“It’s About Time”: Giants Celebrate Brandon Belt

Apr 26, 2026 | Latest Post, Out of Left Field

by DrLefty

You Belt Haters can just take a seat for today. I always loved Brandon Belt, a/k/a the Baby Giraffe, a/k/a the Captain, and one of the reasons I was so fond of him was his dry sense of humor. For years he shared duties with Brandon Crawford in writing the Brandon and Brandon blog, which was hosted on the MLB/SF Giants website. In his first year, he co-authored a blog called “The Veteran and the Rook” (Mark DeRosa was the Veteran) before shifting over to full-time Brandon duties. I subscribed to those blogs, and there were times Belt’s entries had me in tears of laughter. He was especially hilarious when discussing food or movies. Long-time Giants beat writer Alex Pavlovic responded to a Twitter poll asking for “favorite Belt moments,” and this is what he came up with. I mean…

 

A couple of my favorite Belt food blogging moments included his rhapsodic discussion of the salad dressing at Olive Garden, which apparently was (is?) his absolute favorite restaurant in the world. Sometimes his wife, Haylee, would insist they try somewhere else, and Belt said something like “I spend the whole meal being mad because we could have gone to Olive Garden.” And then there was his ode to the chicken tenders from room service at the Ritz Carlton in Toronto, accompanied by world-class ranch dip. I always wondered if that’s why Belt signed with Toronto after leaving the Giants(!).

Anyway, one of Belt’s first funny lines in his mostly heartfelt and grateful speech yesterday was “It’s about time” that the Giants had a day for him: “I would have thought it would be the day after I left.” The ceremony included speeches by Buster Posey (Belt’s teammate for many years), Bruce Bochy (his first manager), and George Kontos (another long-time teammate) and the somewhat surprising presence of former manager Gabe Kapler, sitting on the field next to Bochy. A poignant moment came when Belt honored his dad, who passed away suddenly last year. Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow emceed the ceremony, both on the field dressed in their Belt aloha shirts. They also had him in the TV booth for the third inning, and they got some funny lines in, too. Kuiper feels that he and Belt should have gotten a cut of all the giraffe hats that were sold after Kuiper coined the “Baby Giraffe” nickname for Belt back in 2011.

Belt was a great Giant, and the ceremony was lots of fun. The Mr and I were all set with our captain’s hats (from a 2022 giveaway) and the aloha shirts they gave away yesterday. I had my #9 Belt shirsey under the aloha shirt, too.

Here is the tribute video that they showed on the scoreboard before the ceremony, and here is a nice article by Maria Guardado (mlb.com) reviewing Belt’s greatest moments as a Giant.

The Game: Drew and Casey and Heliot, oh my!

The Giants won yesterday’s game 6-2. Of their 11 hits, eight were either doubles (five) or homers (three), plus they drew five walks. In other words, the game was a perfect tribute to Belt. Bochy said in his speech that he would have loved to see Belt play in the new ABS era since he had such an elite knowledge of the strike zone. There were quite a few ABS challenges in yesterday’s game, as well. (Patrick Bailey was 0 for 2, one as a hitter and the other as the catcher, and yikes, the one he called for as catcher was not even close.)

The game started out super irritating. Robbie Ray labored through five messy innings, and props to him for only giving up one run. It seemed like he was behind every hitter. Meanwhile, the Giants didn’t score despite back-to-back doubles by Casey Schmitt and Jung Hoo Lee because Schmitt overran second base and got tagged out, and I take it that was the second game in a row that happened? (We didn’t see the game on Friday.) But then Drew Gilbert hit a solo shot in the bottom of the fifth that took Ray off the hook, and in the sixth inning, Schmitt atoned with a no-doubter two-run homer.

Manager Tony Vitello, in his postgame interview, quipped that Schmitt had come upon the new “strategy” of hitting a homer so that he couldn’t get thrown out the bases, but he went on to describe the kind of guy Schmitt is (“not afraid to laugh at himself”), and he sounds a lot like…wait for it…Brandon Belt. Schmitt was playing 3B yesterday while Matt Chapman got a DH day, and Schmitt made a great play that was exactly like one Chapman would have made.

 

Heliot Ramos completed the “Bye Bye Baby” bonanza for the day by hitting an impressive opposite-field homer in the eighth inning, and you cannot say that Heliot doesn’t enjoy his home run trots.

 

The Giants are still not where we want them to be, record-wise or offensively, but we’re starting to see these young hungry guys–Gilbert, Schmitt, and Ramos–giving them a spark. Now, Ramos was expected to be an everyday player, and he’s currently leading the team in homers (tied with Schmitt and Willy Adames) and RBIs. But Gilbert started the season in AAA, and Schmitt was supposed to be a bench player. It’s funny how things work out sometimes.

 

Some love for Jung Hoo and Luis, too

I started with the three guys who hit homers, but Lee has been the hottest guy on the team for the last week or so, and he went 2 for 3 with two doubles yesterday, plus made a very nice running catch down the right field line. Then there’s Luis Arraez, who’s been the best player on the team, period, this year. In the eighth inning yesterday, Bailey walked and then stole second, which with Arraez up was actually a great idea. Arraez promptly poked the ball down the left field line for an RBI double. We were sitting in the club level on the first base side, and you could literally see Arraez aim his bat at the ball like he was playing tennis. That pitcher didn’t have a chance. Once Bailey got himself into scoring position, it was just a matter of where Arraez was going to place his RBI hit, not if. That dude can really, and I mean really, hit. It’s a throwback skill set, and I’m old enough to appreciate it and think it’s fun to watch.

 

Oh, Bailey had an up-and-down game with the ABS challenges and a throwing error that led to an unearned run, but as mentioned, he stole a base and scored a run in the eighth, and in the three-run sixth inning, he had an RBI single. It’s not often you might say that he contributed more to the offense than the defense, but yesterday that was kind of the case.

 

And the bullpen just continues to be a…relief

A month ago we all thought that the Giants’ rotation would be OK, maybe pretty good, while the bullpen was going to be a mess. I mean, who could have been so silly? (Cough cough, DrLefty was that silly.) The rotation is 19th in MLB with a 4.40 ERA, despite a very good first month from Ray and from Landen Roupp. Ace Logan Webb has gotten off to a rough start, though his outing against the Dodgers on Thursday (three runs in seven innings) was not bad. Adrian Houser has been flat-out awful, and Tyler Mahle gave us a whiff of hope for better things with his seven shutout innings against the Dodgers on Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, the no-name bullpen with the suspect closer and set-up-guys-by-committee is currently third in MLB with a 2.98 ERA. Ryan Walker got two straight saves against the Dodgers this week and closed out yesterday’s game, too. As a group, they’ve been fantastic, and you have to give Vitello and the pitching coaches some credit for how they’re deploying these guys. Also, Sam Hentges has made five rehab appearances in the minors and should be along soon, likely replacing Ryan Borucki, who’s so far been the weakest link in the bullpen.

 

Today’s Game

Marlins at Giants, 1:05 p.m. at Oracle Park

Max Meyer (1-0, 3.96 ERA) vs Landen Roupp (4-1, 2.28 ERA)

It would be nice to secure a third-straight series win and a winning home stand before another cross-country trip. The Giants’ schedule in May is a lot friendlier than what they had in March/April. They spend the first weekend of May in Tampa Bay, but after that, they’re mostly in California except for short trips to Arizona and Colorado. They do have the Padres and Dodgers in May, but they also get to play the Rockies and the White Sox. It feels like the team has stabilized a bit after a very tough start, and maybe a more favorable schedule will help right the ship even further.

Let’s get it today! Lefty out.