Around the fifth inning Thursday at Oracle Park, Wilmer Flores walked down the steps of the Giants’ dugout into the batting cage to go through his routine and get his swings in.
Nothing changes for Flores before a game, whether he’s starting or coming off the bench. But on a day like Thursday’s 2-1 win against the Cleveland Guardians when Flores watched the first six innings from the bench, the 33-year-old veteran knows exactly when it’s time to get himself ready for a moment where his number is called.
“I’m always thinking about the process, not the result,” Flores said. “I stay with my process. What do I have to do to have a good result? It’s see the ball early, and try to do that a lot.”
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SIGN UP HERE There have been a handful of times where Flores has taken his fair share of practice swings only to never get a real opportunity to make a difference. This wasn’t one of those cases. Giants manager Bob Melvin had a plan. So did Flores.
Each worked as well as the two hoped.
Trailing 1-0 going into the bottom of the seventh inning after another dominant start from Logan Webb, Casey Schmitt took a sweeper low and away for a line-drive single to center field and Jung Hoo Lee walked on four pitches as the first two batters of the inning for the Giants. Melvin went old-school and had catcher Patrick Bailey square for a perfectly executed sacrifice bunt on the first pitch he saw, putting Schmitt and Lee in scoring position with one out.
Former Giants catcher Stephen Vogt, who’s in his second season as the Guardians’ manager, then turned to his bullpen again and brought in right-hander Nic Enright. Melvin had an even easier decision. Flores’ number was called to hit for second baseman Christian Koss, and more magic was created.
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Flores was sitting on a fastball or slider middle-in. His at-bat began with a slider in the dirt he spit on before swinging through a fastball and taking one way too high. Flores then fouled off two fastballs to get himself in a 2-2 count.
With the infield in and Schmitt taking his lead down the third-base line, Flores needed a ball he could lift. Instead, Flores sat back on a slider in the zone and hammered a hard grounder down the third-base line and into left field, scoring Schmitt and Lee to give the Giants their first two runs of the game and an eventual win to snap a four-game losing streak, which also avoided a three-game home sweep against the Guardians.
“It’s just such a great feeling to have him up there,” Melvin said. “It’s so hard to do, and we expect so much out of him. We expect him to come through every time in those situations, and he does almost every time. But it’s really, really difficult to do.
“Sit on the bench the entire game, have the biggest at-bat of the game, gets behind in the count, again doesn’t try to do too much – put it in play with the infield in. That’s just what he does.”
Flores now has a league-leading 17 go-ahead RBI this season. His pinch-hit, two-run double snapped a stretch of the Giants going 0-for-22 with runners in scoring position. Flores has 66 at-bats with runners in scoring position this season and is batting .348 (23 of 66) with 44 RBI in 45 games.
There’s a calmness to Flores’ game. The moment he arrives at the ballpark, he already knows what he needs to get done for the day. There’s also an unseen special ingredient that Flores has just enough of that adds another sense of confidence throughout the Giants.
“He’s like maybe sick in the head a little bit,” Webb said. “Some guys are just built for that stuff, and I think Wilmer’s like that. He has done that his whole career, so it’s a pleasure to watch every time he gets to hit.”
For the second time in three games since the Giants pulled off their blockbuster trade of acquiring star slugger Rafael Devers from the Boston Red Sox, Flores began the game on the bench. He played all of the Giants’ loss Wednesday, but had to put his first baseman’s mitt back on, something Melvin would like to avoid.
While Devers was adamant about not playing first base in Boston, he already has shown a willingness to play the new position for San Francisco. He’s extremely early in the process of learning a new position. The Giants are happy enough to have his bat in the lineup.
The real plan, though, is to have Devers and Flores in the lineup together as much as possible once the newest Giants is more comfortable with a foreign area on the field for him.
Webb still remembers the one time he had to face Flores, and Vogt, his catcher that day, warned him he’s someone you don’t want to make a mistake to. The staff ace calls Devers one of the 10 best hitters in baseball and is giddy at the thought of a full squad that should make any pitcher feel an extra boost when steps on the mound.
“Until we get Raffy up to speed it’s going to kind of be half-half,” Melvin said. “But to be able to come off the bench in those type of situations is really valuable.”
The Giants now have a MLB-leading nine wins this season when trailing going into the seventh inning. They’ve played 33 one-run games, which also leads the majors, and improved to 18-15 in such games. Flores is the closer with a bat in his hands, and the lineup will only become that much more complete when he and Devers are mainstays, as well as Matt Chapman being healthy enough to return from a right hand injury.
In the meantime, the Giants gladly will take another episode of late-game heroics from Flores.