While the SF Giants are not going to be playing postseason baseball this season, their final regular season game is slated to be a memorable one. Longtime shortstop Brandon Crawford is in the final season of his contract and has acknowledged that he may retire this offseason. With his future uncertain, it could very well be the final professional baseball game of his career. Interim Giants manager Kai Correa was asked about Crawford prior to Saturday's game against the Dodgers, and he shared a memorable story.
"I'll tell one story that encapsulates this," Correa said. "I was thinking about it yesterday. In 2021, our first full season, it was the only season this staff has been here with the pitcher's hitting. And we're in that chase for the west with the Dodgers, and we're late into the season, I don't remember the exact month. And we're playing a game in which they needed Joe Kelly to give them a 1+. So Joe Kelly gives them a 1+, and the pitcher's spot comes up in the order, and so Joe Kelly gets an at-bat."
"He gets his first major-league at-bat in, call it 3-4 years [Kelly had just three plate appearances from 2016-2020]. He was a starting pitcher, obviously, before that in St. Louis and had hit some. And so I'm looking up, and I'm thinking to myself, 'Shoot, I don't have any data for Joe Kelly on my sheet... All of a sudden, I see Brandon move the second baseman. I see Brandon move the third baseman. I see Brandon give a hand sign to the first baseman, and then Joe Kelly rolls over a ground ball, Craw flies in, makes a quick exchange, throws him out. I look up, and I'm like, why do you exchange that so quick? Well, Joe Kelly can fly. So, he gets Joe Kelly out from memory, call it three years, four years, five years, whatever sounds better to make the story sound better. He had remembered Joe Kelly's spray chart as a starting pitcher for St. Louis and how well he runs. Not a professional hitter, a professional pitcher who transitioned to relief."
Correa misremembered some of the details from the story, a quick review of Kelly's Baseball Reference page shows that his only trip to the plate against the Giants that season came on May 27th, during a 4-3 Dodgers victory. In the bottom of the fifth inning, immediately following a home run by DJ Peters, Kelly came to the plate and grounded out to shortstop. Still, it's easy to see why that moment stands out to Correa.
"So, the physical skills we'll be watching highlights for the rest of our lives," Correa said. "Yeah, we all know about that, but things like that separate him from other people in that moment to remember those things, have the presence of mind to adjust everyone and alert them that hey, this relief pitcher he can run. That's, you know, that's why he's arguably the greatest shortstop to ever play in this organization, and that's a moment I'll think of all the time."
The SF Giants have entered every season since 2011 with Brandon Crawford as the team's starting shortstop. The Bay Area native has won four Gold Glove Awards and has consistently been one of the best defensive shortstops in MLB. However, slated to turn 37 in January, he may be playing his final game on Sunday.
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