SF Giants: Gabe Kapler’s pitching strategy has plenty of critics, but new fans begin to emerge

With back-to-back blowout losses at Dodger Stadium, the first two games of the Gabe Kapler era were nothing short of an unmitigated disaster for the San Francisco Giants and their new manager.

Kapler employed an unconventional pitching strategy, using two of his top four starters, Kevin Gausman and Drew Smyly, out of the bullpen while also pulling Opening Night starter Johnny Cueto after just four innings and 63 pitches.

Kapler and his coaching staff insist a cautious approach at the outset of the season will keep his pitchers healthy, but veteran pitchers are accustomed to working deeper into games.

“I hope that next time I come out and pitch past five innings, but then again that’s going to be a decision for the manager,” Cueto said through Spanish language translator Erwin Higueros.

Cueto wasn’t the only pitcher to express disappointment with the Giants’ tactics as Gausman, who signed a one-year, $9.5 million deal to join the team’s rotation in the offseason, indicated he wasn’t thrilled to make his debut in relief.

“I feel like I’m more of an old school mentality where I think there should be starters and there should be relievers,” Gausman said Saturday. “I think the whole opener thing gets a little tricky. It just kind of complicates things more than I think it needs to me. But yeah, I had no problem doing it. I think it would be something we’d do every once in awhile against a team like this.”

Cueto and Gausman said Kapler communicated his plans ahead of time so they knew what to expect, but it’s clear a pair of non-competitive losses made the strategy tougher to accept.

“We want pitchers and players to express themselves and share what’s on their minds,” Kapler said. “It doesn’t come as a surprise to me that Gausman would prefer to start games and I support that. Many times this season, Gausman will be handed the ball and he will start games and we will take him deep into games and I think he’s going to be satisfied with that.”

As criticism began to build, the Giants responded with a 5-4 victory over the Dodgers to secure their first win of the season Saturday. Rookies Logan Webb and Caleb Baragar combined for six innings of one-run ball and afterward, both young pitchers credited their manager for laying out clear expectations ahead of their appearances.

“Going into it, I knew what today was going to look like,” Webb said. “It was a certain amount of pitches, get to the fifth inning, try to finish the fifth inning, I knew that going into it. So those five I was going to go out there and do my job. Every time you want to pitch, you’re trying to make a name for yourself and win a job.”

Webb lasted four innings but acknowledged a high pitch count hurt his efforts to finish the fifth. When the right-hander topped 60 pitches against the Dodgers, the left-handed Baragar began to warm in anticipating of facing the top of the Los Angeles lineup.

Baragar made his MLB debut on Saturday and faced the likes of Max Muncy, Mookie Betts and Cody Bellinger right out of the gates, but he said he was hardly fazed by the Dodgers’ offensive firepower because he had time to develop a plan of attack.

“Today for sure, I had an idea of where I was going to be coming in,” Baragar said. “I figured I’d be after Webby went through the lineup twice, that seemed to be the pattern, so I had a feeling I was going to face Muncy to lead it off and get the heart of the lineup, so the big thing for me today, I really tried not to focus on who was in the box, I tried to focus on the catcher.”

Two rookies explaining how well prepared they felt to face a vaunted Dodgers lineup had to give Kapler a sense of confidence in his methods after dealing with external and internal criticism over his strategy.

Part of the reason Kapler faced the ire of Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who accused him of “gamesmanship” on Saturday was the fact he waited until hours before first pitch on Friday and Saturday to reveal his starting pitchers. The waiting game appeared overly complicated on Friday, particularly because it seemed Giants veterans felt it was unnecessary to keep a well-balanced Dodgers team guessing about who would pitch when.

Roberts’ lineups against right and left-handed pitchers aren’t all that different, so the Giants didn’t stand to benefit from split-second pitching decisions. The criticism could have grown louder on Saturday, but Webb and Baragar expressed appreciation for their manager’s communication and confidence they’ll continue to remain well informed regarding their roles.

Kapler’s unconventional approach to pitcher usage will remain in the spotlight, but winning has the power to suddenly make issues disappear. On Saturday, the Giants’ new manager was able to experience a short moment of bliss.