© Kiel Maddox-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants entered the 2018 season knowing they would have to string together quality starts from unlikely sources. Madison Bumgarner broke his left pinky in his final Spring Training start, which projected to sideline him for about two months, and Jeff Samardzija was unavailable with a pectoral strain. Then Johnny Cueto hit the disabled list, returned, pitched like the best starter in the majors during his five appearances, and then went on the 60-day DL earlier this month.
All injuries considered, the Giants starting pitching staff has sufficed to this point. But San Francisco’s ‘band-aid rotation,’ as Giants broadcaster Mike Krukow calls it, has started to show some leaks.
The Giants last yielded a quality start (considered at least six innings of allowing three runs or fewer) four games ago, when Samardzija recorded his first of the season. Ty Blach and Chris Stratton lead the current staff with four quality starts, but neither pitcher has had one in their past three appearances.
Thanks to a blossoming lineup, the Giants have stayed afloat, now at 24-24 on the season. But the starting staff will have to find ways to produce longer outings to take pressure off the bullpen.
“You are big-time concerned,” said Krukow during his Monday morning appearance with KNBR’s Murph and Mac. “It’s extremely sensitive, the amount of innings that a starting staff has to eat up to take pressure off of a bullpen. A bullpen, for a while they can make it work, but in the long run, over a six-month season, or hopefully a seven-month season, it’s going to wear a bullpen down.”
Bruce Bochy has bolstered the bullpen with eight relievers. We even saw Pablo Sandoval make a relief appearance.
The bullpen, which has been better than many expected, has logged 172.2 innings, the eighth-most in the majors. The Giants starting staff is only yielding an average of 6.94 strikeouts per nine innings, the second-fewest in the MLB.
Bumgarner is likely sidelined for another couple weeks. Cueto is not expected to return to the major league club for at least another six weeks.
Until then, the starting staff will have to step up as the Giants embark on an eight-game road trip.
“You, at some point, have to fix that problem,” Krukow said. “During the course of a long season, at some point, the starting rotation has to start going deeper into games, and that is a main, main concern of this club.”
Listen to the full segment with Krukow below. To hear him talk about the starting staff, skip ahead to 11:20.