Mike Leake lands on disabled list after one start with Giants
This isn’t what Giants general manager Brian Sabean had in mind when he acquired veteran starter Mike Leake from the Cincinnati Reds at the trade deadline.
After making just one start for San Francisco, the 27-year-old right-hander was placed on the disabled list on Friday with a left hamstring strain.
[Yahoo Sports Fantasy Football: Sign up and join a league today!]
Leake, who’s making only his second trip to the disabled list during his six-year career, said that he injured himself while running his final sprint during a conditioning session Monday in Atlanta. The initial hope was that Leake would only have to skip one scheduled start, which was to come during this weekend’s important series against the Chicago Cubs, but instead he’ll miss at least 15 days and two starts, possibly three.
It might not sound like much, but the Giants have very little wiggle room in the standings or margin for error on the field. They’re in quite a battle with Chicago for the second wild-card position in the NL. With victories on Thursday and Friday, Chicago has leapfrogged San Francisco in the standings and now leads by a game and a half. The Cubs are poised to put some real distance between the teams by the time the four-game series wraps on Sunday.
The Giants are 3 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West.
In his Giants debut on Aug. 2 in Texas, Leake allowed two earned runs in 6 2/3 innings. Exactly the type of outing Sabean and manager Bruce Bochy were looking for. It just wasn’t enough that afternoon, as Texas emerged with a 2-1 victory.
[Check out Big League Stew on Tumblr for even more baseball awesomeness.]
The Giants were counting on having Leake, who slots in perfectly between ace Madison Bumgarner and rookie Chris Heston atop their rotation, for no less than 12 starts down the stretch. Now that number may be 9-10, but Bochy says the key is that he’s 100 percent healthy for 100 percent of the starts he does make.
“I’d rather have him for nine completely healthy starts rather than one or two where he’s not 100 percent,” Bochy said.
This conviction was strengthened after Bochy and others watched Leake try to throw Friday.
“With his style of pitching, the way he bounces off a mound, the way he plays the game — he uses his legs so much,” Bochy said.
If nothing else, this is another reminder that even the best laid plans can quickly go awry in MLB. There are unforeseen risks attached to every deal and no guarantee for the desired result. At least here the Giants have avoided a major setback. In the interim, they’ll go back to Ryan Vogelsong, who started Friday’s loss in Chicago, and hope for the best.
More MLB coverage from Yahoo Sports:
– – – – – – –
Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813