April 12, 2022: Giants’ Alyssa Nakken makes history as first woman on-field coach in major leagues

Alyssa Nakken was prepared for the possibility that she would appear in a coaches’ box during a major-league game.1 She had trained alongside San Francisco Giants first-base coach Antoan Richardson since she was hired as an assistant coach in 2020, and had served as their first-base coach in an exhibition game and a spring-training game.2 She watched home games from an indoor batting cage near the dugout steps and kept a Giants jersey nearby should she need it.3

As it turned out, less than a week into the lockout-delayed 2022 season, Nakken needed the jersey for a milestone moment.

The Giants (2-2) were hosting their division rival San Diego Padres (4-1) on April 12. The Padres had taken the first game of the three-game series the previous evening, 4-2.4  Since it was a Tuesday, the Giants were wearing their newly updated Nike City Connect jerseys with the Golden Gate Bridge logo and matching bright orange batting helmets. The uniforms could be considered a favorable omen—their record in 2021 while wearing those jerseys was 8-1, on their way to a majors-best 107-55 regular-season mark.5

The weather was typical for April in San Francisco—54 degrees with a 10-MPH wind for a wind chill of 46 degrees.6 The cold temperatures and the wind whipping their uniforms seemed to affect the pitchers—throughout the game they blew on their pitching hands.

Alex Cobb was making his first start for the Giants. After six years with the Tampa Bay Rays, three difficult years with the Baltimore Orioles, and a decent comeback year with the Los Angeles Angels, the 34-year-old right-hander had signed a two-year contract with the Giants in the offseason.7 Cold or not, he was effective from the outset—he struck out Trent Grisham to open the game and induced a fly out from Austin Nola. Manny Machado stepped up to the audible boos of the crowd—and walked. Cobb recovered to strike out Jake Cronenworth and finish the inning.

San Diego’s Yu Darvish was making his second start of the season. His ERA was still zero; as he had pitched six hitless innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 7 but lost the chance for a win when the bullpen blew the save in the ninth.

Mike Yastrzemski led off the first with a base hit to right. Brandon Belt homered on the next pitch, giving the Giants a an early 2-0 lead. After Darin Ruf walked on four pitches, Darvish got the first out with a strikeout of Joc Pederson but walked Brandon Crawford.

A visit from pitching coach Ruben Niebla didn’t help—Wilmer Flores singled to load the bases. Thairo Estrada lined a hit into the center-field gap, scoring two. Steven Duggar’s sacrifice fly was the second out—and the fifth run.

With Joey Bart batting, Estrada stole second—Bart didn’t swing at a fat pitch because he saw Estrada’s big lead off first. Bart’s patience paid off—his single scored Estrada. Yastrzemski, who had opened the inning, ended it by striking out, but the Giants had batted around and led, 6-0.

San Diego’s Luke Voit singled to open the second inning—and stole the first base of his six-year major-league career.8 The catcher’s throw hit him as he slid in feet-first,9 injuring Crawford’s wrist in the process.10 Voit scored on Wil Myers’ one-out double into the right-field corner. Myers made it to third on a wild pitch but two strikeouts left him stranded with the score 6-1, Giants.

Before Darvish could record an out in the second, the Giants loaded the bases with two hits and a hit-by-pitch. One run scored when Crawford grounded into a double play. A Flores popup that fell between the fielders in left scored another run.

With the score now 8-1, Padres manager Bob Melvin called on Nabil Crismatt to relieve Darvish. Darvish’s ERA was now 10.57—well above his 3.56 career ERA entering the season. It was the shortest outing of Darvish’s 10-season major-league career, and, as it turned out, the only time in 2022 that he did not complete at least five innings.11

Crismatt failed to stem the Giants’ onslaught. Estrada’s double and Duggar’s single scored two more. With Bart at the plate, Duggar stole second without a throw. He advanced no farther as Crismatt struck out Bart to end the inning with the score 10-1, Giants.

Before the Padres batted in the top of the third, San Diego third-base coach Mike Shildt and Richardson had a verbal confrontation, reportedly for Duggar stealing a base with a nine-run lead. Richardson left the Giants’ dugout on the third-base side to confront Shildt, and third-base umpire Greg Gibson ejected Richardson.12

Cobb worked a one-two-three top of the third with two strikeouts and a popup.,

The Giants now needed a first-base coach. Bench coach Kai Correa found Nakken in the batting cages and told her she was needed on the field.13 As the teams took the field for the bottom of the third, Nakken was in the first-base coaching box for the Giants. Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer shook her hand and congratulated her.

She didn’t have much to do in her first inning—Ruf, who walked, was the only Giant who made it to first base. Hugs and congratulations awaited her in the dugout at the end of the inning.

Cronenworth doubled to start the fourth and made it to third on a one-out groundout, but was left there when Myers struck out.

Austin Adams, the Padres’ third pitcher of the game, worked a clean bottom of the fourth. He got three groundouts, including a spectacular play for the second out. Flores grounded to Cronenworth behind second—Cronenworth grabbed the ball, rolled over, and threw from his knees to beat Flores by a step.

The Padres scored their second (and final) run in the fifth. Matt Beaty beat out an infield hit and moved to second when Abrams walked. Beaty advanced to third, and then home, on consecutive groundouts.

In the home half of the fifth, Adams struck out Duggar and threw one pitch to Bart—and then left with an injury.14 Dinelson Lamet took over the pitching, allowing a single, a run-scoring double, and a walk before getting the last two outs—11-2, Giants.

Although Cobb had pitched only five innings and thrown just 83 pitches, Giants manager Gabe Kapler sent in left-hander Jarlín García in the sixth. García walked Cronenworth but stranded him on first with two strikeouts and a fly out.

Mauricio Dubón, who had replaced Crawford at shortstop after the second inning, led off the bottom of the sixth. He bunted for a hit—much to the consternation of pretty much everyone in the Padres dugout, including Melvin and third-base coach Matt Williams.15 As with Duggar’s steal in the second, they appeared aggrieved about the Giants breaking baseball’s “unwritten rules”: not stealing bases or bunting for hits when leading by many runs.

In San Francisco, the visitors’ dugout is on the first-base side, so Dubón got an earful. Lamet responded to the situation by striking out the next three batters.

Reliever Tyler Beede, making his first 2022 appearance, allowed no hits in the top of the seventh although he walked CJ Abrams. Robert Suarez pitched a clean bottom of the seventh.

Beede didn’t allow any hits in the top of the eighth, either. This time he issued two walks to start the inning but erased one with a double play before getting the third out on a foul popout.16

Given the score, Melvin decided to save his bullpen and have Myers make his professional pitching debut.17 He eventually got the three necessary outs, but not before giving up home runs to Pederson and Flores—Giants 13, Padres 2.

Myers was the first batter up in the top of the ninth, now listed as a pitcher. He singled but was erased on a double play.18 Abrams flied out to center to end the game.

Nakken took her place in the postgame high-five line—and then sent her batting helmet to Cooperstown. After the game, she talked about being a role model, saying, “I think we’re all inspirations doing everything that we do on a day-to-day basis. I think this carries a little bit more weight because of the visibility. Obviously there’s a historical nature to it. But again, this is my job.”19

The Padres finished second in the NL West at 89-73, 22 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Padres beat the New York Mets in the wild-card series and the Dodgers in the NLDS, but lost the NLCS to the Philadelphia Phillies. The Giants finished third in the division at 81-81.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Joseph Wancho and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for general player, team and season data and the box scores for this game.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN202204120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2022/B04120SFN2022.htm

Notes

1 Her athletic background included playing first base for the Sacramento State softball team, Honors included being named to the All-Pacific Coast Softball Conference in all four years of college (2009 through 2012). She had worked for the Giants in various capacities since joining them as a baseball operations intern in 2014. Maria Guardado, “First on First: Alyssa Nakken Makes Coaching History,” mlb.com, April 13, 2022. https://www.mlb.com/news/alyssa-nakken-1st-on-field-woman-coach-in-mlb-history. “Former Sacramento State Softball Star Alyssa Nakken Becomes First Full-Time Female Coach in MLB History,” ncaa.com, January 24, 2020, https://www.ncaa.com/news/softball/article/2020-01-17/former-sacramento-state-softball-star-alyssa-nakken-becomes-first.

2 Guardado.

3 Janie McCauley, “Nakken 1st Female MLB Coach on Field,” Visalia (California) Times-Delta, April 14, 2022: B1.

4 The Giants’ Tyler Rogers was the losing pitcher. His twin brother, Taylor Rogers, earned the save for the Padres.

5 Alec Pavlovic, “Why Giants Are Wearing City Connects on ‘Orange Friday,’” nbcsports.com, April 29, 2022. https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/giants/why-giants-will-wear-city-connect-jerseys-instead-orange-friday-uniforms.

6 Padres TV broadcast.

7 The contract also included a team option for the third year (2024).

8 He had stolen about one per year in his minor-league years (2013-2017) but none since he’d debuted in the majors in 2017. This was his only stolen base in 2022.

9 Voit’s “feet first” slide wasn’t surprising, given he was not wearing a sliding mitt.

10 He missed one game, returning to the lineup on April 15. Susan Slusser, “Crawford Out of Giants’ Lineup with Wrist Injury, Says He’s ‘Day to Day,’” San Francisco Chronicle, April 13, 2022, https://sfchronicle.newsbank.com/doc/news/1895DC60D7A03F90?search_terms=Crawford&pub%5B0%5D=SFCWS&text=Crawford&content_added=&date_from=April 13, 2022&date_to=April 13, 2022&pdate=2022-04-13.

11 The next-shortest outing was 5⅔ innings on May 13. He averaged just under 6½ innings per start. By the end of the season, Darvish had a 3.10 ERA and a 16-8 record.

12 Associated Press, “Giants’ Nakken 1st MLB Female Coach on Field, SF tops Pads,” West Hawaii Today, April 13, 2022: B1; A.J. Cassavell, “Antoan Richardson, Mike Shildt Clear the Air,” MLB.com, April 13, 2022, https://www.mlb.com/news/antoan-richardson-mike-shildt-resolve-dispute. This was Richardson’s first ejection, in his third year as a coach. He had not been ejected in his two years as a player.

13 Guardado.

14 He had a right forearm strain and did not pitch again in 2022. Joe Stiglich, “Webb Strong for 8 Innings, Giants Edge Padres,” Visalia (California) Times-Delta, April 14, 2022: B1.

15 Stiglich.

16 His season went downhill from there. He started giving up hits and runs in his next appearance, was traded to the Pirates a month later, and finished the year with a 5.14 ERA.

17 He made three more pitching appearances in 2022 in lopsided loss situations, pitching 3⅖ innings for an ERA of 7.36.

18 Myers’ hit was the first of 10 in 2022 by a position player pitching (https://stathead.com/tiny/Np7As). Although a few pitchers had at-bats in 2022 (i.e., Reiver Sanmartin), none of them had a hit. https://stathead.com/tiny/taJxt.

19 Guardado.