Camilo Doval, Giants still adjusting to life with MLB pitch clock
Doval, Giants still adjusting to life with pitch clock originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
NEW YORK -- The first two games of the Giants' season have shown why the pitch clock was so necessary.
The opener was a lifeless shutout, the type no Giants fan would want to watch a second time. It lasted two hours and 33 minutes. On Saturday, the Giants and New York Yankees played a thriller, with back-and-forth scoring, some huge home runs and the patented ninth-inning torture. The game lasted three hours and 12 minutes.
The goal for MLB is pretty simple: Less of the bad baseball, more of the good. But for the teams and players themselves, there are still some issues to be ironed out.
The Giants experienced that in two different ways in Saturday's 7-5 win. The obvious example was the ninth inning, when reliever Camilo Doval was called for two pace-of-play violations as he tried to protect a three-run lead against the heart of a dangerous lineup, with 41,000 fans screaming down at him.
That certainly raised heart rates in the Giants dugout, but manager Gabe Kapler was just as stressed in the first when starter Alex Cobb -- coming off a knee injury that required a cortisone shot and multiple drainings of fluid -- needed 38 pitches to get through the frame. Jakob Junis warmed up as Cobb wobbled before he finally got the third out.
"I was gassed," he admitted after the game.
The pitch clock will be noticed most in the tight spots, but those long innings will be tricky, too. There was nothing Cobb could do to slow down and catch his breath, although he noted that in future situations he might employ a few tricks like asking for a new ball or calling for a mound visit.
"The clock is ticking," Cobb said. "When things are unraveling a little bit and you're trying to find a decent groove, you've got to slow it down and you just have to do it another way than you're used to."
Cobb said the Giants will adjust quickly, and that will be especially imperative for Doval. One of the slowest workers in the league last year, he looked fully comfortable with the clock in the spring, but the scene was much different on Saturday.
Doval got dinged right away because he threw one last warmup pitch after his time to get loose had expired. He started the ninth with a 1-0 count, something Cobb said he hopes MLB ultimately takes a look at since that's not great optics when games are on the line.
Doval gave up two singles and walked two as the Yankees got one run back and loaded the bases for former MVP Giancarlo Stanton. That matchup also started with a ball because of a pitch clock violation. Kapler said he likely would meet with Doval.
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"It's not just on Camilo," Kapler said. "We need our catchers to be (on it) and (Roberto Pérez) did a nice job of trying to slow the game down for him. We didn't see any of that sort of thing (with Doval) in spring training. We saw a pretty good mastery of it and this is a different environment and it's understandable that things sped up a little bit."
The Giants had just one violation in the opener and that came on a hitter, J.D. Davis. They had three Saturday, with Taylor Rogers also getting hit for a pitch clock violation. On the other side, Yankees right-hander Albert Abreu got called for one, resulting in an automatic ball.
"No pitcher is going to survive giving away balls like that," Kapler said. "It doesn't matter how good you are. We were fortunate to get out of that one with a victory but we're going to need to adjust, and Camilo is good at making adjustments."
