The night before Ryder Jones made his Major League debut against New York Mets’ starter Jacob deGrom, Jones and his roommate, Giants prospect Christian Arroyo, popped in “MLB: The Show” on their PlayStation to see what the new third baseman would contend with upon arriving at AT&T Park.
According to Jones, he singled and popped out against the former National League Rookie of the Year late on Friday night, and it turns out, that’s almost as much damage than the Giants were able to do against deGrom in person.
The Mets’ right-hander dominated San Francisco’s lineup on Saturday afternoon, spoiled an excellent outing from Johnny Cueto, and handed the Giants a 5-2 defeat, their 11th loss in 12 games.
Jones, who was called up from AAA Sacramento on Saturday morning, went 0-for-4 in his Major League debut, but the rest of his teammates didn’t exactly fare well, either, as San Francisco rapped out just four hits in the loss.
After throwing seven innings and allowing just two runs in a losing effort in Atlanta on Monday, Cueto has made winning look as challenging as solving a Rubix cube of late. Every way he spins the blocks, Cueto’s meets a new form of frustration.
“He (Cueto) pitched a great game, he pitched a great game in Atlanta so he’s throwing the ball well, very well,” Giants’ manager Bruce Bochy said. “He should have a couple of wins here but we just couldn’t get the offense going there.”
On Saturday, the Dominican Republic native made a lone mistake, elevating a changeup in the zone to Mets third baseman Wilmer Flores in the top of the fourth inning. Flores did knock the ball halfway up the left field bleachers, but it was the only pitch Cueto would want back against New York.
“It’s just keeping guys off balance like he (Cueto) always does,” Giants first baseman Brandon Belt said. “He was mixing his pitches up pretty well and giving them the shimmy every now and then so he just did a good job of throwing his pitch and even if stuff did get away from him, he bounced back quickly and was able to get the next guy.”
While a seventh inning home run off the bat of Belt kept the “L” off of Cueto’s record, relievers Sam Dyson, Steven Okert and George Kontos allowed the Mets to kick the doors down in the eighth inning.
“He’s (deGrom) been real hot on the mound and we knew that coming in and he threw great,” Bochy said. “He used his changeup more, he’s got great stuff and we battled to tie the game. Because of our guy it was a 1-1 ballgame and the bullpen just struggled tonight.”
With the score tied 1-1, Dyson was greeted with a 400-foot triple from Mets’ center fielder Curtis Granderson, who scored the go-ahead run on an RBI single from Jay Bruce. Bruce’s hit came against Okert, a left-hander, and the Mets’ final run of the inning came against Kontos on a Flores double.
New York added a pair of runs in the ninth off of rookie Kyle Crick to extend its lead to 5-1 before San Francisco added a tally in the ninth on a Brandon Crawford RBI single.
Before reliever Addison Reed allowed a run, deGrom dazzled against a San Francisco lineup that could soon look like a Johnson & Johnson commercial with the number of baby-faced prospects who should make their way to the Major League level this season.
After retiring 10 of the first 11 hitters he faced on Saturday, deGrom allowed a leadoff walk to Giants second baseman Joe Panik in the bottom of the fourth inning that gave San Francisco an opportunity to tarnish deGrom’s bid for a shutdown inning.
A one-out single that catcher Buster Posey muscled into left field gave the Giants runners at the corners, but back-to-back strikeouts from Belt and Crawford ended the only potential rally San Francisco ever mustered.
“Fourth inning, we’re looking pretty good, but they’re facing a tough guy,” Bochy said. “He can get a strikeout when he wants and he has that ability. He did against two good hitters. When that happens, it makes it tougher to win a ballgame if you don’t take advantage of those times.”
Over eight one-run innings, deGrom allowed just four hits –three singles– and racked up seven strikeouts while helping his case to go back-to-back with National League Player of the Week honors.
For Cueto, who has expressed frustration with the Giants’ inability to find a solution for their losing ways, the start served as another audition for contending clubs hoping to find a top-end of the rotation starter on the trade market this summer.
It’s widely believed Cueto will opt-out of his contract at the end of this season if it makes sense financially, but if Cueto continues to pitch well and the Giants continue to flounder, he may be able to make that decision in a different uniform.
On Saturday, though, the right-hander expressed his belief that the Giants could turn things around, even though the team fell a season-high 23 games under .500 and dropped its eight consecutive series.
“I mean, I guess the only thing I can say is that it’s hard and it’s sad to know that we’ve lost 50 games but I know that we have a very good team and we have to keep trying to put wins together,” Cueto said. “I mean, that’s the only thing we can do. We are all trying to win games, not lose games.”
