Giant coach was suspended after making…

It’s not as if San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler wore a CIA-approved disguise. It’s not as if he brazenly walked up the stairs to the dugout at any point after he had been ejected from Tuesday night’s home game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

But cameras caught Kapler, still in uniform, at the bottom of the stairs that connect the dugout to the indoor cage. Kapler had said publicly that he watched the rest of the game from the cage and not from the clubhouse. And on Friday, after Major League Baseball suspended him for one game and fined him an undisclosed amount for “returning to the dugout” following his ejection, Kapler acknowledged the discipline was warranted.

“I violated the spirit of the rule,” Kapler said. “The spirit of the rule is the manager goes up to the clubhouse, gets in street clothes. I violated that by being around the dugout in that area. I mentioned to you guys that I was watching (in the cage) from the monitors. So it’s a warranted move, the suspension, and I’ll serve it tonight.”

And no, MLB officials didn’t mistake quality control coach Nick Ortiz for Kapler.

Bench coach Kai Correa will manage the game alongside pitching coach Andrew Bailey as the Giants open a three-game series at Truist Park against the National League’s top team. Alex Cobb will take the mound for the Giants against the Atlanta Braves and strikeout artist Spencer Strider.

“I’ll be in the office with the door shut, make sure that no temptation sneaks in,” Kapler said. “Lock the door from the inside perhaps. It’s just the competitor in me that made me want to be a part of the game, still chat with coaches and chat with players and I’ve got to take responsibility for it.”

Kapler appeared to be in an upbeat mood despite a challenging stretch for him that included last weekend’s home series against the Texas Rangers and the inevitable comparisons that would be made upon the return of Bruce Bochy to the visiting dugout. Then several pinch hitting moves or non-moves were questioned in a series of losses as the Giants lost four of six on the homestand and got buried by the streaking Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West standings. Kapler also got booed loudly by the home crowd Sunday when he made the otherwise well-justified move to lift Logan Webb with two outs in the ninth inning. The Rangers tied it with a fluky ground-ball single off Camilo Doval before the Giants won in the 10th inning. When Kapler drew a rare ejection in Tuesday’s 7-0 win over the Rays, he was coming to the defense of Wade Meckler after the rookie had several questionable strikes called against him.