Wade starts vs. lefty in bid to spark lineup
DETROIT — The shakeup wasn’t anything crazy, just a little tweak, throwing LaMonte Wade Jr. in at the bottom of the San Francisco Giants’ batting order.
Wade had hit there three times before this season, and it was his 10th time in the lineup against a left-handed starter, but with the bottom third of the order struggling, Monday’s makeup game at Detroit was a good time to try something different. During the team’s five-game losing streak entering Monday, the bottom three hitters were 2for-38 with 15 strikeouts and six walks.
“Obviously, it makes LaMonte a little bit further away for a lefthanded pitcher to have to get around a couple of times,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “So that’s No. 1. No. 2, it’s nice to have a great on-base guy at the bottom of the lineup. … It’s kind of a second way to start a rally.”
The Tigers had lefty Tarik Skubal on the mound for the makeup game, not the best matchup for Wade, who went into the day batting .175 against left-handed starters and .235 overall against lefties. Skubal was holding left-handed hitters to a .143 average; he had not faced Wade before Monday.
Wade went hitless in three atbats in the 5-1 loss to Detroit. In his lone at-bat against Skubal, Wade grounded out to second.
The Giants had scored eight runs over their previous five games, batting .161 in the process. Getting the man who’s leading them in on-base percentage — Wade is at .403 even after his 0-for-3 day — was a plus no matter what.
“LaMonte is a guy who always puts together a quality at-bat, no matter the handedness of the pitcher,” said Austin Slater, who was in the leadoff spot Monday.
Outfielder Michael Conforto said, “I like LaMonte hitting anywhere. We just need to get a little creative, mess around with some things and get on a roll again.”
In April, the Giants lost the first two games at Detroit and were frustrated when the final game of the series was delayed and then postponed by a poor weather forecast. There was little rain.
“It was worse thinking about it that day,” Conforto said. “But once it was rescheduled, I think we made peace with it. It just turns the road trip into a little bit of a tougher one, and when we come home, it’s going to be a little bit tougher. That’s part of baseball, but we stay in nice hotels. We take chartered flights.
Obviously, we’re really fortunate to be able to do all these things.”
Briefly: Alex Cobb will start Tuesday’s game against the A’s, and the Giants are listing TBA for Wednesday. … Cobb, lefty Alex Wood and injured shortstop Brandon Crawford went back to the Bay Area from Washington, D.C., on Sunday. … Crawford (knee) is expected to come off the injured list Friday. … Wood is likely to pitch in some capacity Wednesday, either starting or in a bulk-innings role.