Opener strategy gets mixed reviews, but pitchers remain injury free
SAN FRANCISCO >> Two days into the 2020 season, Giants manager Gabe Kapler was already feeling the heat from some of his most experienced pitchers.
Opening starter Johnny Cueto tossed four innings of one-run ball against the Dodgers, but the 13-year veteran said he wanted a chance to pitch deeper into the game at Dodger Stadium. Kevin Gausman, who signed as a free agent this offseason to join the Giants’ rotation, indicated
he wasn’t a fan of the team’s opener strategy and has an old-school mentality when it comes to naming traditional roles for starters and relievers.
The Giants haven’t played a full week of games yet, but Kapler’s approach to pitcher usage appears to be more popular in the clubhouse than fans initially imagined.
The primary reason? It’s hard to build an argument around taking on more innings when pitchers across baseball are being sidelined with injuries at an alarming rate.
“I saw around the league, there are a lot of guys going 80, 90, 100 pitches right out of the chute,” left-hander Drew Smyly said Tuesday. “I don’t know if that has anything to do with it or not, I think a lot of it depends on what they were doing in that down period between spring training and where we’re at right now. But I appreciate Gabe and Farhan (Zaidi) holding us back at first.”
Over the past week, former Cy Young winners Justin Verlander (forearm strain) and Corey Kluber (muscle tear in shoulder) were both placed on the injured list. Dodgers lefthander Alex Wood, who faced the Giants in Los Angeles, is on the injured list with shoulder soreness.
The list goes on, as pitchers such as Astros relievers Ryan Pressly and Chris Devinski are also dealing with shoulder soreness while Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas is out for the year due to a season-ending flexor tendon injury.
“It’s all around baseball, it’s everywhere,” Astros manager Dusty Baker told reporters. “I’m hoping we learned a lesson by this. It couldn’t be helped because of the coronavirus, but I’m just hoping we don’t see any more injuries around the league, especially on our team.”
It’s everywhere, except for San Francisco.
Outside of minor league free agent Trevor Cahill, who missed the opening roster due to a fingernail issue, the Giants haven’t had any pitchers dealing with persistent issues since the beginning of summer workouts.
Jeff Samardzija, who pitched in a major league game for the 13th consecutive season on Tuesday, credits the Giants coaching and training staffs for paying close attention to each player’s workload.
“I’ve got to tip my cap to the staff, the training staff, obviously the strength staff have done a great job keeping us old guys feeling good through this craziness with a consistent plan,” Samardzija said. “Obviously the coaching staff has a ton of energy and they’ve done a great job disguising how crazy all of this has been.”
According to Yahoo Sports, 32 pitchers across 17 teams have been placed on injured lists across baseball with arm or muscle related issues. Giants reliever Jarlín García didn’t break summer camp with the club, but García missed out on an Opening Day bullpen job due to a medical issue, not an arm injury.
The Giants’ staff is mostly healthy, but Kapler isn’t ready to take a victory lap just yet.
“Predicting pitcher injuries is very, very difficult,” Kapler said. “I think there have been a lot of incredibly smart people who have been working on that for a long, long time. I think the fact there have been some pitching injuries around the league so far makes us want to be even more cautious and not push pitchers too far past what they’re built up to handle.”
The Giants haven’t had a pitcher throw more than 75 pitches in an outing yet, but that could change in the coming days. Cueto was expected to be given a longer leash against the Padres on Wednesday while Smyly said he’s ready for a more normal workload when he starts against the Rangers this weekend.
Home opener lacks drama
After bringing in the center field fences during the offseason and closing off the right field viewing portal underneath the arcade seats at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, the Giants began to notice a trend.
During summer workouts at Oracle Park, balls traveled farther and more balls hit in the air landed beyond the field of play. In their first visit to San Francisco since the Giants reimagined the outfield, the San Diego Padres noticed it too.
The Padres hit a pair of homers off Giants starter Jeff Samardzija and dealt the hometown club a 5-3 loss in a home opener that lacked drama and offensive firepower for the orange and black.
The Giants thought a right-handed heavy Padres lineup was a better matchup for Samardzija, so he waited to make his season debut until Tuesday’s home opener.
The results weren’t exactly what the Giants were hoping for. Samardzija lasted four innings, giving up five runs that all scored on a pair of back-breaking homers.
The first blast came in the top of the third, when Samardzija threw a curveball down in the zone to Padres phenom Fernando Tatis, Jr. The second-year shortstop sent the pitch in the air toward right field and the flyball landed atop the brick wall in right field, caroming into the arcade seats for a threerun homer.
In the top of the fourth inning, Padres right fielder Wil Myers hammered a pitch toward the left center field gap that likely still would have cleared the outfield wall during the first two decades of the stadium’s existence.
“I think Wil’s was gone in a hurricane,” Samardzija said. “Let’s just give him the credit on that one. He crushed that ball.”
The Giants’ best chance to mount a comeback came in the bottom of the sixth. Third baseman Wilmer Flores and catcher Tyler Heineman each drove in a run to narrow the deficit from 5-1 to 5-3, but pinch-hitter Hunter Pence missed a chance to make reliever Matt Strahm pay for an 84-mile per hour mistake.
Pence swung at the first pitch from Strahm, a changeup left out over the heart of the plate, and popped it up behind home plate to Padres catcher Francisco Mejia.