SAN FRANCISCO–Prior to Friday evening’s game at AT&T Park, Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy said that outfielder Gorkys Hernandez was dealing with a left wrist sprain, and would be unavailable to play.
By the eighth inning of the Giants’ 3-2 loss to the Diamondbacks, Hernandez was out in right field after taking over for Hunter Pence.
It turns out, Hernandez’s wrist injury isn’t as serious as Bochy initially indicated. Still, the fact he was pressed into action on Friday wasn’t a good sign for Pence, or the Giants.
In the top half of the seventh inning, Pence took a tumble in right center field after an unsuccessful diving attempt on a single by Arizona second baseman Daniel Descalso.
“Pence on that one dive hurt his back, so he has lower back spasms,” Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy said. “He had to come out.”
Pence put his body on the line for the Giants on Friday night, racing into the alleyway, darting up the baseline, and laying out for the Descalso single. Though not all of his efforts were successful, Bochy commended Pence’s effort, which is particularly impressive given the Giants’ 57-92 record.
“He’s giving you all he’s got out there,” Bochy said. “That’s all you can ask from these guys is effort. He plays his heart out every game. He leaves everything out there on the field, which he didn’t today, he had to leave the game. So it makes it tough. Just all around, it’s been a tough year.”
After Friday’s game, Pence reiterated that he’s day-to-day, but said that he hopes to be back in the lineup as soon as possible.
“I just kind of jarred it on that dive,” Pence said. “You know, it jammed up, so apparently I’m day-to-day. Just try to loosen it up and once we can get it moving, I’ll be back in there. It shouldn’t be too long.”
Pence appeared to hurt his wrist earlier in the game when he took a spill near the first base bag after legging out an infield single, but after Friday’s loss, he said the rest of his body feels fine. Instead, Pence said it’s just his back that’s ailing him, and that he knew it would be an issue as soon as he went to the ground.
“I felt it, it was just hyper-extended and I hit the ground and I immediately like, locked up.”
As for Hernandez, he came out in the bottom of the ninth inning when Bochy opted to pinch hit with Jarrett Parker. Bochy said after the game that Hernandez was not able to swing the bat on Friday, but there’s a possibility he may be able to do so on Saturday.
“Tomorrow, there’s a good chance he (Hernandez) might be able to swing the bat,” Bochy said. “We’ll see how he’s doing.”