D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports
Johnny Cueto smiled a big Johnny Cueto smile and denied there was anything accidental about his strike three to C.J. Cron to finish the seventh inning. There was a hitch in his delivery before he even turned his back to the Colorado batter, and then he remained rocking, with his left leg in the air, for several moments in what has become known as a triple shimmy.
“That was by design,” Cueto said through translator Erwin Higueros. “That’s what I wanted to do.”
The triple shimmy in all it's glory. pic.twitter.com/pSSbBpnqtl
— MLB (@MLB) April 9, 2021
He definitely wanted to unleash a vicious changeup, thrown 79.6 mph after a 93.3-mph fastball, that induced Cron to swing and miss through it, Cueto pumping his fist in the air for one of his seven strikeouts in an outing that finished one out short of a complete game.
Brandon Crawford is less certain all the starting and stopping was planned.
“I don’t even know if he even knows what he’s going do before he starts his windup,” said the shortstop, who has to time each pitch, adding that he prepares as if each windup is a quick-pitch. “So I think he starts it and then kind of goes from there and mixes it up.”
Rockies batters were all mixed up in a 118-pitch masterpiece — the most for Cueto since May 12, 2017, when he threw one more — that became a fascinating push and pull between Cueto and Gabe Kapler in the last inning.
Cueto had not allowed a run and just had surrendered two hits in 99 pitches entering the last frame. The rope he is allowed has been a theme and will be a theme because Cueto felt he should have pitched more last season, when his struggles (5.40 ERA) prompted Kapler to pull him earlier. The 7,390 announced fans stood up to thank him for eight strong innings, and then he convinced Kapler he was good for a ninth.
It started poorly, Chris Owings lining a triple off the right-field bricks before a sacrifice brought him in. Kapler walked to the mound, and a crowd that had not existed in 2020, who had showered the club with cheers all afternoon, turned on its manager in the first game he managed in front of them. They booed him — until they cheered him.
Kapler asked Cueto how he felt. He asked Buster Posey what he thought of Cueto, and Posey thought he could keep going. Brandon Belt said the same. Kapler returned to the dugout without lifting his left arm to signal for Jake McGee, and he was the rightful heir to Bruce Bochy.
Until Cueto’s 118th pitch, which was a single to Trevor Story. Kapler got more boos as he went to remove Cueto, for real this time.
“It’s not the first time I’ve been booed, I promise you that,” Kapler said with a smile after the 3-1, home-opening win over the Rockies. “I understand it. The fans wanted to see Johnny finish that game. I wanted to see Johnny finish that game.”
But he had to protect the righty and the game, which needed just three pitches from McGee.
Cueto finished with a triple shimmy, a fascinating back and forth with his manager and 8 2/3 innings in which he allowed one run on four hits with a walk and seven strikeouts. He has not pitched like this since 2016, when he was a new Giant, when his elbow had not yet screamed for Tommy John surgery. His velocity was up, his fastball peaking at 93.8 mph, his changeup brought about four whiffs and his slider and curveball were complementary.
“He’s our No. 2 starter,” Crawford said. “So it’s definitely important for us as a team [and] for him to go out and have a good year like we all know he’s capable.”
Cueto is set to be a free agent after the year and could use a bounce-back, as could the Giants. He again mentioned that last season was a short one, in which he couldn’t fully demonstrate his stuff, and thinks the Giants will see more of these outings.
“It’s one of the best ones as of late,” Cueto said.
The big hit for the Giants came from Crawford, whose two-run double in the seventh put them ahead to stay.
Crawford might have been playing his final home opener with the Giants, though he does not want to think about that.
“It was definitely special, just being out there and with fans back in the crowd and being back at home,” said the Mountain View native. “Being able to get a big hit in a big situation — it was all pretty special, and it was a lot of fun.”
Buster Posey, in his first game back at Oracle Park, lined two of the Giants’ five hits. His ovations from the crowd were probably the loudest.
“He deserves all that support,” Kapler said over Zoom. “He’s meant so much to the city, to this franchise.”
Crawford on the crowd of 7,390: “It seemed a lot louder than 9,000 or whatever was announced.”
