SAN FRANCISCO — The rules of the game stipulated there had to be a winner Friday night. There are no ties in baseball. Try as they might, two teams cannot lose one game.
Pitted against a team that had lost its past eight games, the reeling Giants made winners out of the Cincinnati Reds for the first time since last Monday as their own early-season freefall continued in a 4-2 loss to open a nine-game home stand.
Unable to muster more than two runs to support seven strong innings from Logan Webb, the Giants lost for the eighth time in their past 11 games, failing to build on whatever momentum was captured by taking two of three games against the lowly Rockies to end their road trip.
Back from the hitter-friendly confines of Coors Field, the Giants’ offense reverted to the form it took on for most of the season. Although Heliot Ramos added a burst of energy — and a pair of hits — the rest of the shorthanded lineup had few answers for Cincinnati starter Andrew Abbott.
Besides Thairo Estrada’s solo shot in the first, the only other runner the Giants advanced past first base came in the third inning, when LaMonte Wade Jr. was credited with a double on a pop fly botched by right fielder Jake Fraley.
Estrada’s home run, his fifth of the season, evened the score at 1 in the bottom of the first, and the Giants opened a 2-1 lead when Ramos raced home from second on a bloop single from Tyler Fitzgerald in the second inning. After Ramos’ single to lead off the fourth inning, however, the Giants mustered just one more hit the rest of the game.
In 15 games dating to April 24, the Giants have scored 43 runs, an average of 2.87 per game.
Ramos’ athleticism was a novel look for the Giants but would have fit right in on the other side of the field.
The Reds have been the most aggressive team on the base paths all season, and their ring leader — shortstop Elly De La Cruz — served as a thorn in the Giants’ side all night. Reaching base twice, De La Cruz swiped a pair of bases and scored two of Cincinnati’s runs.
Of the Reds’ MLB-leading 66 steals, 25 belong to De La Cruz, almost double the Giants’ total as a team (13).
Webb thought he had De La Cruz after reaching base for the first time, and so did first-base umpire Larry Vanover. On a pick-off move to first, Vanover initially ruled the speedy Reds shortstop out but replay review revealed his hand barely beat Wilmer Flores’ tag back to the bag.
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A couple pitches later, De La Cruz was standing on second base with his first stolen base of the evening and scored the Reds’ first run of the game on Spencer Steer’s double to the center field wall.
Rebounding nicely from two subpar starts, Webb completed seven innings while limiting the Reds to three runs but walked off the mound trailing 3-2. Seven had been the magic number for Giants starters, but they lost for the first time in seven games when their starter went seven innings or more.
The Reds tacked on an insurance run when Stuart Fairchild — briefly with the Giants — rounded all four bases for the 13th inside-the-park home run in the 25-year history of Oracle Park. Fairchild raced around the bags in the eighth inning as his fly ball off reliever Erik Miller bounded away from Fitzgerald and Michael Conforto in left-center field, sliding headfirst into home as Jakson Reetz attempted to corral the relay throw.
Up next
RHP Mason Black (0-1, 10.38) makes his second major-league start — his first at Oracle Park — against LHP Nick Lodolo (3-1, 2.79), with first pitch Saturday scheduled for 4:15 p.m. on FOX.
