Barry Bonds hasn’t hit a home run for the Giants in over a decade, but that doesn’t mean he can’t create dingers by osmosis.
Blake Sabol, who drove in five runs with two homers on Monday night, worked with Bonds in the batting cage pregame for the first time. He instantly saw results, claiming Bonds’ tutelage made him feel more comfortable in the batter’s box than he’s been since spring training.
“Maybe he knows a thing or two about hitting some homers,” Sabol joked postgame.
It wasn’t the first time Bonds, the all-time home run king, has seen immediate results from his pregame advice. Last year, Joc Pederson famously hit three home runs against the Mets — something Bonds himself never did at Third and King — after an impromptu brain-picking session. Bonds also worked with Pederson and Austin Slater at Oracle Park over the winter.
Sabol’s performance was just slightly less Bondsian than Pederson’s, something the designated hitter reminded the rookie catcher of. After the 6-5 loss, Pederson teased Sabol.
“Joc was like ‘wow, one hitting lesson with Barry and two homers, huh? You know last year, I had a hitting lesson with Barry and I had three homers,’” Sabol recounted.
With Sabol, Bonds helped the batter feel more athletic by straightening his posture. Recently, Sabol had been diving in at pitches a little too much, something hitting coaches Justin Viele, Dustin Lind and Pedro Guerrero had also identified.
Bonds instructed Sabol to stand up straighter and throw his hands at the ball from there. With that posture, Sabol’s head felt more still and he could trust his body to be in the right, most powerful position. He also had the BP thrower move a bit to one side to better simulate the in-game experience.
Against starter Bryan Woo in the fourth inning, Sabol socked his ninth homer of the season to straightaway center. He made a clean cut on a 1-2, 95 mph fastball that was well above the top of the zone. But like Bonds told him to, he threw his hands at the ball and connected.
Then in the ninth inning, with the Giants trailing 6-2, Sabol sent another bomb over the center field fence. This one came on another elevated fastball after he laid off three sliders in the dirt — pitches he said he might’ve chased had he been diving in like he was before taking Bonds’ advice.
That homer, which sailed 420 feet and left his bat with a 105.6 mph exit velocity, brought the Giants within one. But their comeback bid ended there, making Camilo Doval’s uncharacteristic ninth inning the difference.
Sabol had met Bonds a couple times before, and the former seven-time MVP hangs out in the batting cage semi-regularly when the Giants are home. As a special advisor, Bonds has an open invitation.
For Sabol on Monday, it paid off.
“Barry just kind of helped,” Sabol said. “That one extra step, that one missing link just made sense to me.”
