Giants fans boo’ed Paul Lo Duca every time he came to the plate last night. I’m guessing that had as much to do with him being named in the Mitchell report as his time long ago with the hated Dodgers. And the whole time, I had to wonder why the team put Lo Duca in the game instead of John Baker. Baker played great yesterday in the familiar confines of the Bay Area, where he grew up. And given the three-run shot he hit with two outs in the 9th, who knows what he could have done with a few more at-bats.

As for Lo Duca, the injury looked bad. I was surprised he stayed in the game. But I was more surprised that it happened in the first place. Lo Duca should have known what can happen when you reach forward that far into the batter’s box. It looked like Lo Duca might have called a pitch out, and maybe Olsen put the ball too close to the plate. Either way, the batter took a swing, and Lo Duca’s hand was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Baker’s current position of starting catcher looks fairly secure given the options, IMO. Due to the day game following a night game situation, Baker wasn’t going to start both, and he’s in the lineup today. Now, if Baker only starts one game of the Arizona series, I’ll be worried.

I think a better question is why did Lo Duca start in place of Treanor? Is Treanor not going to be able to delay surgery in the offseason? Did Fredi think he’d be too distracted by the gold medal match? Was this just a one-off experiment to see whether Lo Duca is even worth considering as a backup for the rest of the season? Who knows. Assuming Lo Duca’s injury isn’t bad, he’s a better alternative than Rabelo or Hoover.