The San Francisco Giants have had a challenging 2026 season thus far, and Wednesday’s game against the San Diego Padres suggested that frustration may already be creeping in. To start the season, the Giants endured a home sweep at the hands of the New York Yankees and were out-scored 13-1 across those three games. Wednesday presented an opportunity to erase those recent memories, as they had taken the first two games of the set against their National League West rivals. That turned out not to happen, as the Padres prevailed 7-1 behind a strong start from Nick Pivetta.
As for those aforementioned frustrations, they most visibly belonged to veteran third baseman Matt Chapman. With two out and two on in the bottom of the fifth, Xander Bogaerts chopped one to Chapman, who had to make a hurried and somewhat off-balance throw to Casey Schmitt at first base. It didn’t go as planned:
That’s a high throw and an error on Chapman, but it appeared to be catchable on the part of Schmitt. Chapman apparently agreed, as during the ensuing mound visit, he appeared to tell Schmitt to “catch the f—ing ball.”
No doubt, Chapman was also thinking of a similar play in the first inning when Schmitt was charged with an error:
Those plays accounted for both Padre runs, at least until they pulled away in the later innings. After the game, Chapman addressed the mound visit incident with reporters. Via NBC Sports Bay Area:
“We’re all brothers here. It’s the heat of the moment. I already talked to Casey. It’s all good.”
As for Schmitt, he also weighed in post-game, via the San Francisco Chronicle:
“We’re trying to win games. I mean, obviously I’m not mad about it or anything. That’s baseball. I mean, those are things I should have done and didn’t.”
In Schmitt’s defense, he’s far more familiar with the other infield positions, and Wednesday marked just his 18th career start at first base. However, the utility infielder was pressed into regular duty at first base because of Rafael Devers’ balky hamstring, which has limited him to DH thus far. As well, the organization determined that young first baseman Bryce Eldridge, the Giants’ top prospect, needed further seasoning at Triple-A to start the year. If it’s any consolation to Chapman, Schmitt shouldn’t be at first base much longer.
All of this, of course, isn’t a big deal or even anything all that unusual. It just happened to be caught by the lens and lip readers, which is why we’re talking about it.
