Camilo Doval is notoriously slow.
He approaches the mound with the pace of a tourist in Time's Square. He throws high-stress pitches with the calm of a Sunday afternoon driver. And he bleeds every … last …second … off the pitch clock.
Clinging to a one-run lead in the ninth, Doval ran the count full. He readied himself to throw the next pitch as the clock ticked to three… two… one... and the arms of the home plate umpire shot up.
Pitch clock violation? No.
Nick Ahmed, the Giants shortstop, had called timeout—like a basketball coach realizing his player isn't going to inbound the ball in time. He stopped the game a second before Otto Lopez would have been automatically walked. Literally, one second. Check out the second base umpire and the clock:
Doval struck out Lopez on the next pitch, and ended the game a moment later. He earned the save Monday night, but Nick Ahmed redefined the save.
Up next: It’ll be Jordan Hicks (2-0, 1.00 ERA) against Ryan Weather (1-1, 2.57 ERA) as the Giants try to win consecutive games for the second time all season. First pitch at 3:40 p.m.