MCT/San Francisco
Joe Bochy, a San Francisco Giants scout, is in town to help evaluate the club on this homestand. Maybe he can turn in a report on his kid brother, Bruce.
When you win with a skeleton crew and a two-man bench, the manager has to be doing something right. Right?
Jake Peavy whipped around on his plant leg into the seventh inning, Brandon Belt tripled in the sixth and he scored the tiebreaking run on Buster Posey’s double, and the Giants claimed a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night at AT&T Park.
The Giants moved 6 games behind the Cubs for the second N.L. wild-card spot, and more importantly, stayed within 2 games of the Dodgers in the N.L. West standings.
Of more immediate concern: How will the Giants manage their way through five more games before rosters expand to 40 players on Tuesday?
Shortstop Brandon Crawford sat out with a tight left oblique and probably won’t return until Friday at the earliest. Shortly after batting practice, the club had to scratch centre fielder Gregor Blanco because of a left hip strain. Add those losses to the population density already on the disabled list - Hunter Pence, Angel Pagan and Crawford’s double-play partner, Joe Panik - and the Giants trainer’s room is beginning to resemble a VW Beetle crammed full of circus clowns.
As a result, Bruce Bochy was forced to manage a big league roster with just two bench players (Andrew Susac and Justin Maxwell). His only backup middle infielder was centre fielder Juan Perez, whose two innings at second base a day earlier constituted his first action at the position in six years.
“Ah, he’s got (Madison) Bumgarner and (Mike) Leake to pinch hit,” Joe Bochy said before the game. “Bruce’ll figure it out.” Peavy helped with the solution, shaking off a two-run first inning that his own fielding mistake helped to touch off and holding the Cubs into the seventh. Hunter Strickland and Javier Lopez each struck out a batter to mitigate Nori Aoki’s two-base error in left field and strand two runners in scoring position as the Giants beat the Cubs for the first time in six tries this season.
The night began with a pop-up in front of the mound that the Giants misplayed into a double. Peavy appeared to call off Posey but went flying after he bumped hips with his catcher, and Kyle Schwarber ended up on second base.
The rest of the inning provided more challenges for Peavy, who expressed dismay on a couple of close pitches that weren’t called. Peavy collapsed from anger into laughter, showing sarcastic teeth after Chris Coghlan tried to check his swing on a 3-2 pitch and third base umpire Lance Barksdale declined to ring up the batter on appeal.
Peavy (4-6) managed to retire Anthony Rizzo on a ground out, but Kris Bryant followed by lining a two-run single.
The Giants reclaimed those runs in their half of the first inning. Aoki led off with his fifth home run of the season, and Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks walked the bases loaded before Perez hit a two-out grounder to shortstop Addison Russell. Kelby Tomlinson beat the throw to second base as Matt Duffy scored.
The Giants went ahead in the sixth with the help of some questionable outfield defence. Belt’s triple to left-centre got past Chris Denorfia’s diving attempt and rolled to the wall. Then right fielder Chris Coghlan didn’t appear to get a good jump on Posey’s double over his head in right-centre. Tomlinson hit a double down the right field that scored Posey.
Aoki provided the Giants’ own outfield misadventure in the seventh, when he whiffed on Tommy La Stella’s line drive for an error that put runners at second and third with one out and ended Peavy’s night.
Strickland struck out Addison Russell on four pitches, and Lopez did the same to Schwarber. Then Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla protected the lead the remainder of the way.
Crawford’s injury, which he sustained in the sixth inning Tuesday night, was mild enough that the Giants didn’t even send him for an MRI exam. Crawford said it’s nowhere near the severity of the oblique strain that sent Pence to the disabled list. Crawford has some base knowledge in this area, since he strained his oblique in the final game of the 2013 season “and this doesn’t feel anything like that.”
The Giants expect to activate Pagan (right knee tendinitis) as soon as Thursday after he came out of a second rehab game for Triple-A Sacramento with no issues.
Bochy said he expects right-handers Tim Lincecum and Tim Hudson to be activated from the disabled list when rosters expand Sept. 1 but offered an interesting twist.
“I think that’s the plan,” Bochy said. “But who knows. It could be sooner.”
Bochy acknowledged that the coaching staff is discussing alternatives to Matt Cain when the right-hander’s turn comes up again Sunday against the Cardinals.
