SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Giants hoisted the white flag on their 2018 season Saturday
http://www.redsoxproshops.com/authentic-nomar-garciaparra-jersey , scheduling standout catcher Buster Posey for season-ending hip surgery with 31
games still remaining.Down 8 1/2 games in the National League wild-card race
after walking off the field following a 5-3 win, the Giants nonetheless will
continue to pursue their postseason dream when they complete a three-game home
series against the Texas Rangers on Sunday.The decision on Posey came hours
after the Giants suffered a back-breaking, 7-6 loss to the Rangers on Friday
night in which Posey played the entire 10 innings, watching Texas deny San
Francisco a much-needed win with a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth after a
game-extending error.Article continues below ...Posey’s surgery Monday will be
performed in order to repair a torn labrum and remove bone spurs from his
painful right hip.The 31-year-old made himself available Saturday but saw no
action in another exciting finish that saw the Giants’ Mark Melancon strand the
bases loaded in the ninth after the Giants had blown most of their 5-0 lead the
inning before.The win was just the Giants’ third in their last 10 games.“You
don’t want to say you’re out of it until you’re out of it,” Posey said. “But,
unfortunately, where we are, it makes sense to take care of it right now.”Posey
said having the surgery basically one month before season’s end will give him an
additional month in the offseason to rehab. He not only plans to be with the
Giants for spring training in February but continue to be the primary
catcher.Nick Hundley contributed a hit, a run and two walks to Saturday’s win as
Posey’s replacement. The start was Hundley’s 46th of the season.Hundley and his
teammates will go up against Rangers right-hander Yovani Gallardo (7-2, 6.06) in
the series finale.The 32-year-old has made 10 previous starts against San
Francisco, going 6-4 with a 3.21 ERA.Giants outfielder Andrew McCutchen, who has
led off the first inning with a home run and a double in the first two games of
the series, has enjoyed a big-numbers career against Gallardo, going 19-for-55
(.345) with three doubles
Christian Vazquez Jersey , two triples and four homers.San Francisco will hand the ball to left-hander Derek Holland (6-8, 3.75), who has made 158 of his
208 career starts for the Rangers.Since leaving Texas after eight seasons for
the Chicago White Sox in free agency in 2017, the 31-year-old has faced his
former employer twice and gotten bombed both times, running up a 13.50 ERA while
going 0-2.Old pal Rougned Odor has been especially rough on Holland, delivering
a single and a three-run homer in four at-bats.Odor has homered twice in the
series, both times in critical situations. It was his game-tying homer in the
ninth inning that extended the series opener and led to a 7-6 win in 10 innings.
Then on Saturday, he blasted a three-run shot to rally the Rangers within 5-3 in
the eighth inning, setting up the tight finish. The Los Angeles Dodgers would
love to use these games away from Dodger Stadium as a fast road to a National
League West title.So far, though, the Cincinnati Reds are providing quite the
roadblock.The Dodgers were coming off two wins in a key three-game series
against the first-place Colorado Rockies when they began a three-game series in
Cincinnati on Monday — seemingly with a chance to build up some quick wins
against a last-place team that came in 22 games below .500.Article continues
below ...Instead, the Reds improved to 5-0 against the Dodgers this season by
winning 10-6, riding NL batting leader Scooter Gennett’s four hits and three
RBIs. Eugenio Suarez homered off Dodgers starter Alex Wood, who was roughed up
for seven runs (six earned), and eight hits in 3 2/3 innings. Newly acquired
reliever Ryan Madson (1 inning
http://www.redsoxproshops.com/authentic-fred-lynn-jersey , 4 hits, 3 runs) wasn’t much better.Surprisingly, Los Angeles has a losing record
against two of the NL’s three last-place clubs, the Reds (0-5) and the Miami
Marlins (2-4).“If they’re (the opponent) is a playoff team or not, it doesn’t
matter too much to us,” Gennett said. “Hopefully, we can look (at the end of the
season) and see we had a good last month.”The Dodgers need a much-better start
Tuesday night from left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu, who has pitched well with a 4-2
record and 2.16 ERA. The problem is that he has made only 11 starts because of
an ongoing problem with a groin injury that sidelined him from May 2 until Aug.
15.Ryu will go against the unpredictable Luis Castillo (8-12), the Reds
right-hander who is capable of delivering an excellent start or an ineffective
one. He pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings against the St. Louis Cardinals in a 4-0
win on Sept. 1, but between that start gave up 10 runs, seven earned, in 8 1-3
innings in losses to the Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres.Ryu made one of his
poorest starts his last time out, giving up five runs (only one earned) and an
alarming 10 hits in six innings of a 7-3 Dodgers loss to the New York Mets on
Wednesday. The rest of his line looked good — eight strikeouts, no walks — but
it was a subpar outing for a pitcher the Dodgers very much need to produce in
the final three weeks of the season.“I didn’t think we played good defense
behind Hyun-Jin and I thought the way he threw the baseball was better than the
linescore,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said afterward. “We didn’t give
ourselves a chance. There were plays we usually make
Wade Boggs Jersey , you could just look around the diamond. Whether it’s added pitches or a run that scores that shouldn’t. For us, at this point in time,
we’ve got to play better baseball.”They certainly didn’t Monday night. Wood fell
behind 2-0 in a span of three batters in the first inning, walking Billy
Hamilton and hitting Jose Peraza with a pitch ahead of Joey Votto’s two-run
double on his 35th birthday. Gennett followed a batter later with an RBI single
and scored on shortstop Manny Machado’s error on Brandon Dixon’s
grounder.“They’ll continue to go at you offensively and you’ve got to score as
much as you can,” Reds interim manager Jim Riggleman said.They did, too, as the
Reds made it 10-4 against Madson in the sixth on Gennett’s RBI single and Tucker
Barnhart’s two-run single.The Dodgers scored twice in the seventh and had the
bases loaded with one out, but reliever Jared Hughes got Yasiel Puig to line
into a double play.“Any win right now is good for us,” Gennett said. “We’re
trying to finish the season strong and get some confidence to carry into the
offseason and into spring training.”The Dodgers got closer Kenley Jansen
(irregular heartbeat) back Monday after he was advised to skip the Rockies
series, and they recalled former top prospect Julio Urias, a left-hander who is
recovering from shoulder surgery in 2017. He had a 5.40 ERA in 11 rehabilitation
appearances in the minors.
