San Francisco Giants 3 Up, 3 Down: The Debacle in Cincinnati
3 DOWN
1 – Hitting
Where to start with this one? The Giants were outscored 31 to five by the Reds. The fact that they could only muster five runs in a park like Great American is just astounding. The Reds hit five home runs, while the Giants hit only one. San Francisco was out-hit by the Reds 41 to 16. They were 3-22 with runners in scoring position, and left 12 in scoring position over three games. They also hit into five double plays.
Individually, Hunter Pence went 1-11. Brandon Belt, in a park he normally enjoys, went 0-11 with only one walk. Joe Panik was 1-8 with three strikeouts, and his one hit was a bunt single he just barely beat out. That’s the top of the order.
2 – Pitching
Matt Cain started off the weekend by allowing nine runs on Friday. He didn’t give up very much hard contact at all, but all those balls that found grass made the six walks hurt that much more. Ty Blach followed up by allowing 10 runs (eight runs) on Saturday.
The bullpen wasn’t much better either. On Friday, they gave up four runs and only the aforementioned Osich didn’t allow one to score. On Saturday, they conceded another four run,with Osich and Bryan Morris being the heroes of the day who didn’t allow any more scoring.
Johnny Cueto was able to let the bullpen rest by going seven innings, but he gave up four runs (two earned). Derek Law at least threw a shutout inning to close the series. That’s something, right?
3 – Defense
Well, we’ve covered just about everything since just about everything was awful in Cincinnati. The defense didn’t help much, and it was painfully obvious that Brandon Crawford‘s presence was sorely missed at shortstop. A ton of Reds’ hits just snuck through up the middle, and Eduardo Nunez and Christian Arroyo really just couldn’t stop it. Even with the best defensive shortstop in the game out there, it probably doesn’t turn the tide much, but maybe it at least keeps the games somewhat close.
Next: Giants Prospects Starting Hot in San Jose
The Giants committed four errors as a team. Two came on Friday, although one (a Cain throwing error on a pickoff attempt) didn’t hurt. A groundball to Arroyo could have ended the fifth inning, but an error allowed a run to score (it made a seven-run game an eight-run game, so that didn’t hurt that much either). On Saturday, a Kelby Tomlinson fielding error led to a run. On Sunday, another Arroyo error did hurt, leading to two first-inning runs.