Two teams with uncertainty at second base will get an opportunity to watch a Hall of Fame second baseman get his number retired when the San Francisco Giants honor Jeff Kent in between games of a day-night doubleheader Saturday against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks.
The rare twin bill was created when the Giants were forced to schedule a rainout-makeup game Monday in Atlanta, prompting Sunday’s series finale against the Diamondbacks to be converted into a Saturday doubleheader.
Kent’s ceremony was originally scheduled to be held before the single game on Saturday. Instead, it will lead into the nightcap.
As they went their separate ways following a 3-hour, 6-minute marathon on Friday night, won 10-6 by the Diamondbacks, only one of Saturday’s four starting pitchers had been announced. Arizona has scheduled right-hander Merrill Kelly (8-12, 5.35 ERA), who is 10-5 with a 3.26 ERA in 23 lifetime starts against the Giants, for the first game.
The Diamondbacks will start Mitch Bratt (1-2, 4.54) in the second game of the doubleheader. Bratt has never faced the Giants. He took a no-decision last Sunday in a 5-3 win over Cincinnati, allowing five hits and three runs in three innings, walking three and striking out three.
Interestingly, the 37-year-old Kelly was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles (but did not sign) while in high school in 2007, one year before Kent retired as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Kent had played 900 games over six seasons for the Giants, hitting 175 of his 377 home runs in orange and black and earning the retirement of his No. 21 jersey.
Kelly didn’t make his major league debut until 2019 and never faced Kent. Only one player likely to be active for Saturday’s doubleheader — 35-year-old Diamondbacks infielder Ildemaro Vargas — was in professional baseball, playing in the Venezuelan Summer League — the year Kent retired.
Vargas has taken over at second base for the Diamondbacks since two-time All-Star Ketel Marte left the team last week and landed on the injured list, dealing with left knee inflammation. Marte is eligible to be reinstated Monday.
Vargas had a two-run single in Friday’s win, making him 6-for-43 (.140) with five RBIs since becoming the starter at second base 11 games ago.
Arizona manager Torey Lovullo insists Vargas, who has played all four infield positions, left field and has even pitched three times this season, means more to the club than his batting average might indicate.
“Very engaged player. Plays with energy,” the manager praised to reporters earlier this week. “He’s looked at as somebody that is leading the charge emotionally.”
The Giants have had no such consistency as they’ve attempted to patch the hole left by the trade that sent their All-Star second baseman, Luis Arraez, to the Philadelphia Phillies last month.
In their current homestand alone, Nate Furman (three), Shay Whitcomb (one) and Osleivis Basabe (one) have gotten starts at second, combining to go 2-for-16 with five strikeouts and a homer by Whitcomb on Wednesday against the Cincinnati Reds.
Casey Schmitt, lost for the season following surgery to repair torn meniscus in his left knee, could be the long-term solution.
“If there would be a positive spin to (Schmitt’s injury), he’s fresh and he’s healed up for the start of the offseason, and he can kind of hit the ground running,” Giants manager Tony Vitello noted to the media recently. “This was a breakout year for him, and I know everyone around him — but nobody more than him — wants to come back in a resounding way and make next year even better.”
Playing a variety of positions over 98 games this season, the 27-year-old hit a career-high 21 homers In 98 games.
Kent hit just 20 homers in 125 games for the New York Mets as a 27-year-old in 1995, two seasons before joining the Giants.
–Field Level Media
