OAKLAND, Calif. _ San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy holds a series of staff meetings before every game. He goes over the roster with GM Bobby Evans. He reviews the previous day's events with Brian Sabean. He solicits advice on the lineup and information on bullpen freshness from his coaches. Most days, he'll meet with head athletic trainer Dave Groeschner before batting practice and again afterward.
By all indications, the meeting before Wednesday's game against the Oakland A's at AT&T Park will be more significant than most. It will involve more voices. And it will determine how players _ some obscure, some heretofore secure _ will be used over the final two months of the season.
All this to say: Hunter Pence picked a very good time to flash some opposite-field power.
The Giants scored five runs in the first inning of their 10-4 victory at the Coliseum on Tuesday, and just as the A's were threatening to make another comeback, Pence provided the kill shot with a three-run homer in the sixth.
It was the knockout punch that the Giants have lacked all season _ and when your bullpen is not very good, it's seldom a good idea to try to win on the judges' cards.
Jeff Samardzija minimized the exposure to their bullpen while pitching eight innings, Brandon Belt hit his first home run since July 2 and Buster Posey knocked in two runs on three hits as the Giants snapped a four-game losing streak while splitting the East Bay portion of their interleague tangle with the A's.
Pence was among the everyday players who might be candidates to have their time curtailed down the stretch, even though he is signed to make $18 million next season. Jarrett Parker, the opening day left fielder, will be activated from the disabled list on Sunday after missing more than three months with a fractured collarbone. At some point, Ryder Jones will be promoted again. He has been playing right field at Triple-A Sacramento.
The Giants must decide for 2018 whether Pence should belong in the same "we trust they'll bounce back" column along with shortstop Brandon Crawford and likely second baseman Joe Panik and first baseman Brandon Belt.
Nobody in the front office, the dugout or the stands will begrudge the money that Pence will be paid. He more than earned it for being a leader and linchpin on two World Series-winning teams. He remains one of the most popular and professional players on the team.
But he has not been the right-handed power presence that the Giants so badly needed. Pence entered with a .244 average and seven home runs. All of his shots have come on the road.
It was little wonder, then, that the A's intentionally walked Posey to pitch to Pence with a base open and one out in the sixth. Pence followed by stinging right-hander Michael Brady's first-pitch cutter over the fence in right-center.
The Giants took what the A's gave them. In their five-run first inning, they took advantage of two potential double-play grounders that A's first baseman Yonder Alonso, usually a fine fielder, could only turn into one out.
Gorkys Hernandez doubled to start the rally, which matched the Giants' largest output in any inning this season. They sent 10 men to the plate including Nick Hundley, whose two-run shot followed a potential double-play ball that wasn't turned.
The A's had trimmed the Giants' lead to 7-4 in the fifth on Matt Joyce's two-run homer. But Samardzija faced the minimum 12 batters over his final four innings.
Parker will arrive to a very different club than the one he left. The Giants were 5-8 and three games out of first place when he made his running catch and thrust himself into the wall against the Colorado Rockies. They are 35 games out as they prepare to take the field Tuesday at Oakland, with an eye toward playing younger guys as they assess their future options.
Parker, it is worth reminding, is not exactly young. He is 28. He was the left fielder only because the Giants didn't do more to address their vacancy there in the offseason. He was hitting .143 with 10 strikeouts in 21 at-bats before getting hurt.
And he is only back because he has come to the end of the 20-game maximum length of his minor league rehab assignment. Over two such assignments for Triple-A Sacramento, Parker hit .236/.349/.364 with three home runs in 110 at-bats.
Parker has started 13 games in center field for Sacramento, so he could take playing time away from Denard Span and Pence in addition to Hernandez.
But Bochy wouldn't commit to playing Parker every day, saying he would have more to announce after Wednesday's staff meeting.
Bochy also held off confirming that Matt Cain would remain in the rotation in place of Johnny Cueto, who was set back by a strained flexor muscle in his forearm while cutting short a rehab start at Single-A San Jose on Monday and will be out a few weeks at the minimum.
