The San Francisco Giants may have woke up with the best record in the National League on Tuesday, but manager Gabe Kapler still has a vexing issue on his hands.
His batting order struggled mightily over the Giants’ just completed four game set with the Nationals in Washington. Though the Giants earned a split of the series, San Francisco scored just three runs in those four games.
In a game steeped in failure, even for the best hitters in baseball, Kapler knows he has to strike a balance of realizing the issue and not freaking out about it.
“You want to be patient. You want to be confident in track records showing up over larger sample sizes, and at the same time, you want to have some urgency,” Kapler said. “So, the cool thing is that the urgency can be applied to the training, and not to the evaluation.”
San Francisco Chronicle
So while Kapler dials up the training levels when he sees his lineup struggle — he singled out first baseman Brandon Belt’s recent issues — the overall feeling is one of confidence in his team to perform over the long haul.
The Giants’ bats resurged on Monday in a 5-2 win against the Diamondbacks, so Kapler is hitting some of the correct buttons. As for Belt? He went 2-for-4 at the plate with two doubles. That’s what happens when you maintain confidence during a long baseball season.
Bay Area Sports Hub 