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SAN FRANCISCO — In the eyes of Tony Vitello, it’s a shame the All-Star break is so late.
In his past life as a college coach, his season would be long over by now. His new reality as the manager of one of professional baseball’s most disappointing teams, however, means he’s barely past the halfway point — and yet there’s still probably not enough time left to correct course.
“With the way the first half has gone, it’d be great if the All-Star break actually split the season in half,” the first-year San Francisco Giants manager said. “You might as well divide the season into halves and make sure we have a positive second half. Where that leaves us when you combine the two, you don’t have much control over it. But what’s in the past is in the past.”
That was the gist of the message the manager tried to get across when he called a team meeting over the weekend at Coors Field, where they emerged 15 games below .500 (37-52).
Ostensibly, it served the purpose of announcing the team’s two All-Stars — Logan Webb and Luis Arraez — but Vitello hoped to use the opportunity for something more.
“He said something good the other day,” Webb said. “I think we were at the midway point and to try to sort of pretend like the first half didn’t happen, which obviously you can’t. But try to.
“Pretend you’re restarting the season a little bit. You’ve just got to put your head down and work and hope things will turn around.”
It seemed to resonate, at least initially.
The Giants responded by playing one of their cleanest and most complete games of the season later that evening, albeit against the lowly Rockies.
But when you’re stuck in the mud, taking that second step isn’t any easier.
“I think the entire first half, we’ve kind of been looking around, like trying to place our finger on, OK, how’s our offense doing well, how is the pitching doing well, and we can’t seem to put together wins?” catcher Eric Haase told the Post. “I think it was just a good reminder: We’re not playing bad baseball — we’re just not winning.”
It only took a day for that incongruency to come to a head again. The Giants slugged four home runs and their pitchers kept Colorado at bay for seven innings in Sunday’s series finale.
But in the end, they returned home nursing a 2-4 record on the road trip and a second straight series loss after their bullpen failed to protect the lead. Once again, a team that still hasn’t swept a series or won more than three games in a row proved to be allergic to momentum or motivation.
They didn’t have time to catch their breath descending from the mile-high altitude. They don’t have another day off until they get four in a row next week. They can only hope the All-Star break provides the ultimate reset button.
Since the actual midpoint of the season, they entered Monday at 4-4.
“We want to finish this half strong. We want to go into the break with that confidence that the next half is going to be better,” first baseman Bryce Eldridge said. “We all have confidence that that’s gonna happen. It’s just a matter of continuing to work and continue to put that together.”
The cold reality is that even though their bats have begun to heat up — in particular Rafael Devers, who has 16 home runs and a .928 OPS since the start of May — wins haven’t followed.
And that means the task at hand is likely only going to get tougher, given that whatever parts of this oil tanker run aground still in working condition are expected to be sold off by the Aug. 3 trade deadline.
Given those circumstances, what would Vitello like to see his squad do differently in the second half?
“A little more attitude on the field, which is tough when times are tough,” he said. “Just the mentality, the verbalization of the word ‘attack.’ Attacking presence. Attacking even when you feel you caught a bad break or we didn’t make a play behind you. Setting the tone.”
That means attacking their pregame defensive drills, which he’s been pleased with. And on the bases, “I do think we’ve kicked up the aggressiveness a little bit,” he said. “It would probably be more beneficial to kick it up a lot.”
Primarily, his pitchers need to throw strikes.
Only two teams are in the zone less often than the Giants’ staff.
“We have a whole group of very hard-working players that want to win. I know the standings may not show it, but we do. We want to win,” said Webb, the one pitcher who hasn’t had trouble throwing strikes. “We’re trying our best to win. Not that it makes it any better. But I think when you do that and you have a group of talented players, things will turn around at some point. I don’t know when it will turn around. I can’t tell you that. But that’s the goal here.”
As for himself, Vitello didn’t offer much in terms of self-reflection.
“Just improve,” he said. “It can be a bunch of little different areas, but just improve.”
English (US)