SAN FRANCISCO -- Gabe Kapler only has been ejected once in 325 games as Giants manager, and he hasn't even really come that close to adding to that number. He generally doesn't like talking about bad calls and goes out of his way to say that umpiring is a difficult job.
But the Giants were so stung by a call in the ninth inning of their 3-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals on Friday at Oracle Park that they couldn't hold their tongues.
Mike Yastrzemski took a 2-2 curveball off the edge with no outs and was stunned to get called out. Like Kapler, Yastzemski is pretty unemotional, but he threw his hands on his head after the call and then yelled at home plate umpire Clint Vondrak from the dugout. After the loss, Kapler said the call was "really frustrating."
"Our guys are grinding," Kapler said. "You guys know I don't say this very often, but Yaz was battling his ass off in that at-bat. It's really disappointing to see that at-bat end the way it did. I won't say anything more than that, but that's really frustrating, especially because of the way Yaz has been locked-in and how hard he worked to get what would have been an advantage in that count.
"Yeah, that was not ideal."
Instead of a 3-2 count, the Giants had one out for Thairo Estrada, who smoked a liner to third that was gloved by former Giants infielder Matt Duffy. Brandon Crawford drew a walk with two outs, but Blake Sabol also went down looking, ending the game. That pitch did nick the bottom of the zone.
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The curveball to Yastrzemski was outside but was yanked back by veteran catcher Salvador Perez, and the Giants weren't happy about the end result. Yastrzemski described himself as "just angry and frustrated."
"I felt like the whole at-bat got taken out of my hands," he said. "I felt like we had some good momentum and it got taken out from under our feet."
Yastrzemski had a rough spring but Kapler insisted all along that he'd be fine, and the center fielder had two homers and three doubles on the road trip. He was 1-for-4 on Friday as the lineup again went into an odd-game funk.
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In their four losses this year, the Giants have just 16 total hits. They had just four through the first eight innings before Joc Pederson hit a triple off the wall. Then came the call on Yastrzemski, which left the Giants again searching for answers.
"That's part of the frustration with it, too, is how good I've been feeling and not getting a chance to take a swing," Yastrzemski said. "Obviously mistakes happen, it's just a really tough situation for it to happen in."