Tony Vitello just had his first SF Giants bullpen masterclass but it almost backfired

The SF Giants got a huge win against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Tuesday night thanks in large part to manager Tony Vitello’s deft handling of the bullpen. While he pushed all the right buttons, it was nearly a disaster.

Vitello was really aggressive in the way he deployed his left-handed relievers. He has three of them in Ryan Borucki, Matt Gage, and Erik Miller and he made sure he burned through all three by the end of the game which is a smart move considering how many lefties are in LA’s lineup. He nearly burned through them too early, though.

Landen Roupp battled hard through five innings even though his stuff seemingly abandoned him out of nowhere in the fourth inning and he couldn’t find the strike zone all of a sudden. He issued four walks in that inning but got out of it with a double play and then got through the fifth inning.

Vitello's aggressive use of lefties pays off in huge way for SF Giants

Then Giants fans buckled their seatbelts as Ryan Borucki entered the game in the sixth. Borucki has been arguably the most controversial Giant this season because he has had some really rough outings. It seems Vitello and the coaching staff understand how to use him better now as he is really only effective against lefties.

That was proven on Tuesday as Borucki got Freddie Freeman, Max Muncy, and new Public Enemy No. 1 Dalton Rushing, all lefties, out while allowing the one righty he faced, Teoscar Hernandez, to double. It was a solid outing for Borucki and he’s looked much better as of late.

Then, Vitello went with another lefty Matt Gage in the seventh. Gage got two quick outs before walking Alex Freeland which set up a showdown with Shohei Ohtani. Instead of sticking with Gage, Vitello decided to go with Miller. It makes sense because going into the game Ohtani was 1-for-6 in his career against Miller with five strikeouts, but it was a risky decision because if Ohtani came up again in the ninth then Vitello wouldn’t have a lefty to face him.

It seemed to backfire as Miller gave up a single to Ohtani but then he struck out Kyle Tucker to end the inning. Miller got two outs in the eighth and when Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pinch hit for Rushing with Will Smith, Vitello wisely countered with right-hander Keaton Winn who struck him out.

That meant Ryan Walker would have to pitch the ninth inning which is not a sentence many Giants fans want to hear these days. He blew the save his last time out in Washington DC but did come back with a clutch tenth inning to help the Giants win that game.

Walker had to face the bottom of the order before the lineup turned over and he’d have to face Ohtani. He was able to get Andy Pages and Alex Call out but that set up a battle with Alex Freeland. Walker got behind in the count but got it to 3-2 and was able to strike him out to secure the victory.

Imagine if Freeland walked or got on base somehow and Walker had to face Ohtani. That would have been an absolute nightmare as Walker struggles against lefties in general and Ohtani is not your run-of-the-mill left-handed bat. 

Thankfully, that did not come to pass and Vitello wound up looking like a genius. It was risky to burn through his lefties the way he did and it definitely could have backfired, but Vitello was able to out-strategize a veteran manager in Dave Roberts so that should really boost the rookie skipper’s confidence going forward. 

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