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SF Giants Press Clips

Sunday, April 9, 2017

San Francisco Chronicle

Giants fall to 1-5 despite Bumgarner complete game

Henry Schulman

SAN DIEGO - The Padres, who were supposed to lose something like 159 games this year,

started a Rule 5 shortstop Saturday night who had not played one game above rookie ball

before Opening Day.

As Allen Cordoba and the rest of the Padres have shown the past two games, if nine players are

wearing major-league uniforms, they can beat you, especially if you play subpar baseball.

Heaven knows Giants have not been able to dust the word "subpar" off their uniforms, which

hardly got dirty in a 2-1 loss that secured a series loss to a team widely being mocked and

criticized for tanking the season.

For the first time since 2008, the last of four straight losing seasons, the Giants have started

with five losses in six games.

They conclude a terrible opening week Sunday. How terrible could be settled by Johnny Cueto,

who pitched and ran the Giants to their only win Tuesday.

Madison Bumgarner took his first loss Saturday despite overcoming a rough first two innings

and holding San Diego to two runs over eight innings in a complete games.

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With one out in the eighth and nobody on, manager Bruce Bochy let him hit for himself.

Bumgarner could have used the two solo homers he hit on Opening Day, but neither he nor his

eight mates could solve Jhoulys Chacin, who shut them out on three hits over 6 2/3 innings

after the Dodgers torched him for nine runs in 3 1/3 in his first start. The Giants could count all

of their hard-hit balls against Chacin in one hand.

They scored their run with two outs in the ninth against reliever Ryan Butcher on a Buster

Posey single, his advance on defensive indifference and a Brandon Crawford single.

This was not a makeshift Giants lineup either, but had all the regulars with Span returning from

his hip injury.

On Opening Day, Bumgarner hit 94 mph on the gun and retired his first 16 hitters before

allowing three sixth-inning runs.

Saturday's Bumgarner was throwing 91 mph was out of the stretch one batter into the game

when Manual Margot doubled.

Margot is tormenting Giants pitching in the series. He homered in his first two at-bats against

Matt Cain on Friday night and doubled in the first and second innings against Bumgarner, each

hit contributing to a run as San Diego took a 2-0 lead.

The second rally started with a single by Cordoba, his first big-league hit.

Bumgarner was so off that pitching coach Dave Righetti visited the mound, a rare sight anytime

but especially in the first inning. Bumgarner retired the two hitters after the visit to leave three

Padres on base.

Bumgarner was fighting it. Even in a scoreless third he threw 11 pitches to No. 7 hitter Austin

Hedges, who walked.

The big fella found his stuff by the middle innings and kept his listless team in the game.

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Jarrett Parker started in left and went 0-for-2 with a strikeout, making him 0-for-12 on the

season and the Giants left fielders 0-for-22.

For now, Bochy is showing faith in Parker.

"All the guys are going to have rough weeks," Bochy said. "This happens to be the first week. A

couple of guys haven't gotten a hit, and when it's the first week everyone notices."

San Francisco Chronicle

Giants to add experience outfielder Melvin Upton Jr.

Henry Schulman

SAN DIEGO - The Giants knew they were heading into 2017 with an inexperienced outfield

beyond Hunter Pence and Denard Span. When Span got hurt after one game, the Giants saw

how vulnerable they were in the outfield.

They cannot add star power in April, but they can create depth, which is why they signed

former Reds and Rockies outfielder Drew Stubbs to a minor-league deal earlier this week and

will grab another in Melvin Upton Jr.

Upton, who formerly called himself B.J., was released by the Blue Jays at the end of spring

training and will get a minor-league deal with the Giants, probably official Tuesday.

He is due to earn $16 million as he completes a five-year, $75.25 million deal he signed with the

Braves before the 2013 season, but the Giants only would be responsible for the prorated share

of the big-league minimum. His former teams will pay the rest.

The Giants say Upton is not being promised a major-league job, but after the first week it's hard

to imagine that an outfielder who hit 20 home runs between the Padres and Blue Jays last year

and still plays above-average defense would be in the minors for long.

Manager Bruce Bochy is preaching patience with his current platoon of Jarrett Parker and Chris

Marrero. But neither had a hit entering Saturday's game. Including Aaron Hill, Bochy's left

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fielders were 0-for-20 with 10 strikeouts. Moreover, Gorkys Hernandez, who replaced Span in

center for four games, was 2-for-19.

So the question on Upton is "why not?"

"Anytime you can have depth and experience in your system, that's pretty good inventory,"

Bochy said, speaking generally because he had not spoken with general manager Bobby Evans

about the Upton deal Saturday.

The 32-year-old is the older brother of Tigers outfielder Justin Upton and was the Rays' first-

round selection in the 2002 draft. He is a career .243 hitter with 164 homers, so at best maybe

he can be what the Giants hoped to get from Michael Morse, but with a superior glove.

Padres people raved about Upton on Saturday. One team official said Upton was all over their

defensive highlight reels.

"He was clutch for us last year," outfielder Travis Jankowski said. I don't know how many

walkoffs he hit last year. I know the Blue Jays wanted him for a playoff push. I think it's in there.

He's just got to get his confidence back. I don't think he'll have a tough time doing that."

Upton carries a reputation as a bad teammate, but Jankowski disputed that, calling him "one of

the best teammates I've ever had."

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: hschulman@sfchronicle.com

Leading off

HR king: Madison Bumgarner entered Saturday’s game with 16 homers, most by any active

pitcher and four more than Yovani Gallardo, now with the Mariners.

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San Jose Mercury News

Giants are off to their worst start since 2008 after loss to Padres

Andrew Baggarly

SAN DIEGO – Madison Bumgarner did not make a statement with his bat Saturday night. He

struck out looking at a breaking pitch, grounded out to third base and then he dropped his

matte black model in disappointment after hitting a fly out to center field.

The Giants don’t require Bumgarner to hit a home run every time he pitches. But they really

should beat the San Diego Padres when they have their ace on the mound. And they need their

eight paid professional hitters to give them more than meek swings and poor plate discipline.

The Giants barely touched right-hander Jhoulys Chacin, mustered nothing against the Padres

bullpen and are off to their worst start in nine years after a 2-1 loss at Petco Park.

They have not started 1-5 since the 2008 season, when they lost 90 games and finished fourth

in the NL West. And they’ll need a little more spark behind Johnny Cueto on Sunday to avoid

being swept by a Padres team that makes no pretense that it is playing for 2019.

Bumgarner threw 114 pitches in an eight-inning complete game – the sixth time he’s gone the

distance and lost.

Chacin mesmerized the Giants one start after his stinker on opening day, when the Dodgers

ripped him for nine runs in 3 1/3 innings. He came to the Padres as a reclamation project but

might have felt a little more confident against the Giants, a team he often fared well against

during his time with the Colorado Rockies.

Chacin mixed four pitches and didn’t allow a truly hard-hit ball until Eduardo Nuñez doubled off

the glove of right fielder Hunter Renfroe in the seventh inning.

Bumgarner did not have the searing, 95 mph fastball he displayed in his opening day

assignment at Arizona, but he found a way to pitch through early traffic.

Manuel Margot continued to be a pain. One day after he collected his first two major league

home runs against Matt Cain, the rookie doubled twice against Bumgarner to fuel a pair of

scoring rallies.

Margot started the game with a double, scored on Renfroe’s double and it took a pair of fly ball

outs for Bumgarner to strand the bases loaded in an inning that drove up his pitch count.

Allen Cordoba, a Rule 5 draft pick who probably should be in Low-A ball, led off the second

inning by collecting a single for his first major league hit. He advanced on a sacrifice and Margot

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doubled him home.

The Giants avoided the shutout when Buster Posey and Brandon Crawford, who starred for

Team USA in this ballpark during the World Baseball Classic, collected consecutive hits with two

outs in the ninth. Posey doubled and scored on Crawford’s single.

But Eduardo Nuñez flied out to end it.

San Jose Mercury News

Jarrett Parker dropped to eight in Giants lineup at San Diego

Andrew Baggarly

SAN DIEGO – The Giants might be signing every right-handed hitting veteran outfielder under

the sun to minor league contracts, but Jarrett Parker will get more than a one-week audition to

keep a starting job.

And Manager Bruce Bochy said he thought Parker had much better at-bats in Friday loss to the

Padres at Petco Park.

Bochy still did something Saturday he had pledged to avoid, moving down Parker from seventh

to eighth in the lineup. Joe Panik moved from eighth to seventh.

“The way I see it, Joe is swinging so well,” said Bochy, who batted Panik leadoff on Saturday. “I

just want to do this for one or two games here.”

Bochy originally did not want Parker to hit in front of the pitcher’s spot. He wanted Parker to

settle in and maybe get some straight pitches to drive. But he acknowledged that forcing Parker

to bear down, work counts and wait for his pitch might be the approach that the 28-year-old

needs to slow down the game.

And as Bochy pointed out, with Madison Bumgarner on the mound, Parker isn’t hitting in front

of any old pitcher.

In the season-opening series at Arizona, Bochy said Parker was “as late as I’ve ever seen him”

and wasn’t getting his front foot down, which made it impossible to catch up to fastballs. Bochy

said Parker had much better batting practice and swings on Friday. He still pinch hit Hunter

Pence for Parker in the ninth inning against a right-handed pitcher, though.

“I really didn’t want to hit for him,” Bochy said. But I’ve got Hunter and then Span and Posey

sitting there, and those are your guys.”

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Span would have run for himself had he gotten on base as a pinch hitter Friday, and he’s back in

Saturday’s lineup after four games on the bench because of hip discomfort.

Bochy didn’t have any comment about Melvin Upton Jr. because his agreement to a minor

league contract wasn’t official. But he did say that adding players like Upton and Drew Stubbs

“is pretty good inventory.”

Saturday’s lineups follow. And looking ahead to the home opening series against Arizona that

begins on Monday, it’ll be a rematch of Matt Moore vs. Taijuan Walker and then Jeff Samardzija

against Robbie Ray. Matt Cain is scheduled to start Wednesday’s series finale against right-

hander Shelby Miller.

San Jose Mercury News

Giants close to minor league deal Melvin Upton Jr.

Andrew Baggarly

SAN DIEGO – With their left fielders hitless through five games and their lack of center field

depth already exposed by Denard Span’s hip injury, the Giants are in discussions with veteran

outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. on a minor league contract.

No deal has been announced but a source indicated that the team was working toward an

agreement with Upton Jr., who became a free agent when he didn’t make the Toronto Blue

Jays roster this spring.

The 32-year-old hit .238 with 20 home runs last season for the San Diego Padres and Blue Jays,

and although he strikes out plenty, he is still a capable defender in center field.

The Giants had not expressed interest in Upton Jr. within a day or two after the Blue Jays cut

him loose. But clearly they sense the need for another right-handed hitter on the roster, as well

as more depth in center field.

Upton Jr. would become the second right-handed hitting outfield addition in three days. The

Giants also signed Drew Stubbs to a minor league contract and expected him to report to

Triple-A Sacramento soon.

The Giants also plan for Upton Jr. to begin at Sacramento, according to a report from Mark

Feinsand of MLB.com. Feinsand was the first to report that the two sides were in agreement.

Although Span is expected to be back in Saturday’s lineup at San Diego after missing four games

because of hip discomfort, the Giants are dealing with paper thin depth in their outfield

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throughout the organization.

Mac Williamson is on the 10-day disabled list with a quadriceps strain and there’s also no

timetable for non-roster invitee Michael Morse (hamstring strain) to begin playing in extended

spring games. Minor league center fielder Steven Duggar is out with a flexor strain in his arm as

well.

It also was curious that right fielder Hunter Pence needed a day off Friday after playing the

four-game series in Arizona. The Giants already knew they needed to protect themselves in

case Pence were to miss time again, since he’s not the durable presence he once was.

Stubbs and Upton Jr. could become alternatives in short order to Chris Marrero, who hit eight

home runs to force his way onto the opening day roster but hasn’t done much in a short sample

while platooning with Jarrett Parker in left field.

Through five games, Giants left fielders are 0 for 20 with 10 strikeouts, a walk, a sacrifice fly and

one run scored.

MLB.com

Giants’ offense musters little in loss to Padres

AJ Cassavell and Chris Haft

SAN DIEGO -- Madison Bumgarner was good, but Jhoulys Chacin was better Saturday night, as

the Padres beat the Giants, 2-1, to clinch their first series victory of the season.

Chacin -- who allowed a career-high nine runs in Monday's opener -- bounced back nicely with 6

2/3 scoreless frames. He showcased a nasty slider that kept Giants hitters off balance all night

and allowed only three hits. Ryan Buchter allowed a run on two singles in the ninth before

sending San Francisco reeling to a 1-5 start.

Bumgarner was sharp over eight innings in which he allowed two runs on six hits while striking

out five. But he had some trouble with a trio of Padres rookies in the early going. Manuel

Margot doubled in each of the first two innings, scoring a run and driving in another. Hunter

Renfroe also had two knocks, and Allen Cordoba notched his first Major League hit with a

second-inning bouncer through the left side.

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED

Rookie ball: Many have projected Margot and Renfroe as potential Rookie of the Year

candidates in the National League. They jumped on Bumgarner early Saturday night. Margot led

off the bottom of the first with a hustle double on a relatively routine chopper up the middle.

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Three batters later, Renfroe drove him in with a double into the left-field corner.

Helping Hand: Chacin was brilliant, but he exited with two outs in the seventh when Eduardo

Nunez doubled into the right-field corner. The Padres called on Brad Hand, who induced an

inning-ending grounder to first before tossing a perfect eighth.

WHAT'S NEXT

Giants: San Francisco will conclude the series and its season-opening, two-city trip with a 1:40

p.m. PT encounter Sunday at San Diego. Needing a win to enter Monday's home opener with a

semblance of momentum, the Giants will turn to Johnny Cueto, their leading winner (18-5) a

year ago.

Padres: Clayton Richard will look to replicate a masterful performance in his 2017 debut when

the Padres host the Giants on Sunday at 1:40 p.m. PT. The veteran left-hander blanked the

Dodgers over eight scoreless frames Tuesday, recording 16 of his 24 outs via ground balls.

MLB.com

Giants look to get Gillaspie a start soon

Chris Haft

SAN DIEGO -- Giants manager Bruce Bochy said Saturday that infielder Conor Gillaspie will soon

receive a start, which is the least that can be done for a guy who has been on a hot streak since

late last season.

Gillaspie delivered his first hit of the season Friday night, a pinch-hit single leading off the sixth

inning that helped set up Brandon Belt's grand slam.

Continuing in reverse chronological order, Gillaspie clinched a spot on the Opening Day roster

by hitting .350 with a .945 OPS in Spring Training. Replacing injured Eduardo Nunez at third

base, Gillaspie batted .400 (6-for-15) in last October's Division Series against the Cubs after

swatting a three-run, ninth-inning homer to account for the scoring in the Wild Card Game

victory over the Mets.

Gillaspie finished strong last season, hitting .333 with a .906 OPS in September/October.

Unfortunately for Gillaspie, his primary position is third base, where Nunez has entrenched

himself. Nunez entered Saturday's game against San Diego batting .400. However, Bochy

realizes the need to keep everybody sharp with occasional activity.

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"Noonie has been playing so well," Bochy said. "But Conor will get a start."

The Giants experimented with Gillaspie at first and second base during Spring Training. But his

improved versatility alone won't prompt Bochy to install him for first baseman Belt, who

entered Saturday leading the team with three home runs, or second baseman Joe Panik, who

began Saturday with a .412 batting average.

Blach settling into bullpen: Left-hander Ty Blach, almost exclusivly a starting pitcher entering

this season, has begun to adjust to his new role as a reliever.

As is the case with most relievers, Blach relishes the fact that he's almost perpetually available.

"Anytime you have a chance to be in the game makes the day exciting," he said.

Blach pointed out that being in the bullpen instead of the rotation requires him to remain

"locked in," as he described it.

Said Blach, "Knowing that you have to do it that day, you may not be able to dictate the

situation like you do as a starting pitcher. You have to come in and adapt to that sitiation."

MLB.com

Cueto set for showdown with Richard

Chris Haft

Potentially saving the best for last, San Francisco and San Diego will conclude their three-game

series Sunday by combining for what might be the best pitching matchup of the entire

weekend: Giants right-hander Johnny Cueto against Padres lefty Clayton Richard.

Cueto excelled against the Padres last season, pitching complete games in his first three outings

against them. Two were shutouts, which sandwiched a 2-1 victory at Petco Park on May 18.

Richard is coming off an excellent start last Tuesday, when he yielded five hits in eight shutout

innings against the Dodgers. He's 6-5 with a 3.87 ERA in 17 lifetime appearances (14 starts)

against the Giants.

Things to know about this game

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• With the left-handed Richard opposing San Francisco, right-handed-batting Aaron Hill or Chris

Marrero likely will start for the Giants in left field.

• Richard's presence also could prompt a switch in center field for the Giants, who might

replace Denard Span with Gorkys Hernandez. Span is 0-for-5 lifetime against Richard.

• In other key matchups, Buster Posey owns a .409 career batting average against Richard (9-

for-22), while Hunter Pence has hit .231 (3-for-13) off the Padres hurler.

CSNbayarea.com

Instant Replay

Alex Pavlovic

SAN DIEGO — Through two starts, Madison Bumgarner has thrown 15 innings with a 3.00 ERA

and hit two homers. The Giants haven’t won either one.

The lineup managed just five hits against Jhoulys Chacin and the San Diego bullpen, falling 2-1.

The Giants dropped to 1-5 on the season-opening road trip after wasting Bumgarner’s

complete-game effort.

Coming off a start that made national headlines, Bumgarner was out of sorts early on against an

aggressive Padres lineup. He faced seven batters in the first and allowed a run on two doubles,

a hit-by-pitch and a walk. Allen Cordoba, a 21-year-old shortstop who was a Rule 5 draft pick

and had not previously played above rookie ball, singled to lead off the second. Cordoba’s first

career hit led to a run when Manny Margot lined a double to left.

Jhoulys Chacin gave up nine earned runs in 3 1/3 innings at Dodger Stadium earlier in the week,

but the Giants had just two hard-hit balls off the right-hander and both of them ticked off

fielder’s gloves.

Chacin allowed just one hit through four, a hustle double from Brandon Belt on a ball that was

misplayed in left. Joe Panik singled off Wil Myers’ glove in the fifth but the Giants wouldn’t

threaten. Eduardo Nuñez doubled off right fielder Hunter Renfroe’s glove in the seventh but

Panik grounded out.

After throwing 73 pitches through four innings, Bumgarner locked in and managed to get

through the final four on just 41.

Buster Posey singled with two outs in the ninth, took second on defensive indifference and

scored on Brandon Crawford's single, but Nuñez flied out.

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Starting pitching report: On a chilly night, Bumgarner wasn’t sitting 93-94 as he did at Chase

Field, but the stuff got better as the night went on. He regularly hit 93 in the sixth and he

allowed just one hit — an infield single — to the last 18 batters he faced.

Bullpen report: They got the night off.

At the plate: Bumgarner’s second day at the plate was pretty much the opposite of his first. He

struck out looking in his first at-bat, grounded out in the fifth and flied out to right in the eighth.

The Padres did put a shift on, with three infielders on the left side. According to Mark Simon of

ESPN Stats & Info, 16 of Bumgarner’s 20 grounders last year were pulled.

In the field: Panik made a running over-the-shoulder catch of a pop-up to right in the third. He

would like another Gold Glove.

Attendance: The Padres had another sellout crowd at Petco, and there wasn’t a lot of orange.

Maybe they’re taking advantage of the Chargers moving?

CSNbayarea.com

Giants close to minor league deal with ex-Blue Jays outfielder

Alex Pavlovic

SAN DIEGO -- By the fifth game of the season, the Giants had Aaron Hill, a career infielder,

starting in left field. They are making a move to help solve that problem.

Melvin Upton Jr. is close to a minor league deal with the organization, a source confirmed to

NBC Sports Bay Area. Upton Jr. is expected to sign next week and report to Triple-A

Sacramento. The pending deal was first reported by Mark Feinsand of MLB.com.

The Giants had little interest in Upton Jr. when he was released by the Blue Jays before the

start of the season. But Giants left fielders don't have a hit through five games, and the two

players tasked with forming a platoon -- Jarrett Parker and Chris Marrero -- are 0-for-19 with 10

strikeouts. Michael Morse and Mac Williamson were supposed to be part of the solution, but

both are currently hurt.

Before Saturday's game, Bochy said he's not panicking about left field. He noted that Parker

took better swings Friday.

"We're barely closing in on a week, come on," Bochy said. "All these guys are going to have a

rough week. It just so happens it's the first week, so it's drawing more attention to it."

Upton Jr., 32, hit .238 with the Padres and Blue Jays last season, with 20 homers and 27 stolen

bases. When on his game, he brings speed and the ability to play all over the outfield. The

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Giants also recently signed veteran Drew Stubbs to a minor league deal. Bochy spoke generally

about the two because the Upton Jr. deal is not done yet.

"Any time you have depth and experience in your system, that's pretty good inventory," Bochy

said.

Yahoosports.com

Journeyman Blake Parker and his RV have found a new home in Anaheim

Tim Brown

ANAHEIM, Calif. – The next baseball season in which everything goes right will be the first, and

yet the prospect of everything going right remains the anthem of the mediocre, particularly the

perpetually mediocre, which require anthems and such.

You know, they say, their heads tilted one way or the other, they perhaps discovering an angle

no one else has (or does not exist), you look at this club and if everything goes right …

Then it doesn’t. Sad, but true.

Magic, though. That’s different. That right there is something you can believe in.

It’s the whole reason for opening day, for home openers, for big ceremonies. It’s why they line

the players along the basepaths, where they hug even though they were just a couple seconds

ago standing right next to each other right over there in the dugout. The color of the pinstripe

hasn’t yet bled into their uniform pants from all the washings. The strength-and-conditioning

guy is announced and he breaks into a Mr. Olympia pose-down routine, because it’s opening

night and there’s magic in those pecs, so you are required to share. And Chris Prieto, a Seattle

Mariners coach, does that two-fingers-in-his-mouth whistle to summon the boys to batting

practice, which intrigues fellow coaches Edgar Martinez and Scott Brosius. They try it

themselves, which results in their knuckles being slathered in slobber while they make a noise

similar to what your feet sound like when your boots are filled with rainwater.

Anyway, the Angels are one of those teams of which it’s been said, You know, if everything goes

right …, and yet late Friday afternoon found manager Mike Scioscia explaining why his best

pitcher, Garrett Richards, is on the disabled list because of a biceps strain. The biceps being

quite close to the elbow. Richards having not so long ago just barely avoided elbow

reconstruction surgery.

“It’s relatively minor,” Scioscia said, before adding also that it’s a “bump in the road,” along

with “a minor setback.”

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A little while later Richards said the results of an MRI, “Was kind of the best thing we could

have hoped for,” and, “I feel pretty much 100 percent normal right now,” and, “My elbow’s in

great shape.”

None of which sounded particularly magical, which is why I’m standing in the parking lot at

Angel Stadium, section 9B, some 300 yards from the loading dock, staring at a recreational

vehicle. It’s a Chaparral X-Lite fifth-wheel with temporary plates, tan with black trim,

accessorized with one of those fold-away awnings that makes for an instant veranda, suitable

for iced tea and board games, and a ladder to the roof. It belongs to Blake Parker, Angels’ right-

hander.

“I’m excited,” Parker said of his new lifestyle that is for the moment squatting and casting

shade over four parking spots. “Really excited. I love the outdoors. I love camping.”

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He is pretty sure he’s found a semi-permanent parking place in Newport Beach for it. He’ll tow

it there soon, live the life of Jim Rockford and Martin Riggs, and with any luck at all keep striking

everybody out for the Angels.

Parker is a 31-year-old relief pitcher. Since 2015, he has been a Chicago Cub, Seattle Mariner,

New York Yankee, Los Angeles Angel, Milwaukee Brewer and an Angel again, the last three

moves over a couple months this winter. In 2013, beginning days after learning to throw a split-

fingered fastball, he had a 2.72 ERA over 49 appearances for the Cubs. The results have been

spottier since, and the travels more frequent, which speaks to the RV in the parking lot, along

with a wonderful appreciation for being in this uniform on this day at this time in his life.

“This is what it’s all about,” he said.

His mom and dad — Vikki and Richard — flew in from Arkansas on Friday for the opener. His

arm feels great. His wife is pretty OK with the whole RV thing. And, about the strikeouts. Parker

has always been a strikeout pitcher — 10.2 per nine innings over 93 big-league games. Then,

this: beginning on March 22, in a spring training game against the Texas Rangers, Parker has

recorded 22 outs, 21 of them by strikeout. His final 17 outs of spring training were by strikeout.

Monday in Oakland, in his first regular-season game for the Angels, he entered in the sixth

inning and struck out Ryon Healey. From the crowd he heard a voice: “Eighteen.”

Then he struck out Khris Davis.

The same voice: “Nineteen.”

“That’s baseball,” he said with a smile. “I threw some pitches that coulda been hit a mile. I

made some mistakes. But that’s how the cards fell. I mean, it wasn’t something I was trying to

do, go out and strike everybody out.”

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But, hey, he went with it.

“My teammates made me fully aware,” he said. “I tried to downplay it as much as I could.”

Stephen Vogt popped out to end Parker’s streak at 19. Parker gave up a couple runs the next

inning. Still, 19 is 19, no matter the time of year. A weighted-ball program has lifted his average

fastball velocity from 90 to 93. The splitter runs off that. The strikeouts came fast. He struck out

another Friday night in an Angels win, when his fastball was up to 95, making 22 of his last 26

outs by strikeout. The real benefit was to earn him a place in Scioscia’s bullpen, that by itself a

significant event in the life of a 31-year-old journeyman reliever.

So, yeah, you could consider Blake Parker and conclude, well, everything had to go right and it

did. Or, you could consider all that is the Angels, all that must go right, feather in some Blake

Parker and one very sharp RV with an awning and a ladder, and decide a little magic could go a

long way.

SI.com

Shohei Ohtani—Japan’s Babe Ruth—is about to change the face of baseball

Jon Werthein

This story appears in the April 17 issue of Sports Illustrated. To subscribe, click here. To see

more from L. Jon Wertheim’s interview with Shohei Ohtani, watch this week’s episode of 60

Minutes, airing Sunday April 9 after The Masters.

It is an early March afternoon, hours before a Japan League exhibition game, and Shohei

Ohtani can't find a catcher. So he takes a cart of balls to the outfield, paces off 60 feet and

begins throwing into the padded wall. It is baseball’s equivalent of

an omakase menu: Ohtani grips baseballs with his right hand, goes into his windup

and torques his 6' 4", 215-pound frame, much of it muscle. Extending his right arm, he

manipulates the balls through the air in precise flight paths that seemingly defy the laws of

physics. Mostly, though, he sends them whistling through the air, popping into the wall so

that a sound like gunfire echoes through the empty Sapporo Dome.

An hour later Ohtani is back on the field. Only this time he’s a lefty and he has a bat in his

hand. He steps into the cage, rakes his front foot like a bear marking territory and begins

taking his cuts. Unleashing a swing that is at once violent and elegant, he sends drives

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searing up both lines. Mostly, though, he unleashes towering shots that sail over the walls

in left, right and centerfields and register a mournful doink as they bounce off metal seats.

There are, so to speak, no two ways about it. The most compelling story in baseball is

playing out in the city of Sapporo, on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. The central

character is a modest 22-year-old who lives in a drab team dorm and doesn’t drink alcohol

or own a car. And he is about to test baseball’s conventional wisdom in a

way Moneyball never did.

It’s not just that Shohei Ohtani pitches and hits—it’s that he has few peers at either

discipline. The reigning MVP in Nippon Professional Baseball, the world’s top league outside

the majors, he won the NPB’s home run derby last season and threw the fastest pitch in

league history, a 102.5 mph heater, topping his own record. “He’s so talented,” says his

manager, Hideki Kuriyama, “it’s really tough to use him the right way, with the right

balance.”

As a starter for the Hokkaido Nippon Ham Fighters, Ohtani finished last season with a 10–4

record in 20 starts and a 1.86 ERA, averaging more strikeouts per nine innings (11.2) than

Clayton Kershaw. He relies primarily on his explosive fastball, supplemented with a splitter,

a slider and an occasional changeup or curve. As a designated hitter, he had an OPS of

1.004, with 22 home runs in 382 plate appearances, a better long-ball rate than both Bryce

Harper and Mike Trout.

For the past four seasons the Fighters have benefited from what players call “Ohtani

moments.” Like the time he hit a home run on the first pitch of the game, then took the

mound to throw eight shutout innings, striking out 10. Or the time he hit a ball through the

roof of the Tokyo Dome. Or the time an opposing batter conceded that he didn’t aspire to

get a hit off Ohtani; he simply wanted to make contact. Or when, in the fourth game of last

year’s Japan Series, he doubled twice before singling in the walk-off winning run in extra

innings.

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“I’ve been seeing this up close,” says Brandon Laird, a former Yankees infielder, now one of

the four permitted gaijin, or foreigners, on the Fighters. “Trust me, it’s silly to us, too. It’s a

see-it-with-your-own-eyes type thing.”

And odds are good that, soon, you will be able to do just that. Ohtani is coy when asked

directly, but even the Fighters’ executives admit that this will likely be his final season in

Japan. Then he’ll head to the majors and try to become the first player in a century—since a

guy named Babe Ruth—to take his spot as both a pitcher in the rotation and a hitter in the

everyday lineup.

Ohtani isn’t just endowed with power, arm strength and speed (he stole seven bases last

year). He also possesses this critical asset: leverage. He is too measured and reserved to

make demands, mind you. But MLB teams know the rules of engagement. If they have any

shot of signing Ohtani, they must accommodate his preference for having it both ways.

*****

The Ohtani origin story begins in the somnolent city of Oshu, 300 miles north of Tokyo,

where his father, Toru, played for a semipro team sponsored by the local Mitsubishi plant.

After a shoulder injury at 25, Toru went to work full-time at the factory. When he wasn’t

working, Toru would drill with Shohei and coach his summer teams. He was happy to let his

son hit and pitch. Toru’s wife, Kayoko, a former top badminton player, didn’t see the need

for her son to specialize either.

Imitating both his favorite hitter (Hideki Matsui) and favorite flamethrower (Yu Darvish),

Shohei hardly performed at a level that presaged greatness. But he was singularly devoted

to improving. He ate a dozen bowls of rice a day to put on bulk and detailed his baseball

goals with a series of spreadsheets. Then, benefiting from a growth spurt in high school, he

began throwing in the upper 90s and cranking moonshots. Soon scouts from the majors

began making stealth missions to Japan and dotting the stands at his games.

Ohtani says that the physical demands of both starting and batting cleanup have never been

an issue. Nor has he had a problem harnessing the focus his unusual skillset required. The

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real “mental stress,” as he puts it through an interpreter, came from the suggestion by

some fans and media that his failure to commit fully to either pitching or hitting meant that

he wasn’t serious about his career.

At 18, Ohtani spoke openly about heading directly to an MLB organization and skipping the

Japanese draft. The Dodgers were reportedly closest to signing him as a pitcher, but there

was plenty of competition—so much so that interest cooled among NPB teams, fearful they

would waste a draft pick on a kid who would choose to play on the other side of the Pacific.

The Nippon Ham Fighters may have a name that does not invite serious treatment. (For the

record: the food processing company Nippon Ham sponsors the team. We’re not talking

about pugnacious pork products.) But the organization, based in Sapporo and known for its

shrewdness, took a novel tack with Ohtani. “They approached me, ‘What do you think

about doing both?’” he recalls. “I definitely wanted to try it. I still thought I had a chance to

be a great hitter at a professional level.”

With Ohtani’s interest piqued, Fighters executives prepared a McKinsey-style presentation

titled “The Path to Realizing Shohei Ohtani’s Dream,” a reasoned case for why he ought to

stay in Japan. Exhibit A: Of the 60-plus Japanese players to make the majors, almost all were

seasoned first in Japan (Miami Marlins reliever Junichi Tazawa being the only notable

exception). Exhibit B: Darvish, whom the Fighters nurtured from 2005 to ’11 before his

transition to the Texas Rangers. But the team also made an emotional appeal, relaying

details about the decidedly unglamorous life of the minor leaguer.

While neither party will confirm the particulars, the team clearly seems to have made an

agreement with the Ohtani family: When Shohei was ready to declare yosh

ganbarimasu (“I’m gonna go for it”), the Fighters would not stand in his way. Rather, they

would agree to “post” him, taking the negotiated fee from a major league team (currently

$20 million), relinquishing his rights and wishing him well.

Wearing number 11 in homage to Darvish, Ohtani has improved each season. While his

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reported salary of roughly $2 million pales next to MVP wages in the majors, he

supplements his income with various endorsements, including one from Asics. His face is

emblazoned on the sides of trains and on billboards around Hokkaido, and his huge fan base

includes middle-aged mothers interested in Ohtani not for his arm or his bat, but for his

upside as a son-in-law. He’s done it all close to home, without any lonely late nights eating

jalapeño poppers at a TGI Fridays in Chattanooga.

The commercial benefits to the Fighters are obvious, far exceeding Ohtani’s salary. The

Fighters often play to capacity crowds in the 53,800-seat Sapporo Dome, where more than

a dozen variations of Ohtani’s jersey are for sale. But now the experiment has moved to its

next phase. “As a manager, [Ohtani’s departure to the majors], it’s going to hurt the team,”

says Kuriyama. “But I want him to succeed.” Then he adds this advice to the next manager

who will oversee Ohtani: “Please trust him all the way through.”

*****

Major league scouts, a species trained to go about their work with skepticism and

discernment, struggle to find glaring weaknesses in Ohtani’s game. Now a partner in

2080baseball.com, Dave DeFreitas began scouting Ohtani for the Yankees when the kid was

in high school. He believes, like most, that Ohtani’s “high octane” pitching is ahead of his

hitting, likening him to Mets ace Noah Syndergaard. But, DeFreitas adds, “He could hit

home runs in the majors tomorrow.”

While Ohtani doesn’t yet have an agent, he has the good sense not to eliminate potential

bidders. He professes no preferred franchise or market. “I actually need to learn more

about MLB,” he says. “I would like to be there when the talks are happening.” Of the

American League versus the National, Ohtani will say only, “There’s good to both; it’s very

hard to choose at this point.”

It stands to reason that Ohtani is better suited to the AL, where he can pitch and then DH

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on off-days. (In Japan he doesn’t play in the games preceding starts—hence his relatively

low number of plate appearances—a rhythm he’s likely to continue in the majors.) The

Yankees, the team for which Matsui enjoyed great success, are an obvious candidate,

especially since Brian Cashman has already told the Yukan Fuji News back in 2014, “Hey, if

[both pitching and hitting] is what he wants, it’s hard to argue if he won’t sign otherwise.”

Seattle, the market closest to Japan and a city that accommodated Ichiro Suzuki so

hospitably, is another likely option.

In the NL, Ohtani would likely have to the play a corner outfield spot between starts,

potentially a mental strain as well as a physical one. Luis Mendoza, who signed with the

Fighters after pitching for the Rangers and Royals, notes at least one benefit, though: NL

pitchers would hesitate to chase Ohtani off the plate, knowing that he could return fire with

his 100-mph heater.

Wherever he ends up, Ohtani will challenge major league mores. For decades pitchers have

all but been placed in bubble wrap, swaddled in satin jackets on the basepaths and taught

to defer to position players when there’s a pop-up near the mound. Though Madison

Bumgarner’s career average of .187 is comically low compared to Ohtani’s .322 mark last

year, the Giants’ ace is considered the best-hitting pitcher in baseball. When manager Bruce

Bochy permitted Bumgarner to hit for himself in an interleague game last year, it was

considered a radical move. When Bumgarner tried to enter the Home Run Derby over the

All-Star break, the MLB Players’ Association rejected the request.

Ohtani could be an ace one game and spend the next careening into outfield walls or trying

to throw 350-foot strikes to home. Even as a DH he would expose his throwing arm to

thousands of pitches. In almost 1,000 career plate appearances, Ohtani has yet to attempt a

sacrifice bunt. “It’s going to be fun to watch teams adapt to this,” says Laird. “And that

means his own team too.”

For all his other gifts, Ohtani’s timing is lousy. Had he decamped to the majors after last

season, he would have been eligible for a hefty eight-figure annual salary. (The Rangers will

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pay Darvish $11 million in 2017; Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka will earn $22 million.) But

the collective bargaining agreement signed over the winter—perhaps with Ohtani’s arrival

in mind—slashes the earning potential of international players under age 25, treating them

as amateur signees. Depending on a team’s revenues and pool money, the signing bonus

falls between $4.75 million and $10 million. Worse, these players must accrue six years of

service before they are eligible for free agency. All may not be lost, though. Multiple

sources tell SI that there could be loopholes that allow Ohtani to avoid this cap. Still, his

decision to stay in Japan this season may have cost him more than $100 million.

Ohtani shrugs. “As long as I have enough money to be able to play baseball and am enjoying

baseball,” he says, “that’s all I’m asking for right now.” This is more than lip service: Ohtani

is not exactly Babe Ruth’s equal in the Department of Sybaritic Living. Fighters sources say

that Ohtani spends virtually nothing, lodging at the drab team dorms and reportedly living

on less than the $1,000 a month his parents send him from his earnings. He takes team-

subsidized cabs to games. He seems to spend mostly on fitness books and workout

equipment. Depending on the sponsor that night, the Fighter Player of the Game will

sometimes receive free bags of rice or salmon steaks or stalks of asparagus; Ohtani will

happily take them, figuring it’s one less run to the grocery store.

As much for this genial humility as for his plate prowess and mound mastery, Ohtani has

endeared himself to his teammates. He chats easily among the Japanese players. He

practices his improving English with the gaijin. Teammates say that when they invite Ohtani

to social functions, he’ll ask if they plan on drinking. If the answer is yes, he’ll quietly head

back to the dorm. No judgments either way. Says Laird, “It’s like he’s the team’s star and

also the team’s little brother.”

*****

Takahiro Nomo is a Fighters’ team translator. He also serves as a reminder of how quickly

attitudes can change. For decades the game was a source of one-way trade between the

U.S. and Japan: Mr. Baseball types headed east. In 1995 Takahiro’s father, Hideo, left the

Japan League to pitch for the Dodgers, the first Japanese-born player to play in the majors

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in decades. It was a move so controversial that his parents cried and one of his NPB team’s

executives resigned, disgraced that his player had departed.

Today, if Japan is a feeder system, that’s to some extent a point of pride. More than 100

players have tried to make the transition, with mixed results. Hideki Matsui made three All-

Star teams for the Yankees and was the 2009 World Series MVP; Kaz Matsui batted .267 in

seven seasons. Yu Darvish is 46-30 with a 3.31 ERA and three All-Star Game selections in his

five MLB seasons; Masato Yoshii finished his five-year MLB career in 2002 with a 37-42

record and a 4.62 ERA.

Apart from being likened to Ruth, Ohtani will also face inevitable comparisons to Ichiro, the

most successful Japanese major leaguer and a future Hall of Famer. But Ohtani resists such

juxtapositions—he is just himself. He selects “Do Or Die” by Afrojack featuring 30 Seconds

to Mars as his walk-up music, likes his phone as much as any other 22-year-old and gets

animated defending Japan’s Captain Kangaroo Burgers over In-N-Out Burgers. After asking

what the dress code should be for an interview last month, he expressed thanks that the

answer was “casual.” He showed up at the appointed time, exuded uncommon warmth and,

after apologizing for his work-in-progress English, spent the hourlong session with a smile

spread across his face, waving hair out of his eyes.

The Ohtani Show could—no exaggeration—revolutionize baseball while providing an

international star of rare wattage. But for now Ohtani is devoted to this season in Japan.

“One of my goals was to win the championship, and we were able to accomplish that,” he

says. “But at the same time, I didn’t feel like I was fully able to contribute in the

championship. I wanted to win another championship where I’m completely satisfied and I

felt like I gave my all and my full dedication.”

He’ll spend one more season in the comfort and familiarity of the Japan League. And so

before a recent exhibition game against the Chunichi Dragons, the most captivating player

in baseball took his spot along the leftfield line of the Sapporo Dome as a coach wearing a

whistle around his neck put the entire roster through an elaborate calisthenics routine.

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One of the stretches resembles a bow pose in yoga. Lying flat on their stomachs, the players

bend their knees, grab their ankles and lift their upper chests and chins. They resemble the

sea creatures inhabiting the Hokkaido coast. Sure enough, Laird, the uninhibited American,

began barking like a seal. Spotting two U.S. journalists nearby, he shrugged, flashed a genial

I-told-you-they-do-things-differently-here look and continued stretching halfheartedly.

Nearby, though, Ohtani was quiet and earnest, wearing a look of studied concentration. He

placed his hands precisely around both ankles, lifted his head until it was parallel with the

field and started rocking gracefully, his whole body save his lower abdomen suspended in

midair. He held the stretch and smiled slightly, another exercise in balance, masterfully

achieved.