four-game losing streak<\/a>, rookie manager Tony Vitello wasn\u2019t displeased at how his veteran right-hander provided some much-needed spice and offered some fighting words at home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott.<\/p>\n\u201cI\u2019m all for changing some things, getting creative and, if anything, maybe getting a little more edge out there,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cBrubaker, he\u2019s just out there trying to get outs. \u2026 The umpire\u2019s got a job to do there to make sure the hitter is ready and he didn\u2019t think so, but Bru\u2019s got a job to get out there and compete.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that was kind of, the last couple of days, one of the better moments we\u2019ve had if you ask me.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2019 Spencer Steer, prompting Steer to briefly step out of the batter\u2019s box.<\/p>\n
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\u2019t believe Steer was ready. Brubaker was none too pleased and had some words for Wolcott.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased off of how I pitch with the hybrid (delivery), I like to mess up hitters\u2019 timing,\u201d Brubaker said. \u201cSo, 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\u2019t looking at me, but I clearly thought he was. So, it kind of fueled the fire a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Before Brubaker\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s only because I actually thought that they were looking at each other when he started to come home,\u201d Susac said. \u201cMaybe I saw it wrong, but I thought Steer was looking at him when he came home. I was like, \u2018It would be kind of funny if we took this down to one second.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMe and (Susac) were on the exact same page,\u201d Brubaker said.<\/p>\n
The quality of the idea didn\u2019t match the quality of the execution.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those things where it\u2019s showing that we care,\u201d Brubaker said. \u201cWe\u2019re going out there to win ballgames. It\u2019s 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\u2019t want to get tossed there, so I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t get tossed. Everybody in here wants to win. It just comes out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brubaker wasn\u2019t the only Giant showing some emotion on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m reading body language right, (he\u2019s) more frustrated that he\u2019s seeing it, and some of those swings are really his best swings,\u201d Vitello said. \u201cI\u2019ve now watched enough video; you know what it looks like when it\u2019s really good and he\u2019s just missing it and kind of even looking at his bat like, \u2018Why did it hit right there instead of me squaring that ball up?\u2019 \u2026 I think just a little extra frustration because he knows how good he\u2019s capable of being and he just hasn\u2019t gotten a rhythm for him yet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CINCINNATI \u2014 JT Brubaker got mad. Then, he got petty. Then, he got even more mad. With the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2408],"tags":[5,2178,162,4,378,66,4343,4340,4344,4341,4342,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-676899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-giants","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-giants","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-san-francisco","13":"tag-san-francisco-giants","14":"tag-sanfrancisco","15":"tag-sanfranciscogiants","16":"tag-sf","17":"tag-sf-giants","18":"tag-sfgiants","19":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116414391226706148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}