CINCINNATI -- A pair of injuries forced the Giants to shuffle their outfield mix on Wednesday.
With Harrison Bader (left hamstring strain) and Jared Oliva (left wrist hamate fracture) both landing on the 10-day injured list, the Giants recalled fellow outfielders Will Brennan and Drew Gilbert from Triple-A Sacramento and immediately inserted the two left-handed hitters into their starting lineup against Reds right-hander Rhett Lowder.
The fresh blood didn’t pay immediate dividends for the Giants, who fell to the Reds, 8-3, to lose their fourth straight and drop to an MLB-worst 6-12 on the season.
Rookie catcher Daniel Susac stayed hot by going 2-for-4 with a two-run double in the second inning, but San Francisco couldn’t overcome a rocky start from right-hander Tyler Mahle, who gave up a career-high-matching eight runs on eight hits -- including four homers -- over four innings in his first career start against the team that drafted him in the seventh round in 2013.
“Today I let the team down,” said Mahle, who has a 7.23 ERA over his first four starts of the year. “We feel good coming into every game. There’s not one thing that we’re not doing. We just have to get in a little rhythm.”
Brennan and Gilbert combined to go 0-for-4 in their season debuts, but the Giants hope the pair will help enliven an outfield group that entered Wednesday last in the Majors with -1.4 WAR this season, according to FanGraphs.
Bader had been out of the lineup for two straight games due to hamstring tightness, which he had been dealing with since the final week of Spring Training. The issue seemed to be hampering Bader at the plate, as the 31-year-old veteran batted only .115 with a .337 OPS -- the lowest mark among qualified hitters in the Majors -- over his 15 games with San Francisco.
“It's really hard to perform at this level when you're not fully equipped to execute what you're trying to do at the plate,” Bader said. “It's a very long season. Obviously, I have a lot of confidence in myself, and even more so with the training staff here, because they're very receptive, and they really know what they're doing. I have no doubt that I'll come back and be in a really good spot. It’s going to take a little bit of time. But there's a lot of runway left in the season, so I'm just focused on every single day to get what I need to come back and be the player I know I am.”
Bader’s IL stint is retroactive to Sunday, meaning he will be eligible to return as soon as April 22 if he shows improvement over the next week. Still, the Giants are unlikely to rush him back, especially since Bader wants to make sure he gets enough at-bats during a rehab assignment to help him get his swing back on track.
“I would certainly want some at-bats, just for my own sanity,” Bader said.
The Giants signed Bader to a two-year, $20.5 million deal to be their everyday center fielder, but manager Tony Vitello said Gilbert could get an extended run at the spot while Bader is rehabbing.
Oliva is facing a longer absence after breaking his left hamate bone on a swing in Tuesday’s 2-1 series-opening loss to the Reds.
“I think it was probably sometime during either my second or third at-bat,” said Oliva, who finished 0-for-3 while filling in for Bader in center field. “It kind of is what it is. It's uncomfortable. I told the trainers about it, and they did a good job to get it checked out. Unfortunately, this is the news we got.”
Broken hamates are typically removed from the wrist via surgery, though Oliva said he’s still sorting through the details of his treatment plan with the Giants’ medical staff. The 30-year-old was 1-for-7 through his first seven games of the year, but he was viewed as an asset off the bench due to his elite speed.
Now that they’re back in the big leagues, the 28-year-old Brennan and 25-year-old Gilbert should balance out a Giants bench that had been exclusively right-handed through the first three weeks of the regular season. Brennan, who signed a one-year Major League deal in February, was batting .392 with a .938 OPS and one home run over his first 11 games of the year with Sacramento.
Gilbert was hitting .289 with a .789 OPS and one homer over 11 games with Sacramento, and he could help bring a much-needed energy boost to the Giants' moribund offense. Gilbert showed he could be a spark plug after debuting in San Francisco last season, and he should have even more free rein to be himself now that he’s playing for Vitello, who also coached him at the University of Tennessee.