Busy stretch as Posey plays catch-up
MESA, Ariz. — Buster Posey was in a fun mood Friday morning when he went all Maxwell Smart on reporters who asked if it would be interesting to face longtime batterymate Sergio Romo and that Frisbee slider in a later round of the World Baseball Classic.
“It would be a chess match, for sure,” Posey said, “just because I feel I know his tendencies and he probably knows that I know his tendencies. So it would be a matter of me trying to figure out if he’s still going to pitch to those tendencies or if he’s going to go away from those tendencies, or if he thinks that I might . ... I know he might go away from his tendencies.” “Does that help?” he asked. Once Posey emerged from the Cone of Silence (which was not working properly), he explained that the “old-man neck” stiffness that sidelined him for two games was better and he outlined his busy plans for the weekend to make up for lost time before leaving for the tournament Monday.
He started by catching five innings and going 0-for-2 with a walk in Friday’s 6-1 loss to the A’s. Posey plans to be the DH in Saturday’s road game against the Royals and catch Madison Bumgarner in Sunday’s home game against Kansas City.
That could provide Posey as many as 10 plate appearances in three games to add to the four he had before Friday.
“When I’ve been in there I’ve felt good,” Posey said. “I haven’t felt like I’m fatiguing. This will be a good gauge, playing three days in a row.”
Posey remains hitless and will have little time to prepare for the international competition. The U.S. team’s first game in pool play comes Friday against Colombia. Posey could add at-bats in exhibitions against the Twins on Wednesday and Red Sox on Thursday.
Posey could be away from the Giants for as little as a week, in the unlikely event the U.S. fails to advance out of its pool. If it reaches the final game, Posey would not return before March 23, 10 days before the regular-season opener at Arizona.
Giants pitchers will lose their catcher for as long as 2½ weeks. Jeff Samardzija, who started Friday, said that’s unusual, but not a concern because the pitchers know Posey and vice versa.
“The good thing is all of us guys threw to him last year, obviously (Matt Cain) and Bum even longer than that,” Samardzija said. “We just look forward to him representing the country well and coming back healthy. Hopefully he’ll have fun.” Sharp Shark: Samardzija looked the best of any starter thus far in 22⁄3 excellent innings.
“He was really good,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “Buster said the same thing.”
Samardzija allowed an opposite-field solo homer on a 2-0 fastball to Yonder Alonso, the only one of the 10 batters he faced to hit the ball hard. Samardzija had no walks and three strikeouts.
“It was pretty surprising the way (the ball) was coming out there from the beginning,” Samardzija said. “We worked all our pitches in. As a whole, I’m really happy with getting ahead in the count and putting guys away. For spring training, it’s a good outing.” Cueto update: Johnny Cueto was flying to Arizona on Friday and was scheduled to land in the late afternoon. He will take his physical and meet with the staff Saturday. Briefly: Brandon Crawford, also headed to the WBC, is 2-for-14, but for seven innings he had the Giants’ only hit, a hard grounder in the second inning that hit third base and landed in left field . ... With spring training nearly three weeks along and still so many games left, Bochy canceled workouts and batting practice for those who made the trip to face the A’s, hoping they would be fresh. It did not work. The Giants had three hits.