SAN FRANCISCO — It’s no secret that when Buster Posey elected to sit out the 2020 season, San Francisco Giants pitchers struggled to adjust to working with a group of inexperienced catchers who left the staff longing for the good old days.
With Posey back in the fold this year, the Giants are obviously thrilled, but they don’t seem to mind when he takes a day off.
Posey’s backup, Curt Casali, caught his fifth consecutive shutout on Thursday in a 3-0 win over the Miami Marlins, breaking a franchise record of four in a row set by “Broadway” Aleck Smith during the 1901 season.
Casali became the first major league catcher to start behind the plate for five straight shutouts since Francisco Cervelli of the Pittsburgh Pirates caught 56 consecutive scoreless innings in 2015, which is a streak Casali can’t match because he entered as a substitute when the Giants lost on a walk-off double in Miami on Saturday.
Casali is the fifth catcher in the modern era to start and catch five straight shutouts, joining Cervelli, Chris Hoiles (1995), Alan Ashby (1986) and Ed Phelps (1903), who caught six straight for the Pirates.
Casali hadn’t contributed much at the plate during the streak, but he added a two-run single in the first inning of Thursday’s game that helped the Giants improve to 6-1 at Oracle Park this season. With the New York Mets losing to the Chicago Cubs on Thursday, the 12-7 Giants were one of only three teams in the National League with a record above .500 at the time their game finished as they joined the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers.
After scoring just one run last Friday against Marlins lefty Daniel Castano, the Giants scored three times in the first inning against him on Thursday at Oracle Park and did all of their damage with two outs. A 109.9 mile-per-hour double off the bat of Darin Ruf brought home Mike Yastrzemski for the Giants’ first run before Casali yanked a two-run single through the left side of the infield in his best plate appearance of the season.
The Giants’ rally was aided by Marlins left fielder Corey Dickerson, who took a bad route to Ruf’s double before bobbling Casali’s single, allowing Ruf to score from second with ease.
The other runner who scored, third baseman Evan Longoria, exited Thursday’s game in the bottom of the fourth inning with a tight left hamstring. The injury came at a rough time for the Giants as the club placed infielder Donovan Solano on the 10-day injured list earlier in the day with a right calf strain while both Brandon Crawford (rib soreness) and Brandon Belt (quad tightness) are dealing with lingering issues.
There might also be some internal concerns with starter Aaron Sanchez, who tossed five scoreless innings of two-hit ball, but never topped 90 miles per hour on the radar gun and only recorded a pair of strikeouts. After back-to-back four-inning starts from Logan Webb and Anthony DeSclafani, it still seemed odd the Giants didn’t send Sanchez back to the mound for the top of the sixth, but Kapler has monitored his workload throughout the season and likely didn’t want to push him too hard on chilly night along the waterfront.
The Giants also knew they had a fresh arm who could follow Sanchez with the capability of blowing hitters away.
At 21 years and 237 days, Gregory Santos became the youngest Giants player to debut since Madison Bumgarner did so shortly after his 20th birthday in 2009. The hard-throwing right-hander said he watched his good friend and 22-year-old teammate Camilo Doval’s debut out of the Giants’ bullpen on Sunday against the Marlins and noticed how Doval “looked like a veteran” as soon as he took the mound.
In a perfect inning that featured two strikeouts, Santos topped out at 98.9 miles per hour and with his fastball and gave Giants fans a similar impression.
Former Giants general manager Bobby Evans acquired Santos at the 2017 trade deadline in a deal that sent Eduardo Nunez to the Boston Red Sox and the righty spent his entire minor league career as a starter until last offseason. When the Giants began instructional league play in Arizona in the fall, Santos transitioned to the bullpen and the team saw his velocity tick up with a slider that he located more consistently for strikes.
Santos’ relief work put him on the fast track to the big leagues and fewer than 20 games into the season, he joined Doval in the Giants’ bullpen, forming an exciting tandem that could easily be pitching the eighth and ninth innings by the end of the summer.
