San Francisco Giants 3 Up, 3 Down: Back to .500

3 DOWN

1 – Stratton and Holland

The series started pretty badly for Giants’ starting pitchers. Derek Holland cruised through the first three innings on Friday, but fell apart in the fourth, allowing two walks and three doubles that led to four runs. Holland would only get one out in the fourth as his ERA jumped to 5.76 on the season.

Freshly back from witnessing the birth of his second child, Chris Stratton had his worst start as a big leaguer. He was clearly off from the start, walking the first two batters he faced and giving up three total runs in the first inning. It didn’t get better from there, and Stratton was out of the game after getting only four outs. He allowed six runs, the first time he had given up more than three runs in 15 starts.

Oddly enough, that wasn’t the shortest start of Stratton’s career. He only got one out on September 11th last year before rained halted the game. Stratton wouldn’t return to the game after the nearly three-hour delay.

2 – Injuries

Mac Williamson was supposed to return to the lineup on Saturday, but experienced symptoms of a concussion that forced him to the seven-day disabled list. He did take batting practice before Sunday’s game and reported no ill-effects, but he isn’t eligible to return until next Saturday because of a weird disabled list rule. Because he was replaced by Austin Slater, who didn’t serve the regular 10 days in the minor leagues after being optioned, Williamson’s placement on the disabled list can’t be backdated.

Also, there’s no guarantees that Williamson will still be fine when he is eligible to return. The Giants have seen it before with concussions, where the symptoms come back seemingly at random, even after the player hadn’t experienced them in a while. Hopefully, Williamson will be ready when he’s eligible.

The news on Joe Panik, however, isn’t so good. He is likely headed for surgery on a sprained (i.e. torn) ligament in his left thumb. If that is his destination, he could miss two months, and possibly more. In the meantime, Kelby Tomlinson and Alen Hanson will have a chance to pick up the slack.

3 – Wearing Down the Bullpen

Going back to the first down, the Giants’ bullpen had to pick up a lot of innings this weekend. They needed to record 17 outs on Friday, then 23 outs in the first game on Saturday.

They did get a bit of a break, with Roberto Gomez and Derek Law throwing just about every pitch they possibly could on Saturday, and then Johnny Cueto and Ty Blach both going six innings in the final two games, as well as some maneuvering that brought Snelten up before Saturday’s night contest.

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The Giants have to get through three more games before their next day off, playing the San Diego Padres three times before getting a Thursday break. Between now and Thursday, they should get a couple of fresh arms with Andrew Suarez likely starting on Tuesday and Will Smith returning from rehab at some point in this series. They’ll need those arms, because after Thursday, they start a stretch of 17 games in 17 days.