San Francisco, CA – Following a 9-2 victory that snapped a three-game losing streak and knotted up a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds, the San Francisco Giants were crushed in a 10-3 loss.
When it came down to hitting, the Reds were on fire and the Giants couldn’t find the extinguisher to cool them down. Every hitter in the Cincinnati’s starting lineup had at least one hit in the game totaling to 15 hits for the team as a whole by the end of the contest.
It started with a base hit by Reds Center fielder Nick Senzel that led to a flurry of hits at the top of the third inning. It was a rough night for Giant’s Starting pitcher Anthony Desclafani who formerly pitched for the Reds from 2015 – 2020. Desclafani didn’t seem phased in the first two innings of the game but at the top of the third Senzel broke the game open with a single that opened the flood gates for the Reds. Following a sacrifice bunt and a strikeout the Giants only needed one out to keep the shutout going heading into the bottom of the third but Cincy took the game over and never gave it back to San Francisco.
Senzel scored the first run of the game for the Reds on an RBI triple by third baseman Brandon Dury. Unfortunately for the Giants, once the rain began, it poured with multiple RBIs and runs for the red machine.
After Dury’s triple that scored the first run of the game, he was batted in by left fielder Tommy Pham on a single, and Pham scored not too long after on an RBI double from first baseman Joey Votto. The Red’s bats couldn’t be contained and it led to a 7-0 lead and forced the Giants to dig in their bullpen early in the game.
“It’s tough because some of those at bats with two strikes [I] probably could’ve put the batter away earlier with maybe better executed sliders or what not and I felt like I either didn’t execute to get the outs or fell behind [in the count],” Desclafani said.
Desclafani said the key to getting the results he had in the first two innings of the game which were shutouts is “to not suck.”
Although Desclfani allowed seven runs in 2.2 innings pitched, Giants manager Gabe Kapler thought that he played fine and believes that it was the defense as a whole that could’ve played better.
“We didn’t play our best defense behind him, some balls found holes obviously [and] we had some mental errors that didn’t help us,” Kapler said.
The Giants will have Monday off before they prepare for their two-game home series against the Tigers on Tuesday at 6:45 p.m. PST.