Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Let Mauricio Dubon paint the picture of what could have and should have been.
“I’m still at second, we got bases loaded with one out. Our [third] guy [in the order] coming up.”
The Giants would be down one in the eighth inning and still in position to strike. And yet.
“I cost us the game,” Dubon said. “That stupid mistake.”
Instead, there were runners on the corners with two outs in an inning that would soon end, a threat wasted. Alex Dickerson’s no-outs flyout to shallow right led to Steven Duggar, at third, feigning as if he would try to tag up before slamming the brakes, a move obvious to everyone except for someone whose head was down.
Dubon was staring at the ground, just trying to get to third as quickly as possible, until he realized Duggar still occupied third. He got about halfway before scampering back far too late, getting doubled up and extinguishing a chance that felt as if the Giants would take advantage, their bats solid all game.
“That can’t happen in an inning like that and how we’ve been swinging the bat,” Dubon said over Zoom after the 6-5 loss to the Diamondbacks at Oracle Park on Friday night. “I just got to run with my head up, don’t make mistakes like that.”
Dubon, at 26, is more inexperienced than young, and has been learning to play center (where he made two solid plays Friday) and has been retooling his swing (which has come around, his 2-for-4 night upping his slashline to .286/.330/.352. Lessons sometimes must be learned one at a time, and baserunning is an easy way to err for overeager players.
Gabe Kapler took him aside afterward to tell Dubon the Giants still believe in him, and Dubon responded with the same bit of accountability.
“He’s been working his tail off to get his swing where it is right now — it’s much better,” the manager said after the Giants fell to 18-21, missing a chance to gain ground on a playoff spot. “He’s been playing great defense, actually been running the bases hard and well recently, and that’s just a play that he’d like to have back.”
Evan Longoria followed Dickerson with a chopper to third he believed was foul, and so he stood in the batter’s box as he was thrown out at first. Juxtaposing the two, a problem of running too much without looking around first seems a correctable one.
“I hold myself to a high standard,” Dubon said, “and that’s unacceptable.”