Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
The Joe McCarthy experiment may be over. Jaylin Davis and Mauricio Dubon certainly will get more looks, but perhaps not as many against right-handers.
After the Giants have lost all three games against opposing righty starters, in which they have scored a combined five runs, the lineup got a bit of an overhaul for Wednesday’s matchup against Chris Paddack and the Padres at Oracle Park:
1. Mike Yastrzemski, CF
2. Pablo Sandoval, 1B
3. Wilmer Flores, 2B
4. Alex Dickerson, LF
5. Hunter Pence, DH
6. Brandon Crawford, SS
7. Donovan Solano, 3B
8. Austin Slater, RF
9. Chadwick Tromp, C
McCarthy, 0-for-10 with five strikeouts, likely will be heading to satellite camp Thursday. In his stead will be Slater, returning from a hip contusion and a bat the Giants love against lefties. They will see what it looks like against righties.
“The quality of Slater’s at-bats and dating back to his last game in Los Angeles, he just looked like a really good all-around baseball player, making great defensive plays and having aggressive at-bats,” Gabe Kapler said over Zoom before the game. “I’ve talked to our hitting coaches about this, and they have a lot of confidence in his ability to hit left-handed pitching, right-handed pitching. I think Slater is also good in a platoon.
“But tonight we wanted to give him an opportunity to go out there against a right-handed pitcher knowing that we have another one tomorrow. We don’t want there to be too long of a layoff.”
Pence, who kills lefties, will get a shot against righties because the Giants are not sure where else to turn. And Solano, a righty who pinch-hit for McCarthy on Tuesday against a righty, will get more chances against righties, with Dubon 1-for-11 with five strikeouts against righties.
Another righty getting a crack is Tromp, the 25-year-old catcher who will be making his major league debut.
“It’s the middle game of the series; that’s an important factor,” said Kapler, in explaining why Tromp is giving Tyler Heineman a rest today. “So Heineman is not catching back-to-back games, which can be taxing on a catcher’s body.”
Kapler called Heineman a “warrior” thus far, and said Tromp has built a rapport with the pitchers. He and Johnny Cueto, who both speak Spanish, work well together.
Kapler said the Giants expect Evan Longoria and Brandon Belt back Thursday.
Kapler again said “things have gone well” for Joey Bart at the Sacramento camp, but did not elaborate. The Giants can now bring him up without worrying about his service time — unless they fear the whole season can be wiped out soon by another coronavirus outbreak.
The Giants signed Haydn King, a lefty from Archbishop Mitty and UNLV. He is their seventh undrafted free agent signing.