For much of the season, catcher Buster Posey and third baseman Eduardo Nunez have carried a lackluster San Francisco Giants’ offense.
And on Thursday night at Coors Field, both players needed help getting down the dugout steps.
In the top half of the seventh inning, Nunez beat out an infield single, but appeared to tweak his hamstring and needed to be removed from the game immediately.
Two batters later, Posey launched his ninth home run of the season, but also appeared to sustain a lower body injury. When Posey reached home plate, he limped off the field and then joined Nunez back in the Giants’ clubhouse.
Nunez entered Thursday’s game hitting .301 and the seventh inning single was his first hit of the night. Posey came into the game with a .348 batting average, and he nearly homered earlier in the game with a long double that caromed high off the center field wall.
The Giants entered the four-game set in Colorado with just four position players on their bench, and because manager Bruce Bochy was forced to use early pinch-hitters, San Francisco’s options were severely limited when Nunez and Posey needed to exit the game.
The Giants replaced Posey with backup catcher Nick Hundley, and moved left fielder Austin Slater into the infield to take Nunez’s spot at third base. Gorkys Hernandez came off the bench to play left field.