Giants overcome LaMonte Wade Jr.'s injury, another short Blake Snell start to beat Phillies

Source: The New York Times
Author: Andrew Baggarly

SAN FRANCISCO -- LaMonte Wade. Jr. had been favoring his left hamstring.

He felt it over the weekend when he ran the bases. He felt it when he contorted his legs to receive a game-ending throw at first base. The San Francisco Giants tried to be smart about it. They rested him Sunday in New York. But when you lead the major leagues with a .472 on-base percentage, when your swing is dialed into collecting base hits as readily as shells on the beach, when you are fueling one stirring comeback victory after another, and when you are a 30-year-old streaking like a comet toward your first career All-Star appearance, the last thing you care to pardon is an interruption.

Wade's season is interrupted now. He slid awkwardly into second base in the fifth inning Monday afternoon. And then he stayed down.

His double was a critical hit in a two-run rally that gave the Giants the lead against the National League's top team. Pinch runner Wilmer Flores -- words you never expect to think let alone read -- entered for Wade and scored the tiebreaking run, their bullpen followed another abbreviated start from left-hander Blake Snell by contributing five shutout innings, and their homestand began with yet another come-from-behind triumph in an 8-4 victory over the NL East-leading Philadelphia Phillies on the shores of McCovey Cove.

But the win came at a potentially steep price. Wade grabbed the area just above his left knee before he limped off the field. He is headed for an MRI exam to determine the severity of his hamstring injury. It's a certainty that he will be placed on the 10-day injured list, Giants manager Bob Melvin said. There is no defining any timeline for Wade's return until the medical staff has a chance to review test results. But for all the on-base fuel that Wade has pumped into the lineup, even the best-case scenario -- a couple of weeks of ham-and-egging it at first base between Flores and a left-handed complement to be determined -- would be a daunting consideration.

The top left-handed choices to replace Wade appear to be A) handing a first baseman's mitt and best wishes to middle infielder Brett Wisely, who contributed two more RBI hits Monday, B) selecting the contract of Trenton Brooks, a 28-year-old minor-league free agent in his eighth professional season who was hitting .308 at Triple-A Sacramento and has yet to make his major-league debut, or C) finding out whether Brandon Belt gets cell service out on Lake Nacogdoches.

Melvin mentioned the possibility of Brooks, who must be added to the 40-man roster, as well as corner infielder David Villar, who is already on it. The Giants can create a 40-man vacancy if they so choose by transferring outfielder Jung Hoo Lee to the 60-day injured list. But regardless of who arrives to take Wade's roster spot, the Giants are likely to lean heaviest on Flores. And that might not be such a sobering thought if he were reprising his role from last season as their best offensive player. But the 32-year-old's OPS+ has plummeted from 137 last year to 73 this year. He hit 23 homers last season. This year, he's hit one.

Even if Flores finds his stroke, the Giants' lineup appears out of balance without Wade.

"We are light on left-handed bats right now," Melvin said. "It's not ideal. He's hitting .330. Not too many guys in the league can do what he does. He's not just a good left-handed hitter. He's one of the best in the game at this point."

As the Giants arrived home from their rally-happy road trip to Pittsburgh and New York, all the chatter revolved around the new life that Triple-A call-ups Wisely, Luis Matos, Heliot Ramos and Marco Luciano have breathed into a suddenly precocious lineup -- and the impending choices that the Giants must make on who will stay as an IL squad including Michael Conforto, Austin Slater and Nick Ahmed inch nearer to minor-league rehab assignments.

Watching the Giants all season has been like watching two different teams. Standing in the home dugout a few hours before the first pitch Monday, I asked Melvin: Which version does he think is the best? The manager answered without hesitation: "The third one," he said. The version that will include the returning veterans along with the best performers from Sacramento whom the Giants will elect to keep.

Wade's injury is yet another reminder, though: There is no point in choosing which side of the Janus face you prefer. A team is never allowed to have one identity or even a duality over a 162-game season. Some area of the roster is always taking on water. Some organizations are just a little swifter with the buckets than others.

Which brings us to Snell, who continues to require bailing out.

The left-hander held the Phillies to two hits and struck out four of nine batters in his first time through the lineup. Then leadoff hitter Kyle Schwarber tagged him for a two-run homer in the third and the nibbling began. Snell needed 35 pitches to get through the fourth inning. He burned 14 pitches without retiring Nos. 8-9 hitters Cristian Pache and Johan Rojas, two players who are essentially on Philadelphia's roster for outfield defense. With his pitch count at 90 through four innings, there was no chance he'd take the mound in the fifth for the first time this season.

So Melvin had to push hard-throwing Randy Rodríguez and the emerging rookie rewarded him with two solid innings while picking up his first major-league victory. Erik Miller, who had been unavailable for the previous series in New York because of a calf injury, pitched the seventh. Ryan Walker and Camilo Doval took it the rest of the way.

Burning five relief innings wasn't the ideal prologue to what will amount to a bullpen game on Tuesday. The Giants might have considered using Miller as an opener behind a bulk pitcher, with Triple-A right-hander Spencer Howard a prime candidate to make his first appearance with the club. Then again, the Giants have become accustomed to working with a taxed pitching staff after Snell's turn in the rotation.

Monday's game was the 11th this season that featured Snell or a replacement for Snell as he was either ramping up following his late signing on March 18 or rehabbing from the groin strain that sent him to the injured list after his first three outings. In those games, the Giants still haven't received five innings from a starter or bulk pitcher. Those pitchers are 0-7 in those 11 assignments.

The difference lately is that the Giants have managed to win those games. Monday's victory was their fourth consecutive in this rotation turn after dropping the first seven.

Snell acknowledged that winning the game made it easier to live with another short outing. But he also acknowledged that he isn't being paid $32 million to be a four-inning pitcher. Or the kind of pitcher who can become taciturn to throw strikes after serving up one home run into the arcade.

"Right now it's just a late start, rushing to get back, the injury ... it's been frustrating," Snell said. "No excuses. I should be ready.

Big-league spring training ... yeah, you need it. I thought I did everything I could to be ready, but ... you can't. There's nothing like ... you have to go to spring training. I hope teams see that. I don't know what (fellow late signee Jordan) Montgomery's doing but I bet it's tough for him. It's not easy. I didn't face a big-league hitter until I faced my first hitter in the big leagues this year. It's tough. You have nothing to go off of. You're just kind of like, 'Uh, let's see what we got.'

"It's a lot of excuses but it's the truth."

Even at his best, watching Snell pitch is not a joy in admiring aesthetics. His fourth inning exhausted three of the Giants' four mound visits in addition to 35 pitches. He's taking oxygen out of games. He's using up the bullpen. He's using up the mental and physical stamina of his teammates.

"Look, they just made him throw a lot of pitches again," said Melvin, who also managed Snell in San Diego last season. "He struck out seven, he was getting some swings and misses. It's just frustrating he can't get over the hump and get his pitch counts down in each inning. Once they start to mount, next thing you know it's 90 pitches and he has to come out after four. But I thought his fastball had good life, slider had good life -- that usually takes a while for him -- and curveball had bite on it. He's just not getting results right now."

The Giants were prepared to deal with Snell's difficulties in the first half. But they're a couple of months from folding in rehabbing left-hander Robbie Ray. It's anyone's guess when or if they will be able to fold in Alex Cobb, who has battled elbow and shoulder ailments as he attempts to ramp up following offseason hip surgery. Keaton Winn could be back soon after smiling through a 45-pitch bullpen session in which his right forearm gave him no issues on Monday. But the Giants' pitching model will become so much more sustainable the sooner Snell can turn a corner and become the left-hander who a Cy Young Award last year.

"In San Diego (last year), it's like, 'You're a second-half pitcher, you're a second-half pitcher' is all I heard," Snell said. "I mean, in the second half I just think I become way more dominant because of what I learned in the first half. You start understanding swings, understanding approaches, understanding the strike zone. It's like anything. If you take a test early and you don't have anything to go off of, it's going to be harder. And when you have all these starts and tests, you learn from it.

"We're definitely getting there. We're definitely getting somewhere."

Perhaps the Janus face really does apply to Snell. If so, then the Giants are more than ready to study a new profile.