Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
Donovan Solano was supposed to play nine innings for Sacramento on Tuesday, which did not happen because Wilmer Flores did not play nine innings for the Giants on Tuesday.
Solano was pulled from the River Cats lineup and taken to Cincinnati, where he is batting sixth and starting at second a day after Flores strained his hamstring.
Flores was placed on the 10-day injured list before the game at Great American Ball Park, and the Giants are hopeful the mild strain will not keep him out too long.
“Obviously these things can take various twists and turns,” Gabe Kapler said Wednesday over Zoom before they went for a third straight win over the Reds. “But right now we’re optimistic that this is a mild strain and that this is going to be a shorter-term thing.”
A moderate calf strain kept Solano out of major league action exactly four weeks. The Silver Slugger winner has timed his return nicely with the injury to Flores, who only was forced into everyday playing time at second because of a moderate hamstring strain that will keep Tommy La Stella out until July.
Second base is the Giants’ deepest position and projected as perhaps their best, and yet they’re ranked 24th in baseball with a combined .645 OPS from their second basemen because of the injuries and Flores’ struggles. Perhaps Solano’s return can rejuvenate the position.
Before he went down in Philadelphia, Solano was hitting an even .300. He has not shown power that he hoped to add to his game this year, but wherever he is placed in the club’s order, he hits.
In 2019 he batted .330; last year .326. After just seven Triple-A at-bats, he’s hitting sixth in the order on his first day back, but that likely will change over time.
The Giants hope their injury luck will as well. Soft-tissue injuries have cropped up all around the league — “many clubs are dealing with some of these,” Kapler said — after last year’s shortened season, and the fact they have lost three second basemen for various lengths of time within the season’s first six weeks is troubling. There have been smaller injuries that have kept out players like Mike Yastrzemski, Brandon Crawford and Brandon Belt, too.
“I think we’re looking to get guys as much rest as possible while still being ambitious to try to win baseball games,” Kapler said.
