Arias dealing with sore calf; Bochy breaks up Zito-Posey battery

SAN FRANCISCOJoaquin Arias is out of the lineup forMondays series opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks due to a sore calf,Giants manager Bruce Bochy said.The right-handed hitting Arias was starting to emerge from a semi-platoon atshortstop with Brandon Crawford, in which he saw most of his starts come againstsouthpaws. But with a .417 average in August, tops among all major leaguers, togo along with five doubles, two triples, three home runs and 15 RBIs, Bochy wasstarting to have a hard time finding reasons to keep Arias on the bench.Bochy found a reason Monday.Theres a little risk if we put him out there today, said Bochy, who addedthat Arias was available to pinch hit if necessary.The initial question for Bochy was if Arias was out of the lineup due to awrist injury after he was struck with a pitch on August 29 in Houston.His wrist is fine; his calf is a little tight, Bochy said.So were being a little cautious with him. He felt it yesterday in the game.He stayed in the game until I made the double switch, but its a little tighttoday. Were going to give him a little break today.Crawford gets a rare start against a southpaw with Arias outand, while its a small sample size, has hit lefties better than righties thisseason. In 103 plate appearances against left-handers, Crawford has hit .263with a .314 on-base percentage and .337 slugging percentage. In 304 plateappearances facing right-handed pitchers, Crawford owns a slash line of.234.290.342. In the month of August, Crawford has hit .281 but is just 5-for-28 (.179) inhis last 11 games.---Buster Posey is starting at first base with Barry Zito on the mound, but Bochyisnt ready to acknowledge the conspiracy theories.Hector Sanchez and Zito worked together for the veteran southpaws first 18starts of the season. But Posey has been Bochys starting catcher in four outof the last five Zito starts, the last of which did not go so well. On August29 in Houston, Zito lasted just 2.1 innings, the shortest start of his season,and allowed three runs on seven hits. After the game, he said that he wished hehad shaken off Posey more often. He made sure not to put the blame on hiscatcher, but his quotes were noteworthy, nonetheless.Take this one, for instance:Posey, he has a great idea for hitters, but you cantalways guess 100 percent of the time. Im upset that I threw a couple changeupsthere. Thats my job to shake. Its nothing Posey is doing wrong.But Bochy said that the decision to put Posey at first base Monday had nothingto do with Zitos comments or his 5.93 ERA throwing to Posey. Rather, theGiants clean-up hitter was simply in need of a rest.Posey needed a little break, Bochy said. Hes been out there every day andweve had a tough travel schedule. I just wanted to put him at first today togive him a break.