LOS ANGELES — AT&T Park is supposed to be the ballpark that tests Andrew McCutchen’s move to right field, but on Saturday, the tricky plays came flying at McCutchen early and often. Some tests were passed with flying colors. Others proved to be learning experiences.
The standout was a fly ball to medium right-center that had McCutchen and center fielder Gregor Blanco calling each other off. At the last second, McCutchen peeled behind Blanco, who dropped the ball, costing the Giants a pair of two-out runs in a 5-0 loss to the Dodgers.
“We were both calling for it,” McCutchen said. “I don’t think we heard each other because we were both screaming. It’s one of those crazy plays that happened.”
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McCutchen is getting used to life as a full-time right fielder after a career spent in the middle, and he didn’t play with Blanco often this spring. It didn’t help that they converged in the middle of perhaps the loudest stadium in the National League. McCutchen conceded that there will be an adjustment to no longer being the captain of the outfield.
“Your mentality is the catch everything,” he said. “For me, that’s what I try to do, catch every ball. That mentality is to catch every ball but at the same time I have to understand that the guy in center is the leader.”
The rest of the night was a mixed bag. McCutchen showed his speed by getting back to the wall on Enrique Hernandez’s liner in the first, but his leap came up inches short. He later made a diving attempt at a Chris Taylor bloop and again came up inches short. That led to a triple and a run, but it also had starter Derek Holland approaching McCutchen in the dugout after the inning. Holland told McCutchen to keep going after balls that way.
The night evened out in the late innings when McCutchen made a pair of sliding catches. It has been a slow start for the offseason additions, but he was happy to take those two plays to heart.
San Francisco Giants
“I made two other good catches today that I’m not going to forget about,” he said. “That’s my mentality.”
That was Holland’s mentality, too. He was charged with three earned in five innings of his Giants debut but was happy with the way he threw.
“I thought it was a lot better than the way it looked,” he said.
The Giants had a sloppy night behind Holland, committing three errors, but he said the effort was there. The defense wasn't what bothered him.
“You can’t defend a walk,” he said after issuing three, with all three batters scoring. “If anybody is at fault today, it’s me for sure.”
That’s not quite true. For the third consecutive day, the offense came up short. Through three games the Giants have just two Joe Panik homers. They have yet to get a hit with a runner in scoring position, but it’s hard to make a big judgement one way or the other. Some of the bats look slow. Evan Longoria is hitless in 11 at-bats and Brandon Belt has five strikeouts in 10 at-bats.
At the same time, it’s been 27 innings and the Giants have faced three good pitchers in Clayton Kershaw, Alex Wood and Kenta Maeda. Bruce Bochy was not ready to worry. McCutchen wasn't, either.
“Clearly we’ve got to get hits when we get guys on base,” he said. “We haven’t been able to do that. We’re going to get going, get moving. We’ve got too good a team for it not to. But nobody is stressing over here. It’s game three.”