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San Francisco Giants' Hunter Pence watches his RBI-double against the San Diego Padres during the fourth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2018, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Photo: Gregory Bull / Associated Press

ST. LOUIS — Giants outfielder Hunter Pence is serious about playing in the majors next year, when he turns 36.

Pence said Friday that he expects to play winter ball in November after spending at least a month in Los Angeles working with private hitting coach Doug Latta, who overhauled Giants outfielder Mac Williamson’s swing last winter and gave Pence a crash course in the middle of this season.

Pence said he will head to Los Angeles as soon as the season is over a week from Sunday.

“I still want to play, and I still think I can do better,” he said before the series opener against the Cardinals. “I have to make an adjustment. I’m going to focus on making an adjustment so I can play this game I love a little longer.”


Pence, whose five-year contract expires after the season, visited Latta for four days in May, when he took a break from a long stint in the minors rehabbing a thumb sprain. Pence adopted some swing changes when he rejoined the Giants on June 2 but later abandoned the complete overhaul.

He said Friday he needs more time working with Latta to incorporate and practice the changes. Pence has not secured a winter-ball spot but hopes to go in mid-November. Before that, he plans to work with Latta through October — aside from two days he will miss to be grand marshal of the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival’s parade.

Pence is hitting .211 with a .558 OPS in a limited role with the Giants, starting mostly against lefties. He had a three-RBI game in San Diego on Tuesday night that included a two-run homer and a double.

Belt’s surgery: Giants first baseman Brandon Belt underwent surgery in San Francisco to clean up the articular cartilage and meniscus in his right knee, a procedure that should have him ready for spring training.

Team orthopedist Dr. Ken Akizuki performed the surgery. Belt had a similar operation on the same knee after the 2015 season and had a four-week recovery. The medical staff plans to slow the rehabilitation now after a second operation on the same knee.

The injury ended another incomplete season for Belt, who hit .253 with 14 home runs in 112 games. He missed close to three weeks in late July and early August with what the team called a bone bruise in the same knee, sustained while running the bases in Seattle. He also missed two weeks after an appendectomy in June.

Belt is signed for three more years, but the likelihood of personnel changes on the field after consecutive losing seasons raises the possibility that he has played his final game with the club.

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.

