Giants Splash: Susac out at least a week with sprained thumb
Giants Splash:
Susac out at least a week with sprained thumb
Catcher Andrew Susac will be out a week to 10 days after spraining his right thumb in Saturday night's 8-4 victory against the Diamondbacks.
Susac was hurt on a hand-first slide into third base on his leadoff triple in the fourth inning, the Giants' only extra-base hit to go with 13 singles.
[...] Susac was unlucky that his drive down the left-field line took an odd bounce away from David Peralta.
Sanchez incurred yet another concussion earlier this season for Sacramento, but he returned to the lineup Thursday night.
Be it caused by Father Time or a left knee that absorbed two traumatic blows within days, Angel Pagan has lost a step or two in center field.
In Friday night's 6-5, 12-inning victory, he even seemed to back off on a couple of balls over his head in fear of the wall.
Moving Pagan to a corner position might seem a logical move, but it will not happen soon.
Manager Bruce Bochy, asked Saturday if the team has discussed shifting Pagan to a corner on days when he and Gregor Blanco both play, said, "Right now, no."
[...] you're taking a guy out of the position he's always played.
In other words, spring training, when he can work in left field.
Pagan has not played left field since 2010 with the Mets.
On Friday night, Arizona hit a fusillade of balls over Pagan's head.
At least one, David Peralta's leadoff triple in the seventh, seemed catchable had Pagan
to chase it aggressively, but he slowed his run and the ball hit the base of the fence.
Some of those balls were hit well and I don't know who would have caught them.
To me, that's one of the toughest plays in the outfield, particuarly in center field.
Pagan slammed his left knee into the wall at AT&T Park on June 25 trying to catch a triple by San Diego's Will Middlebrooks.
A few days earlier, Pagan had slammed the same knee into the ground attempting a diving catch.
Ryan Vogelsong surely has an opinion on the team's decision to move him to the bullpen.
Vogelsong was the ninth and final Giants pitcher used in Friday night's game and earned the victory with two shutout innings.
Vogelsong's 4.75 career ERA in 92 relief apperances is not that much worse than his 4.33 ERA in 159 starts, but he's allowed far more baserunners out of the bullpen.
With a one-run lead in the 12th, he allowed a leadoff single by Paul Goldschmidt, got a Yasmany Tomas double play, then survived a two-out walk and single before getting the final out.
Head athletic trainer Dave Groeschner said that is enough to allow Aoki to perform full baseball activities.
Once Aoki gets into proper baseball shape, he can begin a minor-league rehab assignment of about three days before his return, which could be within two weeks.
Not surprisingly, Buster Posey moves from catcher to first base after catching 12 innings over 5 hours, 11 minutes Friday night.
The Giants face Chase Anderson and Jake Peavy will try to build on two good starts back from the disabled list.
[...] it took over 18 hours, but the Giants did gain a game on the Dodgers.
[...] as we speak the Giants are 3.5 games back.