Willy Adames leaves Giants’ game vs. Braves with back spasms

SAN FRANCISCO — It takes a lot for Willy Adames, who played 160 games last year and 161 the year before, to come out of a baseball game.

So with that context, be the judge of just how much discomfort the Giants shortstop was in after going down swinging for the third time Sunday afternoon. He went back to the dugout and never emerged again, instead leaving the sick-as-a-dog Casey Schmitt to take over on defense.

“It’s tight,” Adames said of his condition after the 3-2 win over the Braves. “Painful.”

A date with an MRI machine seems more likely for Adames than a return to the starting lineup when the Giants begin their series against the Diamondbacks on Monday.

Adames exited the game after the seventh with lower back spasms.

The issue has been bothering him for some time, dating back close to a week, he said. But after a few days of “grinding,” the ailment caught up to him late in Sunday’s win.

His back locked up on him in his first at-bat, “and it just stayed there,” Adames said.

“In that last at-bat, it just got worse.”

Schmitt, who was a late scratch from Sunday’s lineup with a severe case of the flu going around the Giants’ clubhouse, was forced to enter the game at shortstop.

With the Giants removing Buddy Kennedy from the roster to clear space for Heliot Ramos’ return, Schmitt was the only infielder left for manager Tony Vitello on the bench.

“Going into the cage and telling him he was at shortstop, it was like waking a drunk guy up for a job interview,” Vitello joked. “He didn’t look good.”

Before the game, Vitello acknowledged that the Giants were “a little short-handed probably relative to other teams” on the infield after the pregame roster moves.

That now comes to a head with their starting shortstop potentially down at least in the short term and his only capable backup more focused on pounding fluids than fielding ground balls.

Christian Koss, who fractured his left wrist shortly after being demoted to Triple-A Sacramento, could be a “candidate” if the Giants need to add another infielder, Vitello said. It would be a short commute to Chase Field: He has played four rehab games in the Arizona Complex League.

“Probably offensively he’s not going to be in the position that he would want to be or that we would want him in,” Vitello said. “But defensively, he could wake up out of bed and be ready to rock and roll defensively at any of those three spots.

“The biggest thing is to work through what Willy’s got going on and see where he’s at.”

It has been a difficult season for Adames, 30, in more than just his production, which has been below the standards for someone in the second season of a seven-year, $182 million contract.

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If Adames is forced to miss any time, he will already be on pace to play fewer games than either of the previous two seasons. He already missed a game with discomfort in his “knee to hip” area, as Vitello described it, as well as another standard rest day earlier in the year.

“I feel like this year, there’s always been something going on with my body,” Adames said. “It is what it is, there’s always something happening. You just grind it out. … [But] this year has been the worst, I would say, for my body.”

After hitting two home runs last week in the Giants’ doubleheader sweep of the Braves in Atlanta, Adames said he didn’t “feel the best right now.” Soon thereafter, the back issues began.

In 18 games since June 6, Adames has 11 hits and 23 strikeouts in 69 at-bats, a .159 batting average. For the season, his .275 on-base percentage would represent a career low, and his defense at shortstop has been the worst in the majors, according to Statcast’s metric Outs Above Average.

Adames’ struggles are a big reason the Giants’ season has been such a disappointment. Now, as they look to build on their first winning homestand since the end of April, Adames may be forced to watch from the dugout bench.

“It sucks,” Adames said of the unfortunate timing. “Obviously I want to be out there every day. It feels that we’re getting some momentum. That’s why I want to be out there.”

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