Longoria out indefinitely after fracturing his pinky

MIAMI » After playing in 67 of the Giants’ first 69 games this year, third baseman Evan Longoria is out indefinitely after fracturing his pinky in the Giants’ 6- 3, 16- inning win Thursday.

The veteran infielder exited Thursday’s contest in the bottom of the fourth inning after taking an 89mile per hour fastball off his hand from starter Dan Straily.

“The only thing to do is just wait and see what the plan is,” Longoria said. “We haven’t really set a date. I don’t know if we’re going to have surgery or not.”

W ith Longoria out, switch- hitting infielders Alen Hanson and Pablo Sandoval will likely compete for starts at third base.

“It sucks,” Longoria said. “We’ve had our fair share of bumps and bruises this year. Just one of those things that’s part of the game, it’s unavoidable. My job now is just to obviously work toward getting healthy and be as supportive as I can in the process.”

Longoria willmeet with Dr. Steven Shin in Los Angeles for a second opinion this weekend, the same doctor who performed Joe Panik’s thumb surgery earlier this season.

The technical injury Longoria suffered is a fractured fifth metacarpal, which is the same injury ace Madison Bumgarner suffered during spring training. Longoria said he saw Bumgarner’s X- rays and believes his injury isn’t as severe.

“His was a little bit worse than mine, just looking at the X- Rays it was a little bit different,” Longoria said.

With Longoria expected to be placed on the disabled list Friday, first baseman Brandon Belt ( appendicitis) could rejoin the club at the start of the Giants’ series against the Dodgers. San Francisco was planning on having Belt start a rehab assignment over the weekend, but with Longoria out, the Giants may bring Belt back sooner than expected.

“It’s a downer with Longoria,” Bochy said. “That’s a tough break for us. We’re just having a hard time keeping everybody out there. He has a fracture on the left hand, the fifth metacarpal so we’ll get another opinion.”