San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Brewers 7, Giants 1: Cueto has elbow pain.
The day started with a laughter-filled Wall of Fame celebration outside AT&T Park honoring three of the Giants’ most important arms of this decade: Matt Cain, Ryan Vogelsong and Brian Wilson.
By the end of a cool Saturday night, attention turned to one of their most important arms now, and it’s not in good shape.
Johnny Cueto said he again is pitching with pain in his right elbow, which was obvious to anyone who saw him struggling to hit 88 mph in a 7-1 loss to the Brewers that continued the Giants’ post-break spiral.
“Every time I pitch it bothers me,” Cueto said through interpreter Erwin Higueros.
Cueto will be reassessed Sunday, but odds are slim that he will make his next scheduled start. In the four he has made since coming off the disabled list, he has allowed 16 runs in 21 innings.
While nobody was ready to say it, because it would be premature, the obvious fear is the potential for Tommy John surgery, where Cueto and the organization figured he was headed nearly three months ago when he first tore part of his ulnar collateral ligament. Tommy John would finish Cueto for this year and most — if not all — of 2019, leaving the Giants without one of their most important players.
Dr. James Andrews examined Cueto in early May and recommended against surgery in favor of rest and rehabilitation, which pitchers sometimes attempt before resorting to surgery.
Manager Bruce Bochy acknowledged what was plain to see as Cueto allowed three runs in the second inning and another in the fourth.
“I’ve got to be honest,” Bochy said. “There’s concern for Johnny. I don’t want to put him out there when he doesn’t have his best stuff, especially when he’s having trouble getting loose. … We’ll see how he feels tomorrow.”
“Trouble getting loose” is the same vernacular the Giants have used for starting pitcher Jeff Samardzija, who is shut down again with a shoulder injury.
Cueto’s absence would further weaken a team that is speeding in the wrong direction.
The Giants have lost four in a row and six of their eight games out of the break. They are a season-worst 7½ games behind the first-place Dodgers in the National League West.
The 2010 NL West title team mentioned so often in the Wall of Fame ceremony was 6½ games out on Aug. 25, a point that Bochy has made more than once in recent days.
But that team also was 14 games over .500 at the time.
Furthermore, the 2018 Dodgers are not the 2010 Padres. Fortified by their acquisition of the best hitter on the trade market, Manny Machado, they have won six of nine out of the break on what was supposed to be their “tough” 10-game trip through Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Atlanta.
The Giants have maintained they are in “buy” mode as Tuesday’s non-waiver trade deadline approaches. How the front office will react to the potential loss of Cueto is not clear.
The big need had seemed to be a bat. Nothing that happened against the Brewers on Saturday changed that. Jhoulys Chacin had a no-hitter through five innings, which ended with a Nick Hundley home run.
The Giants mustered four hits for a crowd that nonetheless offered its full-throated support, cheering and chanting loudly even in the bottom of the ninth when the game seemed hopeless.
Cueto’s demeanor after the game was not exactly hopeless, but he confessed he was “sad.”
“It’s very difficult,” he said. “It was very hard to get loose. I feel really bad. I want to help the team. I want to be a warrior. I realize I’m not helping them every time I come out and pitch.”