The Giants will have to press pause in the middle of an advantageous eighth inning with the Cincinnati Reds.
Following a long rain delay called in the eighth, which featured a tarp-related incident with a Reds groundskeeper, the game has been put on hold for Tuesday.
The proceedings will resume at 2:40 PDT, followed shortly after by the regularly-scheduled game at 4:10 PDT.
San Francisco had entered Cincinnati on Monday after a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates. After what we must assume was a relaxing barge ride up, then down the Ohio River, they put themselves in a position for a potential seventh-straight win.
It was Logan Webb’s first outing after the break against one of the most enticing, young, surprising rosters in baseball.
The Reds have been buoyed by likely Rookie of the Year Elly De la Cruz and debuted their fifth-ranked prospect Christian Encarnacion-Strand against Webb, without either having much success against him.
While the Giants have also been powered by their own youth this season, it was their more seasoned crowd who led the effort on Monday night.
Webb — now something of a veteran — much like Alex Cobb two nights prior, was not dinged often.
His first demerit came on a first-inning long ball from Matt McLain, though Austin Slater equalized in the top of the third with this monstrous, 442-foot home run.
Wilmer Flores, who was outstanding, followed suit. He took the lead in the bottom of the sixth with his own solo shot to left field.
It was a game of solo home runs, though, and the Reds got even with their own.
While Webb nearly went unscathed through six, he left a sinker middle-middle in the seventh, and Jonathan India took it over that notoriously short Cincinnati porch in right field to tie the game at 2-2.
That set up an intriguing, delayed final two innings.
In the eighth, Gabe Kapler made the decision to pinch-hit Austin Slater for Joc Pederson in order to jolt the Reds in a pitching change for a lefty and to get the red-hot Flores against a lefty.
The move could not have worked out any better. Pederson, who is batting .143 against lefties this season, worked a walk, throwing a fake bunt out on the fifth pitch of his at-bat to get aboard.
Flores came next, and despite an 0-2 count, paid huge dividends. He pulled his second double of the evening into left field, setting up an incredibly advantageous situation with runners on second and third and no outs.
The Reds breathed a sigh of relief by nursing an infield ground ball from Michael Conforto.
Then the tarps came out. A cluster of storms swept into the Cincinnati area just as the Reds were set to make a pitching change and with J.D. Davis approaching the plate.
Now, we wait, though it should be mentioned that Webb was excellent. While the rain delay and game-tying home run from India will mean it won’t go down as a vintage night, he anchored the Giants.
He maneuvered through the Reds lineup with textbook efficiency. Through six, Webb had allowed just three hits and three hard-hit balls, striking out six on 75 pitches. That seventh-inning India homer turned a near-flawless night into a great night.
His changeup-heavy mix was balanced (43 percent changeups, 41 percent sinkers, 16 percent sliders) worked to devastating effect and kept the Reds, for the most part, uncertain at the plate. He worked the corners, attacked different eye levels, and pounded the strike zone, especially early in the count.
It didn’t hurt that Patrick Bailey consistently stole him strikes, including a seventh-inning strikeout on McLain on a sinker that was a half-foot off the plate.
At the plate, the Giants failed to string much together against Reds starter Brandon Williamson or subsequent relievers, but there was an abundance of solid contact.
Time will soon tell if they can muster enough in the eighth to break the deadlock.
