Manager Gabe Kapler won’t be in the Giants dugout during Friday night’s series opener against the Braves
Major League Baseball suspended Kapler for returning to the Giants’ dugout on Tuesday following his fourth-inning ejection. MLB also served him an undisclosed fine.
Kapler got ejected for defending rookie Wade Meckler, who took several pitches outside the zone for strikes.
“It feels very good to have a manager who will go out there and stand up for you, especially when you can’t really say anything as a player,” Meckler said after that game.
It was Kapler’s second ejection of the season and seventh as a manager.
“Obviously, I didn’t think those were strikes in his first at-bat,” Kapler said Tuesday. “Wade didn’t think they were strikes. I was just obviously irritated and reacted. But really reacted on behalf of Meck, who deserved to be stood up for by all of us — all the players and staff.”
Kapler said after the game that he’d watched the rest of the game from the team’s batting cage, which is right down the tunnel from SF’s dugout. Part of the reason he got ejected was to stick up for Meckler and reinforce that the rookie should stay disciplined in the batter’s box even when the calls aren’t going his way.
The past week has been tumultuous for Kapler. Former Giants skipper Bruce Bochy returned to San Francisco, which led to heightened emotions in the Oracle Park crowd. Kapler received some boos while the Giants played the Rangers at various points.
Kapler’s pinch-hitting strategy was also a spotlight. When the Rangers made an early pitching change, he elected to keep righty Austin Slater in the game against a right-handed pitcher. Later, against the Rays, he decided to leave rookie Wade Meckler in with the bases loaded instead of pinch hitting Heliot Ramos for a platoon advantage. Two days later, facing a similar situation, he pulled Meckler for Slater.
Asked about the differing strategies in those two specific, similar situations, Kapler momentarily lost his poise in his office, leading to scores of criticism on social media and talk radio.
On Thursday night, Kapler told KNBR’s F.P. Santangelo that he should’ve been more patient in a moment in which he was frustrated by the club’s loss.
“If I had to do the interaction all over after my day of filling my belly with ribs and going down to the river, I might have just said we look at a couple of things when we make those decisions,” Kapler said. “The first thing is the leverage of the situation, how important it is in the context of the game. The second is who the batter is walking up to the plate. And the third is the batters you have available. Thought Slater was a good guy to take down that moment, simple as that.”
The Giants have lost eight of 11 games heading into the toughest part of their schedule. The Braves, who have the best record in baseball, host SF for three games. The Giants then travel to Philadelphia for a series against the playoff-contending Phillies, and then return home for a rematch against Atlanta.
They’ll begin that gauntlet without their skipper.
