How Thairo Estrada’s powerful pregame speech energized Giants teammates – NBC

SAN FRANCISCO — The Giants, with their backs against the wall and in danger of falling further out of the playoff race, have needed a spark — any spark — throughout the entire month of August.

San Francisco has lost seven consecutive series and avoided a sweep in Sunday’s 8-5 win over the Atlanta Braves. The Giants’ struggling offense woke up, as it usually does after an extended cold stretch, but something about the win just felt different. The energy at Oracle Park was palpable and the Giants looked like a team injected with new life, dominating at the plate, on the mound and in the field.

That’s because, before the game, second baseman Thairo Estrada held a private team meeting in the Giants’ clubhouse where he addressed the entire team and delivered a powerful message that not only resonated with his teammates, but had an immediate impact in the game that followed.

Estrada, through interpreter and assistant hitting coach Pedro Guerrero, stood at his locker and spoke to his teammates, who understandably were frustrated by the team’s struggles, about the shift in mindset they needed to adopt throughout the remaining 32 regular-season games. Estrada wanted his message to be heard loud and clear, and specifically asked Guerrero to translate every single word he said exactly, with no paraphrasing, in order to properly convey his message.

“The game motivated me, what we did before,” Estrada told reporters postgame. “I just told the team to go pitch-by-pitch, take the extra base, to do the things we were doing before.

“Everybody knows that we have had a very difficult and challenging month of August, so I just told the team that we are able to go ahead and do positive things. It was just a positive message that I wanted to give the team. We have a month left and I think there’s still a chance for us to get in and not forget what we did at the beginning and try to forget the month of August.”

His message was very well received and hit home for a lot of frustrated Giants players who have been searching for answers for the better part of a month.

“Obviously, it’s been a bit of a month for us, but that can’t lessen the way any of us approach the game individually,” starting pitcher Tristan Beck said of Estrada’s meeting. “One of the things that really hit home for me was he brought up how you give away one at-bat, maybe one at-bat doesn’t go the way you thought it would, you can still impact the game a million ways, running the bases, playing defense.”

“It was awesome to see, it was awesome,” catcher Patrick Bailey said. “I think we needed it. I think he stepped up.”

The team meeting not only was the first time Estrada had addressed a room full of teammates, but it was also the first time any Giants player had addressed the group privately this season.

“This year it was the first time,” Estrada said. “I think it was something that was necessary. I think everybody felt it was necessary to have the meeting. I…