Brandon Belt

Earlier this week, Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy said, “When that right times comes, it’ll happen.” For Pablo Sandoval, that right time is now.

Whether it’s the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado, the Dodgers’ Corey Seager, or even the Padres’ Hector Sanchez, every division rival seems to have a player the Giants just can’t seem to figure out. For the Arizona Diamondbacks, it’s Paul Goldschmidt.

The 2017 San Francisco Giants exist to confound, bewilder and perplex. So why would Thursday’s Bay Bridge Series finale be any different?

Over the past decade, the San Francisco Giants have used the July 31 trade deadline to add to an already established core, and supplement near-complete rosters that could use an extra push to make a deep playoff run.

Ryder Jones is in Los Angeles and has a locker in the San Francisco Giants’ clubhouse. But for now, Jones remains a member of the Sacramento River Cats.

With the way the San Francisco Giants have struggled this season, general manager Bobby Evans has reiterated that he’s open to taking phone calls and hearing offers that have the potential to make his club better in the future.

On Wednesday, Jeff Samardzija turned in a valiant effort, retiring 13 straight batters between the start of the third inning and the top of the seventh. At one point during that span, “Shark” set down five of eight hitters on strikes, and wound up finishing his afternoon with eight punchouts.

Though San Diego and San Francisco entered Friday’s game a combined 36 games under .500, scouts from contending ballclubs were on hand to file reports on whether any of the two teams’ assets were worth picking off at the trade deadline. So while a game featuring two teams in a heated battle for fourth-place might not move the needle for many on a mid-summer Friday night, the pitching matchup between Trevor Cahill and Jeff Samardzija, a pair of trade candidates, kept the game in the news cycle.

The morning after Eduardo Nunez smoked a walkoff single through the right side of the infield to propel San Francisco to a 2-1 win over Cleveland, Nunez was out of the Giants’ lineup while trade rumors involving the 30-year-old third baseman swirled.

As San Francisco gets set to start a 10-game homestand on Monday evening against the Indians, the Giants received positive news regarding Brandon Belt’s injury, and also adjusted their lineup in a different way to accommodate his absence.