Reds 4, Giants 0:
It’s off to New York to face the Mets after S.F. gets swept in Cincinnati by a combined score of 31-5.
CINCINNATI — The bad news for the troubled Giants is they got swept by the Reds. The good news is their next opponent is the troubled Mets.
Not that the Mets are slouches. For the Giants, no team is a slouch. It’s just that the Giants can feel relieved that they’re not alone in their misery.
Sunday’s 4-0 loss marked the end of a series but not the end of the Reds. The Giants open a homestand Thursday with four games against Billy Hamilton and Co.
But first: the Mets, who are a mess.
They suspended pitcher Matt Harvey, reportedly for blowing off Saturday’s game. They put Noah Syndergaard on the disabled list after the pitcher refused an MRI exam and got hurt. They don’t understand why Yoenis Céspedes keeps pulling his hamstring. They posted a picture on social media of a device that we can’t describe in a family newspaper or on a family website.
The Giants are flying straight into the storm after collecting a measly four hits off Burlingame’s Scott Feldman, getting shut out for the fourth time this season and getting outscored in the series 31-5.
“You know baseball, some days you’re going good, and then when you wake up, it’s just not there,” second baseman Joe Panik said. “You can’t put a finger on it. It’s not like it’s one guy. It’s everybody. I think we can all do better.”
Even Johnny Cueto, the ex-Reds right-hander who once dominated at Great American Ball Park, couldn’t beat his old team. He pitched seven innings, struck out 10 and gave up two earned runs on homers to Scott Schebler and Zack Cozart, along with two unearned runs in the first inning.
It was Cueto’s 14th doubledigit strikeout game, including eight at the Reds’ yard, most by any pitcher. It got him nowhere.
“They’re a team that’s hot,” Cueto said. “We’re kind of flat. We’re cold. Our bats are really cold. But I prepare myself like I do all the time and try to win the game.”
Manager Bruce Bochy noted Cueto was enthusiastically cheering on his teammates, and Cueto said he was trying to energize his buddies. “At this point,” he said, “I guess it’s just God’s decision we’re going to be cold for a while.”
Cueto, after making his 100th career start in Cincinnati, said the mound was “more flat” than he remembers, echoing Bochy’s sentiments after Friday’s game.
It didn’t seem to bother the Reds’ pitchers.
“It always sucks to be in games like this, not feeling like you’re doing as well as you should be,” first baseman Brandon Belt said. “You’ve got to keep these games to a minimum.”
The Reds won the first two nights 13-3 and 14-2 — starters Matt Cain and Ty Blach gave up 19 runs — and greeted Cueto with two first-inning runs, which turned out to be plenty.
Hamilton, the wickedly fast leadoff man who played like Rickey Henderson all weekend, became the first Cincinnati hitter to triple in three straight games since Deion Sanders in 1997.
Right away, Hamilton displayed game-changing speed. He opened the first inning with a routine grounder to rookie shortstop Christian Arroyo, who was forced to hurry and dropped the ball for an error, the team’s eighth in seven games.
Hamilton tripled his next at-bat. Then he walked and distracted Cueto so much that the pitcher balked. Hamilton was thrown out trying to steal third because he overslid the bag, perhaps the only way the Giants could catch him stealing.
“It’s like we never got off the plane the way we were playing,” Bochy said. “These things are hard to explain. I wish I had a magic button. We better figure it out here soon.”
The Giants couldn’t get out of Cincinnati fast enough. Actually, that was a problem, too. According to broadcaster Dave Flemming on Twitter, their team bus broke down on the way to the airport.