Less than 24 hours after celebrating the highlight of their 2024 MLB season up to this point, the Giants quickly were brought back to reality during a 6-4 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday at Great American Ball Park.
Pitching in the aftermath of Blake Snell’s brilliant no-hitter, Kyle Harrison got knocked around early and often, with his day ending after serving up his fourth home run of the afternoon. Two of the Reds’ home runs came from Tyler Stephenson, who had homered only once in his previous 15 games.
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San Francisco’s season-long struggles at the plate continued, largely due to a strong outing by Cincinnati starting pitcher Hunter Greene. Greene allowed one hit and had 11 strikeouts in six solid innings to win his third consecutive decision.
The Giants finally broke through after Greene exited. They got some help from the Reds’ defense, too.
Matt Chapman doubled leading off the seventh against Justin Wilson and took third when Cincinnati center fielder TJ Friedl bobbled the ball. As Chapman was sliding into third, Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz bounced a relay throw into the dugout, allowing Chapman to get up and score.
San Francisco Giants
Michael Conforto followed with his 11th home run of the season, crushing a 3-1 fastball from Wilson into the left field stands at Great American Ball Park.
Jerar Encarnación, called up from Triple-A Sacramento a day earlier, cut the gap to 6-3 with his first home run of the season, a two-out solo drive off Tony Santillan in the eighth.
Chapman clubbed his 16th home run of the season off Reds closer Edwin Diaz in the ninth inning.
Tyler Fitzgerald, who before the game was named the NL Rookie of the Month for July, went hitless and struck out swinging in three of his four at-bats.
Here are the takeaways from Saturday’s game:
Searching For .500
Manager Bob Melvin has insisted that the most important hurdle for the Giants right now is getting back to the .500 mark. They had a chance to do that Saturday but missed the opportunity to cash in.
It has been more than two months since San Francisco was at the even mark. That was on May 31 when the Giants were 29-29.
Since then, it has been a struggle to get anything going consistently although the Giants had won seven of their previous nine games.
At 55-57, the Giants still have time to make a run to get into the playoffs, and most likely it will have to be via the wild card. San Francisco entered the day four games behind the San Diego Padres and New York Mets for the third NL wild-card spot.
Unhappy Harry
Harrison was unable to keep the good pitching momentum going for the Giants and was knocked out of the game after recording only 11 outs – the second-shortest start of his MLB career.
It was quick and it was ugly.
The Reds rapped out four home runs off Harrison, matching the most he has surrendered in a single game in the majors. He also got dinged for four homers by the San Diego Padres on Sept. 2, 2023, in Harrison’s third career start.
The six runs allowed by Harrison matched the most of his career, tying the six he gave up to the Padres in that 2023 game.
SF Bats No Match For Greene
Greene had the Giants’ offense in knots for most of the afternoon, exposing San Francisco’s major weakness with a sizzling fastball that dazzled the Orange and Black batters.
The All-Star right-hander struck out seven of the first 10 batters he faced and didn’t allow a hit until Michael Conforto’s two-out single in the fourth.
Greene was particularly nasty with his four-seamer, which he routinely clocked in the mid to high 90s. Greene generated 20 swing-and-misses with his fastball and slider. Even when the Giants were able to catch up to it, they didn’t make much hard contact.
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