SF Giants Press Clips Saturday, May 26, 2018

San Francisco Chronicle Giants’ Hunter Pence ‘making some good strides’ at Sacramento John Shea

CHICAGO —Hunter Pence continues to make hard contact with his new hitting approach at Triple-A Sacramento, and fellow Giants outfielder Mac Williamson gave a glowing review. “We talked a lot while I was there,” said Williamson, who returned from the disabled list Friday after playing five rehab games for the River Cats. “He’s making some good strikes. He’s got the basic concepts down.

“Look, he had a crash course in the middle of the season. Anybody can admire what he’s done in the middle of a season and trying to make it work while playing games.”

Pence, in the minors on a rehab stint after injuring his thumb, is hitting .321 at Sacramento. His success comes after working with independent hitting instructor Doug Latta , who helped recreate Williamson’s swing in the offseason — upright stance, lower hands, aggressive leg kick. “I was there for a month and still didn’t think I had it down pat,” Williamson said of his time with Latta.

Mac’s concussion: In his first interview since his April 24 concussion, Williamson said he felt extremely nauseated and dizzy at times.

“I never had one before,” he said. “I didn’t really know what I was feeling or wasn’t feeling. Some days I was feeling really good, and then I took the exertion test and felt awful after that.”

A visit with concussion specialist Dr. Micky Collins in Pittsburgh was a turning point.

Giants’ Hunter Pence takes step toward return with rehab in Sacramento

“I felt a lot better coming out of that meeting and had a better idea,” Williamson said. “Half the battle is really not knowing what’s going on. You’re left in dark a little bit. It is scary. It all started to come together, and I’m happy to be back.”

Asked if he’ll be extra careful of the AT&T Park bullpen mounds, where Williamson tripped and got concussed, he said, “I’ll be extra cognizant of them. The tough thing about it for me was, I felt I didn’t really do anything stupid. It wasn’t a stupid try-hard play where I dove onto the mounds or slid into the mounds. Can you imagine if I would’ve pulled up and just let that ball fall and not given an attempt? I think it would’ve been a quick ticket back to Sac.”

Briefly: To create roster space for Williamson, reliever Josh Osich was optioned to Sacramento. The Giants are considering adding a reliever for the upcoming series in Denver. ... Shortstop Brandon Crawford made another flashy play, bare-handing Javier Baez ’s fourth- inning grounder (which ricocheted off third baseman Evan Longoria ’s glove) and throwing a one-hopper to Brandon Belt , who scooped it. “He probably made the best play of anybody,” Crawford said. “I’m trying to help Belt get a Gold Glove.”

San Francisco Chronicle Giants fall to Cubs, expect to see a lot of Gorkys Hernandez, Mac Williamson John Shea

CHICAGO — Absolutely no one had Gorkys Hernandez and Mac Williamson in the name-the- Giants-starting-outfield office pool, but there they were in Friday’s series opener at Wrigley Field.

Until further notice, manager Bruce Bochy plans to play Hernandez in center (“he’s been going out there every day, yeah”) and Williamson in left (“he’s going to get the lion’s share”).

Who woulda thunk it on Opening Day?

The Giants fell 6-2 to the Cubs on a day Hernandez homered and singled and Williamson returned to the lineup after missing a month with a concussion. The Giants are 0-3 on the trip, getting outscored 21-5.

The hope is for Williamson to spark the lineup, Friday’s 0-for-4 and three strikeouts notwithstanding. Bochy said he was pleased the left fielder got a lot of swings, his first in the majors since April 24, the day he tripped over an AT&T Park bullpen mound and hit his head on a padded wall.

Williamson still made an impact Friday, throwing out Albert Almora Jr. trying to score from second base in the first. Thanks to Williamson, the Cubs had to settle for one run on Anthony Rizzo’s single.

“I’m excited to be back,” Williamson said. “My body feels good. It’s encouraging.”

Hernandez had two hits, and his fourth-inning home run tied the score. It was his fifth homer in 96 at-bats, quite a change from last year when his homers total in 310 at-bats was zero.

“I know I’m a power hitter sometimes,” said Hernandez, mentioning his eight Triple-A homers in 2016. “I know I can hit a home run. Last year, I had nothing. But last year is last year, it’s the past.”

Hernandez said he was more concerned last year with putting the ball in play, and in the final month, he was slowed by a sore left wrist that was alleviated with hamate surgery. He’s fine now, as his four homers in his past 10 games and 10-for-26 run in his past seven games suggest.

“If I play every day, I’m much better,” Hernandez said. “That’s not to say if I don’t play every day, I couldn’t be better. But if I play every day, I can help the team.”

The season opened with Austin Jackson in center and Hunter Pence in left, but Hernandez has a hot bat and is a better defender than Jackson, and Pence is with Triple-A Sacramento working on a revamped swing, which was inspired by Williamson’s.

After Williamson slugged his way through spring training and at Sacramento to open the season, the Giants called him up. But he played just five games (hitting three homers) before getting hurt and didn’t miss a beat in a five-game rehab assignment, hitting two homers and a triple.

“I felt pretty good the whole time,” Williamson said of his River Cats assignment, “as good as you’re going to feel after being out for three weeks. I felt pretty good with the work trying to maintain where I was before.”

The Cubs scored four runs in the seventh inning, a rally gift-wrapped by Derek Holland, who plunked the first batter and walked the next (both with two strikes), and Will Smith, who issued another walk to fill the bases.

Ben Zobrist smacked a two-run double to break a 1-1 tie, and Cory Gearrin came in and give up Kris Bryant’s two-run single. Holland pitched well the first six innings, surrendering an unearned run and five hits.

The Giants scored their second run on Evan Longoria’s single with two outs in the ninth. The game ended when Williamson struck out with two aboard, but expect to see him in the lineup regularly.

“Of course, how they play dictates playing time, as always,” Bochy said. “But as of right now, he’s going to be playing left field for the most part.”

San Francisco Chronicle Mac Williamson returns to Giants, explains his sometimes ‘miserable’ road to recorvery John Shea

CHICAGO - Mac Williamson returned to the Giants’ lineup Friday at Wrigley Field, where bullpen mounds are safely tucked beyond the ivy-covered outfield walls.

Unlike at AT&T Park, where they’re on the field. Williamson missed a month with a concussion after tripping on a bullpen mound April 24 and hitting his head on a padded wall.

Asked if he’ll be extra careful of the Giants’ bullpen mounds, Williamson said, “I’ll be extra cognizant of them. The tough thing about it for me was, I felt I didn’t really do anything stupid. It wasn’t a stupid try-hard play where I dove onto the mounds or slid into the mounds.

“Can you imagine if I would’ve pulled up and just let that ball fall and not given an attempt? I think it would’ve been a quick ticket back to Sac.”

Not quite. Williamson’s bat is what carried him to the big leagues, and his new plate approach - upright stance, hands lower, aggressive leg kick -- is what turned him into a legitimate power threat. He hit three homers in five games for the Giants before his injury.

He didn’t miss a beat in a five-game rehab assignment with Triple-A Sacramento, hitting two homers and a triple.

“I felt pretty good the whole time,” Williamson said of his latest River Cats’ assignment, “as good as you’re going to feel after being out for three weeks. I felt pretty good with the work trying to maintain where I was before.”

The immediate aftermath of the concussion, including times he felt extremely nauseated and dizzy, was a different story.

“I never had one before,” he said, speaking publicly of his concussion for the first time. “I didn’t really know what I was feeling or wasn’t feeling. Some days I was feeling really good, and then I

5 took the exertion test and felt awful after that. … It was just miserable.”

A visit with concussion specialist Dr. Micky Collins in Pittsburgh was a turning point.

To keep his swing in rhythm, Williamson stood at the plate during pitchers’ bullpen sessions, including Madison Bumgarner’s, and took swings off hitting machines.

“I tried to stay as active as I could,” he said. “I had days not as good as others in terms of how I felt. That’s part of the problem, why it took so long to get back. Some days I felt great, some days I felt awful.”

Williamson played left field and batted seventh in Friday’s opener and made an immediate impact, throwing out Albert Almora Jr. trying to score from second base on Anthony Rizzo’s single.

“It’s going to be important to be myself and do the best job in the 7 hole as I can,” Williamson said. “What I realized this year was, the biggest part of this team is just being part of the team and not being too much. There’s not going to be a guy who’s going to carry the team all the way through. Every day there’s another guy who can do it. That’s what’s special about the team here.”

While in Sacramento, Williamson checked in with Hunter Pence, whose new swing is similar to Williamson’s. Pence got his Sacramento average above .300 after working with independent hitting instructor Doug Latta, who helped recreate Williamson’s swing in the offseason.

“We talked a lot while I was there,” Williamson said. “He’s making some good strikes. He’s got the basic concepts down. Look, he had a crash course in the middle of the season. Anybody can admire what he’s done in the middle of a season and trying to make it work while playing

6 games. I was there for a month and still didn’t think I had it down pat. Hunter’s got an idea on the direction he wants to go with it, and now it’s a matter of trying to control it and do it in a game.”

MLB.com After 6 strong IP, free passes doom Holland, SF Chris Haft

CHICAGO -- Giants pitchers know what they're talking about. They just don't always follow their own advice, as Friday's 6-2 loss to the Cubs demonstrated.

After convening at Wrigley Field, Giants pitchers held one of their semi-regular meetings which are meant to emphasize fundamentals, analyze an opponent or review a key issue. Friday's subject du jour, as manager Bruce Bochy related, was walking batters who come around to score critically important runs. The Giants became aware of this sin when they were old enough to put on their first pair of baseball socks.

View Full Game Coverage That didn't prevent Derek Holland from spoiling his own excellent performance with a brief lapse in command. Locked in a 1-1 tie with Cubs right-hander Kyle Hendricks through six innings, Holland opened the seventh by hitting Javier Baez with a pitch and walking Ian Happ , which ended his day. These free passes led to Ben Zobrist 's two-run double and Kris Bryant 's two-run single that fueled Chicago's four-run, seventh-inning outburst. The Cubs' surge hastened the Giants' third consecutive loss.

Bochy referenced the walk talk and remarked, "It turned out that's what came back to hit us today. That's an area we have to get better at."

Holland might struggle to outdo his effort against the Cubs, at least the first six innings of it. He has lasted that long in three consecutive starts, indicating that he's finding consistency. The same can't be said for the rest of San Francisco's rotation. Holland gave the team its fifth start of six innings or more in its last 18 games. Only three of those games were quality starts. Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto can't return from their respective injuries soon enough for the Giants.

Life might be easier for Giants starters if they ever pitched with a commanding lead. That rarely happens for the Giants -- primarily on the road, where they have averaged 3.1 runs per game

(84 runs in 27 games). That's the lowest figure in the Majors.

Friday was no different. Hendricks retired the first nine hitters he faced, a span that included warning-track fly balls from Andrew McCutchen and Buster Posey . Gorkys Hernandez finally cleared the wall with his fifth home run leading off the fourth inning. That solidified his status, as Bochy acknowledged, as San Francisco's top center fielder. Hernandez is batting .385 (10-for- 26) during a seven-game hitting streak. "He's been going out there every day, yeah," Bochy said.

The Giants made a valiant stand in the ninth inning, when Brandon Belt singled with two outs off Pedro Strop , moved to second on defensive indifference and came home on Evan Longoria 's single through the right side of the infield. Cubs reliever Brian Duensing entered and walked Brandon Crawford in a 10-pitch at-bat. Chicago manager Joe Maddon then called on his closer, Brandon Morrow , who struck out Mac Williamson on three pitches to end the game.

SOUND SMART Besides being 0-3 on this trip, the Giants have dropped nine of their last 10 road games. The've been outscored 70-25 in that stretch.

YOU GOTTA SEE THIS Crawford turned in one of the plays of the year in the fourth inning, when Baez smacked a grounder that caromed off the heel of Longoria's glove. Hovering nearby, Crawford grabbed the ball barehanded and fired it on one hop to Belt at first for the out. Crawford, the three-time Gold Glove Award winner, was typically self-effacing. "I thought Belt made the best play," Crawford said.

UP NEXT The enigmatic Chris Stratton doesn't need to reverse his fortunes -- the Giants are 7-3 in his starts -- but he will strive to improve his performance, having recorded an 8.59 ERA in his last five outings. Opponents have hit six homers and batted .358 off Stratton in that span. Stratton, who has never faced the Cubs, will duel Chicago left-hander Jose Quintana in the 4:15 p.m. PT matchup Saturday at Wrigley Field.

MLB.com Williamson off DL, promptly nails runners at home Chris Haft

CHICAGO -- The Giants hope that Mac Williamson can perform as if those 27 games he missed were a mere nuisance.

The Giants activated Williamson from the disabled list Friday and immediately installed him in left field for 6-2 loss in the series opener against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Williamson hadn't played for the Giants since April 24, when he sustained a concussion in a collision with the left- field wall.

View Full Game Coverage This wasn't a mere one-day, knock-the-rust-off start for Williamson. Giants manager Bruce Bochy said that Williamson, who hit a robust .316 (6-for-19) with three homers and six RBIs in five games before being sidelined, will receive "the lion's share" of playing time in left.

Williamson hurt himself when he stumbled and collided with the left-field wall adjacent to the Giants' bullpen at AT&T Park in pursuit of a foul ball.

"I'm excited to be back," Williamson said. "My body feels good. It's encouraging."

Williamson contributed immediately by throwing out Albert Almora Jr. at home plate in the first inning. Statcast™ stracked Williamson's throw at 94.6 mph. He finished the game 0-for-4 with three strikeouts, including going down swinging on three pitches to end the game with two runners on.

The Giants optioned left-hander Josh Osich to Triple-A Sacramento to clear roster room for Williamson. This trimmed San Francisco's pitching staff to 12 -- one fewer than usual, which is not an ideal situation with a three-game series at Coors Field looming ahead beginning Monday. Expect the Giants to add a reliever by that date.

San Jose Mercury news Giants unravel in costly seventh inning, record four hits in loss to Cubs Kerry Crowley

CHICAGO–Derek Holland crushes himself for allowing leadoff runners to reach base.

So after Holland cruised through his first six innings against the Chicago Cubs Friday, the lefty will look back on the way he started the seventh with regret.

Three different Giants pitchers combined to allow four runs in a decisive bottom of the seventh inning of their 6-2 loss, extending the team’s losing streak to three games.

Through the first 51 contests of the season, the Giants have now endured five separate losing streaks of at least three games.

Holland opened the frame by hitting Javier Báez with a 2-2 sinker that trailed too far off the inside corner before walking Ian Happ. Manager Bruce Bochy pulled Holland in favor of lefty Will Smith, but after a sacrifice bunt and a walk, Smith allowed the go-ahead two-run double to Ben Zobrist.

The Cubs added two more runs after righty Cory Gearrin surrendered a single to Kris Bryant, but it was Holland’s breakdown at the beginning of the frame that sparked a Chicago rally and ruined the starter’s day.

With Madison Bumgarner and Johnny Cueto on the disabled list, Holland has emerged as the Giants most consistent starter. With six innings pitched and three runs allowed Friday, the 10th- year veteran recorded his second quality start of the month, which leads the Giants staff.

After six innings of solid work, though, Holland’s command evaded him.

Holland, Smith and Gearrin combined to allow three walks and a hit by pitch in a miserable seventh inning, but the Giants’ offense wasn’t of much help Friday.

Outside of two hits by leadoff hitter Gorkys Hernandez, the Giants tallied only two more hit and only had five other players reach base.

No player in the Major Leagues accumulated more plate appearances without hitting a home run last season than Hernandez, but he has morphed into a reliable source of power at the top

10 of the Giants order.

After Hendricks retired the first nine hitters he faced, Hernandez crushed a solo shot into the left center field bleachers to lead off the fourth inning and tie the score 1-1. Hernandez’s fifth home run of the season gives the part-time outfielder as many homers as Andrew McCutchen and Buster Posey have combined for in the first 51 games of the year.

Hendricks settled down after the home run, sitting down the next eight hitters he faced before Hernandez stepped up and roped a groundball single through the middle of the infield with two outs in the sixth.

Hernandez was the only player producing against the Cubs right-hander, as a McCutchen walk preceded a Posey groundout to end the sixth inning.

The Giants’ lack of offense didn’t haunt the club until the seventh because Holland enjoyed one of his best outings of the season Friday. The left-hander allowed four earned runs against the Rockies in his last outing and a run in the first inning against the Cubs, but overcame a slow start to carve up a tough Chicago lineup.

Holland allowed back-to-back singles in the first inning to Ben Zobrist and Albert Almora, Jr. before Anthony Rizzo poked a one-out single in front of left fielder Mac Williamson.

The Giants are hoping Williamson’s bat will pack a punch, but it was his arm that made an immediate impact upon his return from the disabled list. After being sidelined for nearly a month with a concussion, Williamson collected Rizzo’s single and fired a 94-mile per hour strike to Posey that stopped Almora, Jr. in his tracks.

An aggressive send at third base turned into a mistake for the Cubs as Williamson’s throw reached Posey before Almora, Jr. had a chance to consider sliding. The Cubs ran into the second out of the inning, and from that point on, Holland ran through Chicago until he opened the seventh inning.

The Athletic Giants notes: Mac Williamson returns with the promise of everyday playing time Andrew Baggarly

CHICAGO – It might be cliché to describe Mac Williamson’s four weeks in the concussion protocol as a rollercoaster ride. But that’s exactly what it felt like – complete with the ups, downs and crippling nausea. Just when he thought he was through it, the lap bar would come down, the ride would start back up, and the symptoms would return. One day he would take batting practice, feel ready to conquer the world, walk into manager Bruce Bochy’s office with all the aggression of someone about to leave his cover and charge a sniper’s nest, and proclaim himself ready to return. The next day, he’d sit in agony on a five-hour flight to Atlanta, nervously doing the mental math of how many seconds it would take him to grab the barf bag out of the seatback pocket. “The symptoms came back,” he said, “with a vengeance.” He had never sustained a concussion before taking a spill near the bullpen mounds in foul ground at AT&T Park April 24. He relied on Brandon Belt and Joe Panik to help him make sense of his unpredictable recovery and manage his expectations. Seeing Dr. Mickey Collins in Pittsburgh, the same specialist who treated Belt in the past, was a huge help. Even after Williamson began his rehab assignment with Triple-A Sacramento, Collins would call to check in every day. “He called at 9:45 last night,” Williamson said. “I mean, it’s 10:45 on a Friday in Pittsburgh. He’s been unbelievable.” In five games earlier this season, so was Williamson. One of those indoor skydiving joints couldn’t have provided a more powerful lift. It wasn’t merely that Williamson hit three home runs in those five games. He brought a forceful presence to the lineup. Homers might count the same on the scoreboard regardless of exit velocity and launch angle, but those towering shots did a little extra for a team that hadn’t won any of its first six series prior to Williamson’s arrival at Anaheim. Now he is back after going 6 for 17 with two homers, a double and a triple in five rehab games for Sacramento. And Bochy rubber-stamped what should have been obvious to everyone: he will be the Giants’ everyday left fielder. “He’ll get the lion’s share,” said Bochy, who put Williamson in the lineup for Friday’s series opener against the Cubs. “Of course, how they play dictates playing time, as always. As of right now, he will play left field for the most part.” It really is remarkable: Williamson was far down the depth chart when the spring began, he had no real shot to make the Opening Day roster and he’s played just five big league games this season. Yet his return has the feel of a much bigger move – as big as getting Panik back at

12 second base, perhaps bigger than getting Mark Melancon back in the bullpen. (Maybe not quite as big as Madison Bumgarner blowing snotrockets from the mound again, though.) Here’s a quick rundown on the health of those guys, plus some others: — Bumgarner remains scheduled to throw 45 pitches on Saturday for Sacramento, then start for High-A San Jose on May 31. He could return to the rotation June 5 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, or if he requires a third rehab start to build his pitch count, June 10 at Washington. — Melancon made his second rehab appearance for Sacramento on Friday, giving up one hit and striking out one in two-thirds of an inning. He is now eligible to be activated from the 60- day disabled list but is expected to continue his rehab work with an appearance on Sunday. Bochy has mentioned the importance of getting Melancon to throw in back-to-back games before he’s activated. He will not pitch in a leveraged role when he returns, at least at the outset. — Panik is making terrific progress from surgery on April 30 to repair a torn left thumb ligament. He continues to swing a bat without pain and is likely to begin his minor league rehab work early next week. Bochy estimated Panik would need 25 to 30 at-bats, or eight to nine games. Sketching it out: he’s likely to be back by the time the Giants start a three-city trip June 8 at Washington, if not earlier. It helps that Panik’s injury is to his non-throwing hand, as well as his top hand while gripping a bat. — Second baseman Alen Hanson probably doesn’t have a place on this roster after Panik returns, so it would help if his strained hamstring makes a quick recovery. He has advanced to doing baseball work at the club’s complex in Arizona and his rehab assignment will begin soon. Bochy did not have a timetable for Hanson’s return. — Right-hander Johnny Cueto should begin playing catch soon. It’s hard to gauge his timetable until trainers see how his elbow responds. From what I understand, Cueto is eager to ramp up quickly. — Left-hander Josh Osich was optioned to create a roster space for Williamson. It’ll be interesting to see what happens after this series, though. The Giants might go back to 13 pitchers regardless, since their next stop is Coors Field. Non-quality work from Derek Holland, Chris Stratton and Ty Blach would all but guarantee it. The most predictable solution might be another position player going on the disabled list to rest up one ache or another. You can speculate from there. — Hunter Pence is 12 games into his maximum 20-game rehab assignment for Sacramento as the 35-year-old seeks to overhaul his swing in a bid to return as a productive major league player. So the Giants will have a decision to make around June 1 or so. Having Williamson as Pence’s River Cats teammate for a week proved to be a big help. They spent a lot of time discussing swing mechanics – Pence is using the same swing theories that Williamson adopted over the winter – and as much as this might seem like a desperation play, Williamson, for one, is convinced that it’s going to pay dividends.

“Nobody is as mentally strong and nobody works harder,” Williamson said. “He is going to make a difference here.”

The Athletic Despite Brandon Crawford’s brilliance, opener at Wrigley is no day at the beach for Giants Andrew Baggarly

CHICAGO — Go by almanac and equinox and the first day of summer won’t arrive here for four weeks. That is not how they measure the first day of summer at Wrigley Field. You know it by counting the sailboats on the lake rise beyond the right field bleachers, by the preponderance of spaghetti straps and by the puddle of condensation that forms on a 16-ounce domestic draft. You know it when the press box windows yawn open for the first time after seven months of gathering cobwebs. And you know it by the sound a crowd makes in response to a misplay or a double that rattles in the left-field corner. Enough of the season has passed to provide context. Attitudes and opinions have taken shape. Listen to reaction and you can discern a bit more adulation for the perceived heroes, a bit more scolding for the perceived scapegoats. The Cubs began the season in a funk, but they know who they are. Their 6-2 victory over the Giants on a balmy Friday afternoon put them at 26-21, and while they remain in a three-team glut for second place in the NL Central — three games behind the Milwaukee Brewers before Friday night’s games — the Cubs’ plus-66 run differential is far superior. They expect to win the division. You could make a worse wager than to bet the field, but that doesn’t mean you should do it. The Giants also began the season in a funk, and at 24-27, they will try to convince you that they know who they are, too. You’ll have to take it on faith for now. Their loss in the series opener here was their ninth in their last 10 road games and they are sliding into one of those discordant runs when they cannot get their rotation and offense to produce in concert. They received a creditable start from Derek Holland, whom manager Bruce Bochy trusted to take the mound in the seventh inning in a 1-1 game before a two-strike pitch got a piece of Javier Baez and another two-strike count resulted in a slippery walk to Ian Happ. We’ve seen enough to know it by now: every sniffle of lost command, however mild, is sending the Giants to the urgent care center. We’ll get to the rest of the seventh inning, but for now, suffice it to say that the Cubs scored four runs off of two Giants relievers and the rest of the afternoon was shuffling papers. The series opener was notable for two reasons, and the first was only tangentially related to the game. In his morning session with reporters, Bochy confirmed that Mac Williamson would get the “lion’s share” of playing time in left field. And afterward, the manager more or less

14 confirmed that Gorkys Hernández had won himself an everyday role, at least for now, in center field. “He’s been going out there every day,” said Bochy, “so, yeah.” The Giants had just two hits until the ninth inning and both of them belonged to Hernández. He barreled up a home run in the fourth inning and whistled a single up the middle in the sixth. He was the only batter to solve Kyle Hendricks, who used his changeup and dotted fastball to complete seven innings on just 88 pitches. Hernández’s homer was his fifth of the season. He has as many as Andrew McCutchen and Buster Posey combined. And he’s done it in just 98 at-bats. Last season, when a record-setting number of home runs flew out of major league ballparks, Hernández held an ignominious title: He had the most at-bats (310) of any big leaguer without going deep. The almost daily threat of being designated for assignment, combined with a .160 average on this date a year ago, motivated Hernández to swing with less appetite in an effort to get hits to pretty up the scoreboard and make himself less conspicuous. Then a busted left wrist that required surgery forced him to lower his sights in the season’s final month. “I know I didn’t have a home run,” he said. “But I finished strong. I told myself this year, ‘Be a strong guy, mentally and physically. Be ready to help the team.’ ” The other notable contribution Friday came from shortstop Brandon Crawford, whose defense so often goes unnoticed in blowout wins or losses that the bullpen bends out of shape. Was Crawford’s reaction play in the fourth inning one of the top 10 most impressive plays of his career? With any other shortstop, it wouldn’t be a question. With Crawford, you have to wince as you ask it. It began when Javier Baez hit a hard grounder to the left side that ate up third baseman Evan Longoria. The ball hopped in front of Longoria’s glove, skipped off the heel and caromed in the air. Crawford, positioned behind him, not only reacted to the carom to pick it cleanly but did so with his bare hand. Then first baseman Brandon Belt scooped the skidding throw ahead of Baez’s headfirst slide. “It was just a reaction,” Crawford said. “Fortunately, I got a good enough grip on it to get it over to Belt, and he probably made the best play of anybody.” Longoria deflected the ball. Crawford deflected credit. Leave it to Holland, then, to marvel at the Giants’ Gold Glove shortstop. “And Baez is not a slow runner,” Holland said. “That’s what I’m saying: That’s a fucking play. ” (Holland, told that The Athletic has an open-minded policy when it comes to profane words in quotations, declined the offer of a sanitized substitute. “It’s fine,” he said. “It’s an emotional reaction.”) Longoria’s description was suitable for all audiences: “Just write that he’s really good, man.”

As Longoria noted, it is impressive enough for a shortstop to even glove the ball cleanly with so little time to react. Crawford not only came up with the ball, he had the foresight to understand that his only chance at beating Baez to first base was to go directly to the barehand. Crawford made a subtle but similar calibration in the second inning, when Addison Russell hit a ground-ball single up the middle. Crawford loves nothing more than to take hits away from his fellow shortstops, especially those who have been Gold Glove finalists. So it seemed a bit strange when he ranged up the middle but did not leave his feet as the ball barely eluded his reach. Then you realize: Crawford knew there was no profit in diving to knock the ball down. The bases were empty with two outs, so keeping the ball on the infield wouldn’t prevent any runners from taking an extra 90 feet. And because Russell runs well, a diving stop wouldn’t leave enough time for a throw. Whether Crawford stuck all that data on a punch card and processed it pre-pitch, or reacted in the moment, or both, he knew his only chance at making an out would be to glove the ball while staying on his feet. Appreciate these small moments and you understand that there’s nobody better at knowing what to do, knowing where to go, knowing how best to direct his energy and athleticism on the field at any point in time or under any circumstance. If there is such a thing as spatial intelligence, Crawford is a savant. “I love playing next to him,” Longoria said. “It’s pretty special.” A successful bullpen follows the same premise. They back up one another. That is not what the relievers did as the afternoon was lost in the seventh inning. Will Smith did not know where his pitches were going and he fell behind in the count as Russell postured to sacrifice two runners, thus taking away any chance for the Giants to pitch out. Then after Russell’s successful bunt put runners at second and third, Smith walked pinch-hitter Tommy La Stella on four pitches. It was not a strategic walk. “Just didn’t execute,” Smith said. Bochy stuck with Smith against switch-hitter Ben Zobrist, which was the right statistical move. There were times last season when Zobrist could hardly swing right-handed because of wrist pain. But if the strategy was sound, the execution was not. Zobrist hit a first-pitch mistake down the left-field line for a two-run double. “We put Smitty in a tough situation, (but) I liked the matchup,” Bochy said. Cory Gearrin entered and struck out Albert Almora Jr. before Kris Bryant hit a two-run single, perpetuating what has become an ongoing issue for the Giants’ shaggy right-handed setup man.

Gearrin has inherited an NL-most 21 runners this season and allowed 10 to score. The league average strand rate is nearer to 33 percent. Last season, Gearrin allowed 49 percent to score (20 of 41). It was the second highest cash-in rate among NL pitchers who inherited at least 25 runners last season. Yet Bochy did not give off the impression that he will juggle bullpen roles. Gearrin’s sinker and slider, in theory, remain the best pitch mix among Bochy’s right-handed options to get double- play grounders. No other Giants reliever has inherited more than 10 runners this season. And besides, the club was playing from behind at that point. Bochy was more concerned with the walks, and how many of them are scoring. (Friday’s final tally: five walks and a hit batter, with four crossing the plate). He made limiting walks a point of emphasis when he met with his pitchers prior to the game. “It turned out to hurt us again today,” he said. A couple fewer walks or a couple more stranded runners in the seventh would have made the ninth a whole lot more interesting. The Giants staged a two-out rally with two hits and Crawford’s dogged, 10-pitch walk. With the tying run on deck, Williamson struck out on three Brandon Morrow fastballs — 99.7 mph being the tamest of them — to end it. The Giants did some things exceptionally well, they received their first quality start in six games and they continue to bank on the promise that within two weeks, they’ll have Madison Bumgarner and Joe Panik back at their disposal, and possibly Hunter Pence and Mark Melancon as well, with Johnny Cueto a bit further out and willing to give them whatever his ailing elbow allows. But for now, it was a loss on a beer-and-bared-skin afternoon. Maybe the days will get better from here, maybe not. This much is sure: they will continue to get longer. Summer hasn’t officially begun yet.

NBCbayareasports.com Giants unravel in seventh inning, drop series opener to Cubs Alex Pavlovic

CHICAGO -- Kyle Hendricks limited San Francisco to one run and two hits over seven innings, Ben Zobrist lined a tiebreaking two-run double in the seventh and the Chicago Cubs beat the Giants 6-2 on Friday.

Hendricks (4-3) struck out seven and walked two to help the Cubs open the series on a winning note after a two-game sweep by Cleveland at Wrigley Field.

Gorkys Hernandez had two of San Francisco's four hits - a leadoff homer in the fourth and single in the sixth. Evan Longoria added an RBI single against Pedro Strop in the ninth, but the Giants fell to 0-3 on an eight-game trip. They have been outscored 21-5.

The Cubs scored four in the seventh while chasing Derek Holland to grab a 5-1 lead. Zobrist's double to left against Will Smith made it 3-1, and Kris Bryant added a two-run single off Cory Gearrin . Addison Russell made it 6-1 with an RBI single in the eighth, and the Cubs hung on for the victory.

Pedro Strop retired the first two batters in the ninth before Brandon Belt singled, went to second on indifference and scored on Longoria's single.

Brian Duensing walked Brandon Crawford to put runners on first and second, but Brandon Morrow struck out Mac Williamson for his 11th save in 12 chances.

Holland (2-6) gave up three runs (two earned) and five hits. He left with none out in the seventh after hitting Javier Baez and walking Ian Happ .

Addison Russell moved the runners up with a sacrifice against Smith before Tommy La Stella - batting for Hendricks - walked. That loaded the bases for Zobrist, who lined a double to left.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Giants: LHP Madison Bumgarner (fractured pinky on his throwing hand) is scheduled to throw approximately 45 pitches in a rehab start with Triple-A Sacramento Saturday. ... 2B Joe Panik (sprained left thumb) continues to make progress and could begin a rehab assignment before the team concludes its current road trip that runs through Wednesday.

UP NEXT

Giants: RHP Chris Stratton (5-3, 4.92 ERA) tries to win his third straight start, though he's only gone five innings in each of his past two.

Cubs: LHP Jose Quintana (5-3, 4.47) looks to build on a dominant start after throwing one-hit ball over seven innings in a 10-0 win at Cincinnati on Saturday.

NBCbayareasports.com Down on the Farm: Ray Black and his 100-mph heater are back Dalton Johnson

Ray Black nearly retired before this season . Ray Black was designated for assignment to help make room for names like Aaron Hill, Chris Marrero and Neil Ramirez just last year. Ray Black

18 can also throw a fastball 104 mph.

With injuries and anybody's guess where the ball is going, Black's career hasn't paved a fast path to the big leagues for someone with a rocket right arm. But now at 27 years old -- he'll be 28 in June -- Black is back and maybe better than ever.

Take a look at how Black was blowing up the radar gun for the River Cats Thursday night in Sacramento.

Black faced four batters Thursday night. All four outs came from strikeouts and only one batter reached base as the lone hit he allowed.

After only pitching 2.1 innings last season due to elbow surgery, Black began the season in Double-A Richmond this year. His start to the season was nothing short of dominant.

Before being promoted to Triple-A, Black appeared in 10 games for the Flying Squirrels. Over 10 innings, he allowed just two hits and one earned run. Batters had no chance in Double-A against Black as he finished with 20 strikeouts, and what was even more encouraging, he only walked four.

Once he arrived in Sacrameto, things didn't start as smooth out of the bullpen. Black's first two appearances don't look great in the box score as he allowed five earned runs over 2.1 innings and three walks. But, all five of those runs came off two home runs and he still struck out five.

Since Black's first two bullpen appearances for the River Cats, he's been nearly unhittable. Including Thursday night, Black has allowed only one hit in 4.1 innings with no runs, one walk and nine strikeouts.

Healthy and back on the mound, Black has 34 strikeouts to eight walks in 16.2 innings between two levels this season. It has been a long road, but the Giants could have quite the treasure at the end of this map.

ESPN.com Juiced baseballs, starting relievers and MLB's next big thing Bradford Doolittle

It's a cliche to say something "came out of left field," but when you're writing about baseball, you get to use that particular cliche. MLB's league office sent out a press release Thursday that came out of that proverbial left field, and it raises some very fundamental questions about the game.

Here's the big one: What does baseball want to be?

The surprising news was that MLB had received the results from a comprehensive study on the ball itself, spurred by the surge in home run rates across the sport since 2015. In a nutshell, as independent studiessuggested, baseball has been played with a livelier ball in recent seasons. Until now, baseball's response to the homer surge was that the ball was no different than it had been. We know now that isn't the case, and it's heartening to see the league being transparent about this issue by announcing the details of the study along with some steps to address its conclusions. EDITOR'S PICKS • 45 things to know about Bartolo Colon on his 45th birthday He's pitched for 11 teams over 21 seasons, winning 242 games and a Cy Young -- but there's so much more to "Big Sexy" than mere numbers.

• Keith Law's 2018 Big Board: Casey Mize tops MLB draft class With the MLB draft coming up June 4-6, we rank the top 100 prospects, with Auburn's star right-hander coming in at No. 1.

• Real or not? Justin Verlander is better than he's ever been At 35, the Astros ace may be on his way to a season for the ages, posting a 1.08 ERA over his first 11 starts. Commissioner Rob Manfred announced in the press release that he was adopting each of the recommendations from the committee, most of which involve intensifying the level of science when it comes to keeping control of the on-field product.

There will be standardized procedures for testing the aerodynamics of the ball. There will more refined specifications as it relates to the manufacturing processes of the balls at Rawlings. There will be a new scientific advisory council formed to offer essential perspective to on-field

20 matters. Heck, they are even going to tighten up the procedures for how Delaware River mud is rubbed on the ball.

Most interestingly, the league is going to review the environmental conditions of how balls are stored in all 30 ballparks and determine whether to require each team to use a humidor -- a la Coors Field and Chase Field -- to store all game-used baseballs.

ADVERTISEMENT This last thing strikes me as a no-brainer for a simple reason: If we can do everything to ensure that the ball -- the literal core of the sport -- is standard from one city to the next, shouldn't we do that?

The Diamondbacks joined the Rockies this season in employing humidors. It's too early to evaluate that experiment, but what we can say is that Arizona's team isolated power has fallen from .190 last season to .146 this season. That number has been .175 on the road, but plummets to .136 at Chase Field. Is it the humidor? Might be. Too soon to say.

Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports The Arizona stats are cautionary, but in a way it's an argument for standardization. Rather than having one or two teams experimenting with environmental storage factors, it makes sense to have everyone doing it the same way.

As for Thursday's announcement, there was no causal explanation in it because, from all indications, they don't know why the ball's physics changed. Really though, the explanation -- and whether any change to the ball was an intentional tweak to the manufacturing process or not -- doesn't matter. Now that we've seen the latest stark demonstration of how the style of baseball being played at a given time can be hugely affected by minute changes to the equipment needed to play it, what matters is that baseball takes control of its own physics.

If baseball is able to truly standardize how baseballs react to being thrown, spun and struck with a stick of wood, and keep it consistent from season to season, then we arrive at a very fundamental question. That is, what kind of a game does baseball want to be?

Does it want to be the 2018 version, with sky-high home run rates, record-level strikeouts and rock-bottom levels of balls in play? Does it want to be the 1907 version, when there were fewer homers hit in all of baseball than 30-year-old Justin Upton already has in his big league career? Does it want to be the 1930 version, in which the National League hit a collective .303? Does it want to be the 1968 version, when the big league ERA was 2.98? The appropriate answer is none of the above.

What baseball needs to strive for is balance. Plenty of home runs, but not too many. Enough balls in play that we get our fill of throws, double plays and line drives to the alleys, but not so many that the talented flamethrowers populating the game right now can't do their thing. Enough scoring to keep fans engaged, but not so much that the scoreboard looks like one from a slow-pitch softball league.

Balance is an abstract term, of course, and there would have to be some understanding of what it means in a historical baseball context. Looking at historical medians for the live ball era is a good place to start. (Hint: Baseball in the early 1960s was right at the median in many respects.) But this is a debate worth having, and it ties into a number of larger questions the league is dealing with, such as pace-of-play and time-of-game considerations.

That said, there are a lot of things that affect the style of baseball that dominates any era of the sport, and there are always going to be cycles. However, those cycles shouldn't be caused by the equipment itself. Especially the ball.

Let's hope that Thursday's announcement takes us a step toward baseball recovering the kind balance it enjoys when it's at its best.

What the numbers say

Reliever Sergio Romo started two games last weekend against the Angels and is expected to start two more this upcoming weekend. Mark J. Terrill/AP Will the Rays' Romo strategy start a trend?

It's not often the Tampa Bay Rays get into the center of our general baseball conversation, but they certainly did so last weekend when they started reliever Sergio Romo in back-to-back games. The Rays plan a similar approach in this weekend's series with the Orioles. The debate around the bullpenning issue is fascinating and, I would argue, good for the game. The strategy challenges longtime norms when it comes to the delineation between starters and relievers -- a line that was once much more blurry than it has become over the last half-century or so. It involves advanced metrics, game theory and player psychology. That's all good stuff.

Pitching staffs have always been subject to evolutionary forces, and it feels like now we're going through an exhilarating shift in how pitchers are and will be deployed. While this is all really exciting, I do not, like Cubs manager Joe Maddon, think the Rays' reliever-as-a-starter model

22 will become the dominant one for pitching staff construction, nor do I think it would be particularly good for the game if it did. However, I also don't think the strategy will go away any time soon. One criticism is that a cynical person might look at this as a way for teams to save payroll. While that's certainly an area the players' association will monitor, I have a hard time seeing that as a deal-breaker. Mainly, that's because I don't think the big-time starting pitcher is going away.

The Romo maneuver really only makes sense against a team with an unbalanced lineup. That certainly describes a right-handed-heavy Angels roster that has had fewer plate appearances from lefty hitters than any team in baseball. The thing is, even if the Romo strategy proves to be wildly successful against those teams, all that's going to happen is that teams will place a greater emphasis on lineup balance.

Even more so, it's impossible for me to believe that teams will want to shift even more innings away from baseball's top pitchers. We're talking not just about the ace tier of Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer, Corey Kluber, Justin Verlander and Chris Sale, but really any pitcher who qualifies as a No. 1, 2 or 3 in a rotation. That's obvious when you look at the names of those dominating pitching now, but I'm referring more to the aces to come we don't yet know about. Teams will continue to seek and develop those players, and it won't be to become bullpen pitchers. Consider the current leaderboard of WOBA allowed by pitchers after the first time through an opposing batting order.

Aaron Nola, Phillies: .231 Jake Arrieta, Phillies: .234 Sean Newcomb, Braves: .237 Max Scherzer, Nationals: .238

Justin Verlander, Astros: .242

Many of those same pitchers dominate the leaderboard for the first time through the order -- Verlander leads all pitchers with a .139 WOBA allowed the first trip through a lineup -- but they are also joined by a slew of top relievers, like Josh Hader, his teammate Jeremy Jeffress, Atlanta's Daniel Winkler and Colorado's Adam Ottavino. But you only need to get past the top 30 or so, depending on where you set the minimum for pitches thrown, before the after-the- first-trip numbers start to intrude. In other words, the top starters remain as effective as the majority of relievers well into most games. Over the nine seasons entering this one, Kershaw had an aggregate ERA of 2.25 over an average of 203 innings per season. You'd have to be an awfully good reliever to take those

23 innings away from him. Plus, when you have a starter throwing well, you know he's throwing well. With relievers, there is always a hint of uncertainty, more so with some than others, but the certainty you have with a starter flashing good stuff is not a security blanket -- it's a tangible benefit.

Let's remember what the top starting pitchers do. They have great stuff and great command and are able to flash both on a consistent basis. They also have varied repertoires and minimal platoon splits. They match up with a greater variety of hitters than most relievers, so there is little reason to take them out.

Fatigue matters, and we're seeing more attempts to manage that than ever. Stuff also matters, which is why when we reach October, even a Kershaw or a Kluber might face an early exit if he's not on top of his game. By and large though, the innings you get from a top-three-in-the- rotation starter (and sometimes four and five, if you have that kind of pitching depth) are likely to always be the foundation of a pitching staff. Because, and I can't emphasize this enough so I will capitalize it: THEY ARE THE BEST PITCHERS IN THE SPORT.

For me, this has always been the key challenge of building a big-league pitching staff: How do we get the most innings out of our best pitchers in a way that is sustainable both in the short and the long term?

That said, there is always a supply-and-demand balance to be struck with both starters and relievers. There aren't enough top-flight starters to go around most years, so every season teams trot out a motley crew of 4s and 5s whose collective performance bloats the league ERA. Those are the innings in play with both versions of the Tampa Bay bullpenning strategy.

That part is, I'd say, a good thing. Even if it becomes a widespread practice to divert innings from underqualified 4s and 5s (and a few 6s), it's hard to see that becoming a loss to the sport. Especially if that means we get to shine a brighter light on the new superheroes of the sport -- the Josh Haders and Andrew Millers.

That's why I don't see the economic part of this as worrisome for the players. Top starters -- the true top starters -- continue to be precious commodities. There are only so many of them, and it's hard to see that changing. That's where the bulk of pitching staff expenditure goes anyway. In that respect, little should change.

However, if more pitchers are developed into those key multi-inning roles, and if the successful ones are rewarded in arbitration and free agency, a spread of the Tampa strategy isn't a bad thing for the players.

Besides, it's entirely possible that it doesn't spread far. Sure, there are more hard-throwing relievers coming into the game than ever, at a rate that seems to accelerate exponentially. This trend is so new that it's hard to know how it will work out. Will these max-effort guys be able to sustain themselves as a group? Will hitters become so accustomed to velocity that it will hardly matter? How many triple-digit throwers will there possibly be? If all or most of the teams wanted to go to a bullpenning model, would there be enough quality relievers to go around?

All of this leads me to conclude that the practice of bullpenning is a new option certain to gain in popularity, but it's exceedingly unlikely to revolutionize the way teams are constructed. And competent starting pitchers aren't going anywhere.

Here are some numbers, and they are raw and inconclusive. The sample is cherry-picked, and the necessary controls to do a study have been ignored. The numbers are offered simply as food for thought. These are the top four starters, by WAR, for the last four seasons, along with Shohei Ohtani. Listed is the average attendance this season for the games they've started (home and away) against the average attendance of all games (again, home and away) for their respective teams in which they did not appear. Drawing a crowd How some of the top starters in Major League Baseball affect attendance. PLAYER PATT TATT DIFFERENCE Clayton Kershaw 39,889 33,658 6,231 Shohei Ohtani 36,771 32,021 4,750 Max Scherzer 31,970 28,608 3,362 Corey Kluber 26,563 24,604 1,959 Justin Verlander 31,179 29,462 1,717 pATT: average attendance in games pitcher starts; tATT: average attendance in all games for team not started by that pitcher There have been comprehensive studies done on this. While the box-office appeal of the ace pitcher isn't what it used to be, it still exists. It's one of the special things about baseball, and one of its most marketable traits. As open to experimenting as I try to be, it would be a shame if aces went away. Fortunately, it's hard to see that happening.

Since you asked

Organizations such as Little League aren't the only ways to engage youth into playing baseball. Rob Carr/Getty Images Is baseball participation among youth actually growing?

Last week, I engaged in a Q&A with NBA owner and tech-world iconoclast Mark Cuban about how he perceives baseball as an industry. That mostly speaks for itself, but I have to say I was surprised by his description of his experience with youth leagues. And I was concerned whether his experience was more universal than I would like it to be, being a baseball advocate. After that, I was emailed some data on trends regarding youth participation in sports. To verify what I had been sent, I contacted the Sports & Fitness Industry Association, which is a trade association that works on behalf of the sports and fitness industry to promote participation and gather data. Lots and lots of data. The important thing to note is that the SFIA represents the sporting goods industry at large -- not any particular sport. The data looks at youth participation not just at the formal level -- little league, travel teams, etc. -- but also at the level of casual engagement. That's something we would have just called playing ball in the yard -- or on the playground -- in my day. You get the idea.

Some highlights:

• In 2016, there were 14.8 million baseball participants in the United States, with about 5.7 million of those being "casual" players.

• From 2014 to 2016, the percentage of participation (age 6 or older) in the United States grew from 4.5 percent to 5 percent.

• Baseball, in 2016, had more participants than soccer and football (flag and tackle combined).

• If you combine participation in baseball and softball, together they outrank even basketball. Over the past three years, baseball has seen a 49 percent increase in casual participation.

• Basketball has the highest overall levels of participation, but among the sports mentioned here, only baseball has grown during the period covering 2011 to 2016. That growth has been accelerating.

• Soccer edged past baseball in total participation by 2011, but its advantage was brief. By 2016, baseball had roughly 2.8 million more participants than soccer.

From the perspective of a baseball fan, and someone who grew up immersed in the game, I

26 can't help but be encouraged by those numbers. But that doesn't mean that the sentiments Cuban conveyed don't exist and should be discounted. There has never been more competition for our collective attention.

Serendipitously, MLB and USA Baseball announced Monday a new initiative called the Hit and Run program. It's aimed at increasing levels of youth participation in general, but especially the levels of casual participation mentioned previously. In reading about the program, which falls underneath baseball's larger initiative to grow the game at the amateur and youth levels, I was struck by a sense of familiarity. Many of the derivative baseball games they are promoting remind me, and perhaps will remind you as well, of games I played growing up on the playground. I listed some, an exercise that made we want to grab my glove and find a sandlot: Kickball, 500, Pepper, Whiffle ball, Rounds and Hot Box.

Turns out, there was something behind that nostalgia. To find out more about what baseball is doing to keep its place firmly at the heart of youth culture, I spoke to Chris Marinak, who works under Manfred with the title of executive vice president, league economics and strategy. Marinak, who pitched for Virginia in college, is largely behind the scenes at this stage of his career but has a voice in baseball's attempts to innovate, and that voice is heard.

"If I could sum up this program in one sentence, it would be to remind parents and league operators that there are lots of ways to play our game and lots of ways to have fun that aren't just what you see at the big-league level." Chris Marniak What was the research behind how the Hit and Run program came about? What is the goal here?

Chris Marinak: What we are seeing in regards to participation in baseball is that there is a big difference between formal, organized play and casual play. This is a gap between baseball and some of the other sports. I think over time, up until the last three or four years, baseball became portrayed as a sport where you have to sign up for a team, get umpires, get a jersey and equipment, be on a travel team. We got away from what made baseball great, when people were growing up in my generation and the generation behind mine, which was the casual play of baseball, sandlot baseball.

You go to a conference or meeting, and people who grew up in the '50s and '60s say, "I played sandlot baseball, and that's dead and it's ruining baseball." I think the point here is that the world is different today. Sandlot baseball doesn't exist because there are a lot of tools for parents to coordinate the time for kids. No kid gets to just go out into the playground or the sandlot or to the neighbor's backyard and just disappear until the sun goes down. Parents don't

27 allow their kids to do that. So the idea that we're going to play sandlot baseball like they did in the '50s is just not a reality.

What we're trying to do with this program is to recreate what made baseball so great for prior generations, which was the casual component of it. So it's not just going out and playing in a game, or playing a league structure. You can play baseball in a lot of different ways to have fun with it. It gives you more opportunities to get at-bats, play different positions, learn different game situations. We're trying to instill creativity in a world that is very structured and organized.

I think the big thing that those of us who grew up immersed in baseball and played in little league, high school, etc. is that we tend to forget some of the derivations we'd play on the playground. How did the loss of that tradition play into the design of this program? CM: The core of this program is around playing different formats and derivative games and encouraging people to do that. What we've seen from different league organizations and travel organizations is that there is a sense from parents that if you sign up for this league, you have to play the major league way. If you're not, you're having a less-than-top-notch experience. What we're trying to do here is tell people that there are lots of ways to play this game, and there are lots of ways you can have fun and develop. If I could sum up this program in one sentence, it would be to remind parents and league operators that there are lots of ways to play our game and lots of ways to have fun that aren't just what you see at the big-league level.

Statistics from the last few years suggest that participation in youth baseball is on the upswing. What do you think have been the biggest drivers of this?

CM: (The Hit and Run) program is part of our Play Ball effort, in which the theme is to encourage participation in baseball and softball in all forms. This is really just another way to emphasize this, whether in a game, practice or tournament setting. This program is designed so that if you have a group of people together, you can play a game. In terms of the numbers, baseball has outpaced all the other sports the last three years. It's not even close. That's not an exaggeration, as you have (seen) in the data. When you dig into the data, what you see is a couple of things, but the one I would emphasize most directly is the (growth of) participation of casual players. We've grown in both areas, but we've grown much more on the casual side. This goes back to the point I made earlier. Along the way, people lost a sense that baseball can be played casually. As youth sports has specialized, it's become a lot more about travel ball and those kind of things, across all sports. Just going out to the backyard to play catch is a way to play baseball. Playing home run derby with a whiffle ball set is a way to play baseball. That is the heart of the message we've been delivering with the Play Ball campaign. There are lots of different ways to play. And you should be considered a player if you play (those forms). If you

28 play those games, you're a baseball player. I think that message has gone a long way towards getting people engaged with the sport. They don't feel like they're excluded.

In looking at some of the recommendations for various age levels, it's hard not to see this as a long-term strategy aimed at developing a faster pace of play, which of course has become a hot-button topic in the industry. The recommendations vary by age group, but they hit some common themes: Batters must always keep one foot in the batter's box, many mentions about playing quickly. Is it wrong to tie this program with efforts being made to tighten up the MLB product?

CM: To say that those things aren't tied together would be kind of an oversight, but this effort was not designed for pace of play as you think of it at the major league level. There have been throw-in ideas that are geared towards moving things along. Absolutely, trying to instill the right form of play at a young age group is important for the sport. Twenty or 30 years ago, you didn't have to tell people to keep a foot in the box. That's just how they played the game. They thought it was important to stay in the box and see pitches because it kept you in a rhythm, and that's how the game was played. I think what we've seen, as things have changed, those behaviors aren't necessarily great for the fan experience.

One thing we can do with a program like this, particularly when you reach kids at a young age, is that without changing the rules of the sport, we want to emphasize to young players that the game is more fun when it moves quickly. It's more fun as a player and more fun as a viewer. To throw some of these things in there, it's certainly part of our philosophy. I wouldn't say it's one of the key motivators of this program, but it's certainly something intentionally inserted to encourage that type of behavior.

An emphasis on health, fitness and safety seems to be part and parcel to these youth programs, particularly when it comes to pitch counts for younger players. But in general, how much should baseball be promoting itself as a safer alternative to other sports?

CM: To be candid, I think we could do a better job with that, particularly in regards to concussions and other significant trauma injuries. Baseball is head and shoulders above the other sports, even soccer. People often don't recognize that concussions are a big problem in soccer, especially for young kids. Just the way that baseball is designed, concussions are pretty rare. We do have other injuries that are concerning for parents. We've done some work with USA Baseball in particular this year to change the bat standards to make it even safer for pitchers and people getting hit by balls. We've done some other things in that area.

What we're trying to do in the area of safety is make sure that there aren't barriers where

29 families say, "Hey, I've seen a lot of people in my community have this kind of injury in baseball." We're trying to make sure that every facet of the game, while there is no guarantee in any sport you're not going to get hurt, but to minimize the different injuries you see across different dimensions. By and large, baseball is far and away one of the safest sports.

You're probably right, that we need to emphasize that. Part of the problem is that we intentionally don't try to capitalize or badmouth other sports. That's not what we're about. We think it's important for kids to play multiple sports. And it's hard to deliver the message of safety without contrasting you with other sports who may have their own issues. We intentionally try not to do that, which probably doesn't help get the message out. But it's part of our focus, for sure.

Coming right up

Analytics have deemed the upcoming Astros-Yankees series in the Bronx as must-see TV. Mike Stobe/Getty Images Series of the year on deck?

People like me try to measure everything. Here is an obscure metric: GQ. It has nothing to do with fashion. It's a junk stat to rate game quality, a crude measure of each matchup based on the strength of the teams in question, where they are playing and how close they are in power rating. The actual measure means nothing. The Marlins-Mets game from Wednesday had a GQ of 78.0. That's bad. The Mariners-A's matchup was at 98.7. That's good -- the best of the day.

I bring this up because, this week, we have the highest GQ rating of the season in a series beginning Monday, when the defending-champion Houston Astros play three games at Yankee Stadium. The home-field factor for New York plays into this by enhancing the competitive balance between the two teams. So this series rates even higher than it would if it were being played at Minute Maid Park. Beyond that, it's a classic matchup between the irresistible force and the immovable object: The Yankees are baseball's top-scoring team; the Astros are the hardest to score against. However, the degree to which the Astros have dominated the run-prevention side of things has been greater than the rate at which New York has scored.

Consider this measure: Based on each team's opponents to date and where the games have

30 been played, New York has scored 33.7 runs above expectation, which is tops in the majors. The Astros, on the other hand, have prevented a whopping 47 runs above expectation. The Red Sox are second in that measure -- at 19.3.

Of course, what that means is that if the Yankees can put up runs on the Astros, they can put up runs on anybody. It'll be fun to watch. It'll especially be fun to watch on Monday, when Houston is slated to send Verlander to the mound. Verlander, if you haven't noticed, has been celebrating the 50th anniversary of Bob Gibson's 1968 season by having a 1968 Bob Gibson season.