CINCINNATI — Alex Wood spent a season here — not a very memorable one, mind you, missing most of it with a back injury — but that wasn’t why he would have had this game circled on his calendar.
No, the personal significance for the Giants’ No. 3 starter was realized when the Reds’ No. 5 hitter stepped to the plate in the first inning. That man was Kyle Farmer, his roommate at the University of Georgia. The best man in his wedding. Someone he shares a tattoo with honoring their former teammate who was paralyzed.
Wood and Farmer have taken such parallel paths — even traded here together from the Dodgers in December 2018 — that the plate appearance in the first inning of Saturday’s 3-2 loss was the first time the two best friends had faced each other in 16 combined major league seasons.
On a day that Wood allowed only four hits over 5 2/3 innings, it was Farmer who came up with the big one. Two Reds had reached when Farmer stepped in for his first-ever at-bat against Wood in the first inning. With one swing, Farmer earned eternal bragging rights and put the Giants into a 3-0 hole they couldn’t climb out of, launching a 1-2 sinker over the 379-foot sign in left field.
The three runs were enough to lock in a series loss against a team that took MLB’s worst record into this three-game set. Wilmer Flores nearly knocked in the tying run with two outs in the ninth, but Joey Bart was thrown out at home plate to end the game.
Farmer got the upper hand on his friend, but he didn’t rub it in. He didn’t showboat. He rounded the bases with his head down, then crossed home plate for the Reds’ third run of the first inning.
After Farmer’s home run, Wood retired 15 of the next 16 batters he faced. An infield single that was initially ruled an out before being overturned by replay review gave Cincinnati its only base runner until Joey Votto slapped a two-out single in the sixth that ended Wood’s day.
Wood would get his in his next face off with Farmer, prevailing in a nine-pitch battle that ended with Farmer lining out. Good thing, too, because Wood wouldn’t get another chance at Farmer, who was standing in the on-deck circle when Kapler came to take the ball from his starter.
The way Wood rebounded from a tough first inning, even coming against one of the league’s worst lineups, should leave the Giants encouraged, even though he came one out shy of completing six innings for the first time this season.
Wood had failed to complete four innings in each of his past two starts and was tagged for five runs over three innings in his last time out, raising his ERA to a season-high 4.82 entering Saturday.
The final five innings of his outing Saturday were the best Wood has pitched in two weeks, if not longer, dating back at least to his May 10 start against Colorado, limiting the Rockies to no earned runs but needing 104 pitches to make it through 5 1/3 innings. Since remarking after his third start of the season in Washington, D.C., that he felt he was pitching at the best level of his career, Wood had posted a 6.26 ERA in five starts before Saturday’s game.
Yet, Wood’s strong start Saturday — and its personal significance to him — was overshadowed by the Giants’ inability to manufacture almost any runs against the Reds, who owned MLB’s worst record entering the series, for the second straight game.
The Giants got 12 hits — two each for Mike Yastrzemski, Luis Gonzalez and Donovan Walton — but scored only two runs, facing a starting pitcher who took an 8.70 ERA into Saturday’s game.
Evan Longoria launched an upper-decker in the sixth for his third home run of the season and accounted for one San Francisco run. The Giants scored the other with a set of doubles from Yastrzemski and Joc Pederson in the third.
They left the bases loaded in the second and stranded runners in scoring position in four other innings.
