SAN FRANCISCO -- Tyler Fitzgerald knew something felt off when he dove to his left and landed hard on his glove hand during the Giants’ game against the Rangers last Friday. He was initially diagnosed with a bone bruise in his chest and sat out two games to try to recover, but the discomfort got progressively worse when he returned to the lineup earlier this week at San Diego.
“I was trying to be out there and play through it for my team and everything, but it got to a point in my last at-bat [on Wednesday], I hit the fly ball to right and I was in a lot of pain,” Fitzgerald said. “I knew it was probably a little bit more than what we initially thought. That’s kind of when I realized something was wrong. If I sneeze or cough or something, there’s an immense amount of pain, so I knew we should probably get it checked up on.”
Fitzgerald’s suspicions were confirmed after an MRI exam on Thursday showed that he has a left rib fracture, prompting the Giants to place their starting second baseman on the 10-day injured list and recall infielder Brett Wisely from Triple-A Sacramento prior to the club’s 4-3 series-opening loss to the Rockies at Oracle Park.
Fitzgerald, 27, will be completely shut down from baseball activities for the next few days, but he said he’s aiming to return to action in a couple of weeks. He batted .301 with an .820 OPS over his first 22 games, but his production slowed after he suffered the injury last week, as he went only 1-for-8 over his next three games.
“Obviously, it’s super frustrating,” Fitzgerald said. “Ever since this injury happened, I haven’t really been the same up there. … I wasn’t really able to get the best swings off. A couple of those at-bats, I took some fastballs down the middle to strike out on, and I don’t do that a whole lot, and I just knew in the back of my mind, I was a little scared to swing because of the pain. We’re going to go with whoever’s up next and hopefully they’ll be able to help out the team a little bit more than what I was doing.”
Christian Koss, who started at second base against left-hander Kyle Freeland and went 1-for-4 on Thursday, will likely draw most of the playing time while Fitzgerald is out. Still, the Giants also figure to mix in the left-handed-hitting Wisely, who has recorded an .851 OPS against right-handed pitching over 26 games for the River Cats this year.
“It’s a little bit of a lefty-righty tandem,” manager Bob Melvin said. “It doesn’t mean it’s going to be a strict platoon. We’ll see how performance goes. Koss has played pretty well when he’s been in there, but Wisely will get at least one game of the next three, and then we’ll see where it goes as far as performance.”
Wisely, 25, hit .238 with an .623 OPS and four home runs over 91 games with the Giants last year, though he was surprisingly left off the Opening Day roster following the emergence of Koss this spring. He found out he was being promoted thanks to Fitzgerald, who called to share the news about 30 minutes before Wisely heard from Sacramento manager Dave Brundage on Thursday.
“Fitzy called me,” Wisely said. “He was like, ‘Hey, have you heard anything?’ I was like, ‘No, why?’ He’s like, ‘Well, I’ve got a cracked rib. I think you’re going to come up.’”
Wisely said he felt he lost his swing during Spring Training and spent the early part of the season trying to find it at Triple-A, but he started to turn it around recently, going 9-for-27 (.333) with three doubles, two home runs and 10 RBIs over his last seven games for the River Cats.
“I think the last 10 days or so it’s been his best work,” Melvin said. “That’s one of the reasons that I don’t want him sitting around too long before he’s in a game. And he showed last year, too, when he’s playing well, he’s been productive for us.”
Worth noting
Justin Verlander was in line for his first win as Giant after giving up two runs over a season-high 6 1/3 innings and departing with a 3-2 lead, but he was forced to settle for a no-decision after the Rockies rallied to score two runs against Tyler Rogers in the eighth.
The 42-year-old right-hander is now winless through his first seven starts, matching the longest drought to start a season of his 20-year career. The last time he had to wait this long to get on the board was 2015, when he went 0-3 with a 5.57 ERA through his first seven outings for the Tigers.
“As somebody who likes to win and win as a team, you want to do your part,” said Verlander, who remains stuck at 262 career wins. “But if you give your team enough chances, the wins will start coming.”