The San Francisco Giants have announced they will be without third baseman Pablo Sandoval for the next 4 to 6 weeks. The Panda is awaiting surgery on his wrist Tuesday that will result in a trip to the DL.
Sandoval believes the injury occurred while sliding, but team trainers are not as certain. They speculate the slugger may have fractured a bone in his wrist while taking his cuts at the plate.
While the club has called up AAA third baseman Ryan Rohlinger to fill the vacant roster spot, Bruce Bochy has stated he is looking to use a combination of Miguel Tejada at third and Mike Fontenot at short to fill in for the injured Sandoval. Bochy lost perhaps his best replacement option in Mark DeRosa last Thursday.
Scoring runs has been an issue all season for San Francisco, who currently ranks 26th in the majors in that department. Sandoval was leading the team in batting average and on base percentage, being the only active player hitting over .300 on the offensively anemic club.
San Francisco entered the weekend coming off a series win against the Pirates and looking to continue their climb over the .500 mark against the Washington Nationals. Instead the team lost 2 of the 3 contests as well as their homerun leader.