The Giants pulled off a great 8-5 road comeback against the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday, but that wasn’t the biggest story of the day. The franchise continued to push through its youth movement this season, as it called up top prospect Luis Matos while placing Mitch Haniger on the injured list with a fractured right forearm.
Longtime Giants announcer Dave Flemming joined 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast” Wednesday to share why he’s so excited to see Matos in the bigs.
“You feel like you’re striking while he’s hot,” Flemming told hosts Bonta Hill and Joe Shasky. “He had a big smile on his face, I said ‘Hi’ to him this morning. He looks like a very confident young man. His luggage didn’t make it here – he’s borrowing shoes and borrowing all kinds of stuff – but his bats made it here. I think he’ll be good to go."
Matos, batting second, made an instant impact, roping a single to left field in his first MLB at-bat before coming around to score the Giants second run of the game.
San Francisco was down to its final strike in the ninth, before outfielder Mike Yazstremski belted a two-run bomb to tie it. The Giants went on to score three more runs in the 10th to secure the sweep and their fourth straight win.
Matos was eventually subbed out, but went 1-for-3 in his debut. The 21-year-old outfielder started the season at the Double-A level, before getting promoted to Triple-A and putting up monster numbers and getting his callup. In 55 minor league games this season, Matos slashed .350/.415/.561 with 10 homers, 36 RBI and 15 steals.
“He’s really exciting,” Flemming said. “Last year, nothing was working. He was hurt and he was more hurt than he was giving on and he was chasing (pitches). The Giants not only got him healthy, but gave him the directive, like, ‘OK, Luis. We love ya but you have to get better at this.’ … Good grief did he take to that. He’s got more walks than strikeouts in the minor league this year. In this day and age that’s almost unheard of. He’s been hitting with power lately and he’s the second-youngest player in the big leagues.”
Considering other youngsters like infielder Casey Schmitt and catcher Patrick Bailey have been promoted this season, the Giants are feeling good about their next wave of talent.
“There’s been a lot of contributions from young guys this year, and important ones,” Flemming said. “It’s really exciting.”
