SAN FRANCISCO - Brandon Belt didn't score a run Friday night. He was thrown out in the inning that decided a game with the Dodgers. He spent part of the bottom of the seventh with his arm around Joe Panik on the dugout bench, hamming it up for a camera that had the red light on.
But Belt had a big impact, kickstarting an odd rally that led the Giant to a 6-4 win, and he did so in a fashion that has been in the making for years. Belt has always put bunts down for hits in spring training, hopeful that National League West foes will stop shifting him so aggressively once the season starts.
He has rarely had such success after opening day, but he was leading off the seventh inning Friday with the Giants trailing by two. He finds it easier to bunt against lefties, and the Dodgers had brought in a tough one in Tony Cingrani. On a 3-1 count, Belt pushed a perfect bunt toward third. It had an exit velocity of 41 mph and landed eight feet from the plate, but that was more than good enough.
"It was just the right situation," he said. "We needed baserunners. It seemed like the right thing to do. You always want to get that extra-base hit and get in scoring position but at that point of the game we just needed runners and to get momentum. I needed to get on base. When you get on base, stuff happens.
"You get people on base and you put pressure on the pitcher. It makes it tougher to throw strikes."
Things did happen once Belt reached. Crazy things for most teams, but things that seem all too normal when the Giants are rolling at AT&T Park.
Belt advanced on a wild pitch but was thrown out on a fielder's choice grounder by Austin Jackson. Then, the lineup started churning. Brandon Crawford walked. Gorkys Hernandez singled. Kelby Tomlinson hit a pinch-double. Pedro Baez caught a spike on the mound and tripped for a balk that gave the Giants a lead. The trail runner went to third and scored on Joe Panik's sacrifice fly.
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Bochy has seen Santiago Casilla balk in a run in a similar way. When Baez did it, the ballpark erupted.
"You take it," the manager said.
Cingrani, who later was described as having "dead arm," looked uncomfortable once the momentum started rolling the other way. Bochy said Belt's bunt ignited things, and credited him for continuing to work on the skill into his 30s.
"He's worked at it. He worked on it this spring and I think he sees that it's a base hit," Bochy said of Belt, who had beaten the shift that way twice this season. "He's got the timing down there on the bunt. It hasn't been easy for him because he's not a guy that's bunted a lot, but he worked hard on it this spring."
The rest of this one didn't go according to plan, but it still worked out. Derek Holland lost his command in the fourth but Pierce Johnson, Cory Gearrin and Sam Dyson kept the Dodgers at four runs. Once the Giants scored four in the bottom of the seventh, Tony Watson and Hunter Strickland closed it out.
For a moment, the Giants looked like they would lose the opener and burn through their bullpen a night before a doubleheader. Instead, they're fine, and Derek Law will join Saturday as the 26th man. Chris Stratton will return to take Austin Slater's roster spot.
