San Francisco Giants’ Kelby Tomlinson (37) throws the ball during morning workouts before the game against Los Angeles Angels in the Cactus League opener at Scottsdale Stadium in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Wednesday, March 2, 2016. (Josie Lepe/Bay Area News Group)

SAN FRANCISCO – The Giants had to place an important player on the disabled list with a thumb injury Friday afternoon.

Stop your simpering. You can pull back the covers from over your head. It wasn’t Buster Posey.

Posey is back in the lineup for Friday night’s glittering matchup at AT&T Park between Johnny Cueto and the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw — two pitchers whose teams have matching 11-1 records in their starts. Some darn good baseball ahead, it would appear.

Posey had missed the previous three games over five days because of an irritated nerve in his right thumb that necessitated a cortisone shot.

“He felt a lot better today,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s well enough to play, so that’s good news.”

The bad news, and yes, it is significant: Kelby Tomlinson will be lost to the club for roughly three weeks. SAN FRANCISCO – The Giants have a case of the Killer Ps

They already knew they wouldn’t have Hunter Pence or Angel Pagan when they take on the powerhouse Boston Red Sox in a two-game interleague series. Turns out they won’t have Buster Posey, either.

The Giants’ cleanup-hitting catcher is out of Tuesday’s lineup because of an irritated nerve in his right thumb, and from the way Manager Bruce Bochy described it, Posey is likely to miss Wednesday’s game, too.

The hope is that five full days of rest (Posey didn’t play Sunday at St. Louis and the Giants have Thursday off) will allow Posey time to let the nerve calm down. It also could buy the Giants time to give him cortisone or a similar anti-inflammatory injection, although neither Posey nor the club specified that he had received a shot.

Posey said he had been dealing with the irritation “off and on throughout the year” and aggravated it on a swing. He said when he doesn’t catch a ball off the barrel, the shock doesn’t feel too good. Jul 26, 2015; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey (28) congratulates third baseman Matt Duffy (5) after he hit a home run against the Oakland Athletics during the first inning at AT&T Park. Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports

DENVER – Matt Duffy got back to his hotel room Sunday night, turned on the television and flipped between the Warriors game and the rebroadcast of the Giants’ 10-5 comeback victory.

Duffy happened to be tuned to the baseball game when he watched himself hit a double, and the Rockies broadcaster noted that the hit snapped an 0-for-24 streak on the road.

“I heard that and I thought, `Oh jeez, did I do anything on the last road trip?’” Duffy said.

Duffy knew his home/road splits were starting to go from oddly out of whack to downright extreme. He entered Saturday’s game with a .353 average at AT&T Park (36 for 102) and just a .116 average on the road (10 for 86). The road average was the lowest in the major leagues among all players with more than 50 at-bats.

So you begin to understand why Duffy would want to flip between Klay Thompson’s perimeter heroics and a little positive reinforcement from re-watching his own performance, when he went 2 for 4 on Saturday and was on base for both of Buster Posey’s three-run home runs.

After the game, Posey expressed more satisfaction about Duffy getting on base three times than about his own six-RBI day.

“He’s a guy you want your kid to watch, because he doesn’t pout,” Posey said of Duffy. “He plays the game hard. It’s fun for me to watch. Those are the type of guys you really, really pull hard for. Not that you don’t pull hard for everybody, but it’s hard not to pull for a guy who comes to the park with a good attitude every day.”

Informed of those comments Sunday morning, Duffy smiled.

“Buster said that about me?” he said. “Well, I just copy Buster. So it’s really a compliment for himself. He’s really patting himself on the back, kind of.”

“You really do have to admire him for not only how he handles the bat, but how he handles the spotlight. It’s like having another coach out there. So for him to say that about me, it means a lot.”

It really is remarkable how much Duffy’s teammates and coaches have rallied around him during his road struggles. Manager Bruce Bochy acknowledged that he held a summit with hitting coach Hensley “Bam Bam” Meulens and assistant Steve Decker prior to Saturday’s game, and moving Duffy out of the No.3 spot was among the items they discussed.

They knew what the road numbers looked like. They also knew the quality of the at-bats often did not resemble those numbers. And they didn’t want to send the wrong message.

“It’s also about staying behind the guys, and not changing things up, because we’ve been on a pretty good roll here,” Bochy said. “Yeah, (Duffy’s splits) are extreme, and there’s no way to explain it. So I was glad to see him get a couple hits. Because once it’s talked about, it can creep in a player’s head. We’re in May. It’ll even itself out. There’s no reason it wouldn’t.”

There’s no reason it’s been this way so far, Duffy said.

“I don’t know what it is,” he said. “I feel like I’m putting together competitive at-bats. I’m not changing my approach based on home or road. I think it’s just one of those things that over the course of the season, I’d hope, would iron itself out.

“I feel just as comfortable on the road. I don’t really have an explanation.”

Here’s one thing the Giants won’t have to explain moving forward: why they haven’t hit a home run in the first inning all season. Posey finally got that out of the way with his initial three-run shot Saturday.

Duffy joked that the bullpen was so stunned that nobody made a move to catch the ball. They were more awake in the eighth, when bullpen catcher Eli Whiteside snagged Posey’s second three-run homer.

Other than that, Duffy experienced déjà vu as he stood on first base and watched Posey’s homers soar into the bullpen.

“It’s really amazing,” Duffy said. “They were identical, except for the count – and that Whitey caught the second one.”

Denard Span is back after missing a game with a bruised hip, and Bochy wants to keep Kelby Tomlinson involved because he’s been productive in occasional starts. So Joe Panik gets a day off.

Expect Posey to get a break Monday, with a day game thoughtlessly scheduled in Atlanta.

Jeff Samardzija had the option of flying ahead to get some extra rest, but pitchers are doing less and less of that these days. They’d rather ride the charter than subject themselves to the delight of commercial air travel.

Still no starter listed for Wednesday, but it’ll be Albert Suarez unless he’s needed in relief before then. In the meantime, Johnny Cueto enters with a scoreless streak of 18 1/3 innings against the Rockies, and he has a chance to become the first Giants pitcher since Shawn Estes in 1997 to win for the eighth time in his first 11 starts to begin a season.

CF Span

2B Tomlinson

3B Duffy

C Posey

RF Pence

1B Belt

SS Crawford

LF Blanco

RHP Cueto

CF Blackmon

2B LeMahieu

RF Gonzalez

3B Arenado

LF Parra

1B Reynolds

SS Story

C Wolters

LHP Rusin PHOENIX – Santiago Casilla did not blow a save Thursday night. He merely blew his top.

And a day later, with a cooler head, he walked into the manager’s office and apologized to Bruce Bochy.
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