San Francisco Giants’ Injury Updates: Good News All Around
If you believe in voodoo and curses, then the San Francisco Giants‘ “odd-year curse” must have made you really freak out in the first week of the season.
Before even taking the field against the Arizona Diamondbacks’ in Monday’s season opener, two starting pitchers were scratched from their starts, and both looked to be headed to the disabled list. Matt Cain found himself on the shelf due to a strained flexor tendon in his right forearm, and the Jake Peavy seemed like a lock to join him with a bad back.
In game two of the opening series, Brandon Belt went down with a strained groin, which he suffered trying to track down a pop up behind him. And of course, the vocal leader of the Giants, Hunter Pence, is still out with a fracture in his forearm that he suffered in Spring Training. Travis Ishikawa also suffered through back problems in Spring Training, and he is on the disabled list as well.
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Since then, the tides have turned, and the news has been good for the Giants. Peavy, who was slated to start the second game of the season, is now on track to start on Sunday, the series finale against his former team, the San Diego Padres.
On Wednesday, trainers were able to pop his SI joint back in to place, and he threw a lengthy bullpen session. Things went well enough that the team decided he didn’t need to go on the disabled list, and he was penciled in start Sunday. The pencil seems to have been erased, and his name is now written in a more permanent medium.
Ryan Vogelsong, who took Peavy’s place on Tuesday and would likely do the same on Sunday, was available out of the bullpen on Friday, if necesaary, so the team seems very confident that Peavy is good to go.
Belt was on the field before Friday’s game, stretching with his teammates. Manager Bruce Bochy said that Belt “could” start Sunday’s series finale, but Monday’s home opener is the more likely return date for the big first baseman.
Although it seems easy to slap Belt with the “injury prone” tag, it still may be too early to do so. This injury, a strained groin, is the first injury Belt has suffered over the past couple of years that wasn’t caused by another player.
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For his first injury last season, Belt suffered a broken thumb, caused by a Paul Maholm fastball that ran in too tight and caught him on the hand. The second injury came in batting practice, when Marco Scutaro threw a ball to Belt when he wasn’t looking, hit him in the face, and caused a concussion.
Cain was not in Arizona for the first series of the season, as he was in San Francisco getting further evaluation on his arm. He returned to the team in San Diego on Friday, as there was nothing to report on the exams. Cain said he feels much better, but has not started to throw yet.
Pence is scheduled to be re-evaluated on Monday, and soon after that, he could begin to swing a bat. As always, Pence is in good spirits, and Bochy has said he “wouldn’t bet against” Pence returning before the calender turns to May.
Ishikawa, who is eligible to return from his stint on the disabled list on Tuesday, is going to begin a rehab assignment with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats on Saturday. If Peavy’s health holds up, it could make the decision involving Ishikawa’s roster spot much easier. The Giants could remove the eighth man from the bullpen, either George Kontos or Jean Machi, to make room for Ishikawa. That’s speculation, however.
The odd-year curse started very strong in 2015, but things seem to be taking an upward swing for the Giants. By the end of the month, the team could have a full squad.