LOS ANGELES -- Before the first game of the season between the Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers, manager Dave Roberts told reporters that he wasn't yet ready to name a starter for the second game. It was a bit of gamesmanship, and it could be particularly noteworthy to a Giants staff that's trying to decide if Wednesday is the right time to put Mike Yastrzemski and LaMonte Wade Jr. back in the starting lineup. But Roberts did end up doing the Giants a favor on Tuesday, pulling starter Julio Urías after just 65 pitches and six shutout innings.
Urias, a 20-game winner last year, certainly wasn't at his best, but he was mowing the Giants down without much trouble before Roberts turned to his bullpen. It was a strategy that nearly blew up in his face a couple of times, but ultimately the Dodgers closed out a 3-1 win on a night when the Giants really, really looked like a group that could use reinforcements.
This is a roster built on depth, but it has been decimated by injuries and positive COVID-19 tests. On Sunday, manager Gabe Kapler used Mike Ford in the No. 5 spot a day after he was acquired. On Tuesday, recently-acquired Kevin Padlo took Ford's spot on the roster and hit seventh.
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Ford drove in a couple of runs in his lone game, and Padlo nearly took Urías deep. Other fill-ins -- particularly Luis Gonzalez -- have done a nice job, but this is not how the Giants intended to go up against the best roster in baseball.
The lack of depth was particularly glaring after Urías departed. Kapler's best bench option was recovering-from-a-groin-strain Joc Pederson, and he fired that bullet in the eighth inning, when Pederson pinch-hit for Joey Bart and struck out.
When Wilmer Flores led off the ninth with a walk against Craig Kimbrel, there was no big move to make. Gonzalez kept the rally going with a push bunt that shocked the Dodgers, but Kapler had no more lefties to send up to the plate against one of the best right-handed relievers in MLB history. With backup catcher Curt Casali on deck, Luke Williams grounded out to end the game.
All of the players the Giants have used in this stretch will help them at some point. But it was felt Tuesday that Wade was rehabbing in Sacramento, not strolling up to the plate against Kimbrel. It was felt that on a night when Kapler started eight right-handed hitters, there was no Brandon Belt or Yastrzemski to lead a line change off the bench.
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Kapler won't make excuses for a team that's lost four of five. Asked about his bench, he noted how much he trusts guys like Gonzalez and Jason Vosler, but he admitted the late innings have been different.
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"It's not the same construction as we had last year. I don't think that's surprising anybody," Kapler said. "It was LaMonte Wade Jr. and Donovan Solano and Darin Ruf and Wilmer Flores in those situations and sometimes it was Mike Yastrzemski and sometimes it was others. But we trust the guys that we have on our roster right now. We're not that far away from having some of our regular players come back and we look forward to those moments."
The Giants had perhaps the best pinch-hitting group in MLB history last season. This year, they have three pinch-hits through 23 games, all singles.
Things have changed, but they soon could get back to normal. The Giants plan to have Yastrzemski (COVID-19) back on the roster on Wednesday and Wade (knee) will either join him then, or a day or two later. Evan Longoria (finger) and Tommy La Stella (Achilles) started rehab assignments Tuesday, and Belt (COVID-19) is eligible to return starting Tuesday.
That is most of a starting lineup on the way back, and that should finally get the bench back to being the dangerous group that Kapler leaned on while winning 107 games last year.