![]() It’ll give Posey the opportunity to see more Giants games from the stands. So they loaded up the moving truck last week. It’s where both their sets of twins were born. As Posey explained, it took a year away for the family to realize the Bay Area had become the place that truly felt like home. ![]() Posey and his family are in the process of moving from suburban Atlanta back to the Bay Area. Posey will be able to watch Bailey in person more often. It’s going to be fun to watch him down the stretch.” He seemed ready to take that leap, and he was. “I hadn’t spent a lot of time around him since that ’21 camp but I noticed a different maturity level,” Posey said. Patrick Bailey celebrates with teammates after hitting a two-run walk-off home run in the 10th inning. “You can see all the tools he has - obviously he has a tremendous arm, his pop time is as good as anybody’s - but for me, the biggest thing is the fact that as soon as he walks on the field, you feel good about winning that game. It’s hard to measure how important that is, not just for the pitching staff but for the rest of the guys that are watching every pitch. “It’s oozing off him onto the screen, even watching him on TV. “The biggest thing that stands out to me is he has a quiet calm, a quiet confidence,” said Buster Posey, asked about Bailey in a phone interview last week. And he’s impressing a certain Giants fan who stays up late to watch games on the East Coast. Of all the rookies who have debuted, it’s safe to say that Bailey is the best thing that has happened to the Giants this season. He hasn’t made enough hard contact to be a lineup asset and his impressive-on-first-blush defensive skills have shown deficiencies to address. For now, anyway, Matos has shown that there’s a lot of physical and mental development still to happen. Their future value to the organization won’t be defined by anything that happens this year. Nobody expected them to take the league by storm this season. And there’s a good chance that outfielder Luis Matos, whose bat has been too light to hold down an everyday job, will head back to Sacramento when the Giants activate Mike Yastrzemski from the injured list as soon as Monday. Shortstop Marco Luciano impressed in a three-game cameo but a hamstring injury - he’s shut down for at least two more weeks, the Giants announced on Sunday - stalled the experiment to expand his utility to include second base. Rule 5 draftee Blake Sabol is an obvious keeper who’d also arrive with a full complement of minor-league options next season. Right-hander Tristan Beck has had a wobble here and there lately. David Villar wasn’t able to hang onto his incumbent status at third base. Infielder Casey Schmitt’s chase rate sent him back to Triple-A Sacramento. ![]() But Bailey and right-hander Ryan Walker might be the only rookies who have established themselves as near certainties to play meaningful roles in the big leagues next season. It’s a promising sign that the Giants have relied on their farm system and not the waiver wire to address injuries and roster deficiencies this season. He’s emerged as a catcher who could be a perennial Gold Glove finalist, even if the timing of his debut might make it tough to outrank Atlanta’s Sean Murphy this season. Even though Bailey didn’t debut until May 19, he leads all Giants position players in fWAR. But the 10th inning served as one more moment of permanence for Bailey, whose emergence as a poised presence behind the plate and a life learner in the batter’s box is the healthiest development to happen to the franchise this season. There’s no guarantee that the spine tingles from Sunday’s sudden victory will carry over into Monday’s home series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays. Patrick Bailey watches his first major-league walk-off homer clear the left-field wall. When it went over, it was the coolest feeling.” “I hoped it was hooking enough to stay away from that. “I was watching and hoping,” said Bailey of his first big-league walk-off homer, while noting the quirky raised portion of the left-field wall where an advertisement juts out. The Giants’ 3-2 victory snapped a four-game losing streak and prevented Bruce Bochy’s crew from pulling off a series sweep.īailey, 24, became the youngest Giant to hit a walk-off homer since 22-year-old Pablo Sandoval ended a game against the Washington Nationals in 2009. He hit a low line drive that stayed fair as it slipped over the left-field wall for a two-run home run, sending the Giants’ waterfront ballpark into euphoria and flipping what would have been a heartbreaking result into a moment of helmet-tossing jubilation. ![]() And Bailey providentially pulled the Giants out of the wreckage with one swing. He challenged Bailey with an inside fastball. Smith did not throw a slider with a 1-1 count.
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