Bochy defends McGehee

DENVER — Manager Bruce Bochy expressed his faith in Casey McGehee twice before Saturday night’s game, by word (in his pregame session with reporters) and deed (keeping McGehee in the lineup).

Bochy then watched his struggling third baseman have a better game. McGehee doubled into the left-field corner in his first at-bat, lost a hit and RBI in his third at-bat when Rockies second baseman D.J. LeMahieu intercepted his line drive, and then singled to start the eighth inning. He did ground into his eighth double play of the season in the 10th, however.

McGehee was visibly agitat- ed when he talked to reporters Friday night after grounding into his sixth and seventh double plays, with two on and nobody out each time, in a 6-4 loss. Bochy noticed it, too, and planned to talk to McGehee after batting practice.

The message: Don’t try so hard, and don’t be so hard on yourself.

“We’ve got to get him to back off a little,” Bochy said. “Less is more right now. He’s trying so hard. He’s taking it really hard. But it’s so early. We’ve got to get him going. He drove in (close to) 80 runs last year. He can hit. He’s going to hit.”

Bochy, like most managers, takes a player’s frame of mind into consideration as much as his stats.

“You have to,” Bochy said. “Scouts will tell you, one of the best ways to scout players is how they handle an 0-for-4. You want him to be upset. At the same time, you don’t want him to feel like he’s letting everybody down.

“Casey is going to be fine. He’s been through enough. It’s quite a story, how he went to Japan and came back. If we think he needs a couple of games off, we’ll do that, but we need him to know we’re with him.”