Tony Vitello is hearing it from Giants fans after he failed to properly address a game-changing blunder in loss to Dodgers
Former Tennessee Volunteers baseball coach Tony Vitello had an opportunity to send a message as the manager of the San Francisco Giants after one of his players made a brutal base-running blunder, but he refrained from doing so.
Former Tennessee Vols baseball coach Tony Vitello is hearing it from San Francisco Giants fans after declining to bench a player after a brutal base-running blunder.
In the seventh inning of the Giants’ 4-0 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday, San Francisco shortstop Willy Adames completely lost track of how many outs there were and got doubled off second base after Drew Gilbert hit a ball that was caught at the warning track for the second out of the inning.
Adames’ blunder was the third out of the inning, which erased a scoring opportunity for the Giants.
Giants fans weren’t happy that Tony Vitello didn’t bench Willy Adames
Numerous Giants fans wanted Adames benched immediately because of the blunder — especially after it was pointed out that he had his back turned so he could talk to Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts during much of Gilbert’s at bat.
Vitello said after the game that he believes Adames lost track of how many outs there were in the inning (uh, yeah).
The former Tennessee coach also said Adames could sit out Thursday’s game against the Dodgers, but nothing has been determined yet.
I understand the frustration from Giants fans — forgetting how many outs there are in a big league game is unacceptable.
But Adames is far from the first player to make that mistake this season.
New York Mets superstar shortstop Francisco Lindor, for example, didn’t turn an easy inning-ending double play earlier this season because he thought there were two outs in the inning.
Lindor wasn’t benched for the mistake.
Vitello was likely focused on trying to win the game. If he had benched Adames, the Giants would’ve had to put backup infielder Christian Koss in at shortstop. I’m guessing Vitello preferred to keep Adames’ bat in the lineup for the final couple of innings in case the Giants staged a rally.
Adames, after all, singled to get on base in the seventh inning.
The blunder was undoubtedly infuriating for Giants fans, but Vitello didn’t necessarily handle it any differently than most MLB managers handle that type of situation these days.