SAN FRANCISCO _ The Giants knew they would take a talent hit to bolster their pitching staff at the trade deadline. Turns out their clubhouse took quite a hit as well.
The club traded one of its most popular players, dealing third baseman Matt Duffy to the Tampa Bay Rays along with two prospects in exchange for left-handed starting pitcher Matt Moore.
Duffy, a gritty performer who finished second in the NL Rookie of the Year balloting last year, is on the disabled list and was nearing a return from a strained Achilles tendon. The Giants might have begun to pivot in the direction of trading Duffy a week earlier, when they acquired third baseman Eduardo Nunez from the Minnesota Twins.
The Giants also paid a steep prospect cost, giving up infielder Lucius Fox and right-hander Michael Santos. Fox, a teenager from the Bahamas, received a $6 million bonus last year that prevented the Giants from making any major international free-agent expenditures this year.
Now the Giants must figure out how to incorporate Moore into a rotation that appears to have two respected veteran candidates for demotion in Matt Cain and Jake Peavy. Cain just won his 100th career game on Sunday, becoming the sixth Giant in the club's San Francisco era to do so.
But getting more left-handed in the rotation _ as well as the bullpen, with Monday's earlier deadline deal to acquire Will Smith from the Milwaukee Brewers _ was a priority for a team that has lost 11 of 15 games since the All-Star break.
Their cushion in the NL West was reduced from 6 { games to two over the archrival Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Dodgers are more prone to quality left-handers. They are 12-13 against left-handed starters, and 47-33 in games when they oppose a right-handed starter.
On Wednesday, Moore held the Dodgers to an unearned run in 6 2/3 innings of a 3-1 victory at Dodger Stadium.
Moore, 27, is 7-7 with a 4.08 ERA in 21 starts this season. He went 17-4 in 2013, but required Tommy John surgery in 2014. Last season he made 12 starts and pitched 63 innings.
