Electric closer Camilo Doval is SF Giants’ lone All-Star selection

NEW YORK — Gabe Kapler requested Camilo Doval’s presence in his office at about 4:15 Sunday afternoon, some three hours before first pitch of their series finale against the Mets. The meeting, the Giants’ manager told him, regarded his work in the running game, an area of focus where he’s made strides this season.

A few minutes later, a round of applause could be heard from outside the room. Of course the scheduled topic of discussion was but a ruse: It was All-Star selection Sunday.

“They played a prank on me. They told me that they were going to talk to me about the running game,” Doval said. “I was like, ‘Really? But I’ve been doing good on the running game.’ After they talked for a little bit, they gave me the news of being selected to the All-Star game. I just felt like a little kid, really nervous, I didn’t know what to say.”

Doval, the National League leader in saves (24) with a 1.89 ERA and 12.9 strikeouts per nine innings, was named the Giants’ lone representative for the All-Star Game, which takes place Tuesday, July 11 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.

“There are no words to express how I feel, but I do feel very proud of being selected,” Doval said. “I think that’s a testament of my work. You’ll get your awards, your trophies later. As long as you work really hard, they will come.”

Despite possessing the fifth-best record in the National League, the Giants will have only one player in Seattle. Head trainer Anthony Reyes will also represent the organization on National League manager Rob Thomson’s staff.

Unlike Joc Pederson last season, the Giants had no player advance to the finals of the fan vote, let alone win a starting nod, and their other deserving candidates — first baseman LaMonte Wade Jr., second baseman Thairo Estrada, third baseman J.D. Davis, starting pitcher Logan Webb — were passed over by their fellow players and the commissioner’s office, which determines the reserves and the pitchers for each roster.

Doval’s 24 saves entering Sunday were tied for the most in the majors. Coming in 38 innings, Doval has carried the largest workload of any closer in the National League with more than seven saves. His 35 games finished — all but three of his appearances — are also most in the majors, seven more than any reliever in the NL.

Kapler has expressed a desire to limit the load on the shoulders of his young reliever, but Doval has been so dominant, it has been difficult to keep that impulse in check. Doval isn’t complaining; he is routinely in the weight room after games, even in the instance he pitched three in a row.

“I love pitching. I want to be active,” Doval said. “When I’m in the bullpen and I know I’m not going to pitch, I get bored over there. I just want to pitch. So physically I feel well.”

It was around this time last year that Doval debuted a third pitch he had been secretly working on since spring training. Since throwing his cutter for the first time just before last year’s All-Star break, it has become Doval’s most-used pitch this season, averaging 100 mph.

Only four pitchers in the majors have recorded more triple-digit readings on radar guns this season than Doval: 133 times, or 20.8% of his pitches.

He throws fast but does just about everything else at a methodical pace. The soundtracks to his postgame workouts are of the same genre as his entry music: slow, swaying Latin ballads. Raised with 24 siblings and half-siblings on a farm in the rural Dominican Republic, Doval is an avid horseback rider — he owns three and hopes to add more — often arrives to the ballpark with a black cowboy hat on his head and takes that too-cool-for-school attitude with him to the mound.

The pitch clock introduced this season went against Doval’s natural tendencies — he was one of the slowest workers in the majors last season — but after three violations in the first two weeks of the season, he has been docked only once since.

Despite his quiet upbringing and demeanor, Doval has thrived on the biggest stages. His season started in the World Baseball Classic, where he struck out stars such as Francisco Lindor and didn’t allow a base runner in two appearances in the raucous Miami group stage.

Now, it heads for another big-time setting: T-Mobile Park in Seattle for the 83rd Midsummer Classic.

“It’s two dreams come true,” Doval said. “One is representing my country, and the other is representing my team. I think I’m still in a dream. It’s like god blessed me that I’m able to do this and play the game.”