A fourth-inning double and a solo home run when they were down to their last out were all that prevented the Giants on Thursday from becoming this season’s third no-hit victims.
Luis Matos’ line-drive double, skirting inches over the glove of Reds left fielder Will Benson, amounted to their only hit before Wilmer Flores went deep in the ninth, hardly saving face in a 5-1 loss to the Reds. After exploding for 19 runs to win the first two games of this series, San Francisco managed only three over the final two games and had to settle for a split in Cincinnati.
The Giants (54-43) had hoped to make Wednesday’s loss that snapped their seven-game winning streak a blip with Alex Cobb on the mound in the series finale, but they lost for only the second time in the last 12 games the 35-year-old All-Star has started. The 12th-year veteran was opposed by a left-hander making his ninth career start, Andrew Abbott, who held San Francisco scoreless for eight innings.
The game so happened to be a confluence of Cobb’s worst splits. He has been much better at Oracle Park (1.24 ERA) than away from it (4.63 after Thursday) and so despises early work that he has adjusted his throwing routine to avoid it. His ERA in day games rose to 5.04, compared to 1.83 in evening starts.
Cobb navigated traffic on the base paths in all but one of his 4 1/3 innings while issuing four walks, allowing nine hits and not recording a single strikeout. The 13 runners allowed to reach base were a season-high, while the five who came around to score marked his second-most runs allowed in a start this year.
The Reds got a home run from their No. 9 hitter for the second straight game as Luke Maile started the scoring with a two-run shot in the third inning, the damage doubled by walking the previous batter, Will Benson (who provided Wednesday’s decisive homer). Christian Encarnacion-Strand drove in one of the Reds’ three runs in a fourth-inning rally that opened a 5-0 advantage.
It could have been worse if not for some stellar defensive play.
Catcher Patrick Bailey caught two runners stealing, including rookie phenom Elly De La Cruz for the second time this series, while Wilmer Flores made a diving stop in the first inning and a heads-up play to erase the lead runner attempting to score in the fourth. Bailey’s second victim, Joey Votto, helped Jakob Junis strand both the runners he inherited from Cobb in the fifth, thrown out attempting to advance on Junis’ second straight pitch in the dirt.
Playing their second game on this trip that started before 10 a.m. PT, the Giants’ bats never woke up.
Despite Abbott walking two and being forced to throw 106 pitches to complete eight innings, Matos’ double was the only ball that found grass. After Maile’s 423-foot home run, the next seven longest-hit balls of the game were off Giants’ bats, but all except two landed in leather.
A hobbled Flores was thrown out at home trying to score from first on Matos’ double after reaching on a walk, ending the Giants’ best scoring chance of the game. Shaken up after hurrying back to the bag on a lineout to right, Flores got the green light from third base coach Mark Hallberg but was thrown out by multiple strides on a relay throw from De La Cruz that was clocked at 99.8 mph.
Flores’ home run averted their ninth shutout of the season, though it will nonetheless go down as one of their most meager offensive efforts. In two losses to end their four-game series in Cincinnati, the Giants combined for three runs on eight hits, a drought made only more eye-popping coming in hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark, with the third-highest offensive park factor in the majors, according to Statcast.
It didn’t help, of course, that San Francisco is far from full strength.
Besides the nine players currently on the injured list, LaMonte Wade Jr. (hamstring) and J.D. Davis (illness) remained limited off the bench Thursday.
