New Giants manager Tony Vitello working to get his club on track after frustrating 3-8 start

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Lately, Tony Vitello has been apologizing to his own family for how San Francisco is playing, and when they have a chance to go out for dinner everybody is used to his mind still being on baseball and little else.

There's been a lot of thinking to do given the new Giants manager's frustrating 3-8 start in his jump from college coach to the major leagues.

Vitello had a little extra time following Sunday afternoon's game with a night contest the next day to ponder everything that went wrong in San Francisco's third straight defeat, when he was ejected for the first time in his career for arguing in the seventh after Jerar Encarnación was ruled out for running inside the designated lane on his way to first base.

Yes, he constantly dissects the various decisions he makes and is determined to figure this out. The Giants lost again Monday night, squandering an early four-run lead to the Philadelphia Phillies in a 6-4 setback.

“At 3-7 and how yesterday went, I didn't think yesterday was the proper time for me to go gallivanting around San Francisco, so, yeah, I was in my condo the whole night,” Vitello said beforehand. “Whether I'm there or sitting with family I apologize to them, ‘Find something better to watch if you’re watching this.' We're at dinner, I am thinking about this more than that. So, yeah, yesterday sitting at home you finish on a day game and you have a night game, you've got a lot of time to go over that stuff. You replay it all.”

Before the start of a three-game series with the Phillies, Vitello and Matt Chapman connected to discuss the third baseman getting caught stealing after his leadoff single in the ninth inning of a 5-2 loss to the Mets that gave New York a weekend sweep.

Vitello knows those kinds of mistakes would be more magnified later in the season, and said the Giants are “trying” so hard to win "it's probably something that everybody's been a little guilty of, of not going about it the way they would if they were thinking clearly but when you're trying to win games as hard as possible sometimes it actually contradicts what your end goal is.”

Coming into Monday's game, the Giants had been outscored by 25 runs over their initial 10 contests — the worst mark through 10 games for the franchise since it was minus-49 in 1896. And the club's 3-7 record was tied for its second-worst through 10 games since moving to San Francisco in 1958 — the Giants began 2-8 in 1983.

Chapman, for one, hopes a few things will go the Giants' way so they can grab some much-needed momentum to climb their way up in the powerful NL West after falling to the bottom of the standings, and he is thankful the struggles are happening now when there is plenty of time left. San Francisco has missed the playoffs the past four years.

“Whatever it is, I think it's more of an accumulation of maybe some frustrating things happening because we're right there and we're not able to get the job done,” Chapman said. “... It sucks when it looks like it's sloppy baseball and we're making some sloppy mistakes that kind of shot us in the foot last year and was one of the reasons why we probably weren't able to finish as strong. But I don't think it's going to be something that's going to be the story of our season by any means.”

After his ejection, Vitello offered a long explanation to what had upset him. The former University of Tennessee coach regularly shares stories from his experiences in the college ranks.

“I’m sure he got it exactly technically right,” Vitello said postgame Sunday. “It’s just a play I’ve got a lot of history for. A little frustrated about something else that occurred in the game. … Got a ton of history with that play. Lost a game to Lipscomb on that play, lost the game to (Oklahoma State coach) Frank Anderson and a Big 12 championship on that play. The difference between the two that I’m talking about, and I can talk about others, is the runner in Frank’s instance — and I’ve called his team cheaters — completely interfered with the throwing lane for the pitcher. So again, umpires are held accountable by what the rules are, and they enforce those rules."

Several of his players and coaches have said dating to spring training how much they appreciate the passion, energy and approach Vitello takes.

From Day 1, Vitello acknowledged he would be learning on the fly from the dugout's top step and there would be plenty of ups and downs.

“Listen, Tony's great, I like Tony, he's cool,” said center fielder Harrison Bader, who began the series batting .118 (4 for 34) with a home run and determined to get on track. “At the major league level, a little different in terms of the fans and the speed but he won at a really high level in the SEC. It's the same game, so he's familiar to winning and what it looks like to help players win and what that feeling looks like and how to maintain it. So he's in the right spot.”

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