Rodriguez: “Moronta is nasty.” pic.twitter.com/2cO2wC4016
— KNBR (@KNBR) March 31, 2019
SAN DIEGO – There’s something viscerally entertaining about a reliever who confounds batters. I grew up watching Billy Wagner whip in a slider that seemed to cut across the plate like an ever-escaping boomerang, Mariano Rivero throw a cutter that everyone knew was coming, and which everyone knew wouldn’t be hit, and peak-beard, peak-health Brian Wilson attacking batters with that fastball-cutter one-two punch and a celebration that was impossibly endearing.
Reyes Moronta has not reached such cult classic status yet, but he’s got the stuff to get there. In his first game of the season, Moronta entered with the Giants clinging to a 3-2 lead for dear life. Dereck Rodriguez’s five scoreless innings were ancient history after a double and single in the bottom of the sixth saw him removed for Travis Bergen, who promptly allowed a two-run double to his only batter, Eric Hosmer.
The Moronta hour was nigh. Bruce Bochy has said he doesn’t plan to use the 26-year-old as his closer because he needs him for times like the one which appeared in the sixth inning: a runner on second base, no outs, and the Giants desperate to maintain their one-run lead with no evidence of an ability to reclaim it. So, Bochy tapped Moronta.
Moronta obliged his skipper with a stunning two-inning performance, shutting down his first four batters faced with consecutive strikeouts. Those batters, by the way, comprised much of the newly-upgraded Padres’ core of Wil Myers, Manny Machado, Hunter Renfroe and Fernando Tatis Jr. After Moronta was interrupted by a pinch-hit double and a 6-3 ground out, he capped off his night with a strikeout of Manuel Margot, securing his career high of five strikeouts in his first game of the season.
“Man, what a game-saving effort,” Bochy said. “I put him in a tough situation there. Man on second, nobody out, with who he had to face. Two great innings and won the game for us… he did a beautiful job there and kept a one-run lead.
Bochy said Moronta would sometimes “drop his guard a little bit,” last season, but showed he had a better assertiveness and focus on the mound this spring.
Bochy on Moronta: “Man, what a game-saving effort.” pic.twitter.com/GfKy13icrw
— KNBR (@KNBR) March 31, 2019
After striking out Myers, Moronta was forced to change his grey glove for a more traditional black glove, discernibly because the color was too close to that of the Giants’ jerseys. It was not confirmed whether the change was initiated by the umpire crew or Padres manager Andy Green, but Dereck Rodriguez believed it was initiated by the Padres.
“I know they don’t really care about that glove color, it was just trying to mess with him,” Rodriguez said. “And he stuck with his plan, he made them pay, and he looked great today, he was awesome.”
Moronta, who proceeded to strikeout the next three batters, was evidently unfazed by the wardrobe change.
“That doesn’t really bother me,” Moronta said through an interpreter. “They can complain about the color of my glove, that really doesn’t phase me.”
But this wasn’t a random stud night from Moronta. There has been an upgraded level of focus which was noticed by Bochy this spring, and may have been a product of work Moronta said he put in with his trainer in the Dominican Republic, Wellington Rodriguez. A bit of advice from Pedro Martinez may have helped, too.
“It was a process of two things; my trainer back home is a hitter, so he would tell me what they were thinking,” Moronta said through an interpreter. “He was like, ‘I know you trust your slider, but work on your changeup.’ The other process was Pedro Martinez, who taught me the changeup. It wasn’t directly to me, but it was to my trainer. Pedro told him that a pitcher like me, that has a good fastball, needs a changeup.”
Moronta said he didn’t throw the changeup tonight, but that he threw a few changeups in spring training. It’s likely more when, rather than if, that Moronta brings out that changeup this season. But the fact that Moronta had a night like tonight with two pitches is sure to bring more late-game excitement to the mound for the Giants.
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