Tony Vitello ‘proud' of Matt ‘Tugboat' Wilkinson's MLB debut in Giants' win
Giants manager Tony Vitello speaks with the media after San Francisco's 1-0 win over the Cleveland Guardians on Wednesday at Progressive Field.
Tony Vitello 'proud' of Matt 'Tugboat' Wilkinson's MLB debut in Giants' win originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
Matt and his individual game today?
It was fun more than anything.
I think the s- well, start, middle, and end were impressive for different reasons.
But his was impressive because, you know, it's kinda like Turner doing what he did last night.
He's got all these extra people here, maybe even more so than you normally would because of proximity and stuff like that.
And, you know, you guys asked about the road trip, and Rafi played for Boston.
At this point, there's so many transactions.
There's always that stuff going on.
When the game starts, it's just baseball.
But at the same time, it is the team he came up with and the team he came from, and we're on the road.
And it was kind of an undefined start to him.
We just told him worry about the first inning, and he handled it perfectly.
And he did it against a really good lineup that, you know, going into game two, it feels good to be up 1-0 in a series and, and feel confidence.
So you put all those things in the hopper, I think it was incredibly impressive.
More than anything, it was just fun, fun to watch.
He competes.
Did you sense sort of a lightness in the dugout and more smiles in just watching him out there?
In the field, too.
A couple infielders, I grabbed them, and I was like, "You guys," I was joking, you know, "Are y'all locked in?"
So I think causing conversation out of me, other players, guys cheering for him, it, you alluded to it in the dugout.
It's, you know, for every team this late in the year, you're looking for something to separate one day from the next.
For us, we're looking for positive vibes.
We haven't created enough on our own.
But at the same time, when you can get it from s- maybe something external or something new and refreshing, it's helpful.
And that was very much all of that.
Adrian Houser throwing 98 is also new and refreshing.
Yeah.
What, what did you see out of him?
A lot of attitude, you know.
Came out, and we talked about it before the game.
He wants to establish himself and be, you know Really, it's been a really successful big league career for him.
But, if you're gonna look at, like, stats and stuff, you know, last year he was really, really, really good.
You know, that, that'd be said at a minimum.
And, and I think that was his expation- expectation coming into the year.
A lot of quirky things happened at the start of the year and derailed him a little bit, and he's taken ownership and got himself back on the train tracks.
And I think the train's moving pretty good down the tracks.
And, and maybe so, so much that tonight was the best night.
And I, I think there was a little bit more determination and a little bit more attitude.
And he got us to where it's an uncomfortable spot, but a good spot, is when, when do you take this guy out of the game?
And he had reached kind of that point since he had not been starting for us traditionally, kind of the point max-wise, pitch count-wise.
So could've left him out there.
Who's to say he doesn't finish the eighth and Dylan just gets a one-inning save?
But all three were equally impressive 'cause a, a two-inning save on the road with a one-run differential is, I don't even care if it's wh- whoever you wanna throw out.
It's impressive.
They do have eight guys batting from the left side, so why did it make sense to deploy those two guys, the first two guys, the way you did?
Yeah, I, I think today was, we are committed to that.
It is Houser's day and, we're not gonna do anything quirky with him.
He's gonna be set in a routine where he's gonna get the ball for 80 pitches.
And now that he's been there a couple times, 80 to 90 pitches and gonna take ownership of the game.
And, you know, we're gonna work around that, whether it's something before it or something after.
And then, you know, we figured the eighth inning, we'd give him if We didn't have anything predetermined going on, but if somebody was gonna get on base, it was gonna be a save situation, so we would just go to Smitty.
And he was throwing the ball really well.
And I think we got some guys in a confident spot, some guys who need to get in a confident spot in the bullpen.
So we let him ride.
I mean, you, you don't know That's why it's kinda hard when y'all ask what day is Willy available and stuff.
You don't know what the other team's gonna do.
I don't know if DeLauder's available or not.
I don't know if it was just give Adell a complete day down.
But when a guy has six RBIs off you the day before, you're- Mm-hmm a little sensitive to him coming in to pinch hit.
Could you use Wilkinson in, against Boston in the Boston series?
Yeah.
Yeah, and I think, you know, big, big group of family.
He just went back out to the dugout, and the cheer he got was pretty awesome.
I'm sure they're happy for him and wanna slice my head off, because he threw two successful innings and he stops.
But the plan we had in place to get him here and go right away was to set him up for innings later.
So, undefined completely what I mean, there's no strategery or anything like that.
It's when guys play like that, you look smart.
So, there's a few options with what we would do.
But tonight was in part get him out there, but also set him up for innings in Boston of some sort.
Verdugo obviously drove in the, the only run of the game, had that run-saving catch.
What can you say about his effort tonight?
Yeah, I mean, he was phenomenal.
Guys, there were a couple plays we could've made behind Houser, but I don't know how that analytics works out.
Run value, I guess you could look at.
We also did some great things behind him defensively, and that was the one that really stood out because of the guys that were on base.
And, maybe he's really comfortable in that spot, 'cause that's about the third one now, that he's do- done coming in that was very impressive, where it's, you're kind of in an awkward spot diving.
And then, you know, at the plate, he's eager.
He wants to get back in that rhythm that he was.
He's always gonna be an aggressive hitter.
I think, like Smitty, I think you'll really see a development if he can learn to lay off some borderline pitches.
But step one of being a good hitter is wanting to hit, and he wants to hit, and he ran into one there just good enough to be the difference between the two teams.
