Tony Vitello Got Asked About Rafael Devers Again. He Went With a Joke Instead.

The San Francisco Giants have enough problems this season. Their record is bad. Their odds of making the playoffs are worse. And now their $313 million third baseman is in the middle of a weird drama over, of all things, being pinch-run for.

Rafael Devers made headlines last Sunday when he got pulled for a pinch runner in the ninth inning and reacted like someone who was not thrilled about it. The scene was loud enough that manager Tony Vitello got asked about it again Wednesday night after the Giants beat the Athletics 2-1. He did not go the serious route.

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t say the best coaching moment of the night was we told Rafi if he got on first, we were going to pinch-run for him,” Vitello told reporters, according to a video posted by NBC Sports Bay Area.

So Vitello basically dared the baseball gods to give him another awkward moment. And funny thing? They kind of did.

Devers led off the ninth inning Wednesday with the Giants down 1-0. He was warned ahead of time that a walk or a single would mean a pinch runner. Instead of walking or singling, he smashed a 1-1 fastball to center field for a game-tying home run. Problem solved. He jogged the bases himself. No substitutions needed.

Two outs later, Victor Bericoto hit one out too. Giants win. Crisis averted for one night anyway.

But the whole situation is a little weirder when you go back to Sunday. Same exact setup. Ninth inning. Down a run. Devers leading off. That time he walked. So Vitello sent Jonah Cox to run for him. Devers did not handle it well. Fans and former players piled on. It became a whole thing.

Vitello is not the type to throw his guys under the bus publicly. He made a joke Wednesday because that’s what he does. But the underlying issue is real. The Giants are 33-46. That’s fourth place in the NL West. They’re 9.5 games out of a wild card spot. At this rate the season is going sideways fast.

Devers has not been the offensive force the Giants thought they were getting when they traded for him. His bat has been uneven. His body language has been worse. And now there’s this running gag about him not being trusted to run the bases in a big spot.

Vitello can laugh about it for now. But if the losses keep piling up and Devers keeps making scenes, those jokes are going to stop landing pretty quickly.