Thursday BP: Cueto to IL, Giants likely to lean more on bullpen games

Good morning, baseball fans. It’s definitely a good morning, and not at all worrisome. The San Francisco Giants have lost four in a row, and slipped out of first place in the division for the first time in months. But I’m not at all starting to get nervous that they’re going to lose every game for the rest of the season just to make the 2016 collapse look like a good time.

Do I think that’s actually likely to happen? No. But is that going to stop me from being paranoid? Also no!

To compound matters, it was announced yesterday that Johnny Cueto was moving to the 10-day injured list. He had apparently been dealing with elbow soreness for a while, but was trying to pitch through it because the Giants needed innings, per Alex Pavlovic.

I don’t know about you, but I would seriously have preferred that they let him rest rather than try to push through, given his recent injury history. But that’s not my decision to make, so, moving on.

Pavlovic added that Gabe Kapler said that the Giants are likely going to have two bullpen games out of every five starts. This doesn’t seem ideal to me, with the team headed down the stretch and games meaning more and more by the day. But with Cueto joining Alex Wood on the injured list, and Anthony DeSclafani still dealing with ankle issues, it does make sense. And with rosters expanded, they can have a little more freedom to shuffle pitchers around as needed. And as Kapler notes, it’s a tactic being used by other teams successfully.

(Now lets just hope the Giants’ bats wake up so that they can be successful with it as well)

Old, random MCC article for you to read

This feels fitting.

Giants lose series, dignity (September 21st, 2016 - Grant Brisbee)

What time do the Giants play today?

The Giants will attempt to avoid getting swept by the Milwaukee Brewers today at 12:45 p.m. PT. But just a reminder, this game is only available on YouTube. Which feels like it’s for the best at this point.