Buster Posey, Michael Morse banged up for San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants lost to the San Diego Padres 2-1 in a tightly contested pitcher’s duel on Friday night. Besides the effective pitching of Padres starter Tyson Ross (8 IP, 9 Ks), the Giants might chalk some of their offensive struggles on the night up to the absence of two of their best hitters.

Buster Posey and Michael Morse were both held out of Friday’s lineup due to some early season dings. In Posey’s case, it is simply some bumps and bruises, as reported by Andrew Baggarly of CSN Bay Area:

"Posey was going to start two of three games here after playing all three against the archrival Dodgers. And after Posey got beat up in that series (a hard slide, a foul tip off his chest, etc.), Bochy decided his cleanup-hitting catcher could use that break sooner rather than later.”"

As for Morse, he is dealing with a minor hamstring issue:

"Morse has some minor hamstring tightness and Bochy didn’t want to push him. The manager took the same approach the previous couple days with shortstop Brandon Crawford, who sat out two in a row against lefties because of some hamstring tightness.”"

Neither injury sounds serious, and the Giants will hope to get both players back in their lineup soon as they try to keep things going after a nice start to the 2014 season (10-7 record so far).