3-0 pitch? Buster finds the Bay vs. Buehler
Veteran catcher starts homer party as Bryant, Crawford also go deep
Thomas Harding
@harding_at_mlbSAN FRANCISCO ¨C Buster Posey didn¡¯t let a 3-0 pitch pass in the first inning against the Dodgers¡¯ Walker Buehler. Instead, he popped a two-run, opposite-field homer to open the Giants¡¯ 4-0 victory in Game 1 of the National League Division Series at Oracle Park on Friday night.
The home run bounced off the top of a fountain tower beyond the right-field porch and into McCovey Cove, where it was quickly scooped up with a fishing net by an eager boater on the water. Because it didn¡¯t hit water on the fly, Posey was robbed of the first ¡°Splash Hit¡± by a right-handed batter since the Giants¡¯ downtown stadium opened in 2000.
The aggressiveness on a 3-0 pitch is part of an adjustment in Posey¡¯s longtime hitting approach. But the feelings Posey brought into the game were the same jitters he felt long ago. It was good he blasted those out of his system.
¡°There are definitely butterflies, but I think those can be helpful, kind of heighten your focus,¡± Posey said. ¡°And, yeah, Buehler's tough. He doesn't give you a lot to hit sometimes, and fortunately there, I got a pitch I could handle and got the barrel on it.
¡°And the dang column kept me from a Splash Hit.¡±
Posey is well-decorated, with three World Series rings, the last coming in 2014. But Posey had waited even longer between postseason homers. It was his first since Game 4 of the 2012 World Series, when he went deep off of the Tigers¡¯ Max Scherzer.
Also, Posey put himself in the Giants¡¯ history book as the team¡¯s oldest player with a postseason homer -- 34 years, 195 days -- since Barry Bonds (38 and 94 days) and Shawon Dunston (39 and 219 days) went deep in Game 6 of the 2002 World Series against the Angels.
Posey¡¯s homer was part of a theme -- veterans experiencing more glory.
Kris Bryant, who won a World Series with the Cubs in ¡¯16, drove a full-count pitch off Buehler to left field to open a 3-0 lead in the seventh. It was his third hit of the night, matching the total he had over his final 17 regular-season at-bats.
Brandon Crawford, twice a champ with the Giants, watched Alex Vesia strike out the first two batters in the eighth, then powered the first left-on-left delivery from Vesia out to center.
That all four of the Giants¡¯ runs came via home runs shouldn¡¯t come as that much of a surprise. The club led the NL with 241 homers this season and those accounted for 49.5 percent of their runs scored.
With two out in the first, Posey continued the regular-season trend.
Buehler had strike-one issues in the first. He walked leadoff man Tommy La Stella, who moved to third on a Wilmer Flores grounder and a Brandon Crawford fly ball. Buehler had a base open, but decided to venture into Posey¡¯s strike zone for the first time.
Posey made him pay with his fifth career postseason homer.
Turns out homers on 3-0 counts are a new phenomenon for Posey. According to Inside Edge, Posey has four career homers on such counts. This was his second since Aug. 27. It also was the first homer on a 3-0 count in Giants postseason history, dating back to when full pitch-count data is available (1988).
The 3-0 homer is even rarer in Buehler¡¯s world. He had not given up a homer on that count in 103 career regular-season games (93 starts) and 11 postseason games (all starts).
¡°Buster's been in this game a long time,¡± Buehler said. ¡°They obviously have trust in him to swing 3-0 -- just a mistake heater [95.8 mph, up, outside and eventually out]. Obviously, it was in an area that he can drive the ball, and just not a great throw.¡±
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, ¡°I don't think anybody in the ballpark was surprised that [Posey] was swinging 3-0. He does that frequently.¡±
Posey is doing it more than frequently. He¡¯s swung at 3-0 pitches 33 percent of the time this year -- by far the highest rate of his career.
¡°It's just on the attack from pitch one, trying to get something that you can drive -- and not necessarily letting the count dictate that approach,¡± Posey said.
His approach illustrates the buy-in that veteran Giants are exhibiting under Giants manager Gabe Kapler, who preaches a ¡°selective aggression¡± philosophy.
¡°Buster¡¯s home run was a great way to set the tone early,¡± said Crawford, who homered in the same postseason game as Posey for the first time in their careers. ¡°He has a slow heartbeat. He doesn¡¯t really change from the regular season to the postseason. Not at all surprised at him being able to take out a 3-0 pitch and take a good swing at it.¡±