Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports
Both the Giants and Brandon Crawford are more comfortable if he is hitting. He, surely, is more comfortable if that means he is playing every day.
After saying last week he was “not thrilled about” platooning, increasingly sitting against lefty starters, a surging Crawford is back in the lineup Wednesday against Angels lefty Patrick Sandoval, starting over Mauricio Dubon.
“Craw’s been swinging the bat really well. One of the commitments we made was if he’s swinging the bat really well, we’re going to be responsive to that and give him as much opportunity as possible,” Gabe Kapler said before the game at Oracle Park, adding that he wanted surehanded defense behind Johnny Cueto with an opposing lineup heavy on righties.
After 16 games, Crawford’s average sat at .178, picking up his struggles right where he left off last year. He had overhauled his swing in the offseason and recently undid a few changes, narrowing his approach.
In his past seven games, the 33-year-old is 8-for-21 (.381) with a homer and three doubles.
“I think the things that we worked on and the timing and everything is kind of all coming together,” Crawford said after going 2-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs in Tuesday’s win in Anaheim. “… I think just getting these last three starts and having more than one at-bat helps to get your timing and to stay consistent.”
Crawford has always been an everyday player, even through his woes. His buddy Brandon Belt, though, has stiffer platoon competition, and Wilmer Flores is getting the start at first against Sandoval.
Austin Slater is “probably two to three days away from playing defense for us,” Kapler said over Zoom of his outfielder, who has a flexor strain in his right (throwing) elbow.
Slater is back in the lineup and DH’ing a day after he played catch for the first time since the diagnosis.
The Giants called back up Andrew Suarez and demoted Steven Duggar to the alternate site two days after calling the outfielder up.
“The last few games, we’ve just used a lot of our pitching,” Kapler said, accurately.
They need a longer arm in a struggling bullpen and will lose some late-game defense to compensate. Kapler called the discussion with Duggar a “hard conversation,” the speedy outfielder having done nothing wrong.
Yolmer Sanchez is healthy and over his back woes, Kapler said. There is no space for the Gold Glove infielder on the big club, Sanchez residing in Sacramento.
The Giants are monitoring the air quality in San Francisco, which is being listed as “Unhealthy.” Game time is set for 6:45.
The Giants were proceeding normally, with an optional batting practice before the game.
“If anything tells us that our players will be at risk in any way, we’ll take according measures,” Kapler said.
The lineup behind Cueto:
1. Austin Slater, DH
2. Donovan Solano, 2B
3. Mike Yastrzemski, CF
4. Evan Longoria, 3B
5. Wilmer Flores, 1B
6. Hunter Pence, RF
7. Darin Ruf, LF
8. Brandon Crawford, SS
9. Chadwick Tromp, C
