It is not often that major league relievers come up to bat, but the San Francisco Giants' Santiago Casilla made the most of his third career plate appearance on Friday night with an RBI single in the eighth inning against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
When the reliever's spot in the order came up in the top of the eighth with the bases loaded, Manager Bruce Bochy told Casilla not to swing. Casilla offered to bunt at the first pitch from Arizona's Matt Lindstrom, but pulled back, taking the pitch.
After that pitch, however, the plan changed. As Bochy told CSNBayArea.com's Andrew Baggarly,
"After he took one, he looked at me," Bochy said. "I told him, `Go ahead and swing.' ... I think we were all shocked, really, that he even made contact."
And Casilla did make contact on the ensuing fastball, knocking it through the right side of the infield for a RBI single that put the Giants ahead, 6-1. In his two previous career plate appearances, Casilla had walked once and struck out once.
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