Navigating a three-city trip during pandemic is daunting
Under normal circumstances, a three-city road trip with stops at Coors Field in Denver, Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and Minute Maid Park in Houston would represent a daunting challenge for the San Francisco Giants.
Four games in Colorado will stress the depth of the Giants’ pitching staff. Three games against the Dodgers will require the Giants to play their best baseball to have a chance against the National League’s hottest team. Three more games against the Astros will test the Giants’ fortitude, as they’ll wrap up a stretch of playing 16 games without an off day. During the coronavirus pandemic, the Giants realize that even if they exceed expectations on the field, their season could quickly unravel off of it if players, coaches or staff members fail to strictly adhere to health and
safety protocols.
“We’re just going to have to trust each other,” outfielder Hunter Pence said Sunday. “Everyone is going to have to make wise decisions. If we can stay solid with our decisions when we go home and make sure we’re following protocol at the field, I feel good about it.”
With a 5-5 record through their first 10 games, the Giants showed their lineup is wellequipped to hit left-handed pitching and their bullpen might have enough intriguing and talented arms to overcome its lack of experience.
A six-game homestand allowed the Giants to focus almost solely on what took place on the field, but a three-city road trip will require the team to place a greater focus on details that will keep them safe off of it. A medical staff led by senior director of athletic training Dave Groeschner and the team’s designated infection control prevention coordinator, L.J. Petra, will once again be in the spotlight as they’re tasked with ensuring the Giants are avoiding any situations in which the coronavirus
can be transmitted.
“We’ll rely on our medical staff because they’ve done a really good job of leading us thus far and we believe they are best-equipped to guide us and help keep us safe,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “I think we’ve done a really nice job as a staff and a group of players in following their lead and adhering to the health and safety protocols.”
During the Giants’ homestand, more than 30 games were postponed across the majors due to outbreaks that resulted in several Marlins and Cardinals players testing positive. MLB had to act quickly to approve seven-inning doubleheaders with the hope affected teams such as the Phillies and Yankees can play as many games as possible this year, but the outbreak involving the Cardinals led to considerable doubt the league will complete the season.
MLB commissioner Rob Manfred made a few comments that caused a stir in clubhouses across the country including one in which he said “this new thing called winning percentage” will sort out the playoff field if not all clubs play a full 60-game schedule. In discussing the possibility of suspending the season, Manfred also told ESPN “the
players need to be better, but I am not a quitter in general and there is no reason to quit now.”
“Anyone that’s smart has been watching, we’re the ones that are putting ourselves at risk out there on the field,” Giants starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija said. “It’s easy to say things like that from up top. We’re down here, we’re doing what we need to do to get these games played and hopefully have it mean enough and have this regular season be valid enough that the World Series champ is valid and it will be because this is hard.”
Samardzija expressed his appreciation for the Giants’ medical staff Sunday, noting how well prepared it has been since the team reopened its Scottsdale facility following its initial closure in March. He cites the attention being paid to health and safety protocols, players’ willingness to break old habits and the challenges presented by travel as a reason he thinks a World Series championship will remain as rewarding this season.
“This is not easy for any of these teams, any of these staffs and players to get through this,” Samardzija said. “The team that wins it is really going to earn it and hopefully we get there.”
As the Giants open their four-game set at Coors Field on Monday, they’ll deal with all of the traditional concerns a team faces with playing baseball a mile above sea level.
Kapler and Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi are in constant contact over the team’s roster construction and the club must determine how it will replace injured starter Drew Smyly in its rotation. In four days, the Giants’ roster will shrink from 30 players to 28, complicating matters for a pitching staff that’s been relatively inconsistent.
Those concerns are all pressing, but during the coronavirus pandemic, nothing is a higher priority than keeping every member of the Giants’ traveling party healthy and safe. It doesn’t matter how well the team performs on a 10-game trip if the coronavirus puts the season on hold before the Giants return home.
“There’s always a lot of accountability in terms of doing the right thing in these situations,” Kapler said. “I think it falls on us as a group. There’s no one individual that is responsible for it. We do it as a medical staff, a field staff, a coaching staff and also the players.”