Giants' Tony Vitello shares expectations for Tyler Mahle's start vs. Athletics

Giants manager Tony Vitello speaks to reporters ahead of San Francisco's matchup against the Athletics on Wednesday at Oracle Park.

Giants' Tony Vitello shares expectations for Tyler Mahle's start vs. Athletics originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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Rise out of the line.

How's he doing today?

good.

Just was back there with him, and little, little tardy on the next pedicure for him back there, but, he said his foot's asleep right now from the treatment, but I gotta believe that's gonna help swelling and all that.

you know, haven't completely ruled out a pinch hit possibility tonight, but I don't know that it makes the most sense or that it, it'd even be an option on the sheet.

but hopefully with the work he's doing back there, it would mean that tomorrow would be an opportunity.

We'll see.

You got any further sense of when it might be a possibility for Elliot to return?

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's definitely close.

I know he's ready, and, and obviously with the rise down, you know, you're, you're looking for a little bit of re- replacement on offense there.

I think a big requirement, for the organization was for him to get a couple nine-inning stints.

We're close to doing that.

We're seeing some lefties here, so, I don't, I don't The safest answer I can give you is I don't see the weekend passing by where he's not around the team, or a part of the team would be the best way to say it.

What do you hope to see from Maui tonight, and how can he find better results than what he had?

Strikes.

you know, split numbers.

He's, he's done okay against lefties.

Has been much better at home than he's been on the road.

but you can probably throw all that out the window and, and look more just at his career.

He's had success as a starter, and he's had some successful outings for us.

Like I said, most of them are in this park, but just to get out there and attack.

There's been cases of maybe nibbling a little bit too much.

you know, and he's, he's got good stuff.

There's deception to it as much as anything, and again, he's got a proven track record.

So, not to do what Robbie did last night, it's not even an option with pitch count stuff, but to log some innings and hand it off to whoever the next guy is and, and the scoreboard be in a position where we feel good about it, an opportunity to win the game.

Ramos- Has anything changed instruction-wise to Jung Hu on the bases?

He, he has five in the last 14 games after not even attempting one for- Yeah, I think some of it was just, Jung Hu is as coachable as anybody.

Tell him where to go, and he's gonna go full speed.

And, you know, he's kinda put that on display attack.

I know we had a blip on the radar screen last night, but he's absolutely attacked outfield play.

He's been outstanding and right, but he's done just as well as anyone we have in center when he's over there.

And then applying it to your question, on the bases, we've kinda done a little more of just steal sign instead of green light.

and then a couple opportunities have come up.

You know, we've had some foul balls and things where he's had a bag, where I think he feels good about the success rate when we've flat out kinda told him to go or put on the sign, and feels a, a higher level of comfort of going on his own when he has that green light too.

So before, he had the green light if he wasn't going, and now you're maybe- Yeah being more directive about when to go.

Yeah.

I, I think, you know, that's, that's pretty safe.

And again, I think it doesn't apply to confidence in running.

I think it's just more about him taking instruction.

You, you talked a little bit about the frustration, es- especially coming off the Miami series.

How good did last night's win feel, just to be able to put that behind you and, and have a well-played game like that?

Yeah, it was, it was great, for a lot of reasons.

One was Robbie and Webby almost trying to out-duel each other.

You give We basically gave the bullpen kind of an all-star break when you combined off days, rain stuff, and those two guys throwing, so there's a added benefit down the road.

But yeah, just to get back in and get settled.

it wasn't, like, a huge offensive output.

As a matter of fact, it was the exact average, I believe, that we had in Miami.

but it was just a much more crisp played game.

Again, we had the one blip on the radar screen, but mis- mistakes are gonna happen.

It's, you know You guys don't ask about the mistakes, for good reason, as often if we win the game.

But the, there's always some there for both teams.

The key is, how do you handle it?

And I mentioned last night to the group, if you were in there, that, you know, Robbie did a great job, and I think Jung Hu shaking it off too, and, you know, we turned that, you know, bad start to an inning into a one-run inning, which isn't perfect, but I think it was ideal for the circumstances.

I know it's not technically the Bay Bridge Series anymore, but what's the sense of the rivalry that you had coming in, and just does it feel different when it was in Sacramento and here the ballpark?

Is there a different buzz when you play the A's?

Yeah, you're so close to everything.

Even, like, BP, you just feel Again, it's a great ballpark.

It's just not as big as the, the Major League ballparks.

And so it, it does have a little different Last night it had a little bit different feel to it.

for me as a kid growing up, just with my background, and then Wash is standing next to me, and, you know, when there are, some dull, not dull, but open moments in the game where there's not action, we'll, we'll talk about old players on both teams and different games.

And, you know, for me, it's got just a cool feel for those two uniforms to be so close to each other.

One thing Robbie mentioned after the game last night was, you know, he called a lot of the game the, the start before, but he felt comfortable with Susak now, like, after a game of catching.

That's the new sinker.

He felt comfortable.

What have you thought, just in general, about how Susak is coming along behind the plate, getting, you know, increased responsibility from guys like Robbie?

Yeah, I think it's been outstanding.

We, we talked about catcher ERA.

We talked about comparing Susak to other people, really, I think, kinda off camera in Miami with a few of the folks that were down there, and I think he's done as good of a job as you can do, and he's really navigated some tough situations.

The only thing we've gotten with him on in the last couple weeks is when, let's go to a happy place.

the Turing sequence with the game on the line, arguably Milwaukee's best hitter up.

I thought he really navigated that well with Keaton.

so we did review that one, and if it went and it went well, which there's been a few of those, we just review them, and we don't question the pitch calling.

Just here's, here's ideally our approach or what we wanna get done with this at-bat, and he's super receptive to information.

I think he's a pretty smart kid, and he's putting that on display.

And, you know- Webby's a guy who his mind works in a different way than others, and his stuff is a little different than Robbie's.

I think Robbie's such a, a different cat and a low-maintenance guy.

He probably fits in that category more of, "Show me where to go and I'll roll with the punches."

Whereas, you know, I think Webby's done a good job of kind of taking charge of his own game.

But either way, when Sue's back there, there's a high level of confidence.

And I suspect you've addressed this one already, so apologies if you have.

Yeah.

But, Jung Hu is a potential All-Star candidate.

How much, thought have you given that, and, and how much would you like to see it?

Yeah, I mean, you want to see the guys get rewarded for, for, k- you know, what they're doing on the field and what they're doing behind the scenes.

And then, too, I mentioned in Miami, it's a fans' game, and I don't know who's more fun to watch, Arraez or Jungy, but you know, the fan crowd noise speaks for itself.

The other team, I think, even likes Arraez's style that he, he brings to the park every day.

So, those guys on both sides of the ball have proven All-Star caliber defense, All-Star caliber offense.

So if they're gonna get beat out, they're gonna get beat out by somebody.

And again, voting impacts it, too.

So I guess that's my small rallying cry for, for the crowd.

As loud as they cheer for those guys, do it, whatever the most successful voting way is way.

But i- it'd be pretty awesome.

And I know those guys are waiting to see how the All-Star break works out, and it'd be fun for them to see.

And it You know, it'd be remiss if you didn't mention a couple of other guys.

I mean, Schm- Schmitty's utility situation is insane.

and you'd certainly like to see a pitcher on there as well.

Raley obviously wasn't getting the results that he wanted before he got hurt.

Did he focus on making any adjustments that you think will kind of help him turn it around now that, now that he's back healthy?

yeah, I think it honestly was about getting healthy and, you know, we had a conversation about maybe another start labeled as a rehab i- you know, outing.

And I, I think once the body was good, I think he was good to get back to what he wanted to do.

I think if anything, and it I'm going personal note, too, but something that's come out in the bullpen is just f- driving through pitches as opposed to, you know, strike the ball a little too much, and guiding that thing out of the zone.

I don't think it's out of fear of getting hit.

I think it's just out of the want to, to have success.

but it's a tricky thing being a pitcher.

You're facing these big old names.

but it's amazing.

You get more what you want when you're attacking guys.

Like Roop did really well his last outing.

He was trying-

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