PHOENIX -- The Giants did not expect to bring Joey Bart back to the big leagues this quickly, but the first two days at Chase Field cost them a couple of key veterans.
A day after catcher Curt Casali hurt his oblique, Evan Longoria did the same. The Giants put Longoria on the IL on Wednesday with a left oblique strain and activated Bart.
Because the move was not made until about an hour before first pitch, there was no explanation of how Longoria got hurt, but the injury does not appear to be as serious as Casali's strain that will cost him at least a month. Longoria played catch with trainer Dave Groeschner during BP and was generally moving around well.
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SIGN UP HERE Bart was back Tuesday as a member of the taxi squad but the Giants activated him Wednesday and put him back in the lineup. He'll hit ninth in his return after a two-week break to work on mechanics and then seven games in Triple-A.
"I'm excited. I'm ready to compete," Bart said. "I'm ready to come in here and bring something. I know things haven't gone as well here as people would like, so with (David) Villar being here, with me coming back, with things going on, hopefully we can get this ship rolling and get back to winning and get back to Giants baseball."
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Bart was 8-for-28 with a homer in his time back in Triple-A. The Giants hoped to give him an extended period of time down there but Casali went down in Monday's game. Bart said the experience, which included a few days to simply clear his head, had positives and negatives.
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"At the end of the day you want to be here, but my focus was on my work and what we were doing," Bart said. "That's kind of how I approached it."