Cueto good, but D’backs’ Corbin better
PHOENIX >> One starter dazzled with an array of pitches that danced and darted, flummoxed and fazed, and ultimately missed bats to the tune of 11 strikeouts in a brilliant outing.
The other starter chased a nohitter.
Though Johnny Cueto’s dynamic changeup turned him into must-watch entertainment, it was Diamondbacks starter Patrick Corbin’s pursuit of history that forced fans to drop everything and tune into the Giants’ 1-0 loss Tuesday.
While Corbin’s bid to no-hit the Giants came up just short thanks to Brandon Belt’s check-swing infield single against a shift in the eighth inning, Corbin was as dominant as he needed to be to
down the Giants.
“If we get ballgames out of Johnny like he did tonight, he’s going to win us a lot of baseball games,” Belt said. “It’s just unfortunate that the other guy pitched really well tonight, too.”
For the ninth time in 16 games, the Giants scored one run or fewer, and this time, one run would have been enough to keep the contest rolling into extra innings. Instead, a two-out RBI single from David Peralta off of Tony Watson in the bottom of the eighth was all the offense Arizona needed to support Corbin and beat Cueto on a night where the words “pitchers’ duel” wouldn’t do justice to what fans witnessed.
“(Corbin) had great stuff obviously, it’s when you run into a well-pitched game,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “Our guy, he made it his game, too, and he knew he had to.”
Corbin’s brilliance wasn’t quite evident until the middle innings, but the Giants didn’t do much to challenge the D’Backs left-hander early. The lineup didn’t work deep counts and the hitters didn’t barrel up any pitches that tested defenders until the top of the third inning.
That’s when Belt hit a grounder that appeared to have enough juice to break through a shift on the right side of the infield. But just as Belt reached the middle of the first-base line, third baseman Daniel Descalso — who was playing to the right of second base — launched his body at the ball, made a diving stab and stood up to throw Belt out.
It was only fitting then, that after Belt was robbed by the D’Backs’ shift early,
he was the one who used the shift to his advantage in the eighth. Sure, it wasn’t a bunt, but Belt’s single had every appearance of a well-placed, timely knock that might still rile up the defender’s of the game’s unwritten rules.
In a 0-0 contest, that doesn’t matter.
“You play to win the ballgame,” Bochy and Belt both said.
Though the Giants split their first 12 games of the season, Bochy admitted the club’s lack of pitching depth was exposed in San Diego last weekend as the Padres took the final three games of a four-game series.
While Bochy and the Giants’ front office are piecing together the pitching staff on a day-by-day basis, Cueto’s return to the rotation was a welcome sight, especially considering how well the right-hander performed in his first two starts.
Cueto missed just 10 days with a sprained left ankle he suffered during a cardio workout between outings, but he was able to pick up almost exactly where he left off against Arizona.
It wasn’t necessarily by design, but the Diamondbacks did test Cueto’s left ankle the first time through the lineup.
In the bottom of the second, the Giants used a shift against the left-handed hitting third baseman Descalso, who promptly hit a pop up in foul ground on the thirdbase side. With third baseman Pablo Sandoval shifted up the middle, Cueto was the closest player to the ball and he dashed over to foul territory to make the catch.
In the bottom of the third, speedy outfielder Jarrod Dyson sent a swinging bunt to the right side of the mound, and in one fluid motion, Cueto scooped up the slow roller and sprinted to cut Dyson
off as he ran up the firstbase line. The Giants’ starter applied the tag, proving once and for all that his ankle was in strong enough shape for him to field his position.
Arizona didn’t do much else to test Cueto, though, as the right-hander matched Corbin’s dominance for seven shutout innings. Cueto struck out at least one hitter in each of his first five innings, racking up four consecutive strikeouts from the bottom of the fourth to the bottom of the fifth before a Dyson single up the middle ended the hot streak.
Having a runner on base barely fazed Cueto, though, as he retired Corbin on one pitch to end the inning.
The right-hander returned to the mound in the sixth and seventh, tacking on four more strikeouts and highlighting just how scintillating his changeup can be when it’s dancing in and out of the zone.
“I want to say that all of my pitches were working tonight,” Cueto said. “The changeup was my goto pitch but everything else was working.”