SF Giants manager Gabe Kapler says working 'collectively' has fueled success
It's no secret that the SF Giants have been struggling offensively over the past month. Since July 1st, the Giants have averaged less than 3.4 runs per game-easily the worst mark in MLB. Yet, in spite of those struggles, San Francisco has gone 14-13 over that span and remained atop the Wild Card standings. Manager Gabe Kapler is confident that the team's ability to withstand this prolonged slump is a credit to everyone's collective efforts.
SF Giants manager Gabe Kapler answers questions from the media. (2023)
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"I think it speaks to how we approach games collectively and how we've performed in games collectively because I certainly wouldn't argue with the fact that there's been a pretty long stretch of offensive challenges," Kapler said. "There have been periods of challenges with each component of our game, but collectively throughout the season we've done a solid job on defense and protecting our pitchers. Our players have done a great job of being flexible and selfless and putting the team first. While not all of them love it, are willing to come in and take the ball in various situations, get pinch-hit for in various situations, go out there, and be ready for each moment and do so with a high degree of focus."
While the Giants' pitching staff has obviously picked up some of the slack, it's not like the team's pitching staff has been untouchable. Entering Thursday, the Giants had the seventh-best ERA in the league over that span. Even the Giants bullpen, which has been led by Camilo Doval, Tyler Rogers, and Taylor Rogers, is only seventh in the league in ERA. As good as they have been Doval and both Rogers twins have blown leads in games the Giants went on to win.
It's obviously far from ideal that the Giants have struggled offensively, but teams need to win in a myriad of ways over a 162-game season. San Francisco's bullpen struggled mightily early in the season. The starting rotation fell apart in June. Now as the end of summer approaches, its been the offense's turn. Kapler is confident that resilience will help them turn things around.
"Just collectively as a group, I think we've done a nice job of being a team," Kapler continued. "It's not one individual bucket of our team that's stood out. We talked a little about this yesterday. We need to hit home runs to be a good team. But no one individual needs to hit 35-40 to be a good team. We need to hit with runners in scoring position, but no one individual needs to hit with runners in scoring position. You can kind of go around our team and see how we spread our load around, spread the work around. Our guys understand that they're a piece of this big puzzle and when we understand that, and we play as a team, we win games."
