Bats cold in loss to last-place club in 11
CINCINNATI — The Giants want to take advantage of this so-called easier part of the schedule, a stretch of 10 games against teams that are in last place or close to it.
We await one of three true outcomes.
The Giants could go on an outrageous run and make themselves serious contenders. They could crash and burn and never be heard from again. Or they could split the games, a typical scenario in a season in which all roads seem to lead to .500.
The stretch started with Friday’s 2-1, 11-inning loss to the Reds in which the Giants demonstrated enough pitching to stay in the game but not enough hitting to win it — one of those season microcosms.
The Giants’ 3-4-5-6 hitters went a collective 1-for-18. That’s after the 3-through-6 hitters went 1-for-20 in Wednesday’s 12-inning loss in Los Angeles.
“We’ve just got to find a way to get a run,” manager Bruce Bochy said, “and it’s getting to the point where it’s almost borderline ridiculous how often we’re getting shut down considering this lineup.”
The only hit coming from the middle of the lineup was Brandon Belt’s single to open the fourth. He was erased from the bases when Evan Longoria grounded into a double play. Meantime, Bochy continues to tweak his batting order and Friday inserted Belt as the cleanup hitter and bumped Brandon Crawford two notches to sixth.
“It’s not on Boch,” Buster Posey, the Giants’ No. 3 batter, said. “It’s on us. We’ve got to find a way. It’s as simple as that.”
The Reds won the game on a homer by Phillip Ervin, the first batter Ray Black faced in the 11th. Otherwise, the bullpen was excellent. Five relievers, including Black, combined for 52⁄3 shutout innings through the 10th.
Even starter Casey Kelly, the son of Reds bench coach Pat Kelly, did well to limit the damage in his 41⁄3 innings, yielding one run despite nine hits.
“Our pitching’s been really good all year and especially good here of late,” Posey said. “Offensively, we’ve got to be better, plain and simple.”
The Giants, who got their run on leadoff man Andrew McCutchen’s third-inning single — the first of his three hits — have two more games against the Reds before flying to New York for four against the Mets. They return home to play the Rangers in a threegame interleague series.
Then it gets tougher with the Giants hosting the Diamondbacks. So the time, as they say, is now. Asked about the key 10-game stretch that’s under way, Posey said, “Honestly, where we are, it’s a key stretch for us the remainder of the way.”
Kelly filled in for Dereck Rodriguez, who strained his hamstring in Tuesday’s fracas at Dodger Stadium, and pitched in traffic most of the night. Kelly threw 73 pitches two days after throwing 20 in relief and needed some big help in the fifth, his final inning.
Jose Peraza opened with a single, and Posey threw him out trying to steal. Scooter Gennett singled, and Bochy summoned Reyes Moronta, who struck out two consecutive batters.
“It was definitely a cool experience,” Kelly said of pitching in front of his dad in the other dugout. “I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to do that again, so you try to embrace it. Once the first pitch left my hand in warm-ups, it was me versus the Reds. It wasn’t about my dad.”
Kelly’s mother was in attendance, as were his brother, sister and fiancee. Father and son had breakfast early Friday, and each was careful not to get caught up in exchanging information.
“I guess in a perfect world,” Pat Kelly said before the game, “he throws six shutout innings, and we beat the relievers.”
That’s not exactly what happened, but it was close enough for the proud papa who couldn’t help but smile while waiting outside the Giants’ clubhouse after the game.