SAN FRANCISCO — Before Gabe Kapler took questions at his postgame press conference on Tuesday, the Giants manager opened by providing updates on the status of injured players.
Unfortunately for the Giants, it was awhile before Kapler took questions.
Kapler said first baseman Brandon Belt, who was placed on the 10-day injured list Tuesday with a fractured thumb, will be reevaluated in “a couple of weeks,” which means it’s possible the pending free agent has played his last game in San Francisco.
Second baseman Tommy La Stella, who was replaced by pinch-runner Donovan Solano on Tuesday, exited with left Achilles soreness that limited his range defensively and his speed on the bases. Another infielder, Thairo Estrada, was hit by a pitch on his right hand and was able to stay in the game, but was headed for a postgame X-ray. Outfielder Alex Dickerson was hit by a pitch on his foot and had already received the results of his X-ray, which was negative.
A Giants team that drew seven walks including two with the bases loaded and scored twice more on wild pitches in a 6-4 victory over the Diamondbacks was fortunate the damage from Tuesday’s game wasn’t more significant. Arizona’s pitching staff isn’t simply the worst in the National League, it’s a group that struggled to find the strike zone so badly that the Giants expressed concern for their safety.
“I think there’s some frustration anytime we see our hitters having to get out of the way of pitches,” Kapler said. “I think there’s some frustration anytime we see guys get hit like Estrada did, particularly around some other injuries that are happening. It just creates a heightened level of sensitivity.”
After Belt took a 93-mile per hour fastball off his left thumb in Sunday’s game that puts his postseason in jeopardy, the Giants know they can’t afford to lose any more key players. They understand that pitchers have every right to throw inside, but they also want their opponents to do so in a more competitive manner.
“You don’t want to see guys getting hit often,” infielder Wilmer Flores said. “I feel like the guy today was trying to throw inside and he just couldn’t. It’s frustrating.”
With 17 matchups between the Giants and the Diamondbacks in the books for the season, the head-to-head series between the two sides helps explain the stunning gap in the National League West standings. The 103-win Giants improved to 15-2 against the 107-loss Diamondbacks on Tuesday, but Arizona still poses a threat to San Francisco’s chances to win the division for two reasons.
Aside from the obvious concern of losing more players to injury against an erratic Diamondbacks bullpen, the Giants have to worry about taking care of business against a pair of Arizona starting pitchers who have demonstrated they can shut down San Francisco’s lineup.
On Wednesday, the Giants will face Merrill Kelly, a right-hander who has been below league average this season but has still posted three quality starts in five outings against the first-place club. Kelly was the winning pitcher in one of Arizona’s victories against San Francisco as he threw seven innings of three-run ball in a 5-3 defeat on July 1.
He also should have earned a win in his next start against the Giants as Kelly posted eight scoreless innings while giving up just three hits on August 5. Arizona manager Torey Lovullo lifted Kelly with a 4-0 lead entering the ninth and the Giants stormed back to win 5-4 in 10 innings thanks in large part to a two-out, two-run game-tying single from LaMonte Wade Jr.
The Giants face an even greater challenge Thursday when former San Francisco ace Madison Bumgarner will make his first start in front of fans at Oracle Park since departing in free agency following the 2019 season. Bumgarner owns the other Diamondbacks’ victory over the Giants this season as he recorded seven innings of one-run ball on August 3 in a 3-1 Arizona win.
Bumgarner has had five quality starts since that game including an outing in which he tossed seven innings of one-hit ball against the AL West leading Astros, but he also has a 4.58 ERA on the season which shows he hasn’t often been at his best.
Despite their dominance against the Diamondbacks this season, the Giants know their road to securing their first NL West title since 2012 is still a tough one to navigate. With injury concerns looming and a pair of tough starting pitchers to face, Kapler’s club can’t exactly take its 53.0-game lead in the standings for granted.