Posey hurt in race to the bottom
DENVER — D.J. LeMahieu took a hack and slammed the hardest foul tip that Buster Posey could remember absorbing with his bare hand. Posey shot to his feet and ran behind the mound in pain before he stopped long enough for a trainer to walk him off the field.
An X-ray on Posey’s swollen ring finger was negative. He then left the clubhouse with the finger wrapped knowing and disbelieving that the Giants’ 9-6 loss to the Rockies at Coors Field officially made them the worst team in baseball.
At 54-87, the Giants are a half-game worse than the Phillies in the “race” for the first pick in next year's draft.
“I don’t really have words for it,” Posey said. “‘Disappointing’ is probably not strong enough. I’ll leave it at that.”
Words hardly matter anymore. With 10 losses in their past 12 games, the Giants have reached the “let’s get this over with” stage. The players and the faithful have little to discuss until management makes the offseason moves that will be
critical to fixing this mess.
It’s hard to see Pablo Sandoval as one of those fixes. When he flied out to end the Giants’ 10th straight loss at Coors Field dating to last season, he ran his hitless streak to 37 at-bats, matching Johnnie LeMaster’s San Francisco record for position players. Pitcher Vida Blue had an 0-for-59.
Sandoval will not play Wednesday, with Kelby Tomlinson likely starting at third base against left-hander Kyle Freeland. That will help lower the average age of the Giants’ lineup for at least one day.
The Giants have fielded some awfully old ones at a time when teams in their predicament usually play prospects.
Ryder Jones, 23, did start at first base, and manager Bruce Bochy said the rookie will play some third base in a nod to the nothingness coming off Sandoval’s bat.
The Giants really do have a stable of hitting prospects they foresee in the major leagues. Some should get a chance to win starting jobs in spring training. You just can’t see them now.
Some of the kids one would expect to see in September, particularly infielder Christian Arroyo and starter Tyler Beede, are hurt. But some healthy prospects are missing, too, because management does not think they are ready. They include top power prospect Chris Shaw, fellow outfielder Steven Duggar and left-handed starter Andrew Suarez.
Outfielder Austin Slater is here, activated Tuesday after two months on the disabled list. He was not in the lineup but should start Wednesday.
“We don’t think he’s ready to play every day,” said Bochy, citing Slater’s quick recovery from a torn adductor muscle and being limited to three rehab games for Sacramento before the Triple-A season ended.
Bochy and assistant general manager Jeremy Shelley reiterated the Giants’ commitment to prospects.
“Guys like Shaw and Duggar, they’re on our radar,” Bochy said. “The fact they’re not here doesn’t mean they’re not in our plans.”
Shaw is headed to the September instructional league and the Arizona Fall League to work on his defense in left field. Duggar missed half the season with injuries. The Giants believe he needs a lot more at-bats before they consider him bigleague ready.
“Both of those guys factor into our plans down the line,” Shelley said.
The current Giants attempted a comeback after they fell behind 6-1, with five runs charged to Ty Blach on the anniversary of his first bigleague game, also at Coors. Posey and Denard Span each hit two-run doubles. Joe Panik’s fourth hit, an RBI single, cut the Giants’ deficit to 7-6 before Mark Melancon allowed two runs in the eighth.
Bochy lamented the first three innings. Seven of the first 13 Giants reached base against Tyler Chatwood. None scored. Double plays (Brandon Crawford, Sandoval) killed the first two rallies. Strikeouts (Posey, Hunter Pence) doomed the third.