CINCINNATI — JT Brubaker got mad. Then, he got petty. Then, he got even more mad.
With the Giants in the midst of a four-game losing streak, rookie manager Tony Vitello wasn’t displeased at how his veteran right-hander provided some much-needed spice and offered some fighting words at home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott.
“I’m all for changing some things, getting creative and, if anything, maybe getting a little more edge out there,” Vitello said. “Brubaker, he’s just out there trying to get outs. … The umpire’s got a job to do there to make sure the hitter is ready and he didn’t think so, but Bru’s got a job to get out there and compete.
“And that was kind of, the last couple of days, one of the better moments we’ve had if you ask me.”
The saga between Brubaker and Wolcott unfolded with two outs in the bottom of the seventh. Brubaker got ahead in the count 0-2 against the Reds’ Spencer Steer, prompting Steer to briefly step out of the batter’s box.
When Steer stepped back in and appeared to make eye contact with Brubaker, the right-hander started going into his delivery. Wolcott, however, called time because he didn’t believe Steer was ready. Brubaker was none too pleased and had some words for Wolcott.
“Based off of how I pitch with the hybrid (delivery), I like to mess up hitters’ timing,” Brubaker said. “So, when the hitter makes eye contact with me, I can start my windup. I was almost in my leg lift and he gave him time. He said he wasn’t looking at me, but I clearly thought he was. So, it kind of fueled the fire a little bit.”
If Wolcott wanted to make sure Steer made eye contact, then Brubaker was going to make it very clear that Steer was ready for his next offering.
Before Brubaker’s next pitch, rookie catcher Daniel Susac held up a single index finger. The message: Wait until one second remains on the pitch clock before firing. Message received.
“It’s only because I actually thought that they were looking at each other when he started to come home,” Susac said. “Maybe I saw it wrong, but I thought Steer was looking at him when he came home. I was like, ‘It would be kind of funny if we took this down to one second.’”
“Me and (Susac) were on the exact same page,” Brubaker said.
The quality of the idea didn’t match the quality of the execution.
After standing frozen on the mound until the pitch clock went down to one second, Brubaker went into his delivery and fired a 95.8 mph sinker that Steer pulled into left field. Brubaker, still perturbed about Wolcott calling time, immediately yelled at Wolcott and had to be calmed down by Susac.
Brubaker somehow managed to avoid being thrown out of the game and completed the seventh inning, then worked around a single and a walk in the eighth to pitch another scoreless frame.
“It’s one of those things where it’s showing that we care,” Brubaker said. “We’re going out there to win ballgames. It’s inevitable in this clubhouse that everybody in here wants to win. Like (Vitello) said: fire, passion, hopefully it sparks and catches with everybody. I didn’t want to get tossed there, so I’m glad I didn’t get tossed. Everybody in here wants to win. It just comes out.”
Brubaker wasn’t the only Giant showing some emotion on Wednesday night.
After striking out in the second inning, first baseman Rafael Devers broke his bat by slamming it to the ground, then finishing it off by tearing it in two. Despite the moment of frustration, Devers recorded his first multi-hit game since last Wednesday when he hit the go-ahead, three-run homer against the Philadelphia Phillies.
“If I’m reading body language right, (he’s) more frustrated that he’s seeing it, and some of those swings are really his best swings,” Vitello said. “I’ve now watched enough video; you know what it looks like when it’s really good and he’s just missing it and kind of even looking at his bat like, ‘Why did it hit right there instead of me squaring that ball up?’ … I think just a little extra frustration because he knows how good he’s capable of being and he just hasn’t gotten a rhythm for him yet.”