SAN FRANCISCO — A day after his bullpen soiled another game in the late innings, Bruce Bochy took time to explain his tangled relief situation. The conversation started with Santiago Casilla, the embattled closer who’s collected two losses and a blown save in his last four appearances.
Right-handed hitters are only batting .182 off Casilla this year, but that didn’t mean much when he served Justin Turner a slider over the plate in the ninth inning on Friday.
“When you look at (Casilla and) his stuff,” Bochy said, “it’s kind of been a strange year for him. His hiccups don’t add up to the numbers. He’s made a mistake here or there that’s really hurt him.
“Do I feel like I need to back off him? At this point, no. (But) there does come a point where if you have to tweak things, you do.”
The conversation then steered toward Cory Gearrin, who’s picked up the pieces of late-inning situations that theoretically could’ve belonged to Josh Osich. But righties hitting .414 off the young left-hander this year, preventing him from being anything more than a matchup guy. Bochy wants Osich to have a role like Jeremy Affeldt did for so many years, but said the lefty needs to stop leaning on his fastball and incorporate more of his arsenal.
As a whole, Bochy’s dealing with a lot of new arms in Gearin, Osich, Derek Law and even Hunter Strickland. He’s still trying to get a full read on where they’ll each excel, and hopes Jeff Samardzija (7-4, 3.33 ERA) can buy him some more time with a long outing against Scott Kazmir (5-3, 4.46 ERA) and the Dodgers (33-29) on Saturday evening.
Bochy said Matt Cain is going to come off the disabled list and start against the Brewers on Monday, bumping Albert Suarez to the bullpen. Suarez faired well in two starts, allowing only three runs to a deep Red Sox lineup. He’s a pitcher Bochy envisions in the all-important long relief role, or even pitching in the sixth or seventh inning.
A couple injury notes to pass along: Sergio Romo threw off a mound before Saturday’s game, but is still “a ways away.” Hunter Pence was spotted in the Giants clubhouse by multiple reporters, walking (with a limp) just two days after his hamstring surgery.
From last night: Bochy still doesn’t have clarification on Cueto’s balk, but said the right-hander won’t be doing that same move again with runners on. It was a unique situation with runners at second and third that allowed Cueto to enter the windup.
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Matt Duffy and Brandon Belt swapped spots in Saturday’s lineup, a move Bochy said he’ll take a long look at after the game. With a left-hander on the mound and Belt’s high on-base percentage this year, Bochy was OK moving Belt up and protecting Posey with Duffy’s right-handed bat.
Giants lineup and history against Scott Kazmir
CF – Denard Span (3-for-17, 3B)
2B – Joe Panik (2-for-6, RBI)
1B – Brandon Belt (5-for-10, 3 HR, 6 RBI)
C – Buster Posey (3-for-11, HR, RBI)
3B – Matt Duffy (1-for-6, RBI)
SS – Brandon Crawford (2-for-10, 2 2B, 3 SO)
LF – Mac Williamson (Never faced Kazmir)
RF – Gregor Blanco (2-for-6, 2B)
RHP – Jeff Samardzija (Never faced Kazmir)
Dodgers lineup against Jeff Samardzija
2B – Chase Utley
SS – Corey Seager
3B – Justin Turner
1B – Adrian Gonzalez
RF – Trayce Thompson
CF – Joc Pederson
C – Yasmani Grandal
LF – Howie Kendrick
LHP – Scott Kazmir