SAN FRANCISCO — In Joey Bart’s first audition as the Giants’ starting catcher, he came to the plate 111 times and didn’t trot around the bases once.
So in his second plate appearance of the official start of his tenure, Bart took time to admire the ball that launched off his bat.
Bart’s mammoth solo home run, with nobody on and one out in the fifth inning, left the bat at 108.9 miles per hour. When it landed about a dozen rows up in the left-field bleachers, 414 feet away from home plate, the 25-year-old catcher had notched his first career homer and extended the Giants’ lead to 3-0.
JOEY BART FIRST CAREER HOMER 💥 pic.twitter.com/bKnA1hCI2T
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) April 8, 2022
If Bart’s first stint as starting catcher, filling in for Buster Posey during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, couldn’t have gone worse, then his tenure as the the Giants’ backstop in the post-Posey era couldn’t have gotten off to a much better start.
Bart, 25, earned the job in spring training, as he slugged three home runs — all of equally epic proportion to Friday’s blast — while batting .364/.440/.818 and developing the trust from the pitching staff necessary to claim the full-time position.
Prior to Bart, the last Giants rookie to hit his first career homer on Opening Day was Will Clark, who homered in his first career major league at-bat off Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan in 1986.
By getting the nod behind the plate on Opening Day, Bart gave the Giants a homegrown battery as he caught Logan Webb, another product of the Giants’ drafting and development.
Through five innings, Webb had not allowed a run against the Marlins.
Source: www.mercurynews.com