The Giants took another lead into the late innings only to have it soil away. This time it wasn’t the bullpen’s undoing more than it was starting pitcher Johnny Cueto. The right-hander allowed a pair of runs in the seventh and eighth innings, and the Phillies polished off the win with a walk-off against the Giants bullpen in the 12th. Here’s more on Wednesday’s loss.
The big moment
Leaning on the bullpen has been a precarious circumstance for the Giants all season. The relief corps. bent for four innings, but only broke in the 12th with some help from the Giants’ defense. Eduardo Nunez bobbled a grounder to let the Phillies load the bases with one out, and Maikel Franco won the game with a walk-off single to center off Jake Peavy.
At the plate
After Madison Bumgarner got burned early in Tuesday’s start against the Phillies, the Giants gave Cueto an immediate cushion to work with. Buster Posey singled home Angel Pagan and Denard Span in the first inning to open a 2-0 lead. Diverging from years past, the first inning has actually been the Giants’ least productive frame of the year (outside of the ninth).
Posey was the ringleader again in the third inning when he doubled off the top of the center field wall. Hunter Pence chugged all the way around to score from first base, putting a real test on his recently healed right hamstring. Posey scored the second run of the inning on a Brandon Belt sac fly and gave the Giants a 4-0 advantage.
The Giants went six innings without a baserunner. Nineteen straight hitters were set down from the fifth inning through the 10th, until Pence leadoff the 11th inning with a rocketed single to left.
On the mound
No team has been poison to Johnny Cueto more than the Phillies. The right-hander entered Wednesday’s start with a 5.46 ERA in 10 starts against Philadelpha, Cueto’s highest ERA against any team he’s faced five-plus times. The numbers didn’t matter for seven dominant innings out of Cueto until he unraveled in the eighth.
Franco stung the Giants with four hits and four RBIs on Tuesday, but it only took one swing to leave his stamp on Cueto’s start before he walked-off his team in the 12th. Manager Bruce Bochy stuck with Cueto perhaps a batter too long, and on his 112th pitch, Franco lined a two-out, game-tying single to right field with two runners aboard.
That was the last pitch Cueto unfurled before giving way to Will Smith, who tried to pick up the pieces of a start that looked so promising. Cueto struck out 12 Phillies along the way, including five straight between the third and fourth innings.
As the Giants have come to learn with Cueto, he pounds the strike zone. It was never more apparent than in Cody Asche’s 13-pitch, 10-strike duel against Cueto that ended in a called third strike on the outside corner. That keyed a stretch of 14 batters retired in a 15-hitter stretch.
It came to a booming end in the seventh inning when Ryan Howard, who owns a .333 lifetime average against Cueto, crushed a fastball to the opposite field and just inside the left field foul pole. Cameron Rupp was up next, and he drove the very next pitch deep to center for back-to-back home runs. Four of the seven hits Cueto allowed came in the seventh and eighth innings.
In the ‘pen
Will Smith entered for the second time in as many days, setting down Howard on a three-pitch strikeout to end the eighth inning. Then came the ninth inning, when the Giants barely danced out of danger with three of their most experienced arms.
Sergio Romo started the ninth after Tuesday’s three-run hiccup, but was only allowed to face one hitter. That was Rupp, and he singled to left. Bochy tabbed Javier Lopez to faced Odubel Herrera and Freddy Galvis, who walked and flew out, respectively. That left Santiago Casilla to enter the ninth inning with runners on the corner in a tie game. He induced a shallow flyout from Tommy Joseph, and snapped a two-strike curveball on Jimmy Paredes to end the inning with a strikeout.
Casilla then shutdown the Phillies in the 10th inning, rounding out one his most dominating performances of the year. George Kontos allowed a pair of baserunners but escaped the 11th unscathed.
On deck
Matt Moore (7-7, 4.08 ERA) makes his Giants debut Thursday afternoon in Philadelphia. His 2016 numbers aren’t all that appetizing on the surface, but he’s pitched better of late. Moore has a 1.99 ERA in his last six outings and averages nearly 6 1/3 innings per start. First pitch at 10:05 a.m. against Vince Velasquez.
