The Giants took another hit to its roster, as a day after San Francisco placed Sergio Romo on the 15-day DL, the team announced backup shortstop Ehire Adrianza will be out six weeks with a fractured left foot. Mac Williamson will replace Adriazna, and Kelby Tomlinson will be taking over as the backup shortstop.
Although his appearances were limited, Adrianza was playing some of the best baseball of his life, not committing a single error on the defensive side of the ball and clubbing his second career home run off Clayton Kershaw. Yes, Clayton Kershaw. (Side note, Adrianza hit his other home run against Andy Pettitte. Go figure.)
With the minor injuries to Crawford and Panik and the shaky glove of Tomlinson, catcher Trevor Brown, who split time between catcher and second base at UCLA and in the minors, has started to take grounders at second. On Friday, Tomlinson muffed another potential double-play ball at short that would have helped Bumgarner escape from a jam. The first missed double-play came on April 9th when Tomlinson couldn't handle the ball on a possible game-ending double play ball.
There has been a disturbing trend of players succumbing to injuries in this early season. While Romo and Adrianza have been the only two players to be placed on the DL, they haven't been the only two Giants to be dinged up. Brandon Crawford missed action on Friday due to a hip flexor injury, Joe Panik sat out on Thursday as a precaution after injuring his hip while diving for a grounder on Wednesday, and Buster Posey missed the first two games of the Colorado series after taking a foul tip to his right foot against the Dodgers. George Kontos, who has already pitched in a league-leading seven games, also had arm soreness.
These early injuries have been bringing back flashbacks of the injuries that plagued the Giants last year, as well as in 2011 and 2013. The biggest X-factor for San Francisco going forward will be the team's health.
In the seven games where one out of the eight Opening Day starters (Span, Panik, Posey, Pence, Belt, Duffy, Crawford, and Pagan) does not play, the Giants are 2-5, and they're averaging 4.2 runs per game, which should be enough runs to secure a win if the pitching staff has its best stuff.
However, in games, where all eight Opening Day starters play, the Giants are 4-0 and are averaging 8.7 runs per game. 8 point freaking 7 runs per game. It's a small sample size, and some of those losses with one of the starters out can be attributed to bad pitching, but it's a testament to the importance of keeping all the starters healthy.
The Giants haven't been the only team in the NL West to be affected by the injury bug. The Diamondbacks, Dodgers, Padres, and the Rockies have lost a combined 26 players due to injury in the past two months, a list that includes A.J. Pollock, Charlie Blackmon, Andre Either, Hyun-jin Ryu, and Yangervis Solarte. The Dodgers currently lead the majors with ten players on the DL.
Law and Williamson, who were called up to replace Romo and Adrianza, both made appearances in last night's 7-3 loss to the Dodgers.
Derek Law, had no problem replacing Romo and shined in his major league debut, striking out the side in his one inning of work. Law's curveball was flat out filthy, as he struck out Gonzalez and Puig swinging and Trayce Thompson looking. Law's fastball was looking healthy as well, and he hit 96 MPH multiple times. With Romo out likely until the end of April, Law will be getting plenty of appearances and could force his way into the bullpen rotation. With Romo in his contract year and possibly on the way out, preparing Law to take his place may not be the worst idea in the world for Bruce Bochy and company.
Although cruel, injuries can sometimes be the only way to discover the diamonds in the rough. I'll ride the coattails of the Golden State Warriors and bring up Draymond Green as an example. If David Lee does not get injured, Green doesn't start in his place, and the Warriors more than likely do not have the same season they had last season, and they do not have the season they had this year. Law's appearance yesterday might have just been a glorified great day, but at the same time, there is now a possibility of a future role for Law in the bullpen, one that would not have been there without Romo going down.
Williamson also had some action last night in the form of a pinch-hit appearance. Williamson grounded out, but during his at-bat, he pulled a ball foul that had the distance to be a home run if it stayed fair. Considering that in-game power was one of the aspects of Williamson's game that he had to work on, there is optimism in last night's appearance.
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