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San Francisco Giants: Hunter Pence Dealing with Hamstring Injury….Again

By Greg Goldstein

Aug 12, 2016; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants right fielder Hunter Pence (8) still shows the black eye he suffered off a foul ball that bounced back hitting him in a previous game prior to the start of their MLB baseball game with the Baltimore Orioles at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 12, 2016; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants right fielder Hunter Pence (8) still shows the black eye he suffered off a foul ball that bounced back hitting him in a previous game prior to the start of their MLB baseball game with the Baltimore Orioles at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports /
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Hunter Pence has helped guide the San Francisco Giants to a couple of World Series titles already, but injuries continue to plague the outfielder as his team remains in a battle with the Dodgers for first place in the NL West.

With the regular season starting to come to a close, contending teams are still fighting for playoff position. The San Francisco Giants have been trending down since the all star break and officially lost the NL West division lead to the Los Angeles Dodgers a few days ago. However, this may not have been the only loss for the ballclub.

Hunter Pence, the Giants starting right fielder, was pulled with one out left in the game on Wednesday due to hamstring discomfort. The 33 year-old was forced to sit out of the Giants games on both Thursday and Friday because of increased pain in his right leg, according to Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area, even though he was hopeful to play in the series opener against Atlanta.

Tightness in a hamstring should not be looked upon as a minor injury, especially for an outfielder who plays the game the way Pence does. Not having their emotional leader playing drastically changes the completion of this San Francisco Giants lineup.

As of now, Pence is being replaced by Gorkys Hernandez, a 28 year-old who has not played consistent major league baseball since 2012. The lack of a replacement could make an elongated rest of Pence a major difference maker in the Dodgers completing their incredible comeback.

Granted Pence was not lighting the world on fire by any means, only getting on base at a .341 clip while not even hitting double digit home runs in the 74 games he has appeared in this year. While these numbers may not be gaudy, he was still a key cog in a Giants batting order that has been losing some steam during their extended swoon.

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Eduardo Nunez has only posted a .230 batting average and posted an under .700 OPS since arriving to the Bay in July. Joe Panik has also regressed offensively when compared to their 2015 seasons. The offense overall isn’t that bad, but it certainly isn’t anything to write home about either as the club ranks 18th in the MLB in runs scored and are only 11th in batting average, posting a .260 clip through three-quarters of the regular season.

This isn’t the only time that the former Astros and Phillies star has missed in 2016. Pence also went on the disabled list in mid-July with the same hamstring injury. He was under the assumption that he was fully recovered as the right fielder started finding his stroke shortly after his DL stint was over. Pence had three multi-hit games from August 15-20, But it would seem that he still is having problems that could keep reoccurring for the rest of the season.

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The veteran slugger has obviously been a key piece for what has been the premier team in baseball in the 2010s, so losing Pence would be a blow that would not sit well with Bruce Bochy and the Giants fans.

Pence hand’t been playing like an all star and already was dealing with injuries last season in which he played less than 60 games. The Giants are currently losing all momentum to Los Angeles over the past two months, and it looks like the Dodgers may be getting the best pitcher in baseball, Clayton Kershaw, back relatively soon.

Losing one of your middle of the order hitters is never an encouraging thing, especially since Pence has been dealing with tightness in his hamstring all summer long. We’ll see if the vocal leader can get back on the field in the coming days and avoid his second visit to the disabled list.

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How big is this injury for the Giants? Let us know in the comments below.

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