Schmitt's clutch grand slam stuns Dodgers in Giants' crucial win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
LOS ANGELES — Giants catcher Andrew Knizner had never caught Logan Webb before Friday’s game, not even in a bullpen session. There was plenty of homework to be done before the game, and it didn’t stop once Webb cruised through the first inning at Dodger Stadium.
Two innings later, Knizner, a Giant for a little over a week, was studying pitches on an iPad in the dugout when he heard a loud crack of the bat. The bases were loaded and Casey Schmitt was at the plate, and when Knizner looked up, he saw the young third baseman striding confidently away from the plate.
“I looked up and I saw Schmitty just kinda pimping it,” Knizner said later, smiling. “Subtle, subtle — but swaggy.”
Schmitt soaked up every moment of his first career grand slam, and why wouldn’t he. It came on a sold-out Friday night at Dodger Stadium. It provided Webb with more than enough support to pick up the win. And it helped the Giants move into a tie for first in the National League West through 70 games.
You have to go back to 2021 to find the last time the Giants had a share of first this late in the season, and while there’s a long way to go, Friday’s 6-2 win over the Dodgers certainly would have fit right in with that 107-win campaign.
The Dodgers have by far the better lineup, especially with Matt Chapman sidelined. Dominic Smith has been a Giant for just nine games, but he hit cleanup. Knizner started for the injured Patrick Bailey and Schmitt for the injured Chapman.
The Giants countered with Webb, and he’s as good as it gets right now, but the Dodgers had their own high-priced ace on the mound. Yoshinobu Yamamoto entered with a 2.20 ERA, but the Giants drew three walks with a tight zone in the third inning. The final one came with two outs, and as Schmitt watched Yamamoto pitch to Wilmer Flores, the team’s RBI leader, he felt the free pass was somewhat intentional.
“It felt like they were trying to put Flo on to get to me in that situation,” Schmitt said. “To be able to come through like that in that situation, that was a big thing for me personally, as well as being able to come through and put the team up.”
Schmitt admitted he took that sequence a little personally. That, in part, explained the subtle, subtle swag.
“I mean, who wouldn’t, you know?” he said. “But I understand it. It’s the game. But that inner competitor in me, I really wanted that at-bat.”
The slam came a day after Schmitt’s defensive mistake helped prevent the Giants from a sweep at Coors Field, but he said he was able to flush that pretty quickly. Chapman helped, reminding him after Thursday’s loss that he has made plenty of costly errors, too. On Friday, as he conceded that he might miss three or four more weeks with sprained fingers, Chapman said Schmitt would do just fine as the fill-in.
“This is just reps and experience that he can use to help contribute,” he said. “We need him. He’s going to be a big part of our team even when I come back. I think this is a good experience for him.”
Long term, Schmitt, who turned 26 in March, might have to build on this experience elsewhere. He is an elite defensive third baseman, and his greatest tool is somewhat wasted in San Francisco, where the Giants have an all-time defender at the position. They have tried to turn Schmitt into a utility player, and most of his time before the Chapman injury came at first base, a position he picked up on the fly during the first road trip of the season.
That put Schmitt in a difficult spot the first two months of the season. Starts were hard to come by, making it difficult to keep his swing ready. He had a .521 OPS when Chapman went on the IL, but it’s up to .702 after four games at third base.
“You feel great for him, because the kid works really hard to prepare for a game,” manager Bob Melvin said. “There’s a lot of ability there, both defensively and offensively. The grand slam obviously is the biggest hit of the game and gave Webby a little breathing room.”
Webb ran with it, throwing seven strong to pick up the win. The approach — cutter heavy — was new, but the result was not. He has gone at least seven innings in seven of his 15 starts, including twice this month against NL West rivals Los Angeles and San Diego.
Webb gave up just five total runs in those six previous seven-inning games, but had two no-decisions and a loss mixed in. Schmitt changed that Friday.
“Casey has all the tools in the world to be a really good big leaguer and everyone here knows that,” Webb said. “It’s tough. Baseball is a tough game sometimes and sometimes you don’t get a whole lot of opportunity, and with Chappy going down and Casey sliding in, it’s fun to see for him. I love Casey, I’ve been a big fan of his for a long time. It’s cool to see him kind of shine and do his thing.”
On a night when two likely All-Stars were on the mound and the Giants faced the most powerful lineup in the game, it was Schmitt who took center stage. He was looking for something he could handle and got a low splitter from Yamamoto. It left the yard in a hurry, and from there, it was all downhill.
By the time Schmitt joined a handshake line, the Giants were in a tie for first place, but afterward, the focus was on how they got there Friday, not the standings.
“Obviously you want to be in first place all the time (but) it’s June 13. There’s a lot of season to go,” Webb said. “We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing, play good baseball, don’t try to do too much. It’s hard if you start looking at standings and stuff like that. You just get lost in it. You’ve just got to try to go out there every day and win the day. That’s what we’re doing right now, which is great, and we’ve just got to keep that momentum going.”
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