Friday night’s outing in San Diego was supposed to offer San Francisco Giants’ right-hander Johnny Cueto a fresh start.
After a rough first half of the season and a disappointing start on Sunday against the Miami Marlins, Cueto and the Giants were hoping the 31-year-old would turn the corner in his first post All-Star break outing at Petco Park.
Instead, Cueto ran into early trouble, drove up his pitch count, and was pulled from his outing after just four innings of work.
After striking out two hitters in the bottom of the first, Cueto allowed a pair of runs in the second inning and a run in the bottom of the fourth before exiting the game with just 82 pitches on his ledger. Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy did pinch hit for Cueto, and elected to yank him from the outing after four innings.
Cueto finished the night with six hits allowed, three walks allowed and five strikeouts over four innings of work.
Earlier this season, Cueto struggled with blisters on his pitching hand, but lately, Cueto has reiterated that he’s in good health and has simply struggled with his command.
On Friday, Cueto drove in the Giants’ second run with an RBI single in the second inning, but dove awkwardly on the base paths and was thrown out after taking too large of a turn around the first base bag. It’s unclear whether that play impacted Cueto’s performance on the mound.
The Giants’ marquee free agent signing from the 2015 offseason posted a 4.51 earned run average over his first 18 starts this season, and hasn’t come close to matching the form he found in 2016, when Cueto dominated opposing hitters and represented San Francisco as the starting pitcher for the National League in the All-Star Game.
