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‘Incredible’: Alex Dickerson goes from injury uncertainty to Giants hero

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The Giants were prepared. Steven Duggar was rushed up on the taxi squad, ready for a setback. If Alex Dickerson couldn’t go, he said they would have placed him on the injured list, taken a bit of time to figure out his oblique.

That was the path Dickerson’s career had taken the past few years, when injury after injury sidetracked a promising outfielder.

That isn’t the path Dickerson’s season has taken.

Dickerson said he felt fine swinging (and homering), felt fine fielding, felt fine running and felt fine sliding — a second-inning tag-up looming large in a game that went 13 innings — in a 5-4 victory over the Cubs at Oracle Park.

Dickerson conceded he will “be sore,” but Bruce Bochy said he’ll be out of the lineup Wednesday, plus Thursday is an off-day, creating a nice break.

“It’s the oblique area — we cleared it up,” Dickerson said. “Didn’t feel that the entire day.”

Not on the second-inning double or the fourth-inning homer to left, which tied the game at 2-2. He said in previous games, his at-bats had been affected by the oblique; if he went fishing for an outside pitch, he would feel it.

He said that problem was eliminated Tuesday for an issue he’s insisted has not been related to his 2017 back surgery. The oblique tightness is on his right side; the back problems were on his left.

Before the game, he tweaked his stretching with the Giants training staff. Considering the Duggar insurance, the Giants were not certain it would work.

He was more confident.

“It took a lot of pressure off my side,” said Dickerson, now batting .397 since joining the Giants. “One of those things where going through the season, first time I’ve been doing this in two years. Little things pop up here and there. You figure out how to adjust on the fly, loosen it up. Felt pretty good today.”

Looked pretty good, too. The homer was his sixth in 25 games with the Giants.

“It’s incredible,” Madison Bumgarner said. “I always thought he was a good player, but just shows you what he can do when he gets a chance to play. In San Diego, he had a hard time getting him in there. Since we got him, he’s been awesome.”