3 RBI singles loudly announce his arrival
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The 37,400 fans basked in one of those precious moments in San Francisco when they could rise to their feet, cheer a young hitter just up from the minors and say with conviction, "This could be the one."
Think Will Clark, Matt Williams, Royce Clayton or - man, it's been a long time - Buster Posey, whose first big-league game of 2010 on Saturday night was a success.
Posey's contribution in a 12-1 creaming of Arizona was not some Herculean blast to the Coke bottle in left field, but three silky swings that yielded three scoring singles in four at-bats and his first three career RBIs.
Thus, the 23-year-old already delivered on his first promise, just to do his little part and not try to play savior.
"Great job the kid did," manager Bruce Bochy said. "I'm sure he didn't get much sleep last night, and he goes out there and gets some big hits for us. He swung it well down there in Fresno and carried it into tonight. It was a good debut. We needed it."
Officially, Posey was promoted from Triple-A to play first base and get some at-bats until some injured players return. Unofficially, let's just see management send the 2008 first-round draft pick back to the bushes if he hits like this against all foes, not merely the last-place ones.
In his first big-league at-bat of 2010 and the 18th of his career, Posey accomplished in three pitches what took Pablo Sandoval 152 at-bats this year: a two-out hit with a runner in scoring position. Posey's single to center, on a 1-1 fastball from a generally overmatched Billy Buckner in the first inning, brought home Freddy Sanchez.
Posey also hit the last of four consecutive singles in a three-run fifth against Buckner, the other three by Sandoval, Aubrey Huff (now the left fielder) and Juan Uribe. With the bases full and nobody out in the seventh, Posey singled through the hole against Saul Rivera for his third RBI.
That one impressed Huff, who said, "Bases loaded, nobody out. A lot of guys go out and try to do too much. He just took a nice, easy swing, got his hit and got the line moving."
Once Posey got to first after that third hit, he chuckled when base coach Roberto Kelly said, "It's that easy, huh?"
"It's not," Posey said with a laugh.
Sandoval had three more hits and Uribe and Eli Whiteside homered in support of Jonathan Sanchez, who was forced out after five innings because of pitch count but held the Diamondbacks to two hits, including a Rusty Ryal homer, for his first win since April 26. Sanchez walked four and struck out seven.
Even reliever Denny Bautista and little-used Travis Ishikawa joined the offensive fun with RBI hits.
In fact, Posey's first question after the Giants' biggest scoring day of the season must have been, "This team doesn't hit?"
Bochy said Posey was promoted now because the Giants were down two position players, Edgar Renteria and Mark DeRosa, and "this was a good opportunity for Buster to get some at-bats up here at first base."
Posey's .349 batting average and .995 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) at Fresno might have forced the Giants' hand, too.
Bochy would not commit to Posey being here for the rest of the season, saying his status will be reassessed once Renteria and DeRosa return.
Bochy had not met with Posey before batting practice to give him the "be yourself" speech, but maybe he did not have to. When Posey was asked how aware he was of the clamor for him, he said, "I can honestly, honestly say I've tried my best to focus on Fresno and working each day and staying out of the articles and whatnot. I heard things here and there, but I focused on each game.
"There are a lot of good hitters on this team. I don't feel I have to do a lot of extraordinary things to help us get a win."
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