Giants’ Anthony DeSclafani hampered by bizarre injury in loss to Diamondbacks

Anthony DeSclafani was not himself in the Giants’ 7-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday at Chase Field. 

In fact, he was dealing with an injury he sustained weeks ago. 

DeSclafani (L, 5 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, BB, 2 Ks) was removed from the game in the bottom of the sixth inning after manager Gabe Kapler and head athletic trainer Dave Groeschner came out to check on him after the right-handed pitcher appeared to be in some pain. 

In speaking to reporters after the game, Kapler explained what was bothering DeSclafani in his outing on Saturday. 

“So several weeks ago, he dropped a piano bench on his toe and his toenail took the brunt of it,” Kapler said. “So that was bothering him. He was able to continue pitching and felt good enough to keep rolling, but we had an eye on him as that nail was coming off and causing him quite a bit of pain. So monitored and monitored and then finally went out there with Groesch and decided it was good to probably pull the plug on him. He was grinding pretty good there.”

Kapler added that as of right now, he does not anticipate DeSclafani missing his next start and praised the veteran for battling through the pain. 

DeSclafani spoke to reporters in the Giants clubhouse, where he explained exactly how he sustained the toe injury. 

“Just playing piano with my kid,” DeSclafani explained. “It’s just silly, but was playing piano with my kid and was trying to help him off the bench and the thing literally squared my toe up like several weeks ago. The toenail kind of just died and it started affecting me today.”

After sustaining the injury weeks ago, DeSclafani shared that he hadn’t felt any pain in his previous starts and that the toe took a turn for the worse this past week. 

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Every move he made on Saturday, whether it was fielding bunts, covering first base or planting his left foot on each of his 77 pitches thrown, the nail became looser, causing more and more pain. 

DeSclafani has been phenomenal in eight starts so far this season, posting a 3.06 ERA with 35 strikeouts to just five walks in 50 innings pitched. Making just five starts last season before suffering a season-ending ankle injury, the Giants finally had DeSclafani back and healthy. 

Now they will hope his injured toe doesn’t force him to miss any time. 

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