Gabe Kapler did not leave room for ambiguity. He is attaching his name to his ostensible closer’s and standing beside him.
“I still believe in Trevor Gott,” the Giants manager said.
Gott said he, too, still believes in Trevor Gott. And yet, typically to solve problems you need to identify the anatomy of that problem.
After a second-straight nightmare ninth inning, it did not sound as if Gott understood how the unbelievable happened. Again.
“It happens quick,” the unofficial closer said after imploding twice and allowing nine runs while recording three outs in a weekend from a reliever’s nightmares. “… I got into some deep counts. They looked like they almost knew what was coming. But they put good swings on bad pitches, and that’s what happens at the major league level.”
What is happening at the major league level is the Giants have a major issue in the back of their bullpen. Gott watched a 6-3 lead become a 7-6 back-breaking defeat at Oracle Park on Saturday, when one the few experienced bullpen arms the Giants possess allowed two more home runs, the second a three-run shot from Mark Canha with two outs that dissolved all the good that had preceded it for the Giants.
The inning started ominously, Sean Murphy taking Gott deep with his very first pitch to trim the lead to two. On Friday it was Wilmer Flores’ indecision — starting toward first base, then throwing to second and getting no outs — that enabled the A’s to pounce. On Saturday it was Hunter Pence’s poor route that allowed Tony Kemp to reach on what should have been an out in right field.
“He didn’t get a good read on the ball,” Kapler said over Zoom of Pence. “He misjudged it.”
The meltdown was a team effort. Gott walked Matt Olson on five pitches, which brought Canha to the plate with two outs. Gott got ahead, 1-2, but could not put away Canha, who then put the Giants away by sending a 94-mph fastball 411 feet away.
“They beat me on my best pitch I feel like,” Gott said of the four-seamer. “And I can live with that.”
For the Giants to continue to live with Gott, they will need to unearth what has changed in the past 24 hours.
To Kapler’s eyes, the righty’s accuracy is wavering. Gott sounded less certain.
“Mostly a lack of command and control,” Kapler said after they fell to 8-14, with 10-12 a couple ninth innings away. “And the balls that have been hit very well have been good pitches to hit because of the location of the pitches, number one. And then the second thing is obviously the lack of control in general, the hit by pitch [to Khris Davis] yesterday and today he had some sprays as well.”
Gott allowed his location was “a little off,” but attributed it more to deep counts and A’s hitters he could not figure out. Gott, in his sixth major league season and first as (not-actually-named) closer, has had his share of struggles in the past, riding the minors-majors elevator while he was a National.
But very few have struggled to the tune of raising their ERA from 1.50 to 12.86 in an eyeblink.
“I’m very confident in myself. I’ve always been the guy that’s been overlooked. I’m very confident in myself and in my ability to pitch,” said Gott, who closed games in college. “I don’t think that two back to back helps this at all. If they’re spaced out, I don’t think it’s as big of a deal. But it’s two tough losses, and I didn’t pitch well in either one of them. That’s part of it, and move on.”
A closer is not supposed to look back. But neither are rubberneckers, and this accident was brutal.
