Daily Dose: No Angel
If the Giants are to make a run in the postseason, they’ll have to do it without their leadoff hitter.
After battling a nagging back injury for a good chunk of the 2014 campaign, Angel Pagan has decided to go ahead and have season-ending surgery on Thursday. The outfielder missed two months of action earlier this season before returning last month, but he experienced a pair of setbacks in September and hasn’t progressed since the latest one.
“There’s no sense in trying,” manager Bruce Bochy told CSNBayArea.com. “This wasn’t going to work. It was time to get something done. You have to deal with these things and unfortunately injuries are part of the game. The important thing for us is to do what we normally do when this happens: don’t dwell on it and keep your focus on what you need to do.”
The operation will repair a bulging disc and also narrow the nerve canal in Pagan's lower back. He’ll need three months to rehab but will hopefully be ready to roll at the beginning of spring training.
With Michael Morse (oblique) also banged up, the Giants have been mostly using a Gregor Blanco/Juan Perez combination in center and left field. Assuming Morse makes it back at some point (he won’t play until at least this weekend), he’ll return to left field and likely leave Blanco with the lion’s share of starts in center.
Regardless of who mans center field, there’s no doubt that the Giants will miss Pagan. Over the last two seasons, they’re 96-70 when he starts and 65-87 when he doesn’t.
Pirates Back in Postseason
The Pirates are making a habit of this postseason thing.
After failing to reach the playoffs for 20 straight seasons, Pittsburgh clinched their second straight postseason berth on Tuesday, defeating the Braves just minutes after the Brewers fell to the Reds.
After trailing 2-0 after the first two innings, the Pirates edged out the Braves 3-2 in what was their third straight one-run victory. They’ve outscored their opponent by just six runs in their last five victories but have won 15 of their last 18 games since getting swept by the Cardinals in their first series of September.
Pittsburgh was led Tuesday by Gerrit Cole, who spun seven innings of two-run ball while striking out eight. He holds a 3.77 ERA and 48/11 K/BB ratio over 45 1/3 innings since returning from the disabled list. The red-hot Starling Marte drove in the winning run with an RBI double in the sixth. Marte is hitting .352 with eight homers and 23 RBI across 183 plate appearances since the All-Star break.
The Pirates are chasing the Cardinals in a suddenly-tightening National League Central. Pittsburgh trails St. Louis by just 1 ½ games in the division and just one game in the loss column. The Pirates have two more games in Atlanta before finishing with a series in Cincinnati. The Cardinals have one more with the Cubs before finishing in Arizona. Even if they wind up short of the Cards, the Bucs still have an excellent shot of hosting the Wild Card game. They’re currently one game up on the Giants.
Profar Shut Down Again
It’s already been a lost season for Jurickson Profar, but now his status remains up in the air going into the offseason and possibly next year.
Profar has been shut down indefinitely after he experienced more soreness in his lingering right shoulder injury over the weekend. Rangers general manager Jon Daniels expects Profar to resume throwing again in 2-3 months, but that’s just a rough timetable. He won’t receive the go-ahead until an MRI comes back clean.
"In the last week, he obviously saw [Rangers team physician] Dr. [Keith] Meister, he saw Dr. [James] Andrews in Birmingham [Ala.], and he saw Dr. Neal ElAttrache," Daniels told MLB.com. "Everyone has basically read the situation the same which is that he has, for lack of a better term, 'instability' in his right shoulder."
The “instability” is as a result of a partially dislocated shoulder that Profar suffered back in 2010, which has led to chronic instability in the joint and subsequent muscle injuries.
"He's obviously played with it for some time and what the ultimate symptom has been a soft-tissue injury," Daniels said. " ... When he gets back and throws at a certain distance the instability is leading to the muscle injury."
Profar had been hoping to make up for lost time in the Arizona Fall League, but obviously that’s not going to happen. Winter ball appears to be unlikely, as well. He won’t turn 22 until February, so there’s still plenty of time to right the ship. At the moment, however, there’s a cloud of uncertainty hovering over Profar.
National League Quick Hits: Mike Minor (shoulder) has officially been shut down for the season ... Hyun-Jin Ryu (shoulder) is not expected to appear in a game before the end of the regular season but remains hopeful of being ready for the playoffs ... Justin Turner smacked a pair of solo homers in Tuesday’s win over the Giants ... Zack Greinke pitched eight innings of two-run ball in the Dodgers’ victory ... Matt Holliday reached the 20-homer plateau for the ninth straight season with a two-run shot in Tuesday’s loss to the Cubs ... Denard Span will sit out Wednesday after scraping up his knee in Tuesday’s game ... Johnny Cueto threw eight innings of one-run ball to earn his 19th victory of the season in a win over the Brewers ... Henderson Alvarez lowered his ERA to 2.70 with 7 2/3 shutout innings as the Marlins edged out the Phillies ... Jenrry Mejia will finish out the season before undergoing surgery to repair a sports hernia on October 2 ... Juan Lagares (elbow) is done for the season and Dilson Herrera (quad) likely is, as well ... The Mets also shut down Jacob deGrom due to his innings workload ...
American League Quick Hits: Joe Mauer exited Tuesday’s game with a bruised right elbow and is expected to sit out Wednesday ... Steve Pearce (wrist) is expected to return to the Orioles' lineup on Thursday ... Chris Tillman will start Game 1 of the ALDS for the Orioles ... Huston Street tossed a 1-2-3 ninth inning to record his 40th save of the season in Tuesday’s win over the A’s ... Kyle Gibson tied a season-high with eight strikeouts while spinning seven innings of one-run ball in a win over the D’Backs ... Nelson Cruz went 3-for-5 with a solo home run – hits 40th longball of the season – in Tuesday’s win over the Yankees ... Yordano Ventura held the Indians scoreless over seven innings in Tuesday’s victory ... Felix Hernandez was uncharacteristically poor Tuesday, yielded eight runs in 4 2/3 innings versus the Blue Jays ... Angels manager Mike Scioscia said that he’ll consider using Cory Rasmus for a postseason start ... Yunel Escobar is day-to-day after leaving Tuesday's game versus the Red Sox with a left knee sprain ... Mark Teixeira doubled in one of his four at-bats in his return to the lineup Tuesday ... Marcus Stroman won't make another start this year ...
