Giants center fielder Angel Pagan is not in Wednesday’s Giants lineup, making it the 10th game Crazy Horse will miss since injuring his hamstring two Saturdays ago. Before the injury Pagan had started 45 of 49 games, all in center field. In his absence, Gregor Blanco has slid over from left field and Andres Torres has been the new regular starter.
The Giants haven’t missed Pagan’s production from the starting lineup because Torres has been fantastic. His two-run homer in Tuesday’s game was the only offense the Giants could muster against Toronto’s Josh Johnson. Since Pagan went down, Torres has a .371 OBP and improved to a .323 mark for the season.
The real loss has been the thinning of the bench, leaving Bruce Bochy with just three reserve bats to use as pinch-hitters and defensive replacements. With the now-startling decision not to put Pagan on the disabled list, the backup outfielder has become Brett Pill. Though he has logged only two innings in left this year, that’s two too many for my liking. Francisco Peguero would have been a nice option to have on the roster, at least for his defense.
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Pablo Sandoval played just seven innings yesterday after returning from a foot injury that cost him three games. Bruce Bochy said after the game that this had been the plan all along, trying to ease the big fella back into action. Joaquin Arias finished the game after Panda notched an 0-3 at the plate, seeing just six pitches. Never change, Pablo.
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The Giants have won the last 14 times Barry Zito has taken the mound at AT&T. While Zito hasn’t sparkled in every one of those games, he hasn’t allowed more than four runs at home since allowing seven to the New York Mets in early August of last year. Through seven starts this season, Zito’s home ERA is 1.00. That’s one. Uno. Un. Eins.
Here’s the lineup for Wednesday against RHP R.A. Dickey (5-7, 5.18 ERA):
CF Blanco
2B Scutaro
3B Sandoval
C Posey
RF Pence
1B Belt
LF Torres
SS Crawford
LHP Zito (4-3, 3.88 ERA)