Beede stung by long ball again
CHICAGO >> The baseball is flying like never before and few Giants have reaped the rewards quite like rookie outfielder Mike Yastrzemski.
So when Yastrzemski sent a pitch in the air toward deep center field in the seventh inning on Tuesday, the fans inside a packed Wrigley Field took a deep breath.
Cubs fans had seen their own hitters pummel three home runs off Giants starter Tyler Beede, watched the Giants hit two homers of their own against Cole Hamels.
When center fielder Jason Heyward caught the ball in front of the center field wall, stomachs in the Giants dugout turned. The Giants would have a few more chances, but it was a smooth ride the rest of the way for a Cubs team that claimed a 5-3 victory on Tuesday.
A long flyout that came a few feet shy of clearing the fence wasn’t a decisive moment in Tuesday’s game, but it served as an ominous sign. For a .500 team (6363) in search of another hot streak to ride, there have been too many bumps in the road to stall their progress.
The Cubs held two early leads but finally seized control of the game on a Jonathan Lucroy line drive RBI single in the fifth inning that kicked off the outstretched glove of first baseman Brandon Belt and trickled into the outfield.
“I honestly thought I did all I could to catch that ball,” Belt said. “I didn’t catch it, but the only way I think I could have caught it
is if I held onto the very tip. I think I put all I had into it I just came up a little short.”
The Giants fell behind in the first inning for the fourth straight game as Cubs outfielder Nick Castellanos hit an opposite-field solo shot against Beede before first baseman Anthony Rizzo followed later in the inning with his own solo blast tor right field.
San Francisco never recovered after facing an early deficit in Sunday’s game against Arizona, but the Giants received a second-inning boost from right fielder Austin Slater who set a new career-high with his fourth home run of the season in his first career at-bat at Wrigley Field.
Slater hit three homers in 34 games in 2017, one home run in 74 games last season and has now homered four times in 39 games this year.
After the Giants fell behind again in the third, center fielder Kevin Pillar tied the score in the fourth and extended his single-season career-high with his 18th home run of the season. Pillar’s solo home run into the left field seats marked the 137th home run hit by a Giants player this year, the highest total the club has posted since the team homered 162 times in the 2010 season.
The Giants have ranked among the bottom four teams in total home runs in six of the last seven seasons and may still finish among the teams with the fewest homers this season. The club entered the night tied with the Chicago White Sox with the 25th-most home runs in 2019, the year of the juiced baseball.
No pitcher has experienced the repercussions of the new ball more than Beede, who has been wiped out of games thanks to the home run wave sweeping across the sport.
Beede lasted only four innings for the second consecutive start as manager Bruce Bochy did not allow him to face Rizzo for a third time on Tuesday. Rizzo hit two of the three home runs Beede allowed, sending a third inning changeup into the right field bleachers to give the Cubs another lead.
After throwing eight shutout innings against the Mets on July 19, Beede wrapped up a stretch of six starts in which he recorded 37 innings, allowed four home runs and compiled a 2.68 ERA. In his past six starts Beede has lost his grip on a spot in the rotation by logging just 27 1/3 innings, allowing 11 home runs and posting an 8.23 ERA.
• Trainer Dave Groeschner did not make the flight with the team from Arizona to Chicago on Sunday as he traveled to Southern California instead.
Groeschner joined outfielder Steven Duggar at Monday appointment with Dr. Neal ElAttrache in Southern California before heading to Modesto to watch veteran starter Johnny Cueto make a rehab start Tuesday for the HighA San Jose Giants.
Bochy reported that Duggar received the “best possible news” regarding his Grade 3 AC joint sprain in his left shoulder. The young outfielder will not need surgery to repair the shoulder and instead will take four-to-six weeks to rehab the joint.
Cueto made his fourth rehab start as he continues his bid to return from Tommy John surgery. He started Tuesday’s game and threw 60 pitches over 4 1/3 innings. He allowed five runs (four earned) and four hits, walked one, hit a batter and struck out three.
His next start is expected to come Monday for the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. Bochy said Cueto will likely make two rehab starts at Sacramento which would put him on track to rejoin the Giants rotation September 6-8 when the club plays in Los Angeles against the Dodgers