SAN FRANCISCO -- Andrew Suárez made the familiar trek from Sacramento to Oracle Park on Wednesday, as the 27-year-old left-hander was recalled from the Giants’ alternate training site for the third time this season ahead of the club’s game against the Angels.

Outfielder Steven Duggar was optioned to clear a spot on the 28-man roster for Suárez, who has yet to make his 2020 debut for San Francisco.

“We just needed an additional arm,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “Suárez has been doing good work, and we want to take a look at him.”

The Giants promoted Duggar on Monday to help bolster their outfield defense, which was thinned by the injury to Austin Slater. Slater started at designated hitter against Angels lefty Patrick Sandoval on Wednesday, but he remains two to three days away from playing defense due to a right elbow flexor strain.

Now that Duggar is on his way back to Sacramento, the Giants will be down an outfielder who can enter the game as a late-inning defensive replacement, though Mauricio Dubón was available off the bench on Wednesday. Hunter Pence and Darin Ruf started at the corner outfield spots against Sandoval, but they are known more for their bats than for their defense.

Kapler expects Suárez to be able to provide bulk innings and take over the long relief role that was vacated by Dereck Rodríguez, who was optioned on Monday. The Giants’ bullpen pitched a combined 8 1/3 innings over the last two games in Anaheim, so Kapler said he wants to guard against potential overuse of his relievers.

“We’ve just used a lot of our pitching,” Kapler said. “We really want to not just be cognizant of not running out of pitching, but treating our bullpen arms with as much respect as possible.”

Suárez was called upon with two outs in the sixth inning Monday after starter Johnny Cueto gave up a pair of doubles. Suárez faced three batters without recording an out, allowing two walks and an RBI single by Albert Pujols.

Crawford earns start vs. a lefty

Brandon Crawford earned the starting nod at shortstop over Dubón on Wednesday. It marked only the third time Crawford has started against a left-hander this season. The 33-year-old veteran is 0-for-10 in his limited opportunities against lefties in 2020, but he’s been heating up at the plate recently and entered Wednesday 9-for-25 (.360) over his last eight games.

“Craw has been swinging the bat really well,” Kapler said. “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. So there’s that component of it. The other part is it’s really nice to have his defense at shortstop. He’s made some really nice plays for us. He just kind of stabilizes things.”

Worth noting

• Reliever Sam Coonrod (right lat strain) touched 100 mph in his first rehab appearance with Sacramento. Kapler said he will likely need to log one more outing before he’s ready to return to the Majors.

“His first outing in Sacramento was great,” Kapler said. “He was really letting it go, so that tells us that he’s on track to being healthy. I think we would like to see at least one more appearance out of him. Assuming that goes well, he’s a good candidate to come back and stabilize our bullpen as well.”

• Right-hander Andrew Triggs was claimed off waivers by the Red Sox on Wednesday. Triggs was designated for assignment after walking the bases loaded in his lone appearance with the Giants earlier this month.