CINCINNATI -- After meeting with the media and watching batting practice, Buster Posey went up to the executive's suite a bit earlier than he normally will. Posey never before had gotten to soak in all the pageantry of an Opening Day, but with his catcher's gear gathering dust, he was excited to sit down and watch the festivities.
The rest of the day, which also was his birthday, couldn't have gone much better. Wilmer Flores' three-run homer in the top of the ninth inning gave the Giants a 6-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds in Posey's first official game as president of baseball operations. Afterward, Bob Melvin said he planned to present the lineup card to Posey as a gift. It was a memorable 38th birthday, with just one complication.
Not many Giants seemed to actually know that it was Posey's birthday.
Flores had no idea. Opening Day starter Logan Webb's eyes widened when he found out. He laughed and said he had a 30-minute conversation with Posey earlier in the day and it didn't come up. Heliot Ramos, who kept the Giants in the game early on, said he spoke to Posey multiple times without passing along birthday wishes.
"Oh man," he said, smiling. "I just told him, 'Congratulations on your first day as the boss.'"
It would have been one to celebrate regardless, but it was extra special thanks to Flores, Ramos, Jung Hoo Lee, Patrick Bailey and others, including a stream of lockdown relievers. A big part of Posey and Zack Minasian's plan to get the Giants back to contention is situational hitting, and on Thursday, hitters came through in big spots.
Ramos capped an 11-pitch at-bat with a two-run homer, which not only kept the Giants close, but helped knock dominant Reds starter Hunter Greene out earlier than expected. That caught up to the Reds in the ninth.
San Francisco Giants
Lee, who earlier had walked ahead of Ramos' homer, drew a one-out walk from Ian Gibaut. Matt Chapman singled to right, and after Ramos' strikeout -- one of 17 for the Giants -- Bailey lined a single into right-center to tie the game. That set up Flores, who presented Posey with one of his most interesting decisions of his first offseason in charge.
There was no doubt that Flores would opt in for the final year of his deal after a disappointing 2024 that ended with knee surgery, but nobody would have blamed the new executive if he had gone in a different direction at first base. Posey played with Flores, though. He knows how valuable he can be in the late innings, and the Giants came to camp hoping the veteran would look like his old self. When he did, he became an easy choice to return to the first base/designated hitter mix.
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On a day when Reds pitchers lit up the radar gun, Flores waited for something soft in the ninth. Gibaut floated a 1-2 slider and he crushed it to left.
"He's usually better when there's more money on the line," Melvin said.
Flores smiled a few minutes later and said he had told Willy Adames during the game that he had never hit an Opening Day homer. The blast came two innings after an 11-pitch battle, which ended in a strikeout but showed that Flores was back to his grinding ways. When healthy, he's as tough of a late-inning at-bat as there is on the roster.
"It showed today on the first day, but we want to keep it going," Flores said of the situational-hitting success. "Not only today, but we're going to try to push it all year. We talk about having good at-bats and I feel like we had a lot of good at-bats that didn't end in a good result."
Greene struck out seven in the first three innings, but he lasted just five. The Reds are without closer Alexis Diaz and when the game got to the ninth, the Giants took advantage. As Flores rounded the bases, Adames burst from the dugout and ran along the rail. Ramos and Lee excitedly grabbed each other on the top step.
"I wouldn't expect nothing (less). He's a veteran, he's built for those moments," Ramos said of Flores. "The fact that it was him, it's super-cool to see. He's bouncing back from last year and all the injuries and all that. We were ready, I feel like the whole game we were all focused, we were all trying to push in the same direction. Obviously Hunter Greene was doing a pretty good job today and he was nasty -- he had his stuff going on. But we never gave up, I feel like we took good at-bats and we were battling."
For all of the pageantry and attention that's paid to Opening Day, it's just one game. There are no guarantees, but there sure were some positive signs Thursday.
The homer was one of Ramos' best swings against a right-hander in the big leagues, a very intriguing development. And if Flores is back to his 2023 form, the lineup is going to be much deeper than anticipated.
Two years ago, Flores primarily hit second or third in the lineup. On Thursday, he was seventh on that lineup card that was headed Posey's way, and the man in charge can surely relate.
When Posey returned from a year off in 2021, he hit seventh in the opener. Nobody knew what he would give the Giants, but he ended up homering on Opening Day and looking just like his old self for six months. The hope is that the same proves true for Flores.
"It was just about health for him. I mean, it looks the same," Melvin said. "Last year he couldn't drive off his leg. We saw some homers this spring where he was pulling some balls, he's pretty good about sitting on pitches at times and he has always been a clutch guy. He has a lot of walk-offs in his career and the bigger the situation, the better he has been."
"There's still a lot to like about Flo."
