San Francisco Giants' Heliot Ramos, left,celebrates with teammate Brett Wisely as he walks into the dugout during a baseball game, Friday, Aug. 2, 2024, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Jeff Dean)
CINCINNATI — Pretty cool first couple days back in the big leagues for Jerar Encarnacion, who started the year in the Mexican League.
Took part in a no-hitter one night. Slugged a home run the next.
At least one of those has become routine for the hulking 26-year-old outfielder. After he went unsigned this past winter, Encarnacion caught on with Oaxaca and homered 19 times in 26 games, then slugged 10 more after joining Triple-A Sacramento in June.
But almost two years — 686 days — separated Encarnacion’s third and fourth career major-league home runs.
Arriving at Great American Ballpark on Friday, Encarnacion stepped out of the dugout and looked around, taking in the big-league setting, and so happened cross paths with rookie reliever Spencer Bivens, who took an even more winding path to the Giants’ bullpen.
“It takes a lot of mental toughness,” Bivens said. “I admire his work ethic. I don’t really know how he wasn’t picked up, but I’m sure glad we got him.”
Like Encarnacion last winter, Bivens didn’t have a single team reach out when his time at Division III Rogers State came to an end in 2018. He went to France — his only opportunity to play professionally — and eventually made it back to independent ball, which is where the Giants found him in May 2022.
In June, two weeks before his 30th birthday, Bivens made his MLB debut. With a 2.08 ERA in 21⅔ innings over 10 appearances, he has since established himself to the point that the Giants were comfortable moving on from Luke Jackson at the trade deadline.
Bivens sees at least one parallel between their long roads.
“Just that we got here,” he said. “It took whatever it took to get here, but we got here.”
Ramos’ thumb
Encarnacion was subbed out for Mike Yastrzemski for the final two innings of Blake Snell’s no-hitter Friday night, but he was the late-game substitution the following night, only homering after taking over for Heliot Ramos in the top of the seventh inning.
Ramos was forced from the game with a jammed right thumb that he has been dealing with for about a week.
While it hasn’t yet merited a stint on the injured list, Ramos said the injury compromised him enough at the plate to come out of the game after his plate appearance in the top of the sixth. He struck out swinging, and Ramos said, “I didn’t even want to hit the ball.”
Ramos said he originally suffered the injury last Saturday during the Giants’ double-header against the Rockies. He got two days off and said it felt “fine” on Tuesday, “but then it just kept happening.” He got jammed twice Friday night, he said, “and it got worse.”
Since last Saturday, Ramos has been limited to three hits — all singles — in 21 at-bats with seven strikeouts, dropping his OPS to .835, its lowest point since the start of June, before he began mounting his campaign to eventually become an All-Star.
“He was feeling it on at least every at-bat tonight,” manager Bob Melvin said after Saturday’s 6-4 loss. “We’ll see where we are with him tomorrow.”
On the bases
When they hit the road, the Giants understood their improvements in controlling opponents’ running games would be put to the test.
The Reds lead the majors with 156 stolen bases, and right behind them are the Washington Nationals, the Giants’ next foe, with 154.
“You know you’re going to give up some stolen bases to these guys,” Melvin said before Friday’s game. “It’s part of who they are. Each team has strengths and weaknesses. That’s definitely a strength of theirs.”
Keeping opponents’ in check on the bases had not been a strength of Melvin’s squad for much of this season, despite possessing catcher Patrick Bailey, who has some of the league’s quickest pop times and one of its strongest throwing arms.
Through the first three months of the season, the Giants had thrown out only 18 of 107 attempted base stealers, a 16.8% success rate, but since the start of July have nabbed more than than they have not, 13 of 20, including MLB’s leading base stealer Elly De La Cruz (55 in 66 attempts) with the assist of a pitchout in the first inning Saturday night.
“I think early on we weren’t as good about holding on runners,” said Melvin, a former catcher. “Now (Bailey) tries to be too quick and there were therefore some throws that aren’t as accurate as you’re seeing right now.
“As a catcher, you’ve got a pretty good idea when that ball’s coming to you whether or not you’ve got a chance to throw somebody out. When you feel like you’re up against it, you try to rush and do some things maybe mechanically that are not going to serve you well. So we’ve been much better in our times to the plate and therefore he hasn’t had to be so quick and his mechanics are better. When he throws it on the bag, he’s going to throw some guys out.”
Originally published at Evan Webeck