SURPRISE, Ariz. — Bryce Eldridge, the San Francisco Giants’ high prospect, instructed reporters earlier this week that his essential purpose throughout his first major-league spring coaching was to make an excellent impression. One sport into Cactus League play and it’s secure to say he’s performed so.
Eldridge capped off the Giants’ first sport of spring coaching with a no-doubt, 450-foot, 110.4-mph homer as San Francisco defeated the Texas Rangers, 6-1, on Saturday afternoon at Shock Stadium. There have been no scarcity of cameras to seize the second — the Rangers’ didn’t televise the sport — and Eldridge will want them to recollect precisely how the second performed out.
“I honestly blacked out for that whole thing,” Eldridge mentioned. “I actually don’t bear in mind it. I bear in mind wanting on the outfielder and he was performing like he was going to catch it. I used to be like, ‘I think I got that one.’”
Eldridge, indeed, got that one. But not before he got got in his first plate appearance, which ended on a four-pitch strikeout. The first baseman fell behind in the count, 0-2, during his second plate appearance, but felt himself slow down with each passing pitch. When the Rangers’ Matt Festa tossed a 92 mph four-seam fastball proper down the center, Eldridge didn’t miss his alternative to clear the fences.
“I was thinking to myself in that at-bat that I just need to slow things down,” Eldridge mentioned. “Progressing through that whole at-bat, all those three pitches, I kept getting slowed down and more slowed down, so it worked out for me.”
Barring the unexpected, the 20-year-old Eldridge is not going to make the Giants’ Opening Day roster out of spring coaching after hitting 23 homers with 92 RBIs and a .291 batting common final 12 months throughout 4 totally different minor-league ranges. Eldridge might should spend extra time within the minors earlier than making his debut, however his residence run on Saturday was additional proof of how his energy will translate at any and all ballparks.
“For a guy his age, he certainly looks very calm. Two strikes, trying to put the ball in play and he hits it 40 feet over the center-field fence. We’ve seen a lot of that in his at-bats in lives and (batting practice). He just looks very hitter-ish all the time. It’s nice that he gets off to a good start after his first at-bat. It makes you feel good, and it makes you feel like you belong.”
Initially Revealed: February 22, 2025 at 4:14 PM PST
