Anthony DeSclafani was maybe a little too honest after his rough outing on Saturday.
Following a start that saw him pulled in the third inning after giving up three home runs to the Mets, DeSclafani said in the locker room postgame that he’s “running on fumes” and that “fatigue has been setting in earlier in games.”
They were surprising comments from a pitcher whose 1,435 pitches thrown this season rank 57th among starting pitchers. They were also comments that former big league pitcher Mike Krukow thinks Disco should’ve kept to himself.
“I was surprised, I really was,” Krukow said. “Only because that’s one of those things you’re better left not saying. It doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it’s a small negative. A small negative in a clubhouse, it affects other guys. Other guys start saying, ‘Well, I’m tired too.’ You can’t do that, you have to ignore that.
“If you’re tired, you’re tired, and it happens. If you get run out there every fifth day, and you’re pitch count is up there around 100 pretty consistently, there’s going to come that one day where your body just doesn’t come back. You don’t know when it’s going to happen, you just know you’re going to go out there short. You just hope that you can keep your team in the game and give them a chance to win for as long as you’re going to be there.”
The Giants are heading back home after a rough East Coast trip, that saw them drop four of six to the Blue Jays and Mets. Before the All-Star Break, the Giants are a bit beat up and probably generally fatigued. Krukow believes getting through that will determine how good this team is.
“It happens to everybody,” Krukow concluded. “That’s really what makes it special when you plant a flag and win a championship, is everybody has to go through that and how you come out on the backend of a day when you’re exhausted, often times determines your fate that day and determines the fate of your season.”
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