ARLINGTON, Texas — Bob Melvin had a standing offer with Bruce Bochy in spring training.
Over their nine overlapping years while managing the Bay Area’s baseball teams, Melvin would call Bochy to ask whether the Oakland A’s could use a designated hitter when they played an exhibition against the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium. Bochy would be amenable without exception. To ensure this would remain the case, Melvin would send over a bottle or three of cabernet.
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“He’s got quite a bit in stock,” Melvin said.
Bochy, who is managing his 27th season, will drink for free in perpetuity in two cities. He added to his postseason legend and his three World Series titles in San Francisco from 2010 to 2014 when he managed the Texas Rangers to their first championship in franchise history last season. Melvin, who is managing his 21st season, is still hoping for his first taste of ultimate success as a major-league skipper.
They have opposed one another in 146 regular-season games, or nearly a full season. Their career record is the nearest thing to a draw. Bochy’s Giants were 19-22 when Melvin managed the A’s from 2011 to 2019. Bochy had a 28-26 record against Melvin’s Arizona Diamondbacks from 2007 to 2009. They played to a 19-19 stalemate in 2005-06 when Melvin was in Arizona and Bochy managed the San Diego Padres. Bochy and the Padres took six of nine interleague matchups in 2003-04 when Melvin was experiencing his first managerial gig with the Seattle Mariners.
And last year, Melvin’s Padres swept three games from Bochy’s Rangers in a late July series at San Diego.
They found themselves in opposing dugouts again Friday night. There was nothing novel about that. But this was the first time Melvin managed against Bochy while wearing a Giants uniform. And although Bochy was not Melvin’s immediate predecessor, the comparisons and expectations will be inevitable when the man who occupied your office won three titles in the last decade.
Asked Friday afternoon what it was like to face Bochy, Melvin altered the premise of the question.
“I try not to face him,” Melvin said. “I try to do our thing with our team. What was cool is it was the A’s and Giants in the Bay Area and there was always a little oomph to those games. But we’ve been doing this a long time together. It’s always cool to be on the same field and in opposing dugouts, but I always try to say I’m not managing against him.
“Hopefully, we’re both pretty good at managing the roster that we have. So we’re not going to try to jam a home run team out of a team that doesn’t do that.”
Unless they happen to fly over the fence anyway.
Wilmer Flores followed up his Wednesday grand slam in Arizona by hitting two solo home runs, Michael Conforto lofted a tiebreaking, two-run shot in the seventh inning, and the Giants received a tidy pitching relay from Logan Webb to Tyler Rogers to Camilo Doval as the Giants claimed a 5-2 victory at the Rangers’ cavernous Globe Life Field.
Make Michael an All-Star ⭐️
🗳️ https://t.co/hDBkpG8fYz pic.twitter.com/AWtn0lMG8D
— SFGiants (@SFGiants) June 8, 2024
The current tally: Melvin 74, Bochy 72.
“Lot of history over the years, Bob and I managing against each other,” Bochy said before the game. “We’ve been around for a long time. It’s good to see him, say hello to him. We’re both trying to win games now. Haven’t quite hit our strides, either team.
“It’s fair to say both are trying to get on a nice run or get some consistency. The records are similar, the injuries we’re dealing with.”
Neither Bochy nor Melvin offered expansive pregame thoughts about their battles over the years, which was to be expected. The concern for major-league managers will always be the game in front of them. They appreciate context and they keep tabs on rehabbing players. They will push the limits of their roster in search of nailing down a victory while balancing those ambitions against the long-term preservation that a 162-game season requires. Mostly, though, they are focused on the players who are available on a given night and how they can piece together 27 outs while making the same task as arduous as possible for their counterpart in the other dugout.
Piecing together those 27 outs hasn’t been easy for Melvin most of the season. This time, with his All-Star-worthy ace on the mound in top form, it was as easy as it gets.
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Webb did what his team nearly always requires of him: He needed just 94 pitches to complete seven innings, and he allowed the Giants to reset a taxed bullpen. Webb’s two-seam fastball touched 94.8 mph, which is the hardest he’s thrown a pitch in more than a year. His average two-seam velocity (92.6 mph) was his best in a start since May 27 of last season. After holding the Rangers to two runs on five hits without a walk, Webb lowered his ERA to 2.92, which ranks eighth among National League starters. He has thrown 10 quality starts. The rest of the rotation has thrown 12.
Webb would have been a first-time All-Star last season if he hadn’t pitched on the Sunday before the game, which made him ineligible to be picked as an injury replacement. He cheered on teammate Alex Cobb’s first selection, instead.
It’s too soon to map out Webb’s pitching schedule five weeks out. The Giants will have several opportunities to use days off and push him up to pitch on regular rest. They’re likely to go that route at least a couple of times given the instability and innings limits that continue to impact the rest of the rotation. For now, Webb certainly pitched like a deserving All-Star on Friday night in the ballpark that will play host to the game July 16.
“That’s probably the best stuff I’ve had all year,” Webb said.
Bochy, during his 15 seasons in San Francisco, used to have a stock answer ready whenever he was asked about a listless lineup or a passel of struggling veteran hitters. “You stay with your guys,” he’d say. Although the Giants introduced Buster Posey, Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt during Bochy’s tenure, for the most part, there weren’t quick fixes or sparks of energy to be found in the farm system. Bochy’s response, to the consternation of the more vocally inclined members of the fan base, was to trust his veterans to ride out slumps and find what had made them successful in the past.
For all the energy that Heliot Ramos, Brett Wisely, Luis Matos (now at Triple-A) and Marco Luciano (on the injured list) provided the Giants from Triple-A Sacramento in May, this is still a team that has “its guys.”
Flores and Conforto are certainly two of them.
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All three home runs came on pitches that registered in the heart of the strike zone — an area of maddening inconsistency for the Giants almost all season. Entering the game, the Giants’ .470 slugging percentage on middle-middle strikes was the fourth worst in the major leagues, better than just the Diamondbacks, St. Louis Cardinals and Cleveland Guardians.
Melvin said he watched both hitters take batting practice Friday afternoon and could envision them having breakout games.
“He’s been in a better position to extend,” Melvin said of Flores. “Sometimes he catches the ball deep, but he’s been working to get the bat head out and in a position to extend and drive the ball. You’ve seen it. He led the team in home runs last year. I know on the other side, he’s not a guy I ever wanted to see coming up late in games. Not only can he hit 20-something home runs but he can be really clutch.”
Entering this road trip, Flores had hit just one home run and made contact with just 11 pitches that had an exit velocity over 100 mph. He has hit three homers and put a total of four balls in play at 100-plus mph in four games at Arizona and Texas — a critical improvement for a team that has few alternatives at first base while LaMonte Wade Jr. is out with a moderately strained hamstring.
“It’s weird, the same thing happens: He doesn’t play much early on, then he starts to play more, and then Flo comes out,” Webb said. “He’s a professional hitter. Pitchers who have faced him before will say the same thing. He always lets me know he went 3-for-3 off me in my debut.”
Conforto missed nearly four weeks with his hamstring strain, and his early reputation as a Giant is of a hitter who is slow to regain his timing at the plate following an extended absence. But Melvin noted Conforto’s balance in the box while he lined out as a pinch hitter Wednesday at Arizona. Then he watched Conforto’s “fantastic” batting practice Friday and had a hunch that he’d barrel a few pitches.
“I was definitely late the first couple games back,” Conforto said. “You’re facing major-league arms. No matter what you do rehabbing, it’s a tough league to jump back into. But I was on time for a couple fastballs tonight, so we’ll keep building on that.”
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So will Flores, who hit 15 of his team-high 23 home runs after the All-Star break last season.
“Maybe it’s just being more aggressive,” he said. “You know things are coming, right? When things are going bad you’ve got to be patient and keep working. I don’t allow myself to go crazy about baseball.”
That’s how you have longevity in this game — in the field or in the dugout.
(Photo of Logan Webb: Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)
Andrew Baggarly is a senior writer for The Athletic and covers the San Francisco Giants. He has covered Major League Baseball for more than two decades, including the Giants since 2004 for the Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury News and Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. He is the author of two books that document the most successful era in franchise history: “A Band of Misfits: Tales of the 2010 San Francisco Giants” and “Giant Splash: Bondsian Blasts, World Series Parades and Other Thrilling Moments By the Bay.” Follow Andrew on Twitter @extrabaggs
