San Francisco Giants Baseball-#6: Look at the Ball and Hit It

Look at the Ball and Hit It

What a difference a day makes.  Yesterday, facing the prospect of a second consecutive series sweep at the hands of a NL contender, the Giants put together their most prolific outburst of offense at AT&T Park this season, scoring four runs in each of two innings, to surpass six runs for the first time at home this year.

That's good news and so is the fact that every time the Giants score at least eight runs (eight times so far this season) they win.  Some more good news is that because the Giants have struggled offensively much of the year, it is reasonable to expect that the scale will balance out before the year is over.  We should reasonably be able to expect that the anemic numbers produced so far, particularly on-base percentage, will improve.

That's part of the whole chemistry thing.  Now let's consider the reverberations of adding a Carlos Beltran into the mix.  He is a well-rounded player, having won three Gold Gloves and having represented the National League in the All-Star game numerous times.  He has excellent speed, power and he hits for average.  We know all this.

Additionally, he has a lifetime batting average of .288 against current Phollie pitching, and since Philly arrives tonight for a four game set, Carlos should be ready to lead the charge.  After taking a week to get acclimated to his new team, Carlos has begun to provide the kind of support that Sabean envisioned.

He has two triples in the past three games, after producing only two triples for the Mets all season in 98 games.  Both of his triples have been launched into that magical part of AT&T known, coincidentally, as "Triples Alley."  Ironically, it is also that part of the field he has to patrol as our right fielder.

Bochy did the slightest of tweaks to the lineup for Wednesday's game, switching Pablo and Carlos, so that Carlos batted clean-up.  Batting third behind guys struggling to get on base, left Carlos hitting triples to no avail.  But both times that Pablo had hits yesterday, Carlos followed with another, and both times the two players scored.  That's what I'm saying/talking about.

The camera showed both the Panda and Beltran with their heads together in the dugout.  Carlos told him, "You shouldn't look for anything; you should just look at the ball and hit it."  We have seen that Pablo has one of the most expanded swing zones in the history of the game, so the advice was probably unnecessary.  However, what Carlos meant was that the Panda should not try and anticipate a specific pitch, or location, so much as he should be his own mentor, and play his own game.  Included in that scenario, is the fact that Pablo is a free swinger, often able to sidestep the reqirement that he look for a "mistake pitch."  That's fine, as long as the pitcher cooperates and delivers a fat pitch over the middle; if not, then Pablo does his thing.

Carlos was also seen giving Andres Torres some pointers.  Noting his 35 inch bat, Carlos suggested that Andres back off the plate slightly, so as to have more room to maneuver that big bat.  History has shown, that when Andres gets on base, good things will happen.

Now with Carlos making his adjustment to the Giants, and dispensing advice that could pay huge dividends to the Giants at a crucial juncture of the season, let's sit back and watch the upcoming series with the Phollies.  All we have to do is split here at home to take the season series.  That would be a fitting tune-up for October.