⏩ Giants beat: Gausman in for L.A. series, Posey possible.
ST. LOUIS — The Giants would never cop to one series being more important than another, but for a club just a game in front of the Dodgers, the fourgame set starting Monday at Los Angeles is bigger than most.
That’s why it’s even more significant that AllStar Buster Posey might come off the injured list before the opener at Dodger Stadium to catch another AllStar, Kevin Gausman, who is returning from emergency family leave. Gausman was with his wife, Taylor, who was treated in a Louisiana hospital for pregnancy complications. She was released Sunday morning.
Posey has been on the injured list since July 6 with a left thumb bone bruise that has made catching difficult, but manager Gabe Kapler said he’s confident Posey will be ready to go Monday.
“He’s trending in the right direction,” Kapler said Sunday at Busch Stadium. “He played catch yesterday with improvement; he felt improvements swinging the bat.”
Posey has been experimenting with a thumb guard to see if it helps while catching, but he hasn’t decided whether he might use it in a game.
Gausman had been scheduled to start Friday, but he’ll meet the team in Los Angeles and will oppose Tony Gonsolin in the first of the four games. Alex Wood will go Tuesday with the Dodgers planning a bullpen game, Logan Webb will start Wednesday for the Giants against Julio Urias, and Anthony DeSclafani on Thursday against the Dodgers’ Walker Buehler.
The Giants are 36 against the Dodgers this season, but all three wins came at Los Angeles.
Trade deadline snippet: The Texas Rangers, who are expected to be sellers at the deadline, scouted the Giants’ series at St. Louis.
The Rangers have one of the top starting pitchers who might be available, AllStar Kyle Gibson, and they also might be willing to part with reliever Ian Kennedy. Slugger Joey Gallo might be on the market, but he’s under team control for another year and would probably require some particularly good prospects to pry away.
Briefly: Aaron Sanchez
threw 79 pitches and allowed three unearned runs in a rehab start at TripleA Sacramento on Saturday night. “The blister situation is fine and the encouraging thing is that the volume is getting built up,” Kapler said . ... Reliever Camilo Doval was registered at 103 mph during his scoreless twoinning stint, a record for the stadium radar gun at Sacramento.