SAN FRANCISCO — Tony Vitello finds himself constantly saying sorry to his family members for the San Francisco Giants’ poor performance, and even during family dinners, his thoughts remain focused on baseball rather than the conversation at hand.
The first-year Giants skipper has plenty to contemplate following a disappointing 3-7 record to begin his transition from collegiate coaching to Major League Baseball.
Following Sunday’s afternoon matchup, with Monday’s evening game providing extra reflection time, Vitello spent hours analyzing everything that contributed to San Francisco’s third consecutive loss. During that game, he received his first career ejection while protesting a seventh-inning call that ruled Jerar Encarnación out for running outside the baseline toward first base.
The manager continues to examine every choice he makes, committed to finding solutions for his struggling team.
“At 3-7 and how yesterday went, I didn’t think yesterday was the proper time for me to go gallivanting around San Francisco, so, yeah, I was in my condo the whole night,” Vitello explained. “Whether I’m there or sitting with family I apologize to them, ‘Find something better to watch if you’re watching this.’ We’re at dinner, I am thinking about this more than that. So, yeah, yesterday sitting at home you finish on a day game and you have a night game, you’ve got a lot of time to go over that stuff. You replay it all.”
Prior to Monday’s series opener against the Philadelphia Phillies, Vitello spoke with third baseman Matt Chapman about getting thrown out stealing following his leadoff single during the ninth inning of a 5-2 defeat to the Mets that completed New York’s weekend sweep.
Vitello understands such errors would become more costly as the season progresses, noting that the Giants are “trying” so intensely to secure victories “it’s probably something that everybody’s been a little guilty of, of not going about it the way they would if they were thinking clearly but when you’re trying to win games as hard as possible sometimes it actually contradicts what your end goal is.”
Entering Monday’s contest, San Francisco had been outscored by 25 runs through their opening 10 games — the franchise’s worst differential through 10 contests since recording minus-49 in 1896. The team’s 3-7 start matched its second-worst 10-game beginning since relocating to San Francisco in 1958, with only a 2-8 start in 1983 being worse.
Chapman remains optimistic that favorable outcomes will provide the Giants with necessary momentum to climb out of last place in the competitive NL West division, expressing gratitude that these difficulties are occurring early with ample time remaining. San Francisco has failed to reach the postseason for four consecutive years.
“Whatever it is, I think it’s more of an accumulation of maybe some frustrating things happening because we’re right there and we’re not able to get the job done,” Chapman noted. “… It sucks when it looks like it’s sloppy baseball and we’re making some sloppy mistakes that kind of shot us in the foot last year and was one of the reasons why we probably weren’t able to finish as strong. But I don’t think it’s going to be something that’s going to be the story of our season by any means.”
Following his ejection, Vitello provided detailed reasoning for his frustration. The former University of Tennessee head coach frequently references experiences from his collegiate career.
“I’m sure he got it exactly technically right,” Vitello said after Sunday’s game. “It’s just a play I’ve got a lot of history for. A little frustrated about something else that occurred in the game. … Got a ton of history with that play. Lost a game to Lipscomb on that play, lost the game to (Oklahoma State coach) Frank Anderson and a Big 12 championship on that play. The difference between the two that I’m talking about, and I can talk about others, is the runner in Frank’s instance — and I’ve called his team cheaters — completely interfered with the throwing lane for the pitcher. So again, umpires are held accountable by what the rules are, and they enforce those rules.”
Multiple players and coaching staff members have praised Vitello’s enthusiasm, intensity, and methodology since spring training began.
From his first day, Vitello admitted he would need to adapt quickly from the dugout and expected numerous challenges along the way.
“Listen, Tony’s great, I like Tony, he’s cool,” said center fielder Harrison Bader, who entered the series hitting .118 (4 for 34) with one home run while working to improve his performance. “At the major league level, a little different in terms of the fans and the speed but he won at a really high level in the SEC. It’s the same game, so he’s familiar to winning and what it looks like to help players win and what that feeling looks like and how to maintain it. So he’s in the right spot.”
