MEXICO CITY -- The Giants got to their team hotel well after midnight on Thursday and will leave Mexico City right after their game on Sunday afternoon.
It's a schedule that doesn't leave much time for tourism, so Gabe Kapler made sure to walk around downtown a bit on Friday afternoon and make a stop at the famous Taqueria Orinoco.
From there, his day took a wild turn.
Kapler tried to take the subway to Estadio Alfredo Harp Helú Beisbol, home of the Mexico City Series, but the train stopped well short of his planned exit and an announcement was made in Spanish. When every other passenger got off, Kapler followed the crowd to a bus, which got stuck in traffic as his scheduled press conference at the ballpark was fast approaching.
"The bus was an adventure," Kapler said, smiling. "I had enough Spanish and enough Google Translate to ask the bus driver to be gracious and let me off on a highway, where I walked across several lanes and then ended up walking to the ballpark."
Much of what the Giants will experience the next two days will be new, and that goes for the action on the field, too. The ballpark's elevation is about 7,200 feet, which is 2,000 feet higher than Coors Field.
The Giants held an optional workout at the ballpark that wasn't attended by many players, but Alex Cobb and Sean Manaea made sure to throw and see what their pitches will do in the thin air. Manaea will start Saturday and Cobb will start Sunday.
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"In the past, I think sinkerballers were affected a little bit less than the ride and carry guys, so hopefully that will be in my favor," Cobb said. "Hopefully the splitter will be catching a little bit, as well. With the altitude the key is going to be to get the ball on the ground as much as possible, so I think that plays to my advantage a little bit, as long as my pitches are able to move."
Cobb, who leads the National League in groundball rate is coming off his first shutout in 11 years but said he feels great physically. His prep for Mexico City actually started before that game. The Giants training and strength and conditioning staff has been putting additional supplements in players' lockers over the past week to better prepare their bodies for an unusual environment.
The prep work continued Friday, when Cobb took a TrackMan device into the bullpen to see if his pitches had different movement profiles at 7,200 feet.
The field itself will be standard, 332 feet down the lines and 410 to dead center. Kapler said the keys will be the same as they always are at Coors Field: Limit walks and try to get outs early in counts.
During breaks in the action, the Giants expect to find themselves watching the rest of the ballpark more than usual. There will be pregame mariachi shows and additional ones between innings, and Manaea said he expects the types of crowds that have made Miami such an exhilarating place to play games during the World Baseball Classic.
"I sense there's going to be a similar energy in this ballpark," he said. "And I'm glad to be a part of it."
Manaea will go up against his former team and longtime manager Bob Melvin, who had him in both Oakland and San Diego. The opposing starter on Saturday will be Joe Musgrove, who was part of a trip to Antarctica that Manaea took in the offseason. Both veterans talked about how important this series is for the game.
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Around town, there are life-sized (although not very accurate) bobbleheads of players from both teams. The ballpark looked like it was getting decked out for an All-Star Game more than an early NL West matchup, and representatives from both sides will take part in a PLAY BALL event on Saturday morning.
"To me, this is incredible," Manaea said. "I've been to Mexico City once before and gotten to experience this wonderful place, and anytime you can grow the game of baseball, it's very special and very cool.
"To be able to pitch in this game and have fans from all over the world watching us -- especially the Mexican fans -- it's a lot of fun. It's not often that we're doing things like this or in other countries. It's going to be a lot of fun and I'm grateful to be a part of it."