Jerar Encarnacion returns with a bang as Giants finally power past pesky Pirates

New York Times

2 days ago

PITTSBURGH — Jerar Encarnacion was in the middle of a postgame interview at his locker Tuesday night when Willy Adames strolled past the group of reporters. Adames smiled and tried his best to lower his tenor voice into a baritone.
'I got mucho power and I'm a big guy,' Adames bellowed while puffing out his chest.
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It wouldn't matter what sport Encarnacion chose to play. He's one of those people who will scare an opponent just by walking off the bus. He's listed at 6-foot-4 and 260 pounds and probably could push a tackling sled as if it were made of balsa wood. His mucho power was among the primary reasons that the Giants considered themselves a sleeper team back in spring training.
Encarnacion didn't have much of a major-league track record. He wouldn't be facing the same pitchers he destroyed while playing in the Pacific Coast League or for Oaxaca in the Mexican League. He wouldn't be taken in anyone's fantasy draft or make a dent in any projection systems. But Giants coaches and teammates marveled all spring at his at-bat quality and his all-fields ability to drive the ball. Some dared to whisper best-case comparisons to J.D. Martinez, a rare late bloomer who went from upper-minors flotsam into one of the game's most feared run producers.
'Coming out of spring training, this guy looked like he was going to be a semi- … almost a regular for us,' Giants manager Bob Melvin said. 'To have that kind of power, against righties and lefties, is big for us, especially with the trouble we've had against left-handed pitching. We've been waiting on him to contribute.'
List it among the factors that have gone wrong for the Giants this season: They had to wait until the first week of August to watch Encarnacion's first home run fly over the fence. He fractured a finger when hit by a pitch in spring training. His return in June consisted of 22 plate appearances over eight games before he pulled an oblique. When the Giants had Encarnacion stay the maximum 30 days with Triple-A Sacramento on his latest minor-league rehab assignment, it was fair to wonder whether he'd be back on the roster at all. But the Giants optioned Luis Matos to activate Encarnacion on Monday. And when he returned to the lineup Tuesday night, he shrank a pitcher's park while hitting a 415-foot drive that landed in the topiaries beyond the center-field wall.
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Christian Koss also made the most of a rare start, smacking a two-run home run in the third inning. Adames hit his 18th homer of the season. All the run support must've seemed like an all-you-can-eat Vegas buffet for Logan Webb, who has pitched with almost no margin for error all season. Webb struck out 10 in six innings and the Giants finally bossed around the Pittsburgh Pirates while enjoying a palate-cleansing 8-1 victory on the banks of the Allegheny River.
'It was probably the best baseball game we've played in a long time,' Webb said. 'We've just gotta keep the momentum and let everybody be themselves.'
That includes Encarnacion, whose home run stood out even though it was just a snackable solo shot amid the feast of offense.
'When you get Jerry going, we saw it in the spring,' Webb said. 'Everyone was super excited to see him get an opportunity and he's just been hampered by injuries. You can tell there's a lot of energy in there with him. He brings the clubhouse up. Just getting him to feel good was the main thing. I'm excited for him and Koss. It's going to take all of us.'
Wait a minute. Jerry? Is that really what we're going with?
'They can call me whatever they want,' Encarnacion said, smiling.
Melvin calls him Inky. His teammates call him Jerry. No matter what sobriquet sticks, the Giants will call his name again in Wednesday's series finale. The Giants traded Mike Yastrzemski at the deadline last week, so it's possible that Encarnacion still has a runway to the playing time that everyone envisioned.
Most of the at-bats that the Giants anticipated giving to Encarnacion in the first half went to Wilmer Flores, who was the National League's RBI leader as recently as the start of June. But Flores drove in a run in just one of the 16 games he played in July, and he's been sidelined of late because of a hamstring he strained over the weekend in New York. Flores is also an impending free agent. So there might be an opportunity for Encarnacion to get chances at designated hitter as well as in the outfield.
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Especially if he keeps shrinking ballparks.
'There were some balls hit hard to center field that didn't go anywhere,' Melvin said. 'And his went somewhere. That's the kind of power he has. He has power to the off-field too. You come back after a long layoff and contribute right away and hit a homer, I know that does a world of confidence for you.'
Facing the struggling Pirates is often a confidence boost for any opponent, but entering Tuesday night, the Giants had lost all four games they'd played against the NL Central's cellar dwellers over an eight-day span.
The Giants figured to have every advantage heading into these games at PNC Park, too. They had the good fortune to avoid facing brilliant ace Paul Skenes for the second consecutive series. Plus, the Pirates were coming off a visit to Coors Field in which their pitching staff gave up 30 runs in three games and no starting pitcher lasted past the fifth. Monday's series opener turned into a bullpen game when the starting pitcher they activated, Johan Oviedo, was pulled after throwing 43 pitches in the first inning. But the Giants blew a three-run lead and a decision for Justin Verlander in a walk-off loss.
Melvin made a few lineup tweaks on Tuesday. Koss, who was used as a defensive replacement for second baseman Casey Schmitt a night earlier, received a start because Melvin wanted to play his best infield defenders behind Webb. Koss jumped on the first pitch he saw to give the Giants a quick 2-0 lead in the third.
The Pirates postured to take the lead back in the bottom of the third when they strung together four consecutive singles against Webb with one out. In past seasons, Webb would throw his two-seam fastball with the bases loaded and hope for a double-play grounder. But he has the confidence to pitch for strikeouts this season while posting a career-best strikeout rate of 9.9 batters per nine innings. Webb wanted to take batted-ball variability out of the equation if he could — especially against a hitter like Oneil Cruz, who lights up the exit velocity leaderboard almost every night.
Webb started Cruz with a slider and then threw three changeups. Cruz fouled off two pitches and swung through the fourth. Then Nick Gonzales grounded out to end the inning.
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'You saw what he did the next at-bat,' Webb said of Cruz. 'He hit a groundball at 115 mph.'
Webb (10-8) reached double-digit victories for the fifth consecutive season — something only six other pitchers have done in the Giants' San Francisco era. Most recently, Madison Bumgarner won at least 10 games in six consecutive seasons from 2011-16. Jason Schmidt (5), Jim Barr (5), Gaylord Perry (6), Kirk Rueter (7) and Juan Marichal (11) are the others.
Webb also passed 1,000 innings for his career.
'It's cool. I'm 2,500 away from Justin,' said Webb, gesturing toward Verlander, the soon-to-be Hall of Famer. 'So I've got some work to do.'
The Giants have plenty of work to do if they hope to close their gap with the San Diego Padres and resuscitate their wild-card hopes. So it'll be encouraging if they can start to tap into some dependable power sources, especially when they've got seven games lined up against the Padres over the next two weeks.
'It was God's decision for me to get injured,' Encarnacion said through Spanish interpreter Erwin Higueros. 'There's nothing I could do about it. But I'm really happy to be back and I'm looking forward to being able to play as much as they want me to play.
'I feel perfect. I feel very good. My confidence returned in Sacramento. I just thank God I'm back here.'
To borrow a famous sitcom line: He's out there, Jerry, and he's loving every minute of it.
(Top photo of Jerar Encarnacion: Joe Sargent / Getty Images)