Giants rookie third baseman Christian Arroyo had the defining at-bat of his young career on Saturday evening. In the 13th inning of a 0-0 ballgame with the bases loaded, Arroyo fought of 11 pitches from Cardinals reliever Kevin Siegrist before smacking a two-run double to left-center field, in what would go down as the game’s deciding hit.
Though Arroyo already has a number of memorable at-bats under his belt since his call-up on April 24, the 21-year-old is hitting just .222 with a below average OPS of .631. It’s for this reason that Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow believes Arroyo may get sent back down to the minors at some point. That said, Kruk also told Murph and Mac that Arroyo has proved he is going to be an important player at the Major League level for many years.
“Is he overmatched right now? Absolutely he’s overmatched right now,” Krukow began. “The big leagues have adjusted to him, he’s going to have to adjust back. Maybe the next couple of weeks — or in a month — he may have to go back down, but we see what this kid’s going to be when you look at him have those moments. This guy is going to be a big league player, and not only that he’s going to be a significant big league player that’s going to play for a long time. It’s not an easy task to play at the big league level. It isn’t. And he’s being asked to do that simply because of injury. But what he did on that Saturday night at-bat, that’s one we’ll always remember, and that’s something that he’ll take with him the rest of his career.”
Arroyo’s big at-bat was not only significant for his personal development, but also gave his teammates a boost.
“When you have a young hitter come to the big league level, when you have hits like he had in New York, when you have hits like he had Saturday night, that’s what gives you the belief that you can play there, that you belong there. That 12 pitch at-bat that he had, that was vintage. You saw the looks on the Giants’ faces in the dugout when they were showing the reaction as the pitch count went from the 8th pitch to the 9th pitch to the 10th pitch; they were psyched, the Giants players were psyched. They were sniffing out what was happening, and by (Arroyo’s) own words he said, ‘I was in battle mode,’ and what a fight that was. And he did not beat a cripple. He got a pretty good pitch that was off-speed on a 3-2 count out over the plate away, and he just went down and got it. It was a great swing. It was a tremendous battle.”
Listen to the full interview below. To hear Kruk’s comments on Arroyo, skip to the 9:20 mark.
