San Francisco Giants' Blake Sabol #2 hits a hree-run homer run off Seattle Mariners relief pitcher Paul Sewald #37 in the ninth inning of their MLB game at Oracle Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, July 3, 2023. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)t
SAN FRANCISCO — Blake Sabol had heard the advice before, but never from the man who is MLB’s all-time leader in home runs.
When Barry Bonds pulled up a chair in the hitting cage before the San Francisco Giants 6-5 loss to the Seattle Mariners on Monday, Sabol’s ears perked up.
A few hours later, the rookie catcher hit a pair of monster home runs in a five-RBI effort that nearly single-handedly led the Giants to a victory, if not for a meltdown by their All-Star closer, Camilo Doval.
Let Sabol explain.
“I got my first hitting lesson with Barry today,” Sabol said. “He was talking about me diving in towards the plate a bit, something that (the hitting coaches) brought to my attention. He had a batting practice thrower move to the side and had me stand up with my posture, which freed up my body.
“From there he was like, ‘you’re so gifted with your hands, just throw your hands at the ball. Where the ball is, throw your hands. You don’t have to go get it with your body. Your body will be where it needs to be.’ That’s what I went into tonight with.”
Fast forward to the fourth inning, when Sabol found himself in a two-strike count against Mariners righty Bryan Woo, who was pumping mid-90s fastballs above the zone all night. Not once during his rookie season has Sabol gotten a hit off a pitch as high as the next one Woo threw, at least two or three baseballs above the zone.
But his body stayed still while his hands rotated immediately, and he smacked the fastball 407 feet to dead center field for a two-run homer that temporarily put the Giants ahead, 2-1.
If that wasn’t enough, he did it again in the ninth.
This time there were two runners on and two outs. The Giants were down three. He had two strikes on him again and he knew if he tried lunging at a slider by Mariners closer Paul Sewald, the ballgame was over.
Instead, he got another high fastball and again he smashed it over the center-field fence.
“He can get on top of the ball can’t he?” marveled Giants manager Gabe Kapler.
Sabol seemed almost surprised.
“That’s the best I felt since spring training, as far as how free my body felt turning and how still my head was,” he said. “I felt like I was able to see pitches well tonight.”
The first home run, Sabol said, would’ve never happened if it wasn’t for his lesson with Bonds.
“I wouldn’t come close to one of those pitches a couple weeks ago,” he said.
The second home run wasn’t all that different.
“Barry just helped, that one extra step, that missing link that just made sense to me,” he said.
Bonds hit 762 career home runs, but due to his connection to performance enhancing drugs he was not voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the writers, nor was he voted in by MLB’s Veterans Committee.
Still, he continues to find himself around the game. He was a hitting coach for the Miami Marlins in 2015, though he was fired after one season. Marlins president David Samson later called Bonds’ stint with the Marlins a “complete disaster.”
The Giants hired him in 2017 as a “special advisor to the CEO.” Hitting lessons with Bonds are a valued commodity.
After Sabol’s big game on Monday, outfielder Joc Pederson told him, “wow, one hitting lesson with Barry and two homers? Last year I had a hitting lesson with Barry and I hit three homers.”
“Maybe I’ll get there one day,” Sabol said.
Sabol, 25, now has 10 home runs and has continued to defy expectations since he was drafted out of the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system in the Rule 5 pick last winter. Despite a concerning strikeout rate (34%), he’s hit for enough power to make up for it.
“There’s real power, real bat speed, and that’s evidenced by some of the hard-hit balls that stayed in the ballpark tonight,” Kapler said. “The ones Blake hit to the middle of the field were no-doubters. Bat speed, lower half power, and some really good barrel accuracy, particularly against right-handed pitchers is going to be dangerous.”
Sabol’s defensive game behind the plate remains a work in progress. He had one passed ball and two wild pitches get by him on Monday night.
“He’s come a long way as a defender and he’s got a long way to go, but we’re going to keep working with him, hanging with him because he has a chance to be a great major leaguer for a long time,” Kapler said.
Originally published at Jason Mastrodonato