Rodriguez struggles as Reds blast five homers in 9-2 romp
Reds hit five balls over the wall, Pillar saves sixth
CINCINNATI >> Kevin Pillar climbed up the center field wall at Great American Ball Park and made a spectacular catch to rob Reds rookie Nick Senzel of his first major league home run on Saturday.
The Giants’ biggest problem on Saturday was that Pillar couldn’t reach five other flyballs the Reds hit over the outfield fence.
Right-hander Dereck Rodríguez allowed a careerhigh eight earned runs in five innings as the Cincinnati Reds blasted a Giants starter for the second day in a row in a 9-2 blowout.
”I was behind in the count most of the day and when I was getting back in the zone, it was too much plate,” Rodríguez said. “Instead of nibbling on the corners, it was more down the middle.”
After San Francisco erased an eight-run deficit in a come-from-behind win for just the fifth time in franchise history in Friday’s series-opener, the Giants could not write another storybook ending after digging another gigantic hole.
The Giants have now lost eight of their last nine at Great American Ball Park and been outscored 78-27 in those games.
Rodríguez and Tyler Beede became the first Giants starters to give up at least eight runs on backto-back days since Jeff Samardzija and Matt Moore did so June 15-16, 2017 against the Rockies at Coors Field.
Rodríguez was also the first Giants pitcher to allow four home runs in a game since Samardzija gave up four to the Chicago White Sox in a 13-1 loss on September 9, 2017.
Pillar’s third-inning climb in center field marked the third home run robbery of his career, according to Sports Info Solutions.
Senzel’s flyball had so much carry to it that Pillar had time to scale the fence, adjust himself at the top of the wall and ultimately lean back toward the field to make the catch.
“I think in moments like that, you’ve just got to rely on your instincts,” Pillar said. “You’ve got to rely on what you hear and what you see. Things happen quickly out there and I knew my best chance of catching the ball was to get up over the wall.”
Pillar’s catch shocked the Reds center fielder, but Senzel didn’t wait much
longer to launch his first career blast. After Derek Dietrich hit his third home run in two nights in the bottom of the fifth, Senzel went back-to-back by sending a Rodríguez fastball into the right field bleachers.
”You just forget about it and move on,” Rodríguez said of Saturday’s start. “You can’t think about bad outings too much, it’ll eat you up. You’ve got to have a short memory.”
A day after setting season-highs with 12 runs and 17 hits, the Giants hardly challenged Reds starter Tanner Roark. The righthander allowed just two runs and four hits in 6 2/3 innings.
Right fielder Steven Duggar turned in his third consecutive multi-hit game as Duggar collected RBI singles in the second and seventh innings.
His final hit drove in Brandon Crawford from second base and forced Reds manager David Bell to go to the bullpen for the first time.
“(Duggar) is getting some big hits for us, too,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “Good for him. We moved him (down in the order) and he looks like he’s seeing the ball well. He’s the one guy we have that’s really swinging well.”
Saturday marked the second consecutive rough outing for Rodríguez, who has posted a 5.85 ERA in seven starts after finishing with a 2.81 ERA in his rookie season last year.
Though Rodríguez has minor league options, the Giants optioned Beede to Triple-A Sacramento after Friday’s game and do not have any other candidates on the 40-man roster who could take Rodríguez’s next turn in the rotation if the Giants wanted to skip the young right-hander.
Prospect Shaun Anderson continued an impressive run at Triple-A Sacramento with five innings of one-run ball on Friday.
But Anderson is not on the 40-man roster and the Giants likely will not want Anderson to debut at Coors Field in Colorado.
With a limited amount of choices and the organization’s desire to see Rodríguez remain a fixture in the rotation, the Giants will likely opt to let him work through his struggles much like they allowed Duggar to do during the first month of the year.
”We’ll see if we can get this worked out,” Bochy said. “Along with the fastball, working on both sides, the off-speed, he usually has really good command of that and he didn’t.”
The Giants promoted Pat Venditte prior to Saturday’s game to take Beede’s roster spot and the switch-pitcher allowed one run in two innings of work.
Reds right fielder Yasiel Puig hit the final home run of the night off Venditte, sending a 404-foot solo shot soaring over the Giants’ bullpen in left center field.
• For the first time in more than 20 years, a Giants player hit a game-tying home run with two outs in the ninth before another launched a go-ahead home run in extra innings.
Stephen Vogt’s first home run as a Giant tied Friday’s game at 11-11 before Evan Longoria hooked a high fly ball into the left field seats in the 11th in a historic, 1211 come-from-behind win.