Michael Morse: Journey to a Tie Game
Before the National League Division Series, Giants outfielder Michael Morse met with manager Bruce Bochy and the team’s brass to talk about his spot on the team. He felt good. His oblique was finally healthy. He’d been taking full swings in batting practice. He was ready to go.
There was one problem. “I didn’t have enough at-bats,” Morse said after the Giants won Game Five of the National League Championship Series and emerged as NL champions Thursday night. “For me, I wouldn’t feel comfortable at the plate.”
And so Morse headed south to the instructional leagues. And the prospects down there gave him the business, as good as they could. “They were throwing in the 90s. Curveballs, sliders, everything,” Morse said. “Yeah, they busted me inside, too.”
And so, even if they weren’t major league at-bats, a week’s worth of practice was enough to get back on the roster. But with Travis Ishikawa playing well enough for Bochy, Morse was relegated to the bench.
Morse didn’t hold it against his teammate. In fact, after Game Five, he was emotional when asked about Ishikawa filling in and starting in left field. “I wouldn’t want anybody else to fill in,” he said. “This guy, he’s been incredible since the day he got here. His attitude, he’s really helped us out. And man, he’s just a great, great guy in the clubhouse. His story just keeps getting better and better.”
But starting is different than coming off the bench. As third base coach Tim Flannery said after the game: “It’s the hardest job in baseball, especially when you haven’t got a lot of at-bats.” Whatever Morse was supposed to do, it was going to be significantly worse as a pinch-hitter.
Steamer projects him to have a .321 wOBA going forward, and with the penalty, that would drop to .307. That’s what light-hitting Royals shortstop Alcides Escobar put up this year, as a comparison. Considering the right-handed slugger was facing Pat Neshek, a righty with a funky arm slot that would be tougher on righties, you would have projected him for even lower production in that one at-bat. Given their projected strikeout rates (22.6% and 24.8% for the pitcher and hitter, respectively), Morse should have struck out about 27% of the time.
Morse knew much of this. “If there’s one guy in that bullpen I didn’t want to face, this whole series, it was him,” he said after the game. “Righty-righty matchup, very tough with his sinker and slider.”
And so Morse went into his routine as a pinch-hitter, trying to prepare himself as best as he could for the moment. “You’ve got to micromanage,” Morse said of the runup to his at-bat. “See how the game is going on… see how many pitches Bum had and where in the lineup he was coming.” Once he figured that it would be Neshek, he went down into the batting cage.
In the cage, he asked for sinkers and sliders. He warmed himself up. “I had our BP guys throwing a little sidearm, kind of like what he does, to simulate,” Morse said of Neshek’s delivery. And he steeled himself, because it was a big moment. “For Bochy to, in that moment, trust me to go out there and take our ace out of the game, I told myself, `You can’t waste this at-bat. This has got to be a good one.'”
The first sinker was way in. “I just tried to get something over the plate,” Morse said. “I knew his sinker was going to run in, so I was just trying to see it over the plate.” The second was too low to make solid contact, though. Now with an even count, perhaps Neshek felt he needed to come over the plate.
Even with the third pitch where it was, Morse said he wasn’t thinking homer: “He threw a slider, and I just tried to touch it.” And touch it, he did, tying the game with a home run that went 369.9 feet, along the left field line where AT&T park is 364 feet deep.
“This guy has not had but a few at-bats in the last month, and for him to do what he did, it doesn’t get any more clutch than that,” said manager Bruce Bochy after the game. “When he came in high-fiving everyone, I thought he was going to break some hands. He plays with a lot of emotion and he saved us.”
It might have been a little hard to take the slugger seriously about his intentions to just touch the ball, given his penchant for silliness and the situation in which the post-game interview was being given.
But why take it too seriously? The man had just come off the bench against a funky delivery, in a righty-on-righty matchup, against one of the best relievers in the game. And Morse succeeded. Improbably.
Now it’s the time to enjoy. “I’m going to go back on video and keep watching this one over and over,” he said with a beer-drenched smile.
With a phone full of pictures of pitchers' fingers, strange beers, and his two toddler sons, Eno Sarris can be found at the ballpark or a brewery most days. Read him here, writing about the A's or Giants at The Athletic, or about beer at October. Follow him on Twitter @enosarris if you can handle the sandwiches and inanity.
Really miss this guy in DC! He’s a great presence to have in the dugout.
The Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant, the Giants win the pennant!!
Then those same Giants lost the World Series, lost the Series, lost the Series!
Alvin Dark & Monte Irvin each hit over .400 for the Giants, but were pretty much alone. Meanwhile, Yankees got contributions frmo Rizzuto, McDougald, Mize, Dimaggio, Berra, even utility player/future Dr. Bobby Brown Cardiologist. Over all the batters struggled against the pitching. Giants rookie Mays did little more than a bystander & Yanks rookie Mantle less. If they;d pick4ed a Series MVP, Yankees ace Eddie Lopat WHIP’d the Gi’nts into submission with his junk something awful in winning both starts.
As we known from several articles posted at FG, Steamer luvs the Royals, as do FanGraphs’ analytics: Royals up 10.1 WAR at the plate, down 1.1 WAR on the mound (in spite of the Royals’ awesome 3-headed Bringer of Heat Death), and up over SEVENTY SIX FREAKING WAR on defense! Naturally the Roaches will be heavy underdogs — much as they were 1951 to the Yankees*.
[*except the Giants were quite a bit up on Yankees in their respective league play WAR]
The line out of Vegas gives the Royals the edge.
The Royals aren’t the ’51 Yankees, and Ned Yost is most certainly not Casey Stengel.
Finally, after 2010 and 2014, the Giants have a decent DH for the World Series.
err 2010 and 2012
I am with you on 2012 (ack Hector Sanchez & Ryan TheRIOT)
But I as looking at this last night….In 2010 their DH choices were pretty decent, no?
Actually, yeah. Sandoval and Huff twice (w/Ishikawa starting at 1B when Huff DH’ed).
The Giants’ real DH nightmare was 2002 with Shinjo. They’ll never live that one down.
Shinjo was not that bad a hitter when used properly. Unfortunately, Dusty thinks one way “CF? Lead-off!” And I don’t see how Lofton gets the start in CF instead of Shinjo, Shinjo was a great fielder, I remember one play, RF missed the ball, he was backup, ball bounces off the wall, he grabs and spins a throw, directly line to homeplate, runner out at the plate.
That was Dusty’s problem, between doing the right thing to win or being a buddy to his vets, he chose the latter, no way I would have started Livan in game 7, Rueter should have started.
The bigger nightmare to me in that series was Pedro Feliz DHing when he hardly played during the season nor much during the playoffs, it was like the Salomon Torres redux for me there.
I’m still very much a novice at this whole advanced baseball analysis game, and also sort of an idiot in general, but I have to question how Neshek found himself “down 2-0” after a ball inside and a foul.
LMAO! Definitely was 1-1, not 2-0.
Because xCOUNT said it was 1-1. You really don’t get this newfangled stat world, do you?
Terrible, terrible pitch by Nishek. Ruined all of Waino’s great work, yet MIs always seem to avoid critisism.
You know you need to bust Morse inside, yet Nishek floated over a fat juicy one that got crushed. Really don’t see why Waino could have gone 8, he was totally dealing and that was their win or die game! Bad management by Matheny, you cant be cautious with your horse in a game which means that much.
Yeah, tell me about it!!
Didn’t you see Matheny and Wainwright talking in the dugout? Wainwright was done and knew he was done. Neshak was the right call there he just made a bad pitch. That’s not on the manager.
Well he certainly didn’t look done the way he was pitching, retiring the last 10 straight I think it was. That was his game, he deserved to carry on until have gave up a baserunner.
Anyway really shitty job by Neshek, giving up a dinger to his first batter. I think relievers get away with this stuff too much, they should be held responsible just like other SPs and position players. He certainly cost them that game.
And how should Neshek be “held responsible”? Are you suggesting the Cardinals should cut their most effective reliever this season just because he made one bad pitch?
Wainwright himself said in the dugout he was out of gas.
So, either the Royals are going to get a World Series or Morse is going to get the first of his career. I’m going to enjoy these games!
Bring the Beast back to DC!!
Interesting tidbit in the SF paper this morning. Morse said that Bonds came up to him before the game and gave him a tip about making sure to get his foot down. Said that he was thinking about that during the AB and it helped.
Bonds seems like he would be a great hitting coach. And why not? If it’s okay for McGwire it ought to be for Bonds too.
The media tended to downplay this because it didn’t fit the preconceived storyline of Bonds being a “bad teammate,” (which seems entirely based on his interactions with the press, and with Jeff Kent, who had major problems with his teammates everywhere he went) but he did this sort of thing frequently during his career.
His teammates often brought up how Bonds pointed out a mechanical correction in their swing, or a tendency he’d picked up in the opposing pitcher, that helped them get out of slumps or have good at-bats against a pitcher.
In other words, Bonds would likely be an excellent hitting coach if it weren’t for the blacklisting.
Is he really blacklisted?
I tend to doubt that he’d be interested in taking a job as hitting coach. As has been pointed out on KNBR radio shows, its not a great job if you’re already a multi multi mutli (200x?) millionaire like Bonds. Not sure why McGwire is doing it unless he wants to be a manager some day.
Bonds seemed to be blacklisted while his legal issues were ongoing, but now that they’ve been largely resolved the Giants have him around more. He was a special assistant for a week in spring training and he threw out the first pitch in an NLCS game.
Hard to visualize him ever taking a full time coaching position, though.
I don’t think Bonds was blacklisted. For one thing, he WANTS to be back with the Giants. He still has a 10 year personal service contract with the team that has not started yet (I think it’s $1M to one of his charities).
The Giants probably told him to stay away while he’s dealing with his felony issue, but that’s winding down now, so he actually coached in spring training – apparently Crawford has told one reporter that Bonds gave him tips that helped him this season.
Bonds is, from what I could gather from the media, a good teammate mostly. That makes a lot of sense because he understood only one thing: winning. So he never ran and made dangerous dives for balls or give a huge effort on what look to be sure outs, in order to not put his health and thus his bat, at risk for his team. He knew that his team needed him and no use hurting himself and taking himself out for months just to beat out a grounder or dive for a ball.
Not that I would then accuse Pence of not being a team player too, since he hustles all out for 1B. I think it’s a matter of knowing yourself and what your capabilities are, and what might hurt you.
The issue, I think, is that he felt entitled as a superstar and that chafed some people, like Kent. Others got it. And he’s one of those who is kind of in your face about your limitations. Sometimes, the truth hurts.
btw, whats a “steamer”? lol
Great article, love hearing about this inside baseball stuff!
Keep up the good work!