A GIANT
Loss?
By Justin Libaste,
Bay Area Sports Drive
Contributor
Sep
15, 2010
On an early Sunday Morning, the
Giants received a phone call saying that Outfielder Andres Torres may be
out for the rest of the season. Torres was rushed to a San Diego hospital
that morning for appendectomy. Sources say he felt severe pain in
his stomach that morning. After the surgery, the doctors say that
Torres won’t be able to play another ball game this season. It takes at
least 2 months to fully recover. Simply this is
a big loss to the Giants’ lineup.
Torres has
resurrected his career this season by beating Aaron Rowand to the starting
gig at the Center Field position and being brought up as one of the
nominees for winning the “Willie Mac Award” at season’s end. With that,
Manager Bruce Bochy placed him in the starting lineup and placed him as
the leadoff hitte. Since then, he has hit 14 homers including 60 RBI’s.
He’s responsible for the early runs for the Giants’ success these past few
games going against the always tough NL West Division. In a recent 10 game
stretch on the road, the Giants went 7-3 winning all the series against
Arizona, the hated rival Dodgers, & the Division leading Padres.
With Andres Torres
gone, Bruce Bochy has some homework to either place Aaron Rowand in
Torres’ spot who has been struggling this whole season or put Cody Ross,
who has been signed from waivers, that has only been used as a role
player. To some experts, the loss of Andres Torres just may be another
injury to the Giants roster, but to the whole clubhouse, they lost more
than they think.
As for the hunt
for October quickly approaches, the race for the number 1 spot in the Wild
Card and in the Division is just an arm’s reach away. With Tim Lincecum’s
“comeback” as a dominant pitcher that he is, from a 0-6 record in August
turning it around at a 3-0 start in September & the offensive spark that
they had in July starting to come back, the playoffs seems promising. As
Torres recovers, he clearly stated in a statement that he will try to beat
the odds to return in 2 weeks rather coming back in 2 months. If so he
does come back, he will show everyone in the league and to the doctors
that he does have a heart of a GIANT.
--- BASD ---
