Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports
Alex Dickerson’s bat has been his weapon of choice, a lefty swing that the Giants saw immediately could propel them without much help.
His glove has not been as noteworthy. And his arm, well, is hasn’t been as potentially deadly.
Dickerson, who only entered Sunday’s game in the bottom of the sixth, had an entertaining few innings in which he made the play of his year and tried to end some cardboard lives during the Giants’ 4-2 victory over the Diamondbacks at Oracle Park.
After pinch-hitting (and getting intentionally walked) for Darin Ruf in the sixth — Ruf himself had made a nice play for an overlooked left fielder earlier in the game — Dickerson made his presence known in the eighth. With Tony Watson pitching in a game the Giants led by two, Carson Kelly drove a hard liner to left that made Dickerson charge in and to his left. He normally catches balls that are hit to him, but his range is a weakness. This one maxed out that range.
Dickerson all-out dove, sticking out his gloved right hand, and not even he knew if he caught it. It looked to the naked eye — and what eyes are clothed, anyway? — like a trap, but even reviews left some wonder about whether he got his glove under it. Kelly refused to leave first until the umps finally called him out.
“I was honestly just as curious as anybody else,” Dickerson said over Zoom after a fine Giants defensive effort, Wilmer Flores also making a nice, charging play to throw a runner out at home. “It was so fast and so close that I wasn’t sure whether I’d gotten my thumb under the ball or not. It definitely wasn’t a super clean catch, there was some rattling around.”
Give Dickerson a save, though it may have to be canceled out by the imaginary lives he plans to take. In a highly amusing few moments, foul balls continued to get stroked toward left field, and the 30-year-old had to continually run to retrieve the balls.
“I’m not very happy every time I have to chase those down,” Dickerson said after the Giants moved to one game under .500. “For some reason, we didn’t think ball guys are essential workers this year.”
Throwing baseballs at cutouts will always be funny 😂 pic.twitter.com/MXNv5Qt5N4
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) September 6, 2020
That decision to ensure ball boys are healthy might mean the end for a few beloved cardboard cutouts. Once he crossed the foul line, Dickerson traveled from a ballpark to a circus, pegging milk cartons to win prizes. The milk cartons, though, were (cardboard) heads.
“I also wasn’t very loose,” said a player out for decapitation. “So I was taking that time to just pick out random cardboard cutouts to see if I could knock the heads off.”
And could he?
“They made those things pretty sturdy unfortunately,” Dickerson said. “We’ll keep trying it out.”
Brandon Crawford, who did not pinch-hit when shortstop Daniel Robertson faced a righty, was available “in an emergency situation,” Gabe Kapler said.
Crawford is nursing a “very mild tightness in his hamstring,” but Kapler said it’s likely Crawford will be in Monday’s lineup.
Kapler called Flores’ fifth-inning play against Arizona’s safety squeeze “the most important moment of the game.”
Flores got a good jump on Tim Locastro’s bunt, charged in and threw a strike to Chadwick Tromp, who tagged out Nick Ahmed.
“If he doesn’t make that play at the plate, not only do they score the run, but we also haven’t recorded an out,” Kapler said. “…I know Wilmer has taken some heat over the year, over the season, that was just a tremendous defensive play that he deserves some credit for making.”
