» GIANTS’ BELT LIKELY DONE FOR SEASON

SAN DIEGO — The Giants will travel to St. Louis Thursday for the final road series of the season, but first baseman Brandon Belt won’t be joining the club.

Instead, Belt will fly home to San Francisco on Wednesday evening to be evaluated by team doctors as another frustrating season comes to a close.

A lingering right knee injury has kept Belt off the field for most of the past week and will likely sideline him for the Giants’ final 10 games.

Manager Bruce Bochy announced Wednesday Belt’s season is “most likely” over and that surgery is a strong possibility for the 30-year-old infielder.

“He’s going to get looked at by our docs and see where he’s at with this knee,” Bochy said. “Obviously looking at surgery. We need to get this thing taken care of so that’s why he’s going back tonight.”

Belt hit .253 and smashed 14 home runs for the Giants this year, but his season was interrupted by a pair of disabled list stints that altered his timing and led to decreased production at the plate.

Belt will have an MRI on his knee before doctors determine whether he’ll need to have surgery. After tearing the meniscus in his right knee in 2015, Belt had his knee cleaned out in an operation at the end of the season.

The Giants starting first baseman was on pace for a career year entering June, but an emergency appendectomy forced him to the disabled list for two weeks. Though he never quite regained his rhythm at the plate, Belt’s season took another harsh turn when he hyperextended his knee running the bases in Seattle July 25.

After returning to the lineup Aug. 14, Belt hit .163 over a 27game stretch in which he accounted for just three RBIs and 33 strikeouts.

Reserve catcher Aramis Garcia will start in Belt’s place Wednesday against the Padres and could earn more playing time at the position over the final days of the season.

The Giants have also lost the majority of their other options at first base, as Pablo Sandoval, Ryder Jones and Buster Posey are all out for the year after undergoing season-ending surgeries.