SAN FRANCISCO -- The 2021 Giants shocked everybody by leading the National League in home runs. Through six games, some of the biggest moments for the 2022 Giants have revolved around ... bunts.
The first run of the season scored when Brandon Belt put a bunt down and watched as it was thrown down the right field line, allowing Joey Bart to chug all the way around from first. Joc Pederson's second hit as a Giant was a bunt. And, of course, the "unwritten rules" discussion ignited Tuesday night when Mauricio Dubon put a bunt single down with a nine-run lead.
So, what's with all the bunting?
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Like a lot of things, this is the natural endpoint for something this staff has been thinking about and working on for a couple of years. The Giants are not a fast team, and their preference is certainly to wait for a pitch that is driveable and then try to put it in the seats. But at a time when just about every left-handed hitter and even a lot of righties see extreme shifts, this is a way to try and keep defenders honest and open some holes.
The Giants had just three bunt singles in 60 games in 2020, but last year they ranked sixth in the Majors with 16 of them. It is something players work on often, and Belt in particular has spent years showing bunt to try and get a third baseman to slide over. Mike Yastrzemski shows often, too, and the staff has worked with Steven Duggar to make bunt singles a big part of their speediest player's game.
It's nice to get a hit, but Kapler is also pleased when he sees a shift turn back into a more traditional alignment.
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"We've seen a lot of those adjustments already. Yeah, we've seen teams come out of the shift, we've seen third basemen play closer to the grass, we've seen them play closer to the line," Kapler said. "Part of the strategy is let's get on base. Part of the strategy is let's change the defense so that we have more holes open to hit through."
That might have already benefited Belt. In the ninth inning Monday, he singled through an open hole at shortstop, bringing the tying run to the plate against Taylor Rogers. The ball had a hit probability of 33 percent, but third baseman Manny Machado was playing pretty close to his normal spot, leaving the gap.
For a staff that is constantly looking for wins at the margins, this is just another way to gain an edge. Giants pitchers allowed just seven bunt hits last year and Kapler said he doesn't worry much about other teams trying a similar strategy against his pitchers and infielders.
"Our style is just to take away the bunt," he said. "As of right now, we want players to not have that option in their bag, and the more we see a team being willing to bunt, a player using that as a way to get on base, we want to take that away. Not only would we adjust, but also we already lean in that direction."
There is upside in winning the bunt battle, often small, and sometimes huge, as was the case when Bart scored. There's also some downside in trying to win it. The Giants learned that the hard way when Belt was hit while squaring to bunt last September, causing an injury that kept him out of the NLDS.
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Belt came away from that experience unfazed. He said it wasn't in the back of his head at all when he squared on Opening Day.
"It's something that I do. It's part of my game and I'm not going to stop just because I had an accident," he said. "Hopefully it doesn't happen again, but you've got to have a lot of faith in these pitchers anyway that they're not going to hit you. It's just part of baseball."