Rowand injured in loss at L.A.
SFGate/San Francisco Chronicle
The Giants' Happy Happy Joy Joy Express was derailed during their first visit to Dodger Stadium on Friday night. Todd Wellemeyer was blasted for three homers and seven runs before he got five outs, the Giants lost 10-8, and that was not the worst of it.
Just before midnight, manager Bruce Bochy learned that center fielder Aaron Rowand sustained two small fractures in his left cheekbone and a mild concussion after he was hit by a Vicente Padilla fastball in the fifth inning.
Team spokesman Jim Moorehead said X-rays and CT scans taken at Huntington Hospital after Rowand left the game will be sent to team doctors in San Francisco for further evaluation. As Bochy headed for the team bus, after his 55th birthday got worse by the moment, he said he had no idea whether Rowand will have to go on the disabled list.
Rowand's likely replacement in center field, Eugenio Velez, hit a three-run homer against Ramon Troncoso in a five-run ninth inning that tightened the score of a game that was 7-0 before most of the beach balls in Chavez Ravine were inflated for the evening.
Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier hit back-to-back homers in the first inning and Ethier a grand slam in the second, settling the affair early and giving Ethier five RBIs. By the fourth inning, Manny Ramirez was ensconced in the clubhouse nursing a sore calf. His bat was not needed.
The thought of a Padilla no-hitter started creeping into the park until Mark DeRosa's duck-snort single started a two-run rally in the fifth. The Giants had runners on first and second with one out when Padilla's first-pitch fastball rode inside and hit Rowand on the left side of his head, catching his helmet and cheek.
Rowand eventually walked to the clubhouse without aid and was lucid.
Padilla is a reputed headhunter, but Bochy said he did not believe it was intentional.
"In that situation, he's in a jam," Bochy said. "You're always going to wonder what the intent was. Certainly in that situation, that's not when a pitcher is going to hit somebody."
Padilla said Rowand was "right on the plate. With that kind of lead, there's no reason for me to start a conflict."
The hit-by-pitch loaded the bases, but before the Giants could cut into the Dodgers' 7-2 lead any further Edgar Renteria lined into a double play, with Velez, a pinch runner, caught too far off first base.
Pablo Sandoval added an opposite-field homer in the sixth.
Wellemeyer has started and lost two of the Giants' three defeats. His first start was not bad, but this one was. He blamed his troubles on a couple of bad pitches and what he termed the "small" strike zone of umpire Dan Iassogna. Before the back-to-back homers in the first inning, Wellemeyer walked Rafael Furcal on a 3-2 fastball the Giants thought was a strike.
"It didn't even leave the plate," Wellemeyer said. "It didn't even get black. It was white the whole way. ... It changes things when you walk the leadoff guy instead of striking him out."
Perhaps the Giants should petition the league not to play on April 16 as long as Bochy is manager. The Padres and Giants have lost seven of their last nine games on his "special day."
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