a position player.
Fourth pitch — 88 mph fastball, down and away
Pablo either tried to throw the same pitch as the previous one or he managed to aim it so that it broke just slightly more down and away from the previous one. In any case, Yasmani Grandal knows the strike zone. He had to protect with two strikes.
To demonstrate that this really wasn’t all fun and games, look at who fields Grandal’s grounder:
Evan Longoria had shifted over to the shortstop position. That’s right: even in a blowout, even with Pablo Sandoval pitching, the Giants kept their defensive alignments intact. Professionalism. It’s not just for when you win.
Batter #3: Chris Taylor
The inning wouldn’t have lasted as long had Chris Taylor not had a plate appearance. He stayed out of the box as long as possible and made sure to step out for as long as possible between each pitch. If Rob Manfred is keeping a list of pace of play inflaters, Chris Taylor should be on that list.
Sequence:
First pitch — 87 mph fastball, outside corner of strike zone
We’ve already seen Pablo hitting the corners and he starts Taylor out with a fastball here because he figures Taylor’s looking for that curveball Pablo kept throwing to Grandal. But it’s another brilliant setup by Sandoval.
Second pitch — 70 mph curveball, outside corner of strike zone
For your convenience, here are both pitches again:
Pablo Sandoval, Filthy Two Pitch Sequence (87mph Fastball and 70mph Curveball).
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) April 29, 2018
[H/T @KeithOlbermann ] pic.twitter.com/6FQY6RRPts
Thrown to the same side of the plate as the previous pitch and seems to break away from the path of Taylor’s swing. Taylor has demonstrated throughout his career that he’s susceptible to breaking pitches that start up in the zone and break away. In other words, Pablo pitched to the scouting report.
Down 0-2, Taylor had to do whatever it took to stay alive. Pablo knew this and attacked him the same pitch he had just gotten a swing-through on...
Third pitch — 72 mph curveball, inside corner of strike zone, fouled off
Look at the beautiful off-balanceness of Taylor’s swing. He was expecting something away and he got something in and the way Sandoval’s curve broke meant he had to lunge to fight it off. With Taylor so off balance, he was setup for either pitch.
Nick Hundley had another curveball in mind, but Pablo, in full control, disagreed.
If you had scripted this, you absolutely would’ve included a beat that said PABLO SHAKES OFF THE CATCHER. This doesn’t make it cliche — sometimes it’s good for reality to provide us with the obvious joke. We would expect Pablo Sandoval to shake off the catcher in a “fun” inning and do it in such a way that he’s not drawing attention to the act itself. He took this moment seriously and this both shows that and the fun of the whole situation.
Fourth pitch — 88 mph fastball, middle-away part of the strike zone
Chris Taylor pulled an 88 mph fastball because he thought it would be a curveball. That’s my guess here. In any case, goodnight, sweet Chris. You’re efforts to disrupt Pablo Sandoval’s timing were unsuccessful.
But Pablo Sandoval was a success and was in full control of the inning.
This was the most fun and excitement the Giants have had in the regular season since 2015, around the premiere of that Full Clubhouse video. Pablo Sandoval has consistently been the team’s biggest personality, for better or worse. A little levity in a long season, at the end of a blowout, is exactly what the Giants needed. For a team that hasn’t been able to get what it has needed recently, this Pablo pitching appearance is the biggest sign that things are different this season.
Do we know where this ball went?