Pence may return Sunday
By Henry Schulman
PHILADELPHIA — When Hunter Pence began his rehab assignment, manager Bruce Bochy said the club wanted him to get 15-20 at-bats to test his healing left hamstring and recover his timing at the plate. Pence’s history suggested he would come back sooner.
With three hits and two walks in 12 plate appearances for Class A San Jose, Pence indeed had ants in his pants. He bailed on his rehab assignment and was flying to Philadelphia late Saturday to rejoin the Giants.
Pence will come off the disabled list either Sunday in the series finale at Citizens Bank Park or Monday night in Milwaukee. Bochy said the medical staff wants to check on Pence before Sunday’s game to see how he is.
“He’s running well,” Bochy said. “All is good with his hamstring. You know Hunter. He’s battling to get back here. He wants to join us as soon as he can. We’ve been through this before. This is not uncharted territory with us.”
Pence missed two months after hamstring surgery last summer. He was slow out of the gate, batting .176 over his first 13 games. But then he went on a tear, hitting .351 with eight doubles and five homers over the next five weeks.
Orlando Calixte and Austin Slater are expected to share left field when Pence returns to right. Christian Arroyo is likely to get sent back to Triple-A to clear a spot for Pence and get consistent at-bats.
Meanwhile, Conor Gillaspie is close to returning to rehab games after a setback with his back injury. His wife is due to give birth Monday, so the club wants to keep him close to San Francisco.
With Gillaspie out, the Giants have no left-handed hitters on their bench when Denard Span, Brandon Belt, Brandon Crawford and Joe Panik start.
Asked if that creates problems late in games against tough righty relievers, Bochy said, “It can be, depending on who you have on your bench. We have some experienced guys. (Aaron) Hill is not a platoon player, or he hasn’t been. His splits are pretty good left and right. And (Michael) Morse, I’m confident with him against right-handers. We do miss him, being on the DL. Do you like to have a left-handed bat? Sure. That’s what Conor gave us.”
Morse stayed in San Francisco to rest after sustaining a concussion in his head-knocking collision with Jeff Samardzija during the Bryce Harper-Hunter Strickland brawl Monday.